Rosemary Opens Her Heart: Home at Cedar Creek, Book Two Read online

  “I—I didn’t catch your name,” he said.

  She smiled shyly, her face half-hidden by Katie’s dress and pinafore. “Doesn’t matter,” she murmured. “I’m not from around here.” She turned and strode quickly back toward the throng of guests.

  “But it does matter,” Matt murmured as he gazed after her. Why hadn’t she told him who she was? After the playful way she’d chased after Katie, he couldn’t believe she was standoffish or unfriendly. Was she shy about being around folks she didn’t know? Or modest because she was a widow?

  “That was odd,” James remarked. “We’ll have to look around during dinner to see who she’s sitting with.”

  Matt nodded as they headed toward the greenhouse. Through its big glass windows he could see the long tables draped in white where guests were taking their seats. He glimpsed the tall white wedding cake, too. But all he could think about was the young woman who had come to fetch her child. “Jah,” he murmured. “Lois Yutzy’s her aunt, so I’m going to find old Ezra straightaway…to ask him where he’s been hiding his niece all these years.”

  Chapter 2

  Rosemary Yutzy lingered at the table after she ate her baked chicken and stuffing, cradling a sleeping Katie on her lap. Was it her imagination, or was that fellow she’d met at the gate—Matt, the one with the wavy brown hair and dark, sparkling eyes—staring at her? Every time she looked up he seemed to be grinning at her from his seat at the eck, the raised table in the room’s corner where the wedding party was seated.

  Shifting in her chair, Rosemary followed Aunt Lois’s conversation with the woman beside her, yet still she felt Matt’s gaze. He was probably a nice fellow, but she saw no reason to encourage him: her husband, Joe, had died in a hunting accident last fall, and she still missed him terribly. She preferred to blend into the crowd until it was time to go home to Queen City with her father-in-law, Titus Yutzy, because today’s festivities brought back memories of how she’d met Joe at her cousin Dora’s wedding.

  She had hoped to stay home today, but Titus was having none of that. “It’ll do you gut to get out amongst folks again,” he’d insisted. “It’s not natural for a girl your age to spend all her time going between the stove, the washing machine, and the garden. It was Joe who passed away, not you.”

  That wasn’t entirely true, however: a large part of Rosemary had died the moment she’d learned her husband wouldn’t be coming home from the woods behind Titus’s pastureland. Joe had apparently tripped over a tree root and landed on his rifle, which had then fired. They had gone looking for him when he hadn’t come home by dusk…had found no evidence suggesting he could have been accidentally shot by another hunter. Their bishop had counseled them to take comfort in the fact that Joe had gone home to the Lord as a part of God’s will for all of their lives, yet Rosemary still had trouble understanding that. Why would God take her husband, the father of her child? What had she done to deserve such a cruel, abrupt end to her marriage?

  Cards and cash had poured in from readers who saw Joe’s death notice in the Budget, the national Plain newspaper. For several weeks Rosemary had lived in a blur, grateful she had Katie to hold on to and thankful for each task that kept her hands occupied so her heart wouldn’t cave in to a sadness such as she’d never known.

  With the coming of the new year, however, her grief had begun to lift. Moving into Titus’s home had given her a new sense of purpose, and she had finally reached the point where she didn’t cry at the least little memory or mention of Joe. What a blessing it was, to believe God would take care of her when her husband could not.

  These days Rosemary was happy to keep house for Joe’s dat and to look after twelve-year-old Beth Ann, Titus’s youngest daughter. His wife, Alma, had lost her battle to cancer just a few weeks before Joe had passed. Titus, Beth Ann, and Katie depended upon Rosemary to keep the household running. She was only half a mile down the road from her widowed mamm and her maidel sister, too. It was yet another blessing that all those who truly mattered to her lived within walking distance of the Yutzy homeplace.

  Katie awoke from her nap. “Puppies?” she pleaded in her little-girl voice. “Play with the puppies now?”

  “No, Katie,” Rosemary replied firmly. “We’re going to the kitchen to help clean up all these dishes.”

  “What kind of dogs do they have?” Beth Ann asked. She sat listlessly at Rosemary’s left, her head propped on her hand as she dragged her fork through her mashed potatoes.

