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“Why didn’t you tell him you were playing with him?”
“I told him I wanted to play hide-and-seek,” Amos said, but his gaze was on his bare toes.
“And what did he say?” she prompted.
“He said to clean our rooms,” he admitted.
“We did and then we hid,” Lily added with a grin.
Clara glanced toward the barn again. She had to get going. “Next time, you must make sure he knows he is playing the game before you hide.”
“We will,” Lily said with a nod.
Clara smiled at her. “Promise you’ll stay on the porch until your onkel returns?”
“We promise,” Amos said.
Lily nodded solemnly. “Will you come and play with us again?”
“Maybe, but today is our little secret, right? We won’t tell anyone about our hiding place.”
“We won’t tell,” Amos assured her.
“Danki.” Clara couldn’t waste any more time. After checking and not seeing Ethan or Micah, she scurried around the corner of the house and ran across the lawn into the cornfield. She pushed through the thick green leaves and between the stalks as she rushed on. Even when she reached the road, she didn’t slow down until she was a good half mile away from the farm.
A stitch in her side finally brought her to a halt. She looked back as she struggled to catch her breath. There was no sign of Ethan Gingerich. She was safe.
Grateful to escape from an extremely embarrassing situation of her own making without being discovered, she breathed a silent prayer of thanks. Just the thought of Ethan finding her lurking under his porch made her cringe. She wouldn’t have had to worry about keeping her dignity intact because she would have died of embarrassment on the spot.
It would have served her right to be found hiding like a mongrel dog. She had doubted the goodness of Ethan Gingerich. To do so was wrong and showed the weakness of her faith. It was something she strived to overcome with prayer, but she had a long way to go.
Not all men were like her uncle and the ruthless man he tried to make her marry. Ethan wasn’t cruel. He might not know how to handle the children, but he wasn’t unkind to them.
She glanced over her shoulder once more and began walking quickly toward her grandfather’s sheep farm. She hadn’t told the children her name. She had to pray they wouldn’t figure out who she was and tell Ethan about her actions. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to face him again for a long, long time.
* * *
When Ethan came out of the barn after checking every hiding place he could think of he saw Lily and Amos sitting on the front steps of the house. They were safe. He strode toward them, his relief quickly turning to frustration and annoyance. He had wasted a large part of his morning dealing with first one child and then the others.
He stopped in front of the steps and crossed his arms. “Where have you been? Didn’t you hear me calling you?”
Lily and Amos exchanged guilty glances. Amos said, “We heard you.”
“Why didn’t you answer me?”
“That’s not the way to play the game,” Lily explained.
Ethan gave her a stern look. “Exactly what game were you playing? Give Onkel Ethan gray hair?”
Lily shook her head. “I don’t know that game.”
Ethan drew a hand down his face to wipe away his grin. He struggled to keep a firm tone. “Were you playing hide-and-seek?”
She smiled brightly. “Ja, and we won.”
Amos grinned, too. “You never found us.”
“The next time you decide to play hide-and-seek you must make sure that I know you’re playing.”
The smile vanished from Lily’s face and she sighed heavily. “That’s what our friend said.”
Amos elbowed her in the side. “That’s a secret.”
Her eyes widened and she clapped a hand to her mouth. “I forgot,” she mumbled.
Ethan glanced around for another child but didn’t see one. “Was there someone else playing with you? Who was it?”
Amos pressed his lips into a thin line and folded his arms tightly. Lily glanced at him and did the same.
Baffled by their refusal to answer him, he stared at their set faces. Should he demand they tell him who else was playing with them? Did it matter? It did if a child was hiding somewhere and his or her parents didn’t know where. He would have to try a different tactic.
He glanced at the position of the sun in the sky. “It’s almost lunchtime. Are you two hungry?”
“I sure am.” Amos jumped to his feet.
“Me, too. Can we have macaroni and cheese?” Lily asked.
“I reckon that’ll be as good a meal as any.” It was something he could fix without much fuss. Thankfully, the children hadn’t tired of it.
“Yum!” Lily’s big grin sent warmth shooting through his chest. She was an adorable child. She looked so much like her mother. It was up to him to see that she grew into a modest and devout woman, too. The thought filled him with dread. He had no idea how to accomplish that feat.
“Will your friend want some, too?” he asked, casually glancing around again for another child.
“She’s gone home,” Lily said, heading toward the door.
Micah ambled across the yard and stopped beside Ethan. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets. “I see you found them. Are you going to give them a spanking?”
Lily spun around looking horrified. She held her hands over her backside. “I don’t want a spanking.”
Ethan shook his head. “No one is getting spanked. But Micah is going to his room to think about what he did wrong today. After lunch, you little ones can go play on the swings, but I don’t want you to leave the backyard without telling me. Is that understood?”
They both nodded solemnly, but he had to wonder as he held open the door for them just how long they would remember his instructions.
* * *
Clara sat in Faith’s workroom on Saturday morning and spun the final carding of fleece into fine strands of yarn. She glanced out the window, but the branches of the tree overhanging the alpacas’ pen were empty. The animals grazed peacefully beneath it.
She hadn’t mentioned her meeting with Ethan or her return visit to his farm to her family. She preferred to forget about her foolish behavior and put it behind her, but she constantly found herself wondering how Ethan was doing. Not that it was any of her business. Still, even knowing that didn’t keep thoughts of him at bay. He needed help with those children. She hoped he wasn’t too proud to ask for it.
Faith came in from the kitchen. “Are you finished already?”
“That is the last of it.” Clara stopped the wheel and handed a spindle full of white alpaca yarn to Faith.
Faith took it and added it to an overflowing basket. “I’m glad to be done, but I am truly going to miss your company, Clara. I never would have finished in time without you. These orders can go out tomorrow.”
Faith’s husband, Adrian, came in holding their three-month-old daughter, Ruby. “Micah Gingerich is here. He says that you have chores you want him to do?”
“Indeed I have.” Faith sprang to her feet and marched out of the room.
Adrian laughed. “Never mess with that woman’s child or her alpacas.”
Clara held out her arms. “May I hold Ruby for a while? I will miss the time I’ve spent with you and with Faith, but it is this little one that I shall miss the most of all.”
He handed the sleeping baby to her. “I had better go see what jobs Faith is assigning to Micah. It’s always best when the grown-ups present a unified front.”
Clara held the baby close as Adrian left the room. She would miss being here more than she cared to admit. She loved babies. The Lord had found a beautiful way to begin people. Children were a constant reminder of God’s love and grace in the world.
Clara’s one great sadness was that she would never hold a babe of her own. The idea of marriage was utterly repugnant after her treatment at the hands of her would-be fiancé. No, she would remain single. She took a seat in the rocker and cuddled the baby until Faith returned.
Smiling, Faith crossed the room. “I’ll take her now.”
“Are you sure I can’t take her home with me?”
Faith propped her hands on her hips. “I could let you, but you’ll bring her back about three o’clock in the morning.”
“My sisters and I have raised a dozen bottle lambs on our grandfather’s farm this spring. I think we could manage this little lamb, too.”
Faith lifted the babe from her arms. “I’m sure you could. You will have babes of your own someday. Is there any young man in our community who has caught your fancy?” Faith asked with a quick peek in Clara’s direction and a knowing smile.
“Nee, marriage isn’t for me.” Clara looked down and didn’t elaborate. Oddly, Ethan’s face popped into her head. He needed a wife to look after his children.
Why should she think of him now?
Faith took a seat in the chair beside her. “I know some of your story, Clara. I know you escaped marriage to a brutal man by running away on your wedding day.”
Clara looked up, startled. “How did you find out?”
“Your sister Lizzie told me about it.”
“It was by the grace of God and by my sister Lizzie’s determination to save me that I was spared a life of hopelessness and pain.” Clara laid a hand to her cheek as she remembered the painful slap of Rufus’s heavy hand striking her.
Faith nodded. “Lizzie was very brave to travel all the way from Indiana to Hope Springs on her own. She was determined to find a place for you and your sisters to live. We are all thankful that she convinced your grandfather to take you in.”
“No one is more thankful than I am. Lizzie is the brave one. I could never have done what she did. If Rufus Kuhns had been determined to marry her instead of me, I wouldn’t have been able to save her.”
“You don’t know that,” Faith said gently.
“Ja, I do.”
“Is it true that Lizzie is going to marry your grandfather’s hired man in the fall?”
Relieved to speak of something else, Clara smiled. “Ja.”
“Carl King seems like a good man.”
Clara bit the corner of her lip. “I think he is.”
“You think, but you aren’t sure?”
Was she that transparent? Over the past few months, as the women had worked side by side in the bright and cheerful room, Clara had shared some of her life and had learned some of Faith’s story, as well. Faith’s first husband had been an abusive man. She had been a widow when she moved to Hope Springs.
Clara looked up and gazed intently into Faith’s eyes. “How did you know that Adrian wouldn’t turn out to be cruel, too? Weren’t you afraid?”
Faith smiled gently. “Of course I was. I felt as you do. I thought I would never be able to trust another man, but Adrian changed all that the first time he touched my face. There was so much gentleness in that touch. I knew he would never hurt me. I understand your fear, but there are good men, kind men, men who spend a lifetime loving their wives and being helpmates. You will find one.”
The very idea of submitting to a husband turned her insides cold. “My head tells me what you say is right, but I don’t feel that way. And this conversation has no point because there is no one interested in courting me. I should be getting home. I told Lizzie that I would help her finish canning corn this afternoon.”
“I understand. I’ll pray for you, Clara. I will pray that God has someone special in mind for you.”
Clara gathered her things together. “Pray that I get hired as the new schoolteacher. That’s what I truly want to do. I want to teach and take care of dozens of children. I can’t imagine a more perfect job.”
“Okay, I’ll do that, too. I’ll see you again at the Sunday’s service.”
The two women kissed each other’s cheeks, and Clara left the room. Outside, she saw Micah carrying a large armload of alfalfa hay toward the alpacas’ enclosure. She crossed the yard toward him. “Good day, Micah. I’m glad to see you have come to do chores as you promised.”
“My onkel promised I would come. I didn’t.”
His sullen expression worried her. “Your onkel was right in this. Your punishment could have been much worse.”
“Worse than the whipping I took? I doubt it. A lot you care. You’re the one who got me in trouble.”
“You got into trouble all by yourself, Micah. You have no reason to blame me. I seriously doubt that your onkel Ethan gave you a whipping.”
“He did. The minute you left he...he paddled me so hard I couldn’t sit down for hours.”
Clara folded her arms over her chest. “You are a very poor liar, Micah Gingerich.”
“I am not!”
She arched her eyebrow. “You’re not a poor liar? Then I reckon that makes you a good liar.”
He scowled at her. “I’ve got to go feed those stupid animals.” He trudged away without looking at her again.
She shook her head and muttered under her breath, “Poor Ethan. You really have your hands full with this one.”
How would he manage? It was painfully clear the boy was determined to tread the wrong path. Such defiance in one so young did not bode well for the family.
As she watched Micah enter the corral, she saw him spread out the hay, then slowly reach his hand toward one of the babies in the group who had come close to investigate. The hopeful expression on Micah’s face told her he liked the alpacas even if he wouldn’t admit it.
