Читать книгу Her Amish Child - Lenora Worth, Rachel Hauck - Страница 13

“I’m Naomi Bawell and this is my daughter-in-law, Raesha,” Naomi said, guiding Josiah Fisher into the kitchen. “We have fresh coffee and some bacon and biscuits. Are you hungry?”

Josiah noted how she pronounced her name as Nah-oh-may. It rang lyrical inside his head. Naomi’s hair shined a grayish white but she had eyes of steel.

Josiah’s nostrils flared and his stomach growled. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“No bother,” Naomi said. “Have a seat at the table and we will bring you food.”

Josiah nodded. “Denke.”

He kept glancing at the young woman who held the bobbeli so close. She averted her eyes and pressed the baby tight with one arm while she served him coffee with her free hand.

Soon Josiah had a plate loaded with two fluffy biscuits and three crisp strips of bacon in front of him. But he couldn’t take a bite until he knew the truth.

“You said the babe is not yours?”

The room went still. Raesha Bawell’s pretty face paled to a porcelain white. She sat down across the table from him, her eyes on the now-sleeping baby in her arms.

“We found her on our porch night before last,” she said, her tone low and calm, her gray eyes stormy with emotion. And resolve.

Josiah’s heart beat too fast. He took in a breath. “Found her?”

Naomi nodded. “Ja. Someone left her in a basket with a few supplies and a note. We got her all fed and cleaned up and we called in the bishop this morning. He agreed she could stay here for a few days to see if her mother returns. If that doesn’t happen, we might need to bring in the authorities. We can’t harbor a baby that might not be Amish.”

“Josie—my sister—is still Amish. She has just lost her way.”

Raesha’s head came up, her gaze full of determination. “Eat your food, Mr. Fisher. It’s growing cold.”

Josiah bit into a biscuit, his stomach roiling but hunger overtaking him. Then he took a sip of the strong coffee. He knew they were waiting for him to say what was on all of their minds.

“The bonnet,” he finally said. “Could I take a look at it?”

Raesha glanced at her mother-in-law. Naomi nodded. Carefully, she lifted the dainty little knit cap from the baby’s head and handed it over to Josiah. Then she rubbed her fingers through the baby’s dark curls, her eyes full of sweet joy.

Josiah’s heart did something odd. It slipped and stopped, then took off beating again. This woman holding that baby—it was a picture he would always remember. Raesha looked up and into his eyes. The warmth from the baby’s head was still on the soft threads of the little bonnet. He clutched the soft, warm fabric while the woman holding the baby watched him in a calm, accepting way.

Then he glanced down at the pink bonnet, his eyes misting when he saw what he’d been looking for. “There,” he said, a catch of emotion clogging his throat. “My mamm stitched my sister’s initials in the tiny cap. DJF. Deidre Josephine Fisher. She did the same with all of our clothes but never made a big deal out of it in front of others since our father did not approve of showing off. Said it made them even more special because they were made with a mother’s love.”

Rubbing his fingers over the tiny worn cap, he added, “Josie loved that little hat and kept it hidden in her dresser drawer. After the fire, she found it and made sure we took it with our other things to Ohio.” Holding tight to the worn knitted wool, he said, “She took it with her when she left.”

Raesha let out a sigh that sounded like a sob. “Are you saying you think little Dinah could be your niece?”

Josiah’s eyes held hers. “Her name is Dinah?”

“We found the note,” Naomi explained. She stood and walked to where a basket sat on a counter. Then she brought him a white piece of paper.

Josiah read the note, blinking back tears of both relief and grief. “My grandmother’s name was Dinah,” he said. “My sister, Josie, left Ohio two years ago and wound up in Kentucky. She was engaged to an Amish boy there. A gut man from what she told me. But I got word she’d broken the engagement and left. That was over a year ago.”

Josie’s sudden departure from Kentucky had rattled Josiah to the core. She had written that she loved it there and she was very happy. He should have gone to Kentucky with her but he had work to do. They lived off their relatives’ kindness and Josiah felt obligated to stay and pay his onkel back. But then Josie had gone missing and one of his cousins had accused Josiah of not doing his share of the work. His family had become tired of his leaving to search for Josie.

Now he felt hopeful for the first time in the last year of searching for his sister. Josie could still be nearby.

“I hired a man to help me search,” he explained.

“And did this man find anything?”

“He is supposed to get in touch with me when he does. He knows I’m here. He is from this area and came highly recommended.”

He hated to hurt Raesha any further but he had to believe what his eyes were telling him. “Ja, I do think this bobbeli could be my sister’s baby. I heard Josie might be headed this way and one reason I came back to Lancaster County was so I could search for her here.”

Holding the bonnet tight in his hands, he looked at Raesha. “I might not find my sister but if this is her child, I’ve found something very precious.” Then he handed the bonnet back to Raesha, their eyes meeting. “But I have to believe my sister hoped I would find her baby and that’s why she left the child with you.”

* * *

Raesha stood and took the cap back from Josiah Fisher, a great tear rending her heart. While she felt for him, she couldn’t let him take this babe. He seemed to be a reasonable man. She prayed he’d listen to reason and not demand to take Dinah with him. “We will have to decide how to handle this.”

