Falling into step behind him, Eliza walked toward the grand back porch, where a large black Labrador stood at the top of the stairs, wagging its tail and panting. She wondered if much had changed about the place since her last visit with Mamma, but since she’d been such a young child at the time, it was impossible to tell.

The realization that it was only the middle of May and Mamma expected her to be there through the end of September hit her hard. Four and a half months away from home, she thought, stooping momentarily to pet the dog. With all of my older sisters, why was I the one sent to help?

She thought with a measure of frustration about the fun she would be missing back home in Mifflinburg—all the youth-related activities, specifically the many opportunities for pairing up once she was official courting age. But she couldn’t let herself think too much about Ephraim Maust, the curly-haired boy she’d admired since fifth grade. Not after seeing him out riding with another girl in his shiny new open buggy last Sunday evening while she sat on the front porch. Now that she was so far away, she mustn’t let her mind work on that too much. Being gone all summer surely meant she would lose any hope of catching Ephraim’s eye.

Ain’t fair, she thought, wishing Mamma had listened when she told her how important it was to spend the first courting-year summer at home.

“That’s a mighty light suitcase,” Jacob Zook said, reaching up to rap on the back screen door, his straw hat perched on his graying head.

“Well, I’ll be sewin’ a few more dresses while I’m here,” Eliza explained as she tried to muster up a cheerful expression for the kind bishop who’d gone out of his way for her. Still, she could easily imagine how lonely she would feel being away from Mamma and her sisters—Dat, too. But Mamma had said that her coming here might lighten the load for her newly widowed aunt, bringing the poor woman some happiness again.

If only I could be happy here, too. . . .

Chapter 6

Once she’d taken a seat at the kitchen table, Anna told Sadie about the call from the director, and the woman looked crestfallen.

“Well, I’ll be,” Sadie said, shaking her head.

For the longest time, they both sat there without speaking.

Then Sadie suggested inviting Luke and Marianna and their two littlest ones over for ice cream after supper later, as though that might help to cheer Anna.

But Anna said she didn’t feel up for it. “Besides, I’ll be leaving this evening. First, though, I should call home.”

Sadie nodded. “We understand.”

Anna excused herself and rose from the table to make the call.

Keep your chin up, she told herself.

———