The Amish Quiltmaker's Unruly In-Law Read online

  She shrugged. “Okay. Let me know if you want to go cross-country skiing sometime. It’s fun, and it’s slower than downhill skiing so you’re less likely to wipe out.”

  He shuffled down the road. “I’d rather go to the dentist,” he said, without looking back.

  He was obviously still mad at her, because who in their right mind would rather see the dentist than go skiing? At least she could say she’d done her best.

  Chapter Two

  Ben tried to walk without limping, at least until Linda Eicher’s buggy was out of sight. He wasn’t going to give that snobby girl the satisfaction of knowing that he’d hurt himself. He’d been laughed at enough for one day. And he wouldn’t have gotten into that buggy even if a pack of angry wolves had been chasing him. The righteous indignation in there would have smothered him.

  He glanced behind him. The buggy turned down the road. Now he could limp as badly as he wanted to. His leg burned something wonderful, and his shoulder would for sure and certain have a big bruise. He’d fallen on something hard and unforgiving under the snow, and now his whole body screamed in agony. After less than a hundred steps, he started wishing he’d taken Linda Eicher up on her offer of a ride home. His trousers were soaking wet, he didn’t have a hat, and his shin hurt so badly, he seriously didn’t know how much farther he could go.

  If Linda Eicher hadn’t laughed at him, he wouldn’t have refused a ride in her buggy. His predicament was all her fault.

  Needing to lighten his load, he tossed Wally’s skis and the rope off to the side of the road. He could come back for them later when the pain didn’t make him feel like passing out. Something wet and sticky felt as if it was pooling at the bottom of his boot. A dizzying sight met him when he lifted his trouser leg. Oh, sis yuscht. An angry gash at least five inches long and who-knew-how deep ran down the length of his shin. The front of his trouser leg was soaked with blood, but Ben hadn’t noticed before because his trousers were black and already wet. A long rip in the fabric showed where something sharp had torn through his trousers and cut his leg. He turned and squinted in the direction of where he’d fallen. Smears of dark red blood stained the snow. Neither he nor any of the Eichers had noticed. He’d also left a trail of tiny drops of blood on the snowy road. Oh, sis yuscht. Skiing behind a buggy was the stupidest idea he and Wally Bontrager had ever thought up.

  But Wally had dared him to do it, and Ben was never one to back down from a dare.

  Ben shivered violently, whether from the cold or his own stupidity, he wasn’t exactly sure. He peered down the road toward the Troyers’ house where they had held services today. It looked so far away. Like Linda had said, he’d gone a long way on those skis. One side of his mouth curled upward. It had felt like flying.

  Where was Wally? Only two buggies were still parked in front of the Troyers’ house. Most people had already gone home. Not wanting his parents to see what he was about to do with Wally’s skis on the Sabbath, he had told his parents not to wait for him. He often walked home with Wally and Simeon. Ben heaved a great sigh. If he went to the Troyers’ house, he’d have to confess to breaking the Sabbath and breaking the Eichers’ taillight. But could he make it all the way home before either freezing or bleeding to death?

  He glanced down at his leg. He wasn’t going to bleed to death, but it sure hurt something wonderful. He needed to get out of the wind and prop up his leg, maybe take a nice warm bath and then wash his clothes in the sink so Mamm would never know about his foolishness. It would be harder to hide the seven-inch tear in his trousers. Did he even know where Mamm kept her needles and thread? Could he figure out how to sew even if he found them?

  To sew! His new sister-in-law, Esther, knew how to sew. According to his bruder Levi, Esther was one of the best quilters in the country. Surely she would repair his trousers without telling Mamm or Dat. Esther was nice like that and so was Levi. Neither of them would tell on Ben, and their house was closer. Easier than limping all the way home.

  Ben glanced to the north. Would it be faster to cut across three pastures, wading through knee-deep snow, or to take the long route by way of the snow-packed road? He’d already made one stupid decision today. He wouldn’t make another. The road it was, and he’d have to hurry. He sucked in a hard breath in anticipation of the pain. It was going to be a long fifteen minutes, but he’d brought this on himself. No doubt, Linda Eicher would say it was exactly what he deserved.