“We should consult someone at the Campton Center,” Naomi said, her hands holding tight to her coffee cup. Then she looked at Josiah. “A few months ago, Judy Campton, an Englischer whose husband descended from the founders of Campton Creek, became a widow. She still lives in the Campton house in an apartment over the garage with her friend and assistant, Bettye, but she has opened her big home to the Amish as a community center where qualified Englisch can help us with certain issues. We now have doctors and lawyers and other experts available for no charge there. Even counselors. All volunteers.”

Raesha watched Josiah’s face and saw his eyes widen. The man was handsome but the intensity in his brown eyes scared her. “Are you saying someone there can counsel us on this situation?”

“Ja,” Naomi replied. “Now that we know you might be related to Dinah, we will also seek advice again from the bishop. We already love little Dinah and we will protect her until we know the truth.”

Raesha tugged the baby close, the sweet bundle already embedded in her soul. “We will do the right thing but until we can talk to someone, Dinah remains here with us. She will be well taken care of, I can tell you that.”

Josiah came out of his chair and put his hand in the pocket of his lightweight work coat and then shoved his hat back on, his eyes full of a troubled regard as he studied her and the baby. “I will call my investigator. I’ll have him search for proof.”

“If she had the baby in a hospital, there would be a record,” Raesha said. “Maybe even a birth certificate.”

“That would certainly show proof,” Naomi said. “But most Amish don’t have official birth certificates. You might check with midwives in the surrounding counties and communities.”

Josiah scrubbed a hand down his face. “I do not mean to snatch the child away. I am thankful that she is safe and warm, whoever she belongs to. But that little cap has my sister’s initials stitched in the lining.”

“It could be someone else’s initials,” Raesha said, sounding defensive in her own mind.

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “My mamm went against our father’s wishes to make pretty things so she could sell them to help our family. But some she kept. It’s clear to me the baby hat belongs to my sister and this child looks like my sister. The note said she was Amish. How can it not be so?”

“It very well could be so,” Raesha echoed, torn between her own heart’s desire and doing the right thing for the baby. “We will have to find out what needs to be done to prove your claims.”

Then she softened her stance, hoping to make him understand. “We have taken in lots of young relatives through the years. We are both widows and I am...childless. We will keep Dinah fed and warm and you can visit her anytime you want, ain’t so, Mammi Naomi?”

Naomi bobbed her head. “She could not be in a better place for now. What do you know of children, Josiah?”

His dark eyes flared with regret. Shaking his head, he looked at Raesha again. “I know nothing much about children except my sister, but I have no kin left around here. I need to find Josie and hope she’ll change her mind about giving up her child. Little Dinah could be my only close relative and she’ll need to know that one day.”

“Then we will work together to figure this out,” Raesha said, standing her ground. They all knew he couldn’t take care of a bobbeli right now. “As I said, you are wilkum to visit Dinah.”

He studied the baby again. “May I hold her? And then, I’ll leave. But I’ll be glad to go with you to the Campton Center, both of you. We should all be there to talk with someone.”

Raesha indicated she agreed. “Then it’s settled. We could go later this afternoon. We have a girl who comes to watch the shop when we have to be away.”

“I have much to do today,” he said. “But I will make time for this. I plan to stay in the house if I can get it fixed up before winter sets in. I need to find lumber and supplies and get the back bedroom fixed, at least.”

“Maybe we should wait,” Raesha suggested. “Maybe the mother will come back.”

“I still need to call the man I hired,” he said. “I’ll give him this new information and ask him to talk to hospitals and to check as many Amish communities as he can.”

“We have a phone in the shop,” Raesha said. “Meantime, we have supplies enough for this little ball of energy. I have learned how to make homemade baby formula since she can’t be nursed.”

“I will consult with the bishop regarding your information,” Naomi said to Josiah. “I hope he will agree we need to protect the child first and worry about the rest later.”

“I’d feel better if we brought in a midwife,” he added as Raesha carefully handed him the baby. “To make sure she is well.”

Raesha looked to Naomi. The older woman nodded. “I’ll go and get word to Edna Weiller. She lives around the bend. I’ll send one of our shop workers over for her.”

“Denke.” His big hand touched Raesha’s when he took Dinah into his arms. Their eyes met and held, causing a keen awareness to envelop her in a warm glow.

“There you go,” she said to hide the swirl of disturbing feelings pooling inside her stomach. “Dinah needs to know we will provide for her. She’ll need to know her uncle, too.”

“If I am truly her uncle,” he said, a soft smile on his face as he stared down at the sleeping baby, “I will take good care of her and raise her as my own.” Then he handed her back to Raesha. “But maybe I will find my sister and then she can explain all of this—especially how she came about having a baby in the first place.”

* * *

“I expect she did it the natural way,” Naomi said later that day, shaking her head while she rocked Dinah. “If she no longer considers herself Amish, she might not be able to return to the old ways. But if she wants to return, she will have to confess all. Josiah seems to want to find her, regardless.”

