“It’s the least I can do for a good man such as your father, Rebekah.”
She nodded.
Peter leaned in. “I’m going to get the wagon out of the livery,” he whispered. “I’ll be back to get you all in a bit.”
Rebekah nodded and turned back to Mr. Williams. “Thank you, Mr. Williams, again. You are truly a blessing to my father.”
“Seems I owed more for his wheels than the doctor’s sum. So I sent your brother, Jeremiah, home with the surplus.” He held out a piece of cash money to the doctor. “And this is for you. For what is fair, for all his care and keeping.”
“Ah...bah, ah,” the doctor mumbled. “Thank you, Mr. Williams. Thank you.”
As the doctor disappeared inside, Mr. Williams’s smile faded slowly from his face. “Rebekah, Joseph, listen close. Your Pa is a sick man. Heart seizures are no small thing, and the fact that he recovered this quickly means it was a small one.”
Rebekah cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean use those leeches on him. Tell your Ma to, that is.” He bent down lower. “I worked the cattle drives in the old days with a couple of rough and tumble men by the names of Gus and Woodrow, down in Texas. Tough as they come, so were the men they hired. On one of the drives I was on with them, they hired a fellow to blacksmith for them. He was good and built like a hookin’ bull.”
Rebekah and Joseph shared a look at his choice of words.
“One night, the man, Nightwalker was his name, he had a heart seizure like Samuel did. Dropped him down flat. The next day, he was up and working like nothing.” Mr. Williams looked at the clinic door and spoke faster. “Wasn’t much later that he had another heart seizure that dropped him dead as he walked from his tent to the chuck wagon.”
Rebekah sucked in her lip. “Now I don’t tell you this to scare you, Rebekah, but I don’t want you making the same mistake we did. Didn’t none of us know how to help him. If we had the leeches like we do nowadays...” He shrugged. “Ole Nightwalker might still be with us today.”
Joseph nodded, but Rebekah ducked her head. “I see,” she managed.
“Use his tragedy to do better for your Pa,” he said, just as door swung open. “And I’m always around if you need any help.” He touched the tip of his hat and stepped over toward Samuel.
“Heaven wasn’t ready for you quite yet, was it,” he joked.
Samuel shook his head and laughed. “No sir, maybe next time.”
Rebekah stared at her father in astonishment. “Joseph,” she whispered. “He’s joking about Heaven! I’ve never...”
Peter reigned in the wagon beside them. “Perfect timing, as usual.” He jumped down out of the wagon. His eyes sparkled, just as they always did when he jested. “Mr. Stoll, let me help you in. Would you like to ride on the driver’s seat or drive us home yourself?”
“I’d like lie down on the way home, if it’s not a problem for you.”
The doctor appeared behind them with the nest of quilts he’d come in with. Rebekah hobbled to accept them. She passed them off to Joseph, who could move faster than she could, and pretended not to notice the sweat that beaded on her father’s face in the short walk from the clinic to the wagon. He was paler too. Rebekah patted the jar of leeches in her dress pocket.
I’ll use them, for Mr. Nightwalker and for my father, she prayed.
Joseph and Peter got Samuel loaded in and Rebekah went over to tuck him in with the cornflower blue quilt, her favorite. “I finished my wedding dress, Pa,” she whispered. “I can’t wait for you to see it.”
Samuel gripped her hand. It wasn’t until then that Rebekah noticed how much weaker he’d grown. She pretended not to notice. “I knew you would, Rebekah. You’re my pride and joy, my oldest daughter. You’re the one that made me a father in the first place.”
Rebekah smiled down at him. “Let’s get you home, Pa.”
When she turned around, Joseph was there, grim faced. He helped her onto the wagon seat and the four of them set off for Gasthof Village.
“You look awfully sullen. Is all well?”
Peter snapped the reins and clucked, to make the horses go.
“Wait, where’s Katie?” Rebekah asked. “Didn’t you see her at the livery?”
“She left word that she’d rather walk home, Rebekah,” Joseph whispered.
The troublesome butterflies returned to her gut with Joseph’s tone.
“We didn’t leave enough money to cover the entire length of our stay with the livery,” Joseph whispered. “Both Peter and I chipped in, but we still owe them. They’re doing us a kindness by letting us borrow the wagon to take everyone home.”
“Borrow.” Rebekah looked from Joseph to Peter, who sat like a stone statue beside her. “But...do they own it now?”
“Only until the debt is paid. They’re letting us keep it at Gasthof Village until then.”
Rebekah balked. All of the wonderful emotions of coming home and getting Patty and Noah established in Montgomery and out of New York were being chipped away, little by little. Something sullen and scary took its place. The life she’d left had changed drastically in the few days she was gone. It felt like a lifetime, the more she thought about it.
“So what are we going to do?”
“Not we,” Joseph said. “I tried to help, told him I’d come and switch out with him, but he wouldn’t have it.”
“Have what Joseph, you’re speaking in riddles.” Rebekah blew out a puff of breath. She hoped he couldn’t hear her voice tremble.
“Peter is moving into Montgomery. He’s going to live at the livery and work off the debt.”
“But your baptism...” Rebekah fumbled for words, quietly, so as not to alarm Samuel. “You’ll be back in time for your baptism, right?”
Rebekah waited, but Peter didn’t look at her.
“Peter?” She tried to keep the emotion from showing in her voice. “Peter, you still want to be Peter Wagler, don’t you? I know Katie’s acting strangely, and what with Patty’s coming into our lives.” Rebekah paused. “That, she...they, um—Patty and Noah don’t replace the fact that you’re my brother, does it?”
Still, he didn’t answer. He looked straight ahead and snapped the reins.
“Peter, don’t you want to be Amish?
Joseph shushed her. “Not now, Rebekah. Just let it be for now.”
Her heart, which had been so happy and bright, began to break in her very chest, just as her journey was coming to an end.
Chapter Eighteen
Gasthof Village, Indiana Territory
“Today’s the day,” Rebekah told her parents. “Do you think he will come?”
Elnora patted baby Beanie on the back and rocked quietly in her chair in the quilting room. “He’s a grown man, Rebekah. He may be your blood relative, but this life isn’t for everyone.”
Samuel sat in the other rocker, the one Rebekah normally took. He was so tired lately, she again pretended not to notice. “Your mother is right,” he added. “That’s why there’s such a long discernment period. It’s not a light decision to take on.”
