Arms of Mercy Read online

  She clutched her chest, hissing his name in a sharp gasp. “Zach!”

  “Were you expecting someone else?” Zach stepped closer.

  “I—I wasn’t expecting someone to be lurking in the shadows. I thought you were in line getting food with the others.” Her hands trembled as she wiped them on the side of her dress.

  “Jah.” He lifted his plate, dumbfounded by her sudden lack of observation skills. “I did.” He hoped catching her off guard was all that was wrong and her jumpiness didn’t have something to do with Elijah’s return. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I figured I’d say hello and tell you that I’m looking forward to our sleigh ride tonight.”

  “You are? I mean, I’m looking forward to our ride too.” She tucked a stray strand of her honey-colored hair under her prayer kapp. “When you didn’t arrive right away I started to think something had happened.”

  “I had an important business matter to take care of and lost track of the time.” He stabbed his fork into a chunk of carved turkey, his mouth watering. He’d been so preoccupied tinkering with a customer’s antique pocket watch that he’d skipped lunch. Although his stomach complained, he was happy that word had started to spread about his clock and watch repair services.

  “Business on New Year’s Eve?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it later. But now you should get something to eat. I don’t want to stay long.” He had to wake up earlier than normal tomorrow morning. The man was coming to the shop to pick up his watch, and Zach wanted to give himself enough time to adjust it if it wasn’t keeping perfect time.

  “Jah, I’m sort of anxious to leave early too.” Catherine’s cheeks turned a rosy shade before she spun around, her dress hem swinging around her ankles with her quick turn.

  He took another bite of turkey and followed Catherine through the swinging doors, but as she went toward the food line, he veered over to the table where his long-lost friend Elijah was seated.

  Zach clapped Elijah on the shoulder. “Nobody whistles like you.”

  “You mean off-key.”

  “Exactly.” Zach set his plate on the table, then plopped down beside him. “I heard you were in town.”

  “Mammi guilted me into being here for her birthday. She told me, ‘One doesn’t turn one hundred years old every day, you know.’”

  Zach chuckled. “I’d say nett. How long do you plan on staying?”

  “A week, maybe two—maybe all winter if I can’t get mei mammi’s buggy out of the ditch. The driveway was like a big frozen pond. The buggy skated into a pile of snow at the bottom of the ditch—at least I think it’s the ditch.”

  Zach opened his mouth to take a bite of food but lowered his fork. “The mare didn’t get hurt, did she?” He recalled Elijah always trying to race his family’s horse and goading Zach into doing the same. But on snowy nights like tonight, no way. Even with runners on his buggy, Zach always went slowly.

  “The old mare is fine. I put her back in the barn. Hey, you think you could give me a ride back to Mammi’s when this is over?”

  “Ahh . . .” So much for Catherine and his moonlight sleigh ride. “Jah, sure.”

  “I can find someone else to take me, or I’ll walk if you have other plans,” Elijah said, buttering a dinner roll.

  “Nay, that’s okay. But I want to make it an early nacht. I have to work in the morning.” He ate a spoonful of buttery mashed potatoes while pondering how he’d tell Catherine their plans now included driving Elijah.

  “Still making clocks?”

  Zach nodded. “I repair watches nau too.”

  “That’s great. I always knew you would do well.” Elijah pushed his empty plate aside and picked up his coffee mug.

  “What about you? I seem to recall you wanted to train horses.”

  “Still want to . . . one day,” Elijah muttered as he stood. He motioned to the dessert table. “I think there’s a piece of apple pie calling mei name.”

  Zach continued eating. When Elijah didn’t immediately return to eat his dessert at the table, Zach scanned the crowd and found him standing with the married men and engaged in a conversation with the bishop. A scene all too familiar to Zach. His other friends had migrated to the married side of Sunday services and gatherings after they married, too, as if an unwritten rule forbade them from hanging around their unmarried friends once they passed over to the other side.

