Joseph did a half smile. “Well, in part. Peter here helped, too.”
Samuel nodded at Peter.
“Well,” he whispered to Rebekah. “Your ma is worried something horrible. Everyone’s at the house. We’ve been looking for you since the snow stopped.”
Snuggling deep against her pa, she allowed herself to doze the rest of the ride home.
Chapter Thirteen
Indeed, every family in Gasthof Village was at the Stolls. The women circled in the sitting room, Bibles open, as the Yoder pup bounced from person to person.
Tears streamed from Elnora’s eyes as she rushed to greet them. “My baby!” She wrapped Rebekah in a tight embrace. “Thank God!”
“It was God, Ma. Everything about this has been by His hand.” She gestured to Joseph and Peter as they climbed the steps in unison. “He made sure they were there. We all needed each other to survive.”
Elnora waved her arm to include all of them. “Come in, all of you, and warm yourselves by the fire.” Baby Beanie squeaked from his cradle. “We were about to have a church service. Her broad face beamed. “Peter, won’t you join us?”
“Thank you kindly, ma’am. That’s a mighty kind offer, considering all I’ve put you folks through. My apologies.” He tipped his hat to Elnora. “But I’d best be goin’.”
Rebekah’s heart sank. The moment had been so perfect, it hadn’t even occurred to her that he would leave. She’d assumed he’d stay, though she hadn’t really given the matter much thought aside from her rapid assumption.
Peter extended his hand to Joseph, who accepted it and shook with three brisk shakes. “Many thanks for saving my fingers. Surely, they wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you making me stick them in that awful water.” He grinned and twitched his nose. “And my smeller, too.”
Dropping his voice low, he continued. “No one’s ever done anything so kind. I wasn’t expecting that kindness, especially after I was so horrible to you.”
“God commands us to love and forgive each other, Peter. Like He loves and forgives us.”
Peter looked genuinely puzzled. “That must have been what they said when they were speakin’ Latin. Don’t recall that.”
Rebekah smiled. “It says so right in the Lord’s Prayer. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Her brother broke from his handshake with Joseph. “Mr. Stoll, if I could collect my wagon, I’ll be on my way.” He jammed his hat on his head with a nod to Rebekah. “Goodbye Hannah-Rebekah Stoll.” A grin broke his stoic face into an array of happy creases.
Remembering his duster, which was still around her shoulders, she followed him. “Wait, Peter!” She unwound the coat and held it out to him. “Thank you for finding me.”
He brushed the top of her covering with a light kiss. “Thank you for being you.”
He slipped his arms in the duster and descended the stairs without looking back.
***
In the warmth of her childhood home, surrounded by the people she loved, Rebekah searched her heart to the backdrop of Mr. Graber reading from the book of Ecclesiastes, for the reason her smile seemed forced.
Joseph sat closer than usual on her father’s hand-hewn loveseat. Normally, that would be cause for her heart to soar and her smile to stay plastered across her lips for days. As she glanced from face to familiar face, a rogue tear escaped and slid dramatically down her cheek.
Joseph bumped her with his elbow. “Are you ill?”
She bit her lip to keep the flood of sudden emotion at bay and nodded. She slammed her eyes shut in a desperate attempt to keep the wall of tears from spilling over. “I miss my brother.”
A series of sharp knocks on the front door brought Mr. Graber’s sermon to a halt. “A day of surprises.”
Lucas opened the door.
Tears cascaded down Rebekah’s cheeks in a shimmering veil. She stood slowly.
There, with a tear-streaked face and the tip of his nose red as a holly berry, stood Peter.
“I couldn’t leave.” His tears began afresh. “I don’t have a soul in the world. Nobody except you.” His eyes locked with hers.
Sobbing, she dashed across the room and into his waiting arms. There, she wept in harmony with her newest—and finally older—brother. “I’m so glad you came back.”
“Me too, sister.”
Samuel Stoll cleared his throat. “Peter?”
Releasing Rebekah, he swiped at his eyes with the back of one hand. “Mr. Stoll, I’m sure there’s rules about stuff like this, but—” He flickered his watery gaze around the room at each of the faces that stared back at him. “If it sounds fittin’ to you, I’d like to stay on. I’m handy with steel and can make some of the strongest horseshoes north of the Mason-Dixon.”
From the corner of her eye, Rebekah saw him suck in his lower lip.
Just like me.
“I know that took courage, Peter,” Samuel said cautiously, “but you’re right. Things like this aren’t normally done.”
Mr. Graber coughed. “Perhaps we could call a meeting of the elders and discuss the matter further?”
Mr. Yoder rose slowly, following Mr. Raber, Mr. Graber, Mr. Knepp, and Mr. Wagler into the Stoll kitchen. With a fleeting glance at Elnora, Samuel fell into step behind Mr. Odon and pulled the door shut after them.
***
“I reckon they’ll decide, then?” Peter’s voice broke the uneasy silence that had befallen the room. “I mean, if I can stay?”
Elnora plucked Beanie from his cradle and nestled him to her chest. The quilt Rebekah had given him as his very first gift was wrapped securely around him. “Tell me, Peter, do you love God?”
The women of Gasthof Village stared at him with stoic faces. Even bubbly Annie Knepp sat silent and still beside Katie.
Twisting his hat in circles before him, Peter looked at Joseph, who gave him an encouraging nod. “We were church goin’ folk before my parents died. I kind of lost my way after that.” He gestured to Rebekah. “As I was telling Hann—Rebekah—and Joseph last night, I attended Catholic Masses before.”
Elnora smiled. “That’s fine and good, but do you love the Lord.”
“I ain’t never professed it outright, but I got to see a little of His love since I found you folks. I could get mighty used to it.”
Mrs. Odom, perhaps the quietest woman in the settlement, spoke in her soft, singsong voice. “If you would like to receive our Lord as your savior, all you have to do is ask Him, Peter.”
“It’s as easy as all that?”
Annie and Katie’s mother answered. “It is. But in doing that, you’ve promised to live your life for Him and His Glory.”
Peter nodded. “That makes the most sense of anything I’ve heard in a while.” He eased down into an open spot on the floor. “All them churches I visited made it seem a whole lot more difficult.”
