Katie's Way Read Free Page A

“I’m not saying there’s anything really wrong. But Rhoda has got herself in some trouble.”
    â€œTrouble?” Mamm surely didn’t mean—
    â€œNo, no, not anything serious.” Color stained Mamm’s cheekbones. “Staying out later than she should, going off with some of the older girls to an Englisch party.”
    â€œThat’s not so bad,” Katie said, going a little weak at the knees at the thought of taking on the supervision of Rhoda.
    Mamm pressed her lips together for an instant. “Never did I think a daughter of mine would be so rebellious. You and Louise were nothing like that when you were sixteen. Of course, Louise has always been serious, a perfect fit for Jonas. And you weren’t running around a lot because you and . . .”
    Mamm let that trail off, but Katie knew the end of that sentence, too. You and Eli Hershberger were going to marry. Only it hadn’t turned out that way, and she’d had to watch while Eli married Jessica Stoltzfus.
    She pushed those thoughts aside hurriedly. Best to concentrate on the current problem. “If Rhoda is misbehaving, wouldn’t it be best to have her at home, under your eye?”
    Mamm shook her head decisively. “There’s Louise to think of. How will it look if Rhoda gets into trouble with her sister marrying the bishop’s son? Anyway, your daad and I agree that Rhoda is better off here, and you can use her help. I never thought you should live above the shop on your own, anyway. This way you’ll have company.”
    She certainly would.
    â€œMaybe we should talk about this some more,” she began. “If—”
    â€œThere’s nothing more to be said.” Mamm