  Sure, he could join the group by marrying Catherine, and several of his friends had encouraged him to do so, but he wasn’t one to do things to appease others. Besides, up until the other day, his business wasn’t stable; he couldn’t support a wife. But for some reason, watching his once best friend huddling with the others irked him. Elijah—his so-called friend—had never bothered to tell him he’d gotten married. Zach read the announcement in The Budget same as everyone else. Zach finished cleaning off his plate, then picked it up and went to the buffet for seconds.

  Catherine approached the serving table from the opposite side. “Have you tried the pork pie?”

  “I haven’t yet. Did you make it?” Catherine’s grin told him she had before she confirmed it with a nod. Zach reached for the spoon.

  Usually he asked Catherine what she brought and selected those dishes first, but tonight she’d been busy cleaning the floor when he was in the serving line selecting his food. He scraped the bottom of the dish to get the last few morsels of pork gravy and crust. “This looks gut.”

  “I hope you like it.”

  He smiled. “I don’t think you’ve made anything I haven’t liked.” He took a bite and nodded. “It’s gut.” Just as tasty as when she had served it to him a few weeks ago when she invited him for supper at her brother’s house.

  A gust of cold air filled the room as several men went outside, then reentered a moment later. Bishop Zook raised his hand. “Folks, may I have your attention? The weather appears to have gotten much worse. I suggest we conclude the evening activities as soon as possible.”

  Zach wasn’t concerned about the amount of snowfall. The runners he’d mounted on an old open buggy would glide over anything. Besides, he had a blanket for warmth and lanterns to help guide the way. Perhaps the get-together ending early was a blessing. He did need to get up early and double-check the watch he’d been working on.

  Within minutes the women had the tables cleaned off and the place tidied up. As children were dressed in their outerwear and shuttled to the buggies, the room emptied quickly. Zach shoved his arm into his coat sleeve. He spotted Elijah being handed a covered dish by the bishop’s wife. Knowing Alice Zook’s motherly concern over the flock, she would insist on them giving Elijah a ride to his grandmother’s house once she heard about him going into the ditch. Zach smiled at the thought of not having a third passenger in his sleigh tonight after all.

  He scanned the area for Catherine and spotted her talking with her cousin Faith. He sidled up beside them as they were discussing restaurant operations.

  “Last winter we struggled badly,” Faith said. “Closing is for the best.”

  “You’re closing the restaurant?” Zach divided his attention between Catherine and her cousin, who looked equally somber.

  Faith nodded. “We don’t do enough business in the winter to pay the fuel bill, and the township won’t allow us to install a woodstove. Mei parents and I have prayed about it, and . . . it’s only for a few months. We plan to reopen in April or May.”

  “That’s nett so bad.” Zach studied Catherine’s strained expression. She was no doubt worried about her loss of income. She’d been a cook at the restaurant for more than fifteen years, and since both of her parents had died, she had given most of her paycheck to her brother to help with household expenses.

  “Perhaps we can get together and sew. I want to make a few things for mei hope chest.” The blush on Faith’s face said there was more, but with Zach in the midst, she wasn’t about to blurt what he already knew. Gideon had asked him to make a grandfather clock for a wedding gift Gideon p
lanned to give Faith. Of course, Zach had promised to keep their news a secret until an official announcement was made.

  “Sure.” Catherine’s voice cracked. Did she suspect her cousin was engaged? She was always fast to get choked up at weddings. Maedel tears.

  Faith glanced over her shoulder in Gideon’s direction. “Gideon is putting on his coat. I’d better get mine on too.” She turned back to Catherine and reached for her hands. “I’m going to miss talking with you at work every day, but we’re going to get together regularly, right?”

  “Jah, for sure.” Catherine had gained better control over her voice now that she had time to think about it.

  Zach leaned closer to Catherine as her cousin walked away. “The months will go by quickly—you’ll see.”

  Elijah joined them. “I just need a second to grab mei coat and I’ll be ready.” Elijah faced Catherine and extended the covered dish the bishop’s wife had given him. “Do you mind holding this?”

