Naomi’s Christmas Read online

  “Maybe your aunt needs her for a little while,” she suggested. “It would be wonderful kind of you to share Grossmammi with her, ain’t so?”

  “I guess,” Sadie said, her voice filled with reluctance. She nuzzled against Naomi’s coat. “But we need her more.”

  Naomi smiled, even as her heart winced. For sure, Ada’s kinder needed her mamm. Emma Miller had been the constant in their lives since Ada died.

  “While she’s away, you can write her a letter, and the postman will take it all the way to Aunt Elizabeth’s house in Ohio,” she said.

  “But I can’t write yet,” Sadie protested, even as Joshua nodded at the idea.

  “You can draw a picture for her,” Naomi said. “I’ll tell you what. While Grossmammi is away, I’ll come over one day and help you make a picture and a letter to send her. All right?”

  “Promise?” Joshua studied her face, as if measuring whether this grown-up could be trusted to do what she said.

  “I promise.” Naomi met his gaze.

  Apparently satisfied, he smiled.

  Warmed by that smile, Naomi put her free arm around him, hugging both children even as her heart hurt for their loss.

  The door clicked behind them. Naomi looked up, to find Nathan watching her with an expression she couldn’t interpret.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Naomi had her arms around his children, and they leaned into her embrace. Nathan forced down a flicker of pain that it was Naomi, not Ada, who embraced them. This was a gut thing, he told himself firmly.

  The idea that had taken shape in his mind when he was talking to Isaiah yesterday seemed even better today. Naomi could be the answer to his problems, and he could be the answer to hers. Why not grasp this solution?

  Naomi was looking at him a bit apprehensively. He’d delayed too long in greeting her.

  “Naomi, it’s gut to see you. I see you got my message from Isaiah.”

  “Ja, he came over to tell me.” She rose, pulling off her mittens. “The kinder were keeping me entertained.”

  “So I see.” He held the door open. “You two go in to Grossmammi now.”

  “We want to go with you and Naomi,” Sadie said, her pert tone an echo of her mother’s voice.

  “Not now.” Nathan gestured to the kitchen. “Naomi and I have business to take care of. You can see her later.”

  Pouting a little, Sadie did as she was told, and Joshua followed her inside.

  Once the door was closed, Nathan turned to Naomi. “I heard from Isaiah about your situation. I hope it is all right that he told me.”

  Naomi’s smile was a bit rueful. “It will be all over the township by now, I should think.”

  He nodded, acknowledging the fact of life in Pleasant Valley—everyone knew everything, usually sooner rather than later. “So I understand why you have to find a place to put your beehives. Let’s take a look around.” He gestured toward her buggy. “If we take your buggy, we can cover more territory, ja?”

  She nodded, walking quickly to the buggy. Naomi wasn’t one to waste words, he’d noticed long ago. She’d been an odd choice of best friend for bubbling Ada, he’d always thought. But maybe that was why they were such close friends. They didn’t compete with each other.

  Naomi climbed to the buggy seat without waiting for him to help her. She slid across the seat and handed him the lines when he got up beside her. “You should drive, since you know where we are going.”

  It was a subtle reminder, he thought, that it was her buggy and her choice.

  He took the lines and clucked to the horse. They moved off down the lane. “It won’t be so easy to see the vegetation, now that everything has died back, but I’ll show you what there is.”

  Like any farmer, he knew every inch of his land as well as he knew his own body. But Naomi was the expert when it came to bees, and the decision would be hers.

  Once they were behind the barn, he gestured off to the right. “This might be the best spot on my land for the hives. It’s not far off the lane, so you could drive up close, but it’s far enough from the house so the kinder won’t be getting too close.”

  Naomi turned her head to gaze at the field, her bonnet brim cutting off his view of her face. Still, he didn’t need to see her to know what Naomi looked like…he’d known her all his life, and she wasn’t much different from the girl she’d been. Her hair was just as flax-colored as it had been when she was a child, drawn back severely from a center part and confined under her kapp.

