Can we go in and see him?
Will he come out of that room?
Will he be the same man he was before?
Rebekah opened her mouth. The question was heavy on her tongue. Will Pa...die?
Before she could verbalize any of the questions all the Stoll’s were sharing, even the heaviest one, a rapping came at the front door.
Rebekah’s nose burned and stubborn tears dripped onto her cheeks. “I’ll get it, Ma.”
The shakiness of her words was amplified in the empty upstairs hallway. The strange echo made her voice sound odd and foreign. She didn’t like it.
Elnora chewed her bottom lip and nodded, still rocking, obviously struggling to hold her fragile emotions at bay.
Please be Joseph Graber.
Rebekah swiped at her cheeks as she trotted down the stairs. She adjusted her covering over her hair before pulling open the wide wooden door that Samuel had carved for his family so many years ago. Pa.
The man at the door wasn’t Joseph Graber. In fact, he wasn’t even Amish.
“Evenin’, Miss. Might this be the home of craftsman Samuel Stoll?” Remembering himself, the stranger quickly removed his tall white hat, the kind English cowboys wore, and held it at his middle.
Icy bits of fear trickled down her backbone as she gazed at their visitor. However, his grandfatherly blue eyes sparkled in such a kind way that her fear dripped away and didn’t return. “Samuel Stoll is my father.”
He turned his hat in his hands and glanced off at the darkening horizon. “I’m sorry to come calling so late in the day,” he stammered. “It’s just that I was expectin’ Mr. Stoll to deliver his monthly order of wagon wheels this afternoon. I’ve never known him to be tardy in his shipments before.”
The Englishman’s blue gaze glimmered as it settled back on Rebekah. “By the way, I’m Mr. Williams. From the livery in Montgomery.”
Rebekah’s uneasiness melted at mention of the man’s name. Pa had spoken so highly of Mr. Williams over the years of doing business with him that he’d even coined him a nickname, The Amish Englishman.
She exhaled the breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Oh ya, Mr. Williams, hallo.” Her voice came out in a flutter. “I’m Rebekah.”
True to his English ways, Mr. Williams stuck out his hand. “How do Rebekah. I’ve heard mighty fine things about you.”
Rebekah shook his knobby, callused hand like she’d seen her own father do when speaking with the English. “Danke. Likewise, Mr. Williams.”
“Tell me, is your pa around? As I said, I’ve never known him to be tardy with a shipment.” The old man’s sunken cheeks turned a misty shade of scarlet. “I have customers waiting, overnight actually, for his handiwork. They’ve ridden in from as far away as Louisville.”
Those pesky burning tears seared again in the back of Rebekah’s throat before welling in her eyes. “I understand. My father is very talented.” Before she could help it, her voice cracked. “He took ill today, Mr. Williams. Yesterday my father was so strong and healthy, today he crumpled and fell...weak like a newborn calf...” Sobs, coming hard and fast, unleashed a torrent of tears that soaked her cheeks.
Mr. Williams, himself no doubt a father or grandfather, reached out and patted her arm with heavy, awkward thumps. “There now,” he cooed. His voice was calm and reassuring. “I’ve seen my share of sick folk in my day. Might I be able to come up and have a visit and see if I can be of assistance?”
Rebekah sniffled back the emotion that threatened to overwhelm her at any moment. “I’m not sure if—”
The thundering of feet on the wooden staircase interrupted her polite refusal. Jeremiah’s newly-cracking voice was edged in desperation. “Rebekah, come quickly. Pa’s very sick.”
Rebekah drew her fist to her mouth and tried to ignore the look of utter helplessness in her oldest younger brother’s eyes. Before she could answer either of them, Mr. Williams squeezed past and rushed up the stairs as a polite apology escaped his lips. “I know the Amish are supposed to keep separate from the English. And I respect your pa and your family. But maybe I can help.”
Chapter Two
Gasthof Village, Indiana Territory
Elnora tried to wrap her tongue around the foreign words. “Heart...seizure? What is this thing?”
Mr. Williams held his hat at his chest and turned it around in a circle, much the same way he had downstairs. Rebekah studied first him, then her pa, before turning her attention fully to her mother. The whispering of her brothers had quieted from the hallway when their mother spoke.
