Rebekah's Dress
An impending wedding. A sudden sickness. A Rumspringa gone wrong.As Rebekah and Joseph's wedding draws closer, their happiness starts to collapse. Can they bring order back to their gentle world before they say I do?As Rebekah and Joseph's wedding day draws nearer, her only worry is how she will sew her wedding dress until things take a drastic turn. First, a sickness threatens the Stoll family, then her saucy nemesis, Katie Knepp, goes missing during her Rumspringa.Rebekah is haunted by the worry that Katie's disappearance is a desperate effort to sway Joseph's affections her way before he can marry Rebekah. Still, Rebekah agrees to journey with Joseph and her brother, Peter, from Gasthof Village, Indiana to New York City in an attempt to locate Katie and hopefully bring her home. However, as Rebekah already knows, whenever the Englischer world is involved, nothing is plain and simple.
Chapter OneNovember 1889
Gasthof Village, Indiana Territory
Little Thomas Stoll, Rebekah’s six-year-old brother, rose out of the puddle, his white skivvies having seen their last day of impeccable cleanliness. Rebekah had been looking everywhere for him when she remembered catching sight of the mud puddle behind the barn earlier. Usually, where there was dirtiness and grittiness, that’s where Thomas could be found. Today was no exception.
His white straw hat hung precariously on the leafless branches of a low shrub. A nearby bush held his suspenders—or braces as their father, Samuel, called them—and they dangled alongside a pair of tiny black britches. Carefully laid out above the rest of his clothes, ready to be donned in an instant should he be spotted, hung Thomas’s hand-me-down shirt that had belonged to each of his five older brothers at some point, and would someday belong to his newest baby brother Benjamin, or Beanie Bull as they called him.
Their mother, Elnora, had always impressed the importance of clean clothes upon all eight of the Stoll children. Jeremiah, her eldest little brother at thirteen, always took care to steer clear of any dirt or grime when possible, since he was tasked with helping scrub out any dirty clothes before passing them on to their mother for washing. He did a wonderful job of keeping his little brothers out of the mud and gunk too. Eleven-year-old Matthew and nine-year-old John avoided soiling their clothes, but the eight-year-old twins were a different story. Isaac and Abram went through a phase when they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to become little mud ducks, as Rebekah called them, jumping into whatever puddle, river, or muddy stream they could, clothes and all.
Apparently, a seed of Elnora and Samuel’s wisdom had taken root in little Thomas, even in the enticing presence of a fresh mud puddle. Clean or not, however, it was clear that the young Stoll boy intended to fully utilize the “few minutes for a milk break” their father had mentioned in the barn moments earlier.
Rebekah, the oldest of her siblings at twenty, started toward him. Their milk break was long over and Samuel needed their help in the barn. She drew in a breath to call out to him, but before she could utter a sound, Thomas leaned over and sunk his chubby hands deep into the muck. Rebekah stopped walking and her eyes widened. Of all the Stoll children, every one of them boys except for her, it was little Thomas who could whip up mischief with nothing more than an empty bowl and a broken spoon, as their mother often said.
She sidled behind a bush and tried not to giggle as she waited to see what her impish, freckle-faced brother would do next.
Grinning, Thomas pulled his hands out of the muck with a resounding slurp.
Rebekah tucked the end of her gauzy white covering string into the corner of her mouth, just as she had done as a child. “Oh, Little Brother,” she whispered. “Don’t you do it . . .”
With his lips tilted upward, Thomas slowly brought up the duel handfuls of glistening mud and smashed them onto his head.
Rebekah pressed her fingers deep into her lips and tears streamed down her cheeks as she tried to keep the laughter, that often followed her favorite little brother, from escaping.
As chunks of muck ran down Thomas’s freckled face, Rebekah could hold it in no longer. Letting go a resounding whoop, she doubled over. “Thomas,” she cried, her covering strings flailing wildly. She wanted to ask more, but the laughter that filled her throat allowed no words to pass.
Thomas froze, his hands still on his head.
Ever so slowly, he turned to face his sister.
The sight of him, with streaks of mud painting his guilty face, was too much for Rebekah. She sank to her knees and clutched her middle. “What—what are you—”
The question just wouldn’t form. Rebekah gave up trying to talk and conceded to the laughing fit as Thomas stood before her in all of his muddy glory.
Thomas licked his lips and eased his hands down. His bright blue eyes exuded equal parts innocence and trouble. “Sissy, don’t tell Pa. I was supposed to be getting a drink of milk, not playing in the mud.”
A tiny clod dangled in his eyelashes and his young voice bespoke of more meekness than it ever had before. “But it’s almost time for the snows to come and this mud puddle looked so in-invite—”
Rebekah swiped at a lock of blond hair that had come loose from under her covering. Her chest heaved as she tried to get her breathing back to normal. “You’re going to have quite a time trying to hide the fact that the mud puddle looked so inviting when Pa comes out of the barn.”