  Her hands remained at her side.

  “Please,” he added after her brows puckered in what looked like confusion.

  Accepting the dish, she faked a smile. When the corners of her mouth twitched, it wasn’t because she was happy.

  As Elijah crossed the room, a steeled expression replaced her smile.

  “He needs a ride,” Zach said.

  “And there’s no one else?” Her gaze traveled around the room. “Isn’t one of his cousins here? Why couldn’t Elijah—?”

  “He’s staying with his mammi, and her haus is only a couple miles down the road from your bruder’s place. Besides, I’d hate for someone else to go out of their way on a nacht like tonight.”

  If she hadn’t just received news of the restaurant closure, he would have thought she was still holding on to the past the way her voice quivered saying his name. “Do you want me to hold the dish?”

  “Nay, I’m fine.”

  Guilt wiggled through him like a hooked worm. Expecting those two to sit side by side on the same bench peacefully might have been foolish. He scanned the dwindling crowd for his sister, but Mary and her bu had already left, which was too bad. Elijah would have made a perfect chaperone for his younger sibling. Still, even they would be going out of their way—on icy roads. Catherine would understand. She was a practical woman. Besides, Elijah was married. What could they hash out now? “I’ll take you on a sleigh ride another day—just the two of us. Okay?”

  Disappointment flickered in her eyes, but she nodded, then immediately dropped her gaze to the floor.

  “I’m ready whenever you are.” Elijah broke the silence with his upbeat tone.

  Catherine handed the dish back to Elijah, then wrapped her knitted scarf around her neck and head, covering her entire face except for her eyes.

  Outside, the restaurant sign flapped in the wind. A few inches of snow had collected on the buggy bench in the short time Zach had been inside. He swept the snow off with the small broom he kept under the seat, then held Catherine’s hand as she climbed onto the bench. The lap quilt he’d stowed under the bench was cold and snowy, but he offered it to her anyway. She declined. Apparently, being sandwiched between him and Elijah had given her two windbreakers.

  Elijah did the majority of the talking on the ride, mostly about the changes he’d noticed in the community since he’d been home last. “Was your bruder there tonight, Catherine? I didn’t see him.”

  “George and Gwen decided to stay home. Mei niece wasn’t feeling well.”

  “Bit by the flu bug?”

  Catherine shrugged.

  “And your mamm, how is she?”

  “Elijah.” Zach cleared his throat hard. “Catherine’s mamm went on to be with the Lord three years ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “You don’t live in Posen. How could you know?” Not waiting for Elijah’s response, Catherine pulled her cloak up higher around her neck and lowered her head, a sure sign she was finished with the conversation.

  Silence fell over the three of them during the last few miles of the trip. Zach pulled into Catherine’s driveway, stopped in front of the house, then jumped off the sled. He reached for her hand. “Watch your step. The runner is slippery.”

  “Danki for the ride home,” she said through chattering teeth.

  “I’ll walk you to the door.” He wanted to be out of earshot when he apologized again for the change of plans and told her good night.

  “Nay, danki.” Instead of going inside, she sprinted to the barn.

  Cold air numbed his senses. He stared at the space she’d fled, his brain taking several seconds to register what had just happened. Nay danki? When had she become so formal? He headed to the barn.

  A soft glow of lantern light flickered on her face as she removed a horse blanket from the wall peg and took it inside the mare’s stall. “It’s going to be a kalt nacht, Cocoa.” She hooked the lantern handle on a nail, then placed the cover over the horse.

  Zach entered the stall, squatted down, and helped tie the straps under the horse’s girth. “I wish you weren’t upset with me.” He rose when she did.

  “I understand Elijah needed a ride to his mammi’s . . .”

  “But?”

  “But I’m a bit surprised you dropped me off first. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I thought this being New Year’s Eve . . .”

  “Your haus is the closest. I’d have to double back if I took him home first.”

  Catherine pivoted so her back was to him.

  “This isn’t like you,” he said. “What’s wrong?”