  Ada had usually had a strand or two of brown hair escaping to curl against her cheek, but Naomi’s hair was as contained as her temperament, and that, everyone knew, was quiet, controlled, and serene, even in the midst of raising her four younger siblings and managing her difficult father. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Naomi’s blue eyes flash with anger. Small wonder the family had been shocked when Naomi refused to go along with her daad’s decision for her life.

  “What about clover?” Naomi asked, clearly thinking about her bees while he’d been wool-gathering.

  “This field has plenty of clover. So does the one on the other side of the lane. I suppose you mainly want clover honey.” He snapped the reins, telling the mare to step up. “We’ll go back a bit farther toward the woods.”

  The ground rose in a slow, gentle slope, then lifted more abruptly to the nearest of the rolling ridges that marked off Pleasant Valley. The woods were a mix of hemlock, pine, and maples.

  He drew up where the lane widened enough to turn around before it petered out to a narrow track. “Right along there at the edge of the pasture you’ll find a nice growth of alfalfa, and that field running up to the woods is filled with wildflowers in summer.”

  “Really?” The face she turned to Nathan was animated. Apparently there was something that could excite her—the bees. “I’ve always wanted to try alfalfa and wildflower honey. You can get such different flavors by providing a variety of vegetation the bees like. Daad’s fields have mostly red clover. It makes a nice, mild honey, but I’d love to have other flavors.”

  He nodded, not knowing much about it but enjoying seeing her pleasure. That boded well for her response to his offer, he’d think.

  “There’s something else I want to show you.” He turned the mare, enjoying the ease with which the animal moved. One thing you had to give Sam Esch, for sure…he knew how to train a buggy horse.

  “Right up here,” he said, as they moved back up the lane toward the house and outbuildings. He could sense the interest simmering in Naomi. So far, so gut.

  He drew up at the outbuilding, and hopped down. He held up his hand to Naomi, but she was already jumping down as lightly as a girl.

  He unlocked the door with the key that hung from a hook well out of reach of the kinder. “This was built for a chicken coop, but Daad decided the chickens did better on the other side of the barn. He used this place for storage, but we cleared it out last year.”

  He fell silent, giving her time to observe the wide-plank floor, swept clean, the windows at either end, the long rows of wooden counters on either wall where nesting boxes had once sat, and the rectangular wooden table he’d moved in.

  “I thought this would be the kind of space you’d need for processing and packaging the honey,” he said finally, when she didn’t speak. “Will it do?”

  She looked at him then, her eyes shining. Funny, but he’d never noticed how dark a blue her eyes were—almost navy in color. No one would describe Naomi as beautiful, but her eyes were, for sure.

  “It is a hundred times better than what I have now,” she said. “But are you sure? You might find some other need for this space—”

  “I would not go back on our arrangement once we have a deal,” he said. He shouldn’t have to say the words. Surely she knew that about him.

  “A deal,” she repeated slowly, and he could almost see her calculating. “Well, with what I make at the bakery, I should be able to pay a reasonable rent. But I don’t know where I’m going to l
ive yet, and that might—”

  “I’m not wanting to take money from you, Naomi,” he broke in, wondering if it was guilt he was feeling for manipulating her this way. “You see, with Emma being gone for three weeks or more helping Elizabeth, I need someone to watch the kinder. So I’m offering a trade: you get this for your honey yard in exchange for taking care of the kinder for me until Emma comes back. What do you say?”

  He settled back, confident. Of course she would say yes. This was exactly what she needed for her bees, she already cared about the children, and everyone knew what a fine caregiver she was.

  But Naomi didn’t answer right away, and he felt a flicker of impatience with her.

  Finally she spoke, not looking at him. “I…I would like to think on it for a day or two. Is that all right?”

  Arguments sprang to his lips. He struggled, suppressing the words, sensing it would do no good. She was looking at him anxiously, and he managed to smile.

