Everyone in the little depot finished together. “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
“Psalm 23.” Peter smiled an easy smile. “Thank you for that reminder. Faith is a blessing, and there is no room for fear in faith.”
“And in love,” Rebekah added. She tried to ignore the blush that flamed in her cheeks as she looked anywhere but at Joseph.
Peter sighed. “Katie needs to know we love her—that I love her—and then let her make her decision about what to do next.”
His words hung heavy in the air. He didn’t have to say how much hung on Katie’s decision. But Rebekah knew that her brother had set his sights on marrying Katie Knepp once he was baptized and fully welcomed into the Amish faith.
Joseph nodded, then stopped. “Katie’s decision. It won’t impact your decision to become Amish, and become the Wagler’s son, will it?”
Peter twiddled his thumbs, then looked at Joseph. He didn’t speak and Rebekah couldn’t quite read the shadowed look in his eyes. Ever silent, Peter stood and shuffled out the front doors of the depot.
The owlish ticket man cleared his throat. “I’m mighty sorry I couldn’t be more help, folks.” Rebekah noticed he’d made no headway in mending his glasses. “But it’s high time I head home for the evening.”
He hesitated, like a new father unsure of how to help with a crying baby. “Miss Molly Price has a boarding house across Main Street, but her prices are steep. My place is too small for the lot of us, with it just being my wife and me.”
Rebekah and Joseph looked up in tandem from where they sat. Her eyes widened as realization set in. “Oh, we hadn’t given any thought as to where we would stay for the night.”
The old man nodded. “Tuck in for the night here, folks. Your train for New York will be here at 8:00 a.m.”
“It’s going to be a long night,” Rebekah said aloud. Her fingers knotted above her quilting bag, as though they too dreaded the dress they were tasked to make. “May as well make the most of my time.”
“Good idea,” Joseph whispered. “Think I’ll step out front. See if Peter needs some company.”
Rebekah pulled the swath of blue fabric out of her rumpled bag. Her brows knitted together as she studied where she’d stopped and where she was supposed to start again.
“Rebekah?”
Heat burned in her neck at the tone of Joseph’s voice. Sweet as honey, soft as velvet. A tone he’d never used with her before.
“Yes?” Something quivered in her stomach.
Joseph’s stared intently at her from beneath his broad-brimmed hat. “No matter what happens, I’ll be honored to call you my wife.”
Emotion threatened to strangle her. “You mean what happens with Katie and Peter?” A bead of sweat slid precariously down her backbone.
Joseph’s handsome face, boasting just a hint of a shadowy stubble, broke into a grin. “No, with your dress.”
His joke shattered the intimate moment, but not in an unwelcome way. Rebekah let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Of course, if it stays together through the ceremony, we’ll all be blessed.”
She smiled to herself, but didn’t meet Joseph’s gaze.
Will this be what it’s like when we’re married? Joking together and talking, in ways we don’t talk with anybody else?
Joseph strode out the door.
Rebekah sighed. “Time to get to work.” She poked the slippery little needle through the cornflower blue fabric. It was the only needle she’d thought to bring on such short notice and the thought of losing it on this journey brought a slight tremble to her fingers. This should be a shoulder to my wedding dress...
Rebekah was focusing so intently on her work, she didn’t hear the ticket taker creep up behind her until he spoke.
“You know, my wife can do better.” He squinted from over Rebekah’s shoulder at her poor workmanship.
“I do not disagree with you.” She sighed. “I think a three-year-old could probably do better than me.”
“Would you like for my wife to put that dress together for you tonight?” The old man’s tone was thoughtful. “I can have it back here for you before your train to New York City in the morning.”
Rebekah shifted and smiled at the old man. Such a sweet offer reminded her of something her pa would say. A fleeting thought of her father, lying sick and alone in an English bed, flashed through her mind. She bit her lip as a wave of nostalgia threatened to drown her.
“I thank you, sir, but this is going to be my wedding dress.”
“Oh is it now?” He raised his furry eyebrows. “A blue wedding dress isn’t something we see all too often.”
Rebekah nodded. “It is. And tradition says that it is my job to make it.”
The old man dug in his inside pocket. “I see.” He produced a scrap of cloth and held it out to her. “I was taking this home for my wife to sew into some booties for our newest grands.”
Rebekah accepted the red-and-black plaid material. It was soft and heavier than she expected. “I’m grateful, thank you.”
“You’re not getting a suitable wedding dress out of it as there’s not enough but for a pair of booties or two, but it will be a nice bit for an accent here or there.”
Rebekah rubbed it between her fingers. The man’s kindness and the thought of her ill father brought a familiar burn to her eyes.
“And remember us, my wife and me.”
Rebekah’s power of speech was lost somewhere in between her dry mouth and tight throat, so she couldn’t even say goodbye as the strangely nice man shuffled across the floor and out the door, into the Indiana night.
My collar and cuffs, she thought. And of course, I will always remember your kindness.
Chapter Seven
On the Train to NYC
The rattling of the train had a soothing effect that had Katie sleeping almost as soon as she sat down in her private room in Nellie Bly’s train car. The news reporters were all too happy to give Katie her privacy, as they were interested more in Nellie, than in the bonneted, plain girl who tagged along behind her.
She’d roused a few times, thanks to strange and fitful dreams featuring Peter as a key player, but she refused to give into the dreams and actually think about Peter. Instead, she clutched a beaded pillow to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut until sleep overtook her again. It’s best to forget about him now, while I’m on the way to my new life. He probably has forgotten about me, anyway. I mean, who would waste time thinking of someone who stood them up at their meeting place...
Still, her restless thoughts refused to let her fully relax. When someone banged on her door and shocked her awake, Katie didn’t feel as though she’d slept hardly at all.
“Katie? Katie!” Nellie’s voice was insistent from the other side of the door. “Are you sleeping?”
Katie yawned and sat up, her heart pounding from the sudden start. “No, come in Nellie.”
She paused a moment to collect her thoughts as the door to her room slid open. “Or would you like for me to call you Elizabeth, your real name?”
The fact that the nice woman had two names, but only used one, still confused Katie. Even in her limited contact with the English, who already had such different and worldly ways from what she was used to in Gasthof Village, Nellie—Elizabeth—seemed outlandish.
Nellie, her arms loaded down with dresses and cloaks, flashed a gleaming grin and stepped inside. “Nellie is fine. Elizabeth is my given name, but the world knows me as Nellie.”