  “Black-and-white sheep dogs,” Rosemary replied. “And you know the rule, Beth Ann. You’ll get no pie or wedding cake if you don’t finish your meal.”

  “But I’m full,” the slender girl complained. “Aunt Lois put enough food on my plate for three people.” Beth Ann was having a bad day because she didn’t know any of the girls at the wedding—and she still missed her mother.

  A movement at the eck caught Rosemary’s eye. The groom had slipped his arm around his bride, and they held their son between them. Little Harley napped with an angelic smile on his rosy face.

  Rosemary’s heart constricted painfully. Jonny was smiling at Zanna as though he were the happiest man in the world…the way Joe had gazed at her when they’d held an infant Katie. Such intense love and devotion passed between the couple that Rosemary had to look away, blinded by hot tears.

  Why was Joe taken from me? What were You thinking, God, when You left me to raise Katie alone?

  A burst of laughter made her glance up. As Zanna and Jonny shared a joke with their newehockers, Matt Lambright was looking at Rosemary with a flirtatious grin—again. She lowered her head, hugging Katie closer. Matt was totally different from her Joe, whose dark hair, eyebrows, and beard had set off blue eyes that would forever beckon her in her dreams. She wanted no part of the playful invitation she saw on Matt’s clean-shaven face. Her heart belonged to Joe forever, just as she’d promised at their wedding.

  “Aunt Lois, I’m going over to the kitchen. Surely there are dishes to wash or pies to cut.” Rosemary stood up and headed for the door without waiting for a reply. Occupying her hands and her mind seemed the best way to keep from weeping in front of all these happy wedding guests.

  Walking toward the tall, white Lambright house, Rosemary inhaled the fresh air to regain control of her emotions. Across the lane, the pastures and trees glimmered with the bright green of springtime. The deep pink branches of the redbud trees swayed in the breeze down by the creek, which was lined with ancient cedars and dogwoods. The sheep bleated every now and then, a familiar sound that soothed her. Off in the distance two border collies were lying in the shade, keeping watch over a flock that looked somewhat larger than Titus’s.

  The peaceful scene reminded her of the Twenty-third Psalm, and some of the verses ran through her mind. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul…

  Rosemary wondered wistfully if the Lord would restore her soul someday. She’d felt calm and accepting when they’d come here today, yet a glimpse of love shared between a man and his wife had upset her. “But we’ll make it, Katie,” she whispered staunchly. “We will.”

  Her daughter snuggled against her shoulder. “I love you, Mama,” she whispered.

  Rosemary hugged her child—Joe’s child—and hurried toward the house. For Katie’s sake, she had to be strong. She hoped Titus wouldn’t want to visit for hours with his brother, Ezra, and their friends here in Cedar Creek. The Yutzy brothers had grown up in this community, so his roots here ran deep. But she was itching to head home early.

  “Rosemary! Wait for me!”

  Rosemary turned to see Beth Ann hurrying from the greenhouse, her expression anxious. She chided herself: Titus’s youngest child, the only one left at home, looked as lost and lonely as any motherless twelve-year-old could. What had she been thinking, to leave the poor girl in that crowded room full of laughing, talking strangers?

  “I’m right here. I just had to get busy doing something.” Ro
semary saw no need to tell Beth Ann how Matt Lambright had been eyeing her during the meal, because nothing would come of that, anyway. “For sure and for certain there’ll be a towel to fit our hands in the kitchen. With this dinner nearly finished and another meal to serve later, we’ll find plenty of work to help with. There must be a couple hundred people here.”

  “And I don’t know any of them, except for you and Katie and Dat—and Aunt Lois’s bunch,” Beth Ann replied, slowing her pace to match Rosemary’s. “I could introduce myself to some of the other girls, but I haven’t been in the mood, you know?”

  Rosemary smiled ruefully. “I do know. Sometimes I have to make myself act cheerful and interested in what other folks are saying.”

  “Jah, nothing’s been the same since Mamm got sick.”

  As they paused in front of the Dutch door to the Lambright kitchen, Rosemary lifted Beth Ann’s chin and looked into her wide, gentle eyes. “Let’s remember our deal,” she said in the happiest voice she could muster. “While we’re working on the dishes—or waiting on your dat to go back home—every now and again I’ll look at you and send you a big, silly grin.” Rosemary closed her teeth, opened her mouth in an exaggerated smile, and then rapidly batted her lashes.

  Beth Ann giggled. “Okay, and I’ll do the same for you. We can act happy even if we’d rather be home.” She flashed her teeth, raising her brows and batting her eyelashes.

  Laughing out loud made Rosemary feel better. This game was something she had devised for Beth Ann a few months ago, like a secret code to raise the girl’s spirits. “Let’s show these ladies how helpful we can be,” she said as she turned the doorknob. “They’ve been cooking since before the sun rose, while we’ve been riding the roads and sitting for the wedding service—and eating their gut food.”

  “If I make myself really useful, may I have a piece of wedding cake? Even if it won’t be as gut as if Aunt Lois had baked it?” Beth Ann asked with a demure smile.

  Rosemary chuckled. Titus’s daughter was by no means spoiled, but she had a way of coaxing what she wanted from the adults around her. “Jah, I suppose so. It’s not often we get to eat goodies we didn’t bake ourselves. I’m sure a cake from Mrs. Nissley’s Kitchen will taste just fine or the Lambrights wouldn’t have asked her to make it. But only one piece!”

  Inside the kitchen a dozen conversations were going on at once. Several women stood by the sink, chatting as they dried dishes with flour-sack towels, while others worked around a long kitchen table, transferring leftover food from serving platters to plastic containers with tight lids. At still another table, younger women were counting out clean plates for the light meal they would serve later in the day.

  At the sight of a blond girl about her age, Beth Ann brightened. “Here I go, Rosemary. Now you find a new friend.” She made her way over to where the girl was wrapping silverware in paper napkins.

  Rosemary sometimes envied Beth Ann’s knack for striking up friendships. For a moment she stood in the midst of the kitchen activity, looking for a group to join. A woman in her late twenties glanced up from the sandwiches she was making. Her sparkling brown eyes and curved eyebrows suggested she was related to Matt Lambright. She wiped her hands on a towel and came over to where Rosemary was standing.

  “Welcome to our kitchen!” she said as she tweaked Katie’s nose. “I’m Abby Lambright, Zanna’s older sister. And who might this little punkin be?”

  Katie kicked, trying to get loose. “This is my daughter, Katie, and I’m Rosemary Yutzy,” she replied. “We came in with Titus, from Queen City—”

  “Oh, Ezra’s brother!”

  “Jah, and my sister-in-law Beth Ann just went over to wrap silverware,” Rosemary said as she nodded in that direction.

  “That’s my niece Ruthie. She’ll be glad for Beth Ann’s help—and I could use another set of hands, too, Rosemary,” Abby added as she went back to her spot. “We’ve made egg salad and sliced some ham, so it’s just a matter of putting the sandwiches together for tonight’s supper.”

  Rosemary followed Abby to the table and settled Katie in a high chair that had probably held a lot of little Lambrights over the years. “Denki, Abby. I can’t help but notice how you look a lot like Matt—”

  She stopped before she finished the sentence. Would Abby think she was interested in Matt? Rosemary began spreading butter on slices of fresh homemade bread.

  Abby laughed as she spooned up egg salad. “Jah, folks notice that every now and again. Matt’s my nephew, and he looks a lot like his dat, Sam, who runs the mercantile. Sam’s my brother, you see.” She pointed around the kitchen with her spoon. “The blond gal washing dishes is Barbara, Sam’s wife, and those girls counting out plates are their daughters, Phoebe and Gail—and Ruthie, of course. My mamm, Treva, runs the greenhouse where we had the dinner. She’s been out there refilling water glasses and visiting with folks.”

  Rosemary nodded, recalling the friendly woman who had poured their water and chatted with Aunt Lois. “It’s a big day for your family, Abby. Zanna and Jonny look, um…real happy together.”

  Quickly she turned away. Would she be upset for the rest of the day after witnessing the look of love Zanna and Jonny had shared?

  “Jah, we’re mighty excited about Jonny joining the church so he could marry her, too,” Abby remarked. “And their son Harley’s the frosting on the cake, even if he came along before the wedding. It’s a real blessing to see the three of them getting off to a gut start, considering some of the problems the Ropps went through—not to mention the way my sister broke her engagement to James Graber to marry Jonny instead,” she said in an amiable rush. “But everything works out for the best if we trust that God’s taking care of us, ain’t so?”

  “Jah. Gut things come to those who wait on the Lord.” Rosemary considered what Abby had just told her. Despite a series of situations that had challenged the Old Order way, the Lambrights and the Ropps had apparently come through a time of trial and made it to the greener pastures described in the Psalm she’d just been recalling…so maybe the Yutzy family would someday emerge from the valley of the shadow, too. “We’re waiting for Him to heal our hearts after my husband, Joe, died while he was hunting last fall,” she murmured. “A few weeks before that, Beth Ann’s mamm—Titus’s Alma—passed after a nasty bout with cancer.”

  As Abby’s brown eyes softened with sympathy, Rosemary’s cheeks prickled with heat. Why on earth had she interrupted Abby’s cheerful conversation with her gloomy story? “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to carry on about my own problems, when— I thought I was finally past feeling upset about Joe.”

  “Oh, Rosemary, I’m sorry you’re going through such a tough time.” Abby squeezed Rosemary’s wrist. “We heard from Lois about a sister-in-law succumbing to her cancer, but I didn’t connect that tragedy to you,” she said in a concerned voice. “My word, losing your husband and your mother-in-law means you’ve suffered two huge losses. And then you stepped in for double duty, keeping your family going in Alma’s absence. Titus is mighty lucky to have you.”

  Rosemary blinked. She sensed Abby had a talent for finding the silver lining in every cloud. “Denki, Abby. I—I appreciate the way you asked me to help with these sandwiches. This is my first wedding since Joe died, and I…Well, my tears took me by surprise at dinner,” she admitted with a sigh. “I didn’t realize how difficult today might be.”

  “I can’t imagine.” Abby smiled sweetly and went back to spreading egg salad on bread. “I have my moments during weddings, too, because while my friends and nieces and nephews are pairing up, I’ve decided to remain a maidel,” she said. “Why pretend to love a man just so I can get hitched, if I won’t be happy?”

  Rosemary studied Abby more closely, admiring her glossy hair and kind smile. Why would Abby Lambright choose to live alone when she seemed so outgoing and friendly? Had she not yet met the right man, or did none of the local fellows measure up to her expectations? She wouldn’t ask Abby such questions, of c
ourse, but they gave her something to think about.

  Abby’s face brightened as she sliced another loaf of bread. “You must be the niece Lois has often mentioned—the one who makes such fine pies,” she said in a speculative tone. “She could really use your help in her restaurant. Mother Yutzy’s Oven does quite a business, and with the summer tourist season coming up she’ll be looking for extra help. Phoebe and Gail work for her a couple days a week.”

  “Aunt Lois has asked me time and again to bake for her.” Rosemary tore a slice of the soft bread into pieces and laid them on the high chair tray. Katie immediately jammed one into her mouth, kicking gleefully. “But Cedar Creek’s too far from Queen City to make deliveries practical. And right now, well…it’s best I stick around home. Beth Ann’s gut help, but she’s in school all day, while Titus keeps busy with his sheep and the farming. He’s not much of a fellow for putting together meals or washing the clothes.”

  “I can believe that!” Abby quartered the egg salad sandwiches by cutting them in an X pattern. At the sound of laughter from across the kitchen, she looked over to where Beth Ann and Ruthie were piling their silverware bundles into a large basket, racing to see who would finish first. “And how’s Beth Ann handling her mamm’s passing? She’s at an age when a mother would be teaching her how to manage a household and—well, here again,” Abby confirmed, “she and Titus are mighty blessed to have you helping them. Think how lost they’d be without you, Rosemary.”

  Why were Abby’s kind words, spoken with the best intentions, upsetting her again? Rosemary turned, pressing a hand to her mouth. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I’ve been handling Joe’s absence pretty well—until now. My emotions seem to run high and then low, like I’m riding a roller coaster at the county fair.”

  Abby squeezed Rosemary’s shoulder. “You’re doing the best you can. It takes time to get past losing someone you love.”