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A smile pulled at his mouth.
Kathleen.
She hadn’t been a figment of his imagination. He jumped to the ground and tethered his horse. He stood there and watched her.
After tying a string to the top of the stick, she marched with measured steps.
What was she doing?
She pounded another stick into the ground, tied the string around that one, and strode toward a fourth stick already in the ground. Her enclosure was neither a true square nor a rectangle.
He walked over to her. “What are you doing?”
Looking up, she gifted him with a smile. “Hallo.” She spread her hands out. “This is my clinic.”
“You’re building it? Yourself?”
“Ja.”
“With those string lines?”
“Ja.”
How could he tell her she had no clue what she was doing without hurting her feelings? “And what if you don’t get permission from the church leaders?”
“Who says I haven’t?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Have you?”
She hesitated, wiggling her lips back and forth. “Ne. But I will. So I want to be prepared.”
She had no idea how unprepared she was.
“Have you ever constructed a building before?”
“I went to many barn raisings when I was young. And I earned a medical degree. I don’t think putting up a few walls will be that hard. Just nail some boards together. I don’t need anything fancy.”
Construction was so much harder than she realized. Not so much “hard” as there was a lot more that went into putting up a building than just nailing some boards together. He pointed with both index fingers. “Your far wall is wider than this one by at least a foot.” He indicated the closest string. Probably more, but he was being generous.
She turned and studied the lines. “A foot? That won’t really matter once I lay the boards down, will it?”
It would matter. A building needed right angles and straight lines to be sturdy. “You may be able to take out a person’s appendix, but you should leave construction to others.”
Her blue eyes brightened. “Are you offering to help me?”
“Let’s wait and see if you get approval.”
“I’ll get approved.”
He liked her self-assurance. “You’re sure?”
She took a deep breath and released it. “One minute, I’m confident they will approve. Or why else would Gott have sent me away for so long to become a doctor if not for this?” Her self-assurance held a hint of doubt.
“But?”
Her shoulders drooped slightly. “The next minute, I feel all is hopeless. That I wasted the last fourteen years of my life. Years I could have spent here, with my family.”
Her conflict was a valid one. The elders might not give her approval, then the fourteen years would have been for naught. What would she do then? Leave? That thought rankled him. “If Gott did send you away for all that time to become a doctor, then pray for Him to make it happen.”
“And if it doesn’t? What do I do then?”
“Don’t make plans for what may not happen. That invites trouble.”
“You’re right. I should focus on what I have control of. And that’s the building for my clinic.”
She had less control over that than she imagined.
“Will you help me get my walls straightened out?”
He wasn’t sure there was much point but gladly helped her.
* * *
After lunch, Kathleen stood at the table rolling out piecrust, her thoughts on Noah and how he’d helped her stake out her clinic. She sensed he believed it might be a waste of time in the end, but that made his lending a hand all that much more sweet. He’d shaved off his beard and looked even more handsome. And available.
Nonsense. She had to stop thinking that way.
The crunch of buggy wheels alerted her that someone had entered the yard. “Mum, you have company.”
Mum peered out the kitchen window. “Ne, you have company.”
“Me?” Who would be visiting her? Noah again? Her heart danced at the thought, but it wasn’t likely the visitor was him. So who could it be? No one else knew she was back. She covered the partially rolled crust with a damp towel, then tucked the other half of the dough under the corner of the cloth as well to keep them from drying out.
She followed Mum through the kitchen doorway outside with Ruby and Jessica tagging along. Her breath caught at the sight of her older sister, Gloria, pulling to a stop.
Mum approached the side where a smiling girl, about ten, sat with a one-year-old on her lap. The baby stretched out his arms, and Mum scooped him up. Between the girl and Gloria sat a boy of about four. The girl scooted out and helped the boy down.
Gloria sprang from the buggy and wrapped Kathleen in her arms. “You’re home. At long last, you’re home.” She pulled back to look at her. “You’ve grown up. I still pictured you as the girl who left. But you’ve come back a woman.” She hugged Kathleen again. “How are you?”
Her older sister was a welcome sight. Even though her family hadn’t been allowed to write to her, they all seemed happy to have her home. Kathleen smiled. “I’m gut. And you?”
“Wonderful.” Gloria turned to her children and pointed to the baby. “This is Luke. He’s one. Mark is four. Andrew’s with his vater. He’s six.” She paused at the girl. “My oldest is ten. I named her after our sister... Nancy.”
Kathleen stared at the girl who looked a lot like their sister. Nancy would have been twenty-six, but she’d had an allergic reaction to a bee sting when she was eight. By the time Dat had raced into town at ten miles an hour, she’d succumbed to anaphylactic shock.
That was the day Kathleen became determined to be a doctor. Nancy had died needlessly because there was no medical care close at hand.
Kathleen turned to little Nancy. “You look so much like her. I’m pleased to meet you.”
The girl stared up at Kathleen. “Danki. Mutter and Grossmutter say that too.”
Mum waved her hand at Nancy and Mark. “There are cookies in the kitchen.”
The pair ran into the house with Ruby and Jessica following.
Kathleen turned to Gloria. “Is your Nancy allergic?”
Gloria hooked her arm through Kathleen’s. “Fortunately, she’s never been stung, but Andrew and Mark have. I’ve feared for her. But now that you’re back, I won’t worry so much.”
Her sister and the children stayed for a few hours, then left midafternoon to get home in time to prepare supper. She would see them all in two days for the whole community church services.
After Gloria left, Mum brushed her hands down her apron and sighed. “Time to get started on our supper.”
Kathleen stood from where she’d been sitting on the porch, sewing buttons onto the men’s shirts for her mum. “What can I do to help?”
“You stay put,” Mum said. “We have it all in hand.” The three went inside, leaving her alone.
She eased back into the rocking chair. She wasn’t needed. She’d been gone too long. She didn’t fit into the daily routine of the household. Should she go inside and insist on helping? Ne. For today, she would enjoy this little bit of solitude. And once she had her clinic up and running, she wouldn’t be available as much to help. So it might be best if they didn’t get used to her helping in the kitchen.
Movement by the barn caught her attention.
A tricolor Australian shepherd sniffed around an old stump. It wasn’t just any dog, but Kaleidoscope. She looked around for Noah but didn’t see him. A smidge of disappointment pinched at her. “Kaleidoscope! Here, girl!” The dog charged toward her. “You’re supposed to be at home.”
The Australian shepherd rolled onto her back, curving head to tail, this way then that. Her tail thumping, kicking up dust.
Kathleen crouched and scratched the dog’s belly. She stood and ordered the dog to do the same.
Kaleidoscope flipped to her feet and wagged her tail, causing her whole body to wiggle.
“Come on.” Kathleen patted her thigh as she walked around the house to the kitchen door and spoke through the storm door. “Noah Lambright’s dog is here again. Do you have a rope so I can walk her back home?”
Mum stood on the other side of the screen. Shaking her head, she reached beside the door and produced a rope. “This is what we usually use to return her. Kaleidoscope, one of these days, we’re going to keep you.” She opened the storm door and handed Kathleen the rope. “Wait a minute.”
Mum disappeared from view, and Kathleen tied the rope around the collar. When Mum opened the door, the Aussie raised up on her haunches to receive the tidbit and licked Mum’s hand clean.
No wonder the dog kept coming back. She knew where to get treats.
Kathleen started to tell her mutter to stop feeding the dog, but a little Amish voice inside her said that was the way they did things here. “I’ll be back soon.”
Mum called after her. “Invite Noah for supper. With no one to cook for him, I fear he doesn’t eat well.”
Noah coming for supper? That sent her insides dancing. “He won’t be there, hence the reason for his dog being here.”
“There’s a key under the rock to the left of the back porch. Write a note and leave it on his table.”
Enter someone else’s home when they weren’t there? The English certainly wouldn’t do that. She had much to get used to and relearn.