Thomas grinned his gap-toothed smile. “Inviting. That’s the word I wanted.”
Having regained her sisterly composure, Rebekah pushed herself up and dusted the Indiana dirt from her pale-blue dress. “Oh, Thomas.” She smiled and shook her head as she strode over to the water pump and plucked the bucket off the handle. “Let’s get you cleaned up, Little Brother.”
Thomas looked longingly over his shoulder at his delightful puddle. He turned back toward Rebekah. His happy demeanor melted away. “Who’s going to clean me off when I get dirty after you marry Joseph Graber?”
A strange note hung in the youngster’s voice as he tried to brush the mud out of his hair. Dark smears streaked across his dark blond head in response.
Rebekah’s heart puttered to a stop. Joseph Graber. Just hearing the name of the dark-haired, lanky man who was to become her husband tied her stomach up in knots. She’d known Joseph her entire life. They’d taken Rumspringa together, and he’d long ago grown to be her best friend. However, something about hearing his name now sent an unprecedented surge of warmth through her veins. Joseph’s handsomely dimpled face appeared so vividly in her mind that Rebekah was powerless to mask the dreamy grin that overtook her lips.
“Pa said at church yesterday that you and Joseph were going to get married.” Thomas paused as the emotion attached to his words permeated the air like wood smoke.
Rebekah’s head swayed in acknowledgement, but the thought of Joseph’s dazzling azure eyes so fresh in her mind made it impossible to form words.
“Hey, why weren’t you at church yesterday?”
“Hmm?”
Thomas’s cross voice pulled her from her makeshift daydream. “Sissy, I said why weren’t you at church yesterday?”
Joseph’s blue-eyed image fizzled from her mind and icy water sloshed from the overflowing bucket onto her feet. “Oh, church.”
Thomas huffed as he shook clumps of mud from his fingers.
Rebekah hefted the bucket to her hip. “Well, Joseph and I both had to stay home yesterday. We aren’t supposed to be in church when we’re published.”
“Published?”
“That’s what Pa was doing when he announced that Joseph and I were to be married.” Rebekah shifted her weight under the bulk of the bucket. “Ready?”
With his muddy arms crossed tight across his chest, Thomas squeezed his eyes shut. “I hope December third never comes. I’ll miss you too much.”
Rebekah bit her bottom lip. As blessed as she was to have Joseph as her husband-to-be, she couldn’t ignore the fact that God had sincerely smiled upon her when he put little Thomas Stoll in their family.
“Sorry, it’s going to be cold.” Closing her eyes, Rebekah dumped the bucket over Thomas’s head.
“Whreeeeek!” he squealed. “That is icy, Sissy!”
Thomas hopped around and flung his arms. Drops of mud flew everywhere until he realized something. “Hey.” He stomped his bare feet in the fresh layer of mud. “Another mud pud—”
An icy breeze whipped around the barn, cutting Thomas’s realization short. “I’m d-done with mud today.” He shivered and squatted down to hug his knees. “Can you draw me a hot bath, Sissy? P-p-please?”
Rebekah swallowed back a giggle. “Of course. I’ll draw some water to heat now. You go get ready.” She hefted the bucket to her hip again. “I am sorry, Thomas. I didn’t know it’d be that cold.”
“It’s a-a-alright.” He drew his doe eyes up to meet hers. His lower lip trembled. “I s-s-still don’t want you to move away from me.”
Despite the bits of watery mud still clinging to him, Rebekah extended her free arm. Thomas sprang to his feet and pressed against his sister’s side and she wrapped him in a bear hug. “I’ll always be your sister, Thomas. And you can come spend nights with us. We can make rhubarb pie and stay up late. Then, you can ride to church meetings in our buggy . . .”
Our buggy. Rebekah’s thoughts trailed off again. Mine and Joseph’s very own shared buggy.
Thomas wriggled in her grasp. “Thithy, I can’t breef.”
“Oh!” She loosened her hug. Thoughts of Joseph would have to wait until Thomas was taken care of, for sure. “Well now, let’s get you into a nice warm bath.” At once, she began pumping more icy water from the well into the bucket.
Thomas rested a small, dirty hand on her arm, giving her pause. “You’re my best friend, Sissy.”
She stood up and smiled at him as a bead of sweat slid down her nose. “You’re my favorite muddy brother.”
His somber, dirt-streaked face broke into a bright grin. “I love you.”
Rebekah’s heart ached with a sudden, unexplainable emotion.
Is this what it feels like to grow up?
She covered his gritty hand with hers. “I love you too, Thomas. Nothing will ever change that. No matter what house we each live in.”
A splintering crash from the vicinity of the barn shattered the tender moment. Pulling Thomas close, Rebekah knocked over the bucket of water meant for his bath. “What was—?”
