Sarah’s excited voice met her ears instead. “Oh, Elnora, this is going to be the most delicious Bible study of the year. 1888 is a wonderful year for food.”
***
“I should have grabbed a shawl,” Rebekah muttered. The wind, unseasonable for March, had grown colder in the few minutes she’d been inside. Something in the breeze smelled frosty, like the winds that blew around Christmastime.
Rebekah quickened her pace to the river. “I’ll make short work of this.”
She eyed the blackening eastern horizon. Ominous clouds, puffy on the bottom and spiky on the top, hung overhead in a low and threatening manner. She shivered. “At least I have long sleeves.”
It had grown so cold so quickly that bits of ice clung to the river bank before being washed downstream by the rushing current.
Ma was right about the weather taking a turn.
Rebekah dumped the clothes in a heap on the bank.
With the lye soap in one hand and her dirty dress in the other, she plunged both into the water. Pricks from the cold stabbed her hands as the current splashed further up her arms than she’d intended. The lower half of her sleeves dripped with river water.
In a hurry, she scrubbed the dirt from her dress before she rinsed it quickly and wrung it out. Satisfied, she laid it out on a flat rock and ignored the bright red hue her hands and arms had taken on. She plucked Abram’s dirty socks up and dipped them beneath the water’s surface. Skimping on quality, Rebekah wrung them out and placed them on the rock as shivers wracked her frame.
“That will have to be good enough for now,” she muttered as her teeth chattered. “I’m going back to the house.”
The sound of footsteps on river pebbles caught her attention over the whistling wind.
Joseph!
With the cold momentarily ignored, she turned to embrace the man she loved.
She froze, mid-step, for the curve of the hat wasn’t right. It wasn’t right at all.
“Hello, Rebekah.” If Peter was affected by the impending norther, his voice didn’t show it. “Have you had a chance to think about what I told you?”
Her smile softened into a different form as she stepped toward him. “How happy am I to learn that you are a relation.” She extended her arms and hugged him tightly. “Thank you for enduring so much to bring me the news.” She patted his back and started to release from their embrace.
Peter didn’t.
Rebekah squirmed in his grasp. Her heart quickened to a gallop before he finally released her. She stepped back. Her hands were numb and the strings on her covering whipped her face.
His mouth turned downward in a severe frown and tears dripped down his face. He swiped at them with the back of one hand. “Will you return with me to the east?” he called over the howling wind.
“I’m staying here.”
Peter cupped a hand around his ear and stepped nearer to her. “What?”
“I’m staying here!”
His frown settled into a hard line. “Sister, you’ve been brainwashed by the plain folk. Once you get to Philadelphia, you’ll see how much better off you are. I’m the only family you got.” He stepped toward her. “As your older brother, it’s my duty to see to your well-being. Now, are you coming with me?”
Despite the wind, Rebekah heard every word. She shook her head. “No, Peter, I’m not.”
A note of uncertainty gave her words a scared twang.
“You’ll thank me for this someday.” Peter pushed up his sleeves. “But if you won’t come with me, I’ll have to bring you.”
He took a step toward her.
Rebekah glanced around for somewhere to hide. Or somewhere to run. “No, Peter, it shouldn’t be like this.”
Fat snowflakes swirled around them and covered the ground in a white sheet.
“I believe she wants to be left alone. It sounds as though she’s made up her mind.” Joseph’s baritone voice drowned the wind out.
Peter whirled, unaware that he’d been snuck up on. “I’m taking her home.”
Stepping past him as easily as if he were stepping by the Yoder’s pup, Joseph extended his hand to Rebekah. She took it and melted into the warmth of his embrace. “She is home.”
He kept his back to Peter and spoke into her ear. “Storm’s getting worse. Let’s go.”
The wind wailed and lashed their faces with snowflakes and pieces of sleet. “Let me grab the laundry.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Joseph called. He turned and then turned back to her. “Where is it?”
Rebekah gestured to where she had been sitting only moments before. “It’s right—”
Her shout was lost to the wind. The snow had begun to fall so quickly that only the top of the washtub was visible. The laundry and the flat rock were completely blotted out by the mounds of snow.
“It’s coming fast.” Rebekah heard the trill in her voice as Joseph stepped to retrieve the tub.
“We won’t make it to the house.” His voice was a shout. “Come on, we have to find shelter.”
He pushed the tin bucket into her hands. Filled with snow, it was even heavier than when it was filled with laundry.
“Come on, Peter, we’re finding shelter,” Rebekah called. Had Joseph not held her arm, she wouldn’t have been able to follow him. The conditions had gone from cold to freezing in a moment and the snow didn’t appear to have any intention of letting up. She could barely make out Joseph’s silhouette in front of her. “Come on, Peter.”
Joseph pulled her down to the ground. He gave her a shove from behind, and she found herself in the shelter of a rock cave. A haphazard mess of sticks was piled near the back and it was roomy enough to fit all three of them. Despite the sheltering walls, the air inside was bitterly cold.
Rebekah’s hands trembled against the laundry tub and the sleeves of her wet dress were frozen. Not the slushy kind of frozen as her clothing sometimes got while playing outside in the powdery Indiana snow with her brothers. No. Frozen. Stiff. Solid. Into black slabs of ice
Her teeth chattered, and her arms might as well have been chunks of dead wood. She glanced down. The tips of her fingers were as white as though they’d been dipped in candle wax.
Joseph followed her gaze and immediately began rubbing them.
“P-p-p-pete-t-t—” she stuttered. Her tongue felt as frozen as her hands.
So do my eyes. And nose.
“He’s not here yet.” Joseph cupped his mouth around her hands and blew.
If his breath was warm on her fingers, it went unfelt. “Let’s get you warm and then I’ll go out after him.”