She paused, her brow furrowing. “His mention of his father brings back some memories. Abram Fisher was very strict and a stickler for following the Ordnung.”

“There is a reason we have a rulebook,” Raesha replied. And yet her heart went out to Josiah and his lost sister. The lost sometimes did return. She prayed he’d find the girl, but that meant Dinah would have to go back to them.

Your will, Lord. Not mine.

Naomi gave Raesha one of her serene stares. “Abram went beyond the rulebook.”

“What do you mean?”

Naomi lowered her voice. “He was not above using his physical strength to make his point.”

“You mean, he abused his family?”

Naomi nodded. “Sarah never spoke of it, but the proof was in the many bruises we saw. She had a black eye once and said she’d fallen and hit the floor too hard.” Gazing down at Dinah, she added, “We mustn’t speak of this, of course.”

“No. We mustn’t,” Raesha agreed, her heart hurting for Josiah and Josie. No wonder neither of them had stayed here.

Earlier, Edna Weiller had come by and looked over little Dinah, examining her from top to bottom. “This child seems fit as a fiddle,” the stout woman announced, her blue eyes twinkling while she danced Dinah around. “And probably much better off now that she is with you two.”

“We are going to try to find her mother,” Raesha had explained. Then she told Edna about Josiah.

Naomi had talked to Bishop King earlier. “The bishop thinks we’re doing everything in the right way. But he expects us to alert the authorities if the woman doesn’t return in a week or so, to find out what we should do.”

“You’ll need proof on this Josiah being related,” Edna said. “If no proof is found, the Department of Child and Family Services will want to place her with a foster family until they find proof that the mother can’t be located or that Josiah Fisher is truly her onkel. The sooner you turn her over, the sooner you could have her back. Or he will, at least. But it’ll be a long shot and he might be required to go through foster training. Just warning you, but I don’t think it will come to that.” Her gaze softened. “Gott segen eich.”

God bless you.

“Denke.”

Edna handed the baby back to Raesha. “I can ask around amid the midwives. See if any of them know of this child being born.”

“That would be helpful,” Naomi said.

Troubled after Edna left, Raesha scrubbed down the house, made a chicken casserole for supper, and washed a load of clothes and brought them in to finish drying since the sky had darkened and a cold rain seemed to be on the horizon.

But she still couldn’t get Josiah Fisher out of her head.

She wanted to not like him. But something had happened to her when he’d held that baby. Raesha’s heart had felt as if she’d just fallen off a cliff. On the one hand, she prayed the baby wasn’t his niece. But there was no denying the strong possibility. Even so, she might not be able to keep the child.

She didn’t know which would be worse. Watching a stranger remove Dinah from their home or watching Josiah take the baby away but knowing Dinah was right next door. If he stayed on the old farm. What if he took the child back to Ohio?

Well, if he did stay here, Raesha could catch glimpses of the child and watch her grow up. Maybe with a new mamm if Josiah found a suitable wife. He obviously wasn’t married since he had no beard and she didn’t see a wife lurking about.

That thought made Raesha rescrub the counter.

“Ach, you’ve done enough. Stop and rest here with Dinah and me,” Naomi said, her words low while she smiled down at the sleeping baby.

Dinah had been fussy earlier. Raesha would make the short drive to the general store tomorrow since a baby’s needs never ended. For now, they had enough formula to get through the next couple of days. Raesha would have preferred mother’s milk, but that wasn’t an option. She would buy more supplies to make a more natural formula for little Dinah.

“Stop spluttering and talk to me,” Naomi called again.

She and Dinah sat by the heating stove since the day had turned chilly. The afternoon skies looked stormy and the wind blustered around the house. They’d opened the shop for a few hours but had not had a lot of visitors. So they closed the front early and left the workers in the back to their tasks.

People knew to knock on the front door if they needed to pick up an order. They also took orders to the Hartford General Store in town, the closest thing they had to a Pennsylvania Dutch market. Mr. Hartford, an Englischer, sold a lot of Amish wares on consignment and paid them as needed.

When she heard a knock, Raesha jumped. Her nerves were sorely rattled today.

“I’ll see who it is,” she said, nervous energy bouncing off her.

Raesha opened the door to find Josiah Fisher standing there, wet and shivering in the wind, his hat dripping a pool of water on the porch rug.

“Josiah,” she said on a surprised gasp. “Kumm inside.”

Why was he back so soon? Why did he look so wonderfully good, his dark eyes moving over her in shades of doubt? He had broad shoulders and a sturdy build. Why was she even thinking such things while he stood there in the damp air?

He stepped inside and she shut the door, her arms gathered against her stomach. “Did you need something?”

“I’m sorry to bother you again but it’s going to take longer than a day to fix up the house. I was headed back to the inn after I went into town to load some wood, but Mr. Hartford at the general store said you sometimes rent out rooms. I was wondering if I could possibly rent the grossdaddi haus out back. It would help me so much to be near my place and I can visit with Dinah some, too.” He paused, his head dipping down. “If that would be all right.”

His expression held a longing and a need that Raesha couldn’t deny.

But could she tolerate his being so close to Dinah?

And so near to her?