“All right.” Kathleen walked up the driveway with Kaleidoscope happily trotting beside her. She’d seen which way Noah’d left the night before and headed that direction. He’d said his farm was next to her parents’. She found herself smiling at the thought of seeing him again. How silly. She wasn’t looking for a husband as most single Amish women were. She couldn’t afford to. Not if she was going to succeed at becoming a doctor here.
It didn’t take long to get there. His house and that of her parents were both on the sides of their respective properties closest to the other. No wonder Kaleidoscope wandered over so easily. She probably thought their property was part of hers as well.
The house was a typical large home ready for a big family, with an even larger barn as well as a dawdy haus for his parents. Did he have one or both of them living in the smaller dwelling? Not likely. Mum had said he had no one to cook for him, and he hadn’t worried about informing anyone last night when he stayed to supper at their house.
She wished her parents had a dawdy haus, then she wouldn’t have to build a clinic, but then it might be occupied with her grosseltern, which would be nice. Both sets of grosseltern lived on her parents’ older siblings’ properties.
A sleek black shepherd and a small corgi trotted up to her and her detainee, all tails swinging at a different tempo. She petted them each in turn.
If Kathleen had any doubts that this was the right place, they were brushed away with the wagging tails. She untied the rope, feeling it safe to free Kaleidoscope to run with her pals, and walked to the barn. “Noah?”
When she got no answer, she crossed the yard to the big house and knocked on the front door. Still no answer, so she headed around to the back and found the key. She turned it over in her hand. It didn’t feel right to walk into someone else’s home uninvited. She didn’t know Noah well enough. This would be an invasion of his privacy. So she replaced the key and sat in a rocking chair on the front porch, hoping he would return soon.
Some time later, she heard her name being called.
“Kathleen?”
“One more minute.” She needed just one more minute of sleep before her shift.
“Kathleen?”
That couldn’t be a nurse or orderly. They wouldn’t call her by her first name. Where was she? She forced her eyes open and focused on the tall, handsome man standing over her. Not medical personnel. Noah! She smiled, then jerked fully awake. “I’m so sorry. I must have dozed off for a minute.” She’d learned to sleep anywhere, and her body knew to catch sleep whenever it could.
“Don’t worry.” He chuckled. “You weren’t snoring.”
As she pushed to her feet, the rope on her lap slipped to the porch floor. “I didn’t sleep much last night.” She was used to taking five- and ten-minute naps throughout the day. No more. She would need to teach herself to sleep at night again and stay awake during the day.
He picked up the makeshift leash and offered it to her. “I must say, the last thing I expected to find when I came home was a pretty lady sleeping on my porch.”
She took the rope. “You’re not going to let me forget this, are you?”
“Probably not.”
His smile did funny things to her stomach. And he’d called her pretty. That didn’t matter. She had no room in her life for men. One man in particular. She couldn’t have a husband and still be a doctor. She’d made that sacrifice years ago. But still, her heart longed.
She held the lead out and teased him back. “Then maybe next time, we’ll keep your dog.”
“Kaleidoscope?” He shook his head. “I closed her up in the barn. How did she get out? Danki for bringing her back. And because you did, I promise not to mention your afternoon nap.”
“Danki. I’d appreciate that.” Then she remembered her reason for staying. “Mum has invited you to supper. Shall I tell her you’re coming? Or not?”
“I never pass up an invitation from your mutter. Let me hook up the trap, and we can head over.”
“What time is it?”
“Nearly supper time. I’ll be right back.” He jogged to the barn.
How long had she slept? Longer than she’d thought, apparently. She hadn’t realized the number of things she’d have to get used to again. No chance of slipping back into her Amish life as though she’d never been gone.
Noah returned shortly, leading a horse and the two-wheeled trap he had been driving yesterday. “Kaleidoscope dug her way out. I’ll need to figure some other way to contain her. Hopefully, she’ll stay put in that stall. I gave her plenty of food and water.”