  “Ja, of course. But I must know soon, because of Emma leaving.”

  She nodded, her gaze shielded. “Tomorrow. I will let you know tomorrow.”

  With that he had to be content.

  “Am I being foolish?” Knowing she had to talk to someone she could trust to advise her, Naomi had sought out a quiet moment at the bakery in Pleasant Valley to talk with Paula Schatz and her niece, Hannah Brand, who ran the bakery together.

  As Plain Mennonites, they understood her better than any Englisch employer ever could. Only the small print of their dresses and a slightly different kapp style marked them externally as different from the Amish, although they worshipped in churchhouses rather than in homes and had electricity and telephones in their houses.

  “For sure you’re not making a mistake in holding firm against your father’s plans for you,” Paula declared, the network of wrinkles around her eyes deepening. Paula had a reputation for being a bit outspoken, but she’d been a good friend to Naomi. “Your daad is…well, I won’t say he’s selfish, but he’s overly fond of his own way.”

  “That’s right,” Hannah echoed loyally. “If he doesn’t want you to live at home any longer after all that you’ve done for him, he shouldn’t try to tell you what to do with the rest of your life.”

  “Ach, Daad is not so bad. He’s just…” Naomi let that fade away, because she couldn’t think what to say. “Anyway, now that the shock has passed, I even feel a little excited. I thought the course of my life was set, but now it’s wide open again. The trouble is that I don’t know what to do with it.”

  Paula and Hannah exchanged glances in the way of communicating silently that they did. Hannah gave a slight nod.

  Paula reached across the small round table to squeeze Naomi’s hand. “Well, I know one thing you can do right now. With Hannah married and living in her own house, I’m feeling a bit lonesome in that apartment upstairs on my own. So Hannah’s old room is yours for as long as you want it.”

  Naomi could only stare at her for a moment. Her brothers and sisters had invited her to move in with them, of course. That was only natural and to be expected in an Amish family. But for Paula to offer was different, and no one who knew Paula would believe the part about her being lonely.

  “I…That is wonderful generous of you. But I should not intrude—”

  “Ach, who is talking about intruding? You work here, you are our friend. What could be more natural? Besides, it is only for as long as you want. If you make other plans, it will not hurt my feelings.”

  “Say yes, Naomi,” Hannah said, adding her urging. “It would make us happy to be able to help you.”

  Relief swept through Naomi. Staying with Paula would ease her trip in getting to work, that was sure. She could even help Paula with the baking in the evening, which would give Hannah a break. And she’d have the time she desperately needed to think about her future without pressure, something she wouldn’t have if she stayed with any of her siblings.

  “Denke, Paula. Hannah. I would be ser pleased to accept your invitation.”

  “Gut, gut, that’s settled then.” Paula patted her hand. “You chust bring your things in anytime. Today, if you want. I would think the sooner you’re out of your father’s house, the better.”

  “I think you are right.” She felt a little disloyal saying that about the place that had been her home all her life, but it was true. “I’ll pack a few things tonight and bring them when I come to work tomorrow.”

  “Gut.” Paula gave a satisfied nod.

  “What will you do about the offer from Nathan?” Hannah said, her tone gentle. After many years away, Hannah had returned to the Mennonites of Pleasant Valley only earlier this year, but now she was happily married to William Brand, raising her small son, and as settled as if she’d never left. “If the situation is as good as you say for your beehives…”

  “I know.” Naomi could talk about it with Hannah, who was a loyal friend despite the differences between them. “I just…I feel as if all anyone values in me is my ability to take care of other people’s children.” She shook her head ruefully. “It sounds so selfish when I put it that way.”

  “You are gifted with children,” Hannah said gently. “Look how my Jamie attached to you. But there’s nothing wrong with wanting something else for yourself as a way of working. What about your bees?”

  Naomi blinked. “What about them?”

  “You know how everyone loves your honey. You could be packaging it and selling it yourself, making a nice business of it.”