“They’re not quite sure ma’am, but a heart seizure has been known to drop a full-growed man for no reason a’tall, least none we can see.”
Elnora nodded. Rebekah noticed the hint of a glistening tear at the corner of her eye. “How do you make well a heart seizure, Mr. Williams?”
Mr. Williams twisted his hat faster. “Well ma’am, thing of it is—” He glanced down at her pa. His face had grown ghastly pale and he lay stiller than still, unnaturally still, in the bed. “Some folks come out of it, Mrs. Stoll. Most don’t.”
Elnora’s bottom lip began to tremble as the weight of Mr. Williams’s words found their way through the web of German and met their intended mark. “Oh no. Oh my, oh...my Samuel.” Elnora dipped low and cupped her husband’s limp hand in her own. A quiet, mumbled prayer filled the room with musical, somber German tones.
Staring at her heartbroken mother and dying father, improper words escaped Rebekah’s lips in a whisper. “Can the English doctors help my father, Mr. Williams?”
“I think they’re the only chance he’s got, little lady.” He glanced at Elnora. “With your permission ma’am, I can’t help but feel that time is of the essence.”
For the first time that Rebekah could recall, her mother’s eyes looked empty. Lost. Unsure. In all their years, she and her father had made decisions together. Especially big ones. And choosing whether or not to go against Amish tradition and accept treatment from English doctors was about as big as a decision could get.
Elnora opened her mouth, but no words came. Instead, her lips opened and closed in silence. Indecision was not a trait Rebekah normally attributed to her beautiful, knowledgeable mother.
“Ma?” Rebekah’s voice was meek. “May I offer a suggestion?”
Elnora closed her mouth. Her eyes crinkled at the ends, showing her age. She nodded.
“The people of Gasthof were accepting when you saved me on The Pike, even though I was of English blood. Then, they accepted my brother Peter...” She let her words trail off into the dark corners of the room and hang there, hoping their meanings would take root.
Finally, Elnora raised a hand. “Mr. Williams, my daughter is very wise. Life is most precious when it belongs to those we love the most. Thank you. We accept offer to take Samuel to English doctor in Montgomery.” Closing her eyes humbly, she stepped to the side.
“Rebekah, you or one of your brothers run down and pull my rig up to your doorstep. I’m going to carry your pa down.” He didn’t look at her as he gave the order, but moved quickly to Samuel’s side and began pulling back the covers. “Hurry now.”
Whirling with her dress skirt in hand, Rebekah didn’t stop to tell the new development to her waiting brothers in the hallway. Instead, she fled down the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. Stumbling over the bottom stair, she skipped across the floor and ran into the door sideways. She sucked in a gasp as her hand flew on its own to her shoulder.
Feels jammed, she managed to think before flinging open the door and racing into the freshly fallen darkness.
No sooner had she maneuvered Mr. Williams’s horse and wagon up to the front steps by moonlight, the husky Englishman appeared in the doorway with her father draped in his arms like a sick child. Jeremiah dashed around from the back, an armload of quilts in tow. “To make a bed for Pa, like he always did for us,” he muttered as he flung the fluffy blankets into the bed of the Williams’ wagon.
Rebekah attempted to tidy them as Mr. Williams laid her pa into the hastily constructed nest. He took care to pull a cornflower-blue one up to his chin. “I’ll have someone bring you word...unless one of the boys would like to come stay with me and my wife, so as to keep a better eye on Samuel?” He stepped around to the driver’s box and hefted his large frame up onto the seat.
Jeremiah climbed up onto the seat next to him with a deep nod. “I’ll come, Mr. Williams. Danke.”
“We’d certainly be honored to put you up, son. Rebekah, you’ll tell your ma, won’t you?”
Rebekah nodded. She stepped back and rubbed her throbbing shoulder. Mr. Williams snapped the reins and his rig, which carried two of the most important men in her life, and disappeared furiously down the dark path to town.
Rebekah squeezed her eyes shut and prayed through tight lips. “God, please be with them on their journey. Hold my father in Your hands and let us who are left behind accept Your divine will. Hold Mr. Williams’s family in Your hands and bless them and show them kindness, if it be Your will, as they have done for us. Amen.”