  Every step was agony, but the bitter cold propelled him forward. How deerich he had been to hitch a ride behind Eicher’s buggy without planning on a way to get back. Wally had probably been cornered by his dat and ordered to go home before he could help Ben. He was on his own.

  After ten minutes of half limping, half dragging himself down the road, Ben was almost breathless with relief at the sight of Levi and Esther’s house. He had never seen a more beautiful sight than the tidy, red-brick house where his bruder and schwester-in-law lived with their adopted daughter, Winnie. Wisps of smoke curled from the chimney, and tiny icicles hung from the seams of the rain gutters. Those leaks would need to be caulked come spring. Ben would have to do it because Levi shouldn’t be getting up on ladders now that he had a family to take care of.

  The nearness of the house gave Ben new purpose. He limped double-time down the road and practically ran across the yard to their porch. He stopped himself right before he knocked. Even though he wanted to pound the door down and get into the warmth of the house, he didn’t want to wake Winnie if she was taking a nap. He knocked softly, waited for a few seconds, then knocked again louder.

  Levi opened the door, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. “What has happened? You look froze to death.” He ushered Ben into the house and closed the door behind him. “Cum, cum,” he said, leading Ben into the kitchen.

  Winnie sat in her highchair with spaghetti sauce smeared all over her face. “Beh!” Winnie squealed, reaching for Ben with her tomatoey hands. Beh was how she said his name, and it was actually the only word she knew. Winnie loved Ben, even if everyone else thought he was a nuisance.

  Esther stood at the stove stirring a pot of liquid that smelled wonderful gute, like Christmas morning in a warm house. Ben’s sister-in-law always had something tucked behind her ear. Today it was a plastic spoon. She turned around to look at him, and her eyes flashed in alarm. No doubt, he was a shocking sight. “Ach, du lieva, Ben! Ach, du lieva. Sit down, sit down right now.”

  Levi pulled a chair out from under the table, and Ben sort of fell into it. His pants were so stiff, he couldn’t bend his knees. Esther clucked her tongue, bent over him, and took his face in her hands. He hissed. The touch of her warm skin felt like a hot iron against his cheeks.

  “Your face is like ice,” she said. She curled her fingers around his ears. “And no hat. Your ears are bright red. They must ache something wonderful.”

  “Can I have a blanket?”

  “No blanket for you.” Esther glanced at Levi. “He needs a warm bath, but not too warm or it will burn his skin.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a cooking thermometer. “Maybe a hundred degrees? Like we do for Winnie’s bath.”

  Levi took the thermometer and marched down the hall to the bathroom.

  Esther gasped. “There’s blood.” She turned her head in the direction Levi had just gone. “Levi, there’s blood.”

  Levi shot out of the bathroom like a boomerang. “What?”

  Esther pointed to three tiny drops on the floor. “Blood.”

  “Sorry to get your floor dirty,” Ben said. “It should have stopped bleeding by now.”

  “Do you think I care about my floor at a time like this?” Esther knelt down next to him. “Let me see.” She made a face and glanced up at him. “Left leg?”

  He nodded then tensed when she reached out.

  “Not to worry. I’ll be careful. I just want to see what sort of mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

  Ben gripped the armrests and shot a pleading look at Levi. “Don�
�t tell Dat.”

  Levi didn’t reply, just watched as Esther studied Ben’s leg. She raised her hand and hovered it over his leg—thank Derr Herr she didn’t touch it—then untied the sticky, blood-caked laces of his boot. She turned to Levi. “Can you help?”

  Levi jumped as if he’d been shot from a rifle. He knelt down beside Esther, cupped his hands around the heel of Ben’s boot and slowly pulled it off. The motion hurt a little, but mostly because his foot ached with cold.

  “You’ve got a hole in your stocking,” Esther said, the hint of a smile playing at her lips. “Why is it that boys never care about their stockings? It’s an embarrassment to mothers everywhere.” She gently pulled off his stocking and nudged his stiff pant leg up to his knee. It couldn’t help but scrape against the gash in his leg.

  He grunted in pain. Linda Eicher would say he deserved it.

  A sound of distress came from the back of Esther’s throat. “Ach, Ben. You got yourself but good.” She looked at Levi. “We should take him to the hospital.”

  Ben’s teeth started chattering. The sight of his leg caked with dried blood made him dizzy, not to mention that the cold had finally seeped into his bones. He could sure enough use a smoke right now. “I don’t need a hospital. It’s not that bad.”

  “Ha,” Levi said, showing a lot less concern for his seriously wounded bruder than he should have. Something like a smile crept onto his face. “Your teeth are going to vibrate right out of your head. You need a bath, then we can talk about the hospital. I’ll fill the tub.”

  Nothing in the world sounded better than a warm bath. Ben’s joints were so stiff and cold, they felt as if they might snap if he tried to move them.

  Esther turned off whatever was on the stove then removed his other boot, then his stocking. This one didn’t have a hole, but she didn’t mention it, even though he deserved a little credit for one good stocking. She helped him off with his coat and laid it on the table. “Do I need to walk you to the bathroom? Levi is going to need to help you off with your trousers and such.”

  For sure and certain, Levi was going to need to help. Ben’s fingers were so stiff, he couldn’t even make a fist. “I can walk, but I’ll get blood on your floor.”

  Esther scrunched her lips to one side of her face. “Don’t you just love how easy it is to clean linoleum?”

  Ben cracked a smile. “I’ve never cleaned it, so I wouldn’t know.”

  “Ben Kiem, it’s high time you did more to help your mamm around the house.” Esther offered both hands and pulled Ben to his feet. The kitchen spun in front of his eyes for a few seconds. It was a gute thing the bathroom wasn’t far down the hall. Esther must have sensed how unstable he was, because she draped his arm around her shoulder and toddled with him to the bathroom.

  * * *

  The bath was pure torture and pure heaven at the same time. His skin stung something wonderful when the water touched it, but then the warmth seeped into his body and he melted like a bar of chocolate on a summer day. He washed his hair twice and gingerly washed his leg with strong soap and a washcloth. By the time he finished, the bathwater was pink.

  Levi brought Ben some clean clothes and a fluffy white towel that smelled like a warm spring breeze. He didn’t deserve a warm spring breeze, but he certainly wasn’t going to refuse it. He put on Levi’s blue shirt and a pair of Levi’s underwear and wrapped the towel around his waist. It was embarrassing for his sister-in-law to see him without trousers, but they’d only get in the way when she fixed his leg. If she fixed his leg. She might refuse to help him and insist he go to the hospital.

  His wound had started bleeding again when he’d gotten into the tub, and blood continued to seep from the cut as he got dressed. He really did feel bad about Esther’s floor. The floor in the bathroom was laid with tile of all different shapes and colors. Esther had designed it herself, and now Ben’s blood was ruining it.

  Sheepishly, he limped down the hall and into the kitchen, clutching the towel around his waist like a shield. Esther stood right where she’d been when he’d first come into the house, stirring the same pot of something that smelled delicious. The spoon behind her ear had been replaced with a small pair of scissors.

  She turned and pressed her finger to her lips. “Shh,” she said. “Levi is putting Winnie down for her nap. He’s always been better at it than I am.”

  Ben’s trousers and stockings hung by the window on the round clothesline that Amish fraaen usually used for stockings and unmentionables. “Did you wash them?”

  She nodded. “In the sink. I can’t rightly hang them outside or neighbors will think I do laundry on Sunday. But the ox was in the mire, so I don’t see as how Derr Herr will judge me harshly for that.”

  “Denki.” He cleared his throat. “It wonders me if you could mend them.”

  Her lips twitched upward. “I can do that. In exchange for the story of what happened to your leg.”

  Ben groaned softly. Of course Esther and Levi would ask him to explain himself. There wasn’t any way around it. “Okay. I didn’t hope you wouldn’t be curious.”

  She bent over and took a good look at his leg. “Oy, anyhow, it looks worse now that it’s had a soak.”

  “I got blood on the towel.”

  She smiled. “You’ve bled all over my house. That means we’re truly family now. We love you, Ben. I’m honored you came to our house when there was trouble.”

  A lump caught in Ben’s throat. Maybe there was someone else besides Winnie who didn’t think he was such a bother.

  She turned back to the stove and gave the contents of her pot one more stir. “Sit down. You need some hot chocolate. Then we’ll take a look at that leg.” She poured some hot chocolate from the pot into a mug. “You like it with cinnamon, don’t you?”

  He nodded. How had she remembered that? Mamm never did.

  Esther sprinkled cinnamon into his mug and handed it to him. “Cum. Let’s go into the front room. You’ll be more comfortable on the sofa, and I can look at your leg.”

  He followed her into the front room where a quilt on frames took up most of the space. Esther almost always had a quilt set up in the front room. She’d told him it was so she could put a few stitches in whenever she had a minute or two. This quilt was decorated with maroon fabric flowers and green vines, with intricate stitching in the white fabric underneath. Ben didn’t much care about quilts and sewing, but he could appreciate that the quilt had taken hours to make.

  Levi came out of Winnie’s room and shut the door. He immediately placed himself on one side of the quilt and lifted the frames just as Esther lifted the frames on her side. They scooted it up against the front window so Ben would have room to sit on the sofa and they’d have room to tend to his leg. They’d obviously moved it before.

  “Sit, Ben.”

  With his towel tucked securely around him, Ben sat on the sofa and stretched his legs on the cushions. Both Esther and Levi pulled folding chairs from under the quilt frames and set them facing the sofa, Levi at Ben’s head, and Esther on the end where his legs were. Esther pulled a white box from under the sofa and smiled apologetically. “When Winnie came to live with me, I bought a first aid kit for every room of the house. You never know when you’re going to need gauze.” She opened the box, took out a roll of gauze, and pulled the scissors from behind her ear. “I’m froh to have these scissors handy.” She cut a strip of gauze and folded it on itself. “I have to warn you, I’m not gute at this. I know how to do chicken pox and colic and how to make a bottle of formula, and that’s it.”

  “But you have steady hands,” Levi said. “And you’re careful.” He scooted his chair an inch closer to her and winked. “And so pretty.”

  Esther’s blush made Ben grin. People in love were wonderful goofy.

  “All you need to do is give me some antibiotic ointment and slap a Band-Aid on it,” Ben said. “Just so I don’t bleed on my sheets at home. I don’t want Mamm to know.”

  Esther dabbed lightly a
t his leg with the gauze. “Ach, Ben, you’re going to need more than a Band-Aid.”

  “Okay, twenty Band-Aids. Or you can wrap the whole roll of gauze around it.”

  Esther ignored him and looked at Levi. “He’s going to need stitches.”

  “Oh no, I’m not.” Ben swung his legs off the sofa, being careful to secure his towel. “I’m not going to a hospital. Dat will find out for sure and certain.”

  “If you die of an infection, Dat will find out anyway,” Levi said.

  “Dat can’t yell at me if I’m dead.”

  Levi cocked an eyebrow. “That will be a great comfort to all of us, I’m sure.”

  Ben growled and slumped his shoulders. Susie Eicher was bound to tell Dat all about it, but stitches and a doctor bill would make it so much worse. Dat would chastise him for breaking the Sabbath, but the lectures would never end if Dat found out about the blood and the hospital. Ben had already tasted the dull ache of Dat’s disapproval many times. He’d rather not be reminded what a disappointment he was to the whole family. He wished he didn’t care what Dat and Mamm thought about him. It would make life so much easier. And happier. Why couldn’t Dat just let well enough alone?

  “What is so bad that you don’t want your dat to find out?” Esther said, gazing at him in concern.

  He knew what she was going to think of him. It was what all adults thought of him. Dat told him all the time—he was irresponsible, immature, and an embarrassment to the whole gmayna. Linda Eicher had called him stupid and silly. Then she’d laughed right in his face. Shame and irritation flared to life inside his chest, and he felt his face get warm. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I was just having a little fun. It’s Linda Eicher who needs to repent. She mocks people. And she doesn’t care if she hurts their feelings.”

  Esther tilted her head to one side. “Linda Eicher hurt your feelings?”

  “Nae, not mine. I’m just saying that she doesn’t care about other people. She’s un-Christian, and she needs to repent right quick.”