  “Ja, for sure.” Paula, ever the businesswoman, jumped in immediately. “All you need is to label the jars and decide on a price. We could put a display right on the counter and folks would snap it up.”

  “That’s right.” Hannah’s eyes sparkled. “I know you give away most of your honey, but people would be glad to pay for it. You could even expand your business—get more hives, process more honey.”

  “I could.” The idea took hold and would not be dismissed. Naomi couldn’t have done it while living at home and taking care of all the gardening, the house, and the canning and preserving, but she could now. Betty was taking over all those tasks. “But that brings me back to where I’m going to put the hives. How could I take care of Nathan’s children when I’ve refused my own brother?”

  “That’s entirely different,” Hannah said. “This is only for a few weeks, not for life. And think of the rewards.”

  “But my work at the bakery—”

  “We can handle that if we need to,” Paula said. “It doesn’t change anything.”

  Everything they said made sense, and Naomi discovered she couldn’t find any good reason to keep arguing.

  Any good reason except the one she couldn’t speak—that each time she got too close to Nathan King, she felt again like that sixteen-year-old who had to say no to the things she wanted most in the world.

  By late afternoon the next day, Naomi had begun to feel as if she’d been swept up by a tornado and put down in a totally different world. She stood behind the counter at the bakery, stacking fresh loaves of cinnamon bread in the wire basket, something she had done a hundred times before, but still, it was completely different today.

  She had spent the morning checking on various farms where she might be able to put her hives. Several folks had offered her the space, apparently willing to risk her daad’s disapproval, but none had been so good a situation as the one Nathan offered.

  This afternoon she had moved a few of her belongings into the spare bedroom in the apartment over the bakery, settling her buggy horse in the stable behind Katie and Caleb Brand’s shops just down the street. It was an obvious outward sign of her new life, and she’d half expected a clap of thunder to admonish her at her open flouting of her father’s wishes.

  Nothing had happened, and doing the familiar work was steadying. Still, she couldn’t quite relax.

  Her choices had narrowed when it came to the bees, and she’d promised Nathan an answer today. She must get over her foolishness
, it seemed, and say yes to his offer. He was asking little enough from her. It certainly wasn’t his fault that he reminded her of things better left in the past. Certainly Nathan would have long since forgotten the incident that loomed in her mind as a symbol of all she’d given up in her life. She must, as well.

  As for Ada’s kinder—well, they needed her, far more than any of her nieces and nephews did. And if it hurt her to grow to love them and then turn them over to someone else, she would smile and do it. After all, as Hannah said, it was only for a few weeks.

  “Naomi?” Hannah’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “The bus has just pulled out, and I see Nathan and the children coming toward the shop. Could his mother-in-law have left for her daughter’s already?”

  Naomi turned, a loaf warm in her hands. Sure enough, Nathan walked right toward the bakery, holding hands with Joshua and Sadie in that protective way he had. If Emma had indeed left Pleasant Valley on the bus, Naomi had no time for wavering about her decision.

  Nathan approached the door, his face determined under the brim of his black hat. She put the loaf in its proper place and smoothed down the white apron she wore in the bakery. Something fluttered in her stomach, gentle as a butterfly’s wings. Time to stop dithering and give Nathan his answer.

  The bell above the door jingled. Joshua and Sadie let go of Nathan’s hands and came toward the counter in a rush, jostling each other in their haste.

  “Grossmammi had to leave already,” Joshua said, beating his small sister.

  “She rode on a big, big bus,” Sadie said. “I want to do that, too.”

  “I’m sure you will ride on a bus someday,” Naomi told her. She looked up into Nathan’s face, the butterfly flapping its wings faster. “So soon?” she said quietly, trying not to sound apprehensive in front of the kinder.

  Nathan nodded, frowning a little. “There was a message on the answering machine in the phone shanty.” He glanced at Joshua and Sadie, their faces pressed to the display cabinet, obviously not wanting to say more in front of them.