  She was silent a moment, then her shoulders lifted with a raspy inhale and sank again as she released her breath. She faced him. “I thought you were going to propose on Christmas, and when you didn’t, I thought maybe you would surprise me on Second Christmas. But I was wrong—again.”

  He opened his mouth, but she continued.

  “You made a point to tell me how much you were looking forward to our sleigh ride tonight, so of course I figured for sure this was the nacht—the nacht you would propose.”

  He swallowed hard.

  She placed her hands on her hips and stared into his eyes. “We’ve courted almost five years. I’m ready to get married. Are you?”

  Chapter 2

  Shock registered across Zach’s face. “You’re proposing . . . to me?”

  Catherine lowered her head, and despite the draftiness in the barn, her cheeks and neck blazed with embarrassment. She should have thought this through. Maybe if she’d waited he would have come to the decision on his own—eventually.

  “Catherine, is that what you’re asking?”

  She lifted her head. “Jah, Zachariah Lantz, I asked you to marry me. To be mei mann.”

  His brows furrowed. “What’s gotten into you? You sound . . . desperate.”

  She gulped. Her words spurted out similar to how blood gushes from a fresh cut. Only she didn’t have a tourniquet for her mouth. Perhaps Elijah showing up unexpectedly and then asking about her mother had pushed her over the edge. Had he thought nothing changed since he’d left the community? Many things hadn’t; she was still working at The Amish Table, still living at home, and still single. Seeing him again highlighted her stagnant life.

  Catherine shifted her attention to Cocoa and adjusted the blanket a little higher on the horse’s neck. The mare’s thick winter coat would keep her warm, but the blanket would make Cocoa more comfortable against the wind that howled outside the barn. And adjusting the blanket gave her something to do to help relieve the pressure from Zach’s stare.

  “Can you name one other woman who has proposed? Did Annie, Agnes, Doris, Phoebe?” As if driving a nail, he continued hammering out the names of her friends, cousins, and any other married woman in the district.

  “Nay,” she muttered, focusing her complete attention on Cocoa. “Just me—the desperate one.”

  “Catherine.” He drew her name out in a pitiful tone.

  She cringed. Couldn�
�t he just let it go? She’d already made a complete fool of herself.

  “I’m merely trying to point out how unacceptable it is for a woman to be so . . . so bold.”

  “Point taken.” Her friends and relatives were right when they teased about her old-maid status. She never wanted to believe she wasn’t marriage material, but nothing had worked. Even her cooking hadn’t won Zach over. She’d invited him to supper numerous times, prepared his favorite meals, but his praise for the tastiness of the food hadn’t encouraged a proposal from him.

  Oh, Lord, this isn’t how I wanted to start the new year. Will I ever be able to forget this nacht? Will he?

  Zach cupped his hands over her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Patience, Catherine. Don’t fret over the future.”

  She forced a smile, but her mouth twitched after a few moments. Anymore it seemed patience had become part of her name. Patience Catherine. Zach should understand why her patience had worn thin. Why she was desperate to get married. She wanted children—lots of children. But obviously he had no inkling how pressured women her age were to get married. Especially those living under their brother and sister-in-law’s roof—imposing on their family time. In a few months, she would turn thirty, and even she understood that the invisible timeline of someone marrying her was fading. She’d be an old maid, living out the rest of her life in her brother’s house, under his care.

  “It’s getting late, and Elijah is probably freezing by nau. I should go.” Zach leaned closer and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. “Happy New Year.”

  “Jah, Happy New Year to you too.” She stepped back, distancing herself from the warmth of his closeness, and straightened her shoulders. “I don’t want to keep you.”

  He placed his hand on her lower back. “I’ll walk you to the haus.”

  She planted her feet. “I’d rather stay here awhile longer.” The old barn was cold and drafty, but she wasn’t ready to go inside yet. She dried her eyes with the edge of her wool cloak, flinching as the scratchiness irritated her skin.

  “I’m sorry to disappoint you.”