Before she could finish, a wail cut her words in half.
“Halp!” The familiar voice sounded eerie and strangely hollow.
A shudder clenched her backbone. “Pa?”
Rebekah and Thomas stared in awestruck horror as Samuel staggered out of the barn, his arms clutched to his chest. Spittle trailed from the corners of his mouth as he sucked hard to make the air follow through to his lungs.
The word tore from Rebekah’s throat with such ferocity that she could taste blood. “Pa!”
She broke free from her brother and dashed toward their father.
One hand stretched desperately out before him, wide-eyed Samuel tumbled to the ground before Rebekah could catch him.
Who can Rebekah trust when the line between English and Amish becomes blurred?An Amish Settlement. An English stranger. The Blizzard of 1888.Rebekah's mother, Elnora Stoll, is the finest quilter in all of Gasthof Village but it seems Rebekah has inherited none of her skill. A sweet and gentle love blossoms between Rebekah Stoll and her childhood friend Joseph Graber, despite attempts by her saucy nemesis, Katie Knepp, to sway the young man's affections her way. When Joseph hints at the promise of forever, Rebekah is positive she should say yes to his proposal - until a mysterious English stranger shows up at her homestead and sets everything she thought she knew about her world on end.
“Ma?”
Rebekah slid her legs over the side of her bed, easing them down until her feet met the hardwood floor. Her father had laid this floor expertly in just a few days’ time, or so she’d heard tale.
Shards of pain sparked up her leg from her bad foot, making her stomach turn over. She choked on the yell that strangled in her throat as the rest of her body joined her feet on the floor. Tears blurred her wobbly vision.
A strained groan came from the direction of her parent’s room.
Rebekah shook the foggy stars from her head.
“Standing up isn’t really an option,” she reasoned as she sat on the chilled floor that had moments before been her ally. She flexed her multi-hued ankle. “Nope, certainly not an option.”
A series of pants echoed in the dark hallway.
“I’m coming, Ma.”
Ignoring the seeping dankness, she stretched out on the floor in her thin nightgown, Rebekah pulling herself along the smooth boards with her hands. She slithered to the doorway like a snake through the grass.
Rebekah managed to navigate around the doorframe only to knock her head on something stationary that shouldn’t be there. “Ow!”
Her mother’s labored breathing drew Rebekah’s attention from her own sudden pain.
“Rebekah,” she rasped. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Rebekah’s head just met her nose. Hard.
“Ma, are you okay?” The absurdity of that question filled the air. Of course her pregnant mother, lying here alone in the early morning darkness, was not okay.
“The baby,” she started.
Rebekah didn’t wait for her to finish. She scurried to her mother’s feet and paled at what she saw.
By muted moonlight, it was obvious that the dark pool beneath her mother was blood.
“Mrs. Yoder said the baby wouldn’t be coming for a while,” Rebekah stammered. She chewed the inside of her lip as the sea of churning thoughts attempted to push a coherent solution to this predicament into the forefront of her mind. It wasn’t working.
Clear fluid puddled around her mother in stark contrast to the crimson stains. “Ahh,” Elnora gasped.
“Something’s wrong,” Elnora said, the tension causing her words to break in unnatural places. “With the baby, something’s wrong.”
The tears sprang up in Rebekah’s eyes without warning. “What Ma, tell me what’s wrong.” Rebekah swiped at her face with the back of her hand. “Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it!”
A grunt from Elnora gave her pause. “I have to push!”
Fumbling with her mother’s nightgown, she sucked in a hard breath. “Ma, I see feet.”
Elnora stopped panting. “Feet?” She began to shake her head in tiny little shakes. “Oh Rebekah, no. No!”
“What do I do?” The hysteria was rising in her throat, pinging the ends of her words.
“Turn him. Turn the baby.”
The sea of thoughts began to churn again in Rebekah’s mind, this time vicious and wild.
“Ma,” she began. The icy fingers of fear clenched tight her throat. A very real pain seared there, just beneath her chin. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Dear Father,” Elnora prayed, oblivious to Rebekah’s plight, “Please turn the baby or he’ll die.”
Rebekah placed her hands alongside the tense bulge on Elnora’s stomach. “Please Father; help me save my little brother or sister.”
Sara is a mother of four, animal lover and advocate, and conservationist. Little House on the Prairie, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and Lonesome Dove are among her favorite shows/movies and books. Sara holds her B.A. in History and is the author of the historical romance series, An Everlasting Heart, from 5 Prince Publishing and recently debuted into the children's book realm with Chunky Sugars (5 Prince Kids), written for her own chunky baby.
Sounds like a great series! The Amish way of life is such an interesting subject to read about.
ReplyDeleteI like that it is a series and about the Amish. I enjoy reading about them. The covers are cute and the blurbs sound good. Thanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great series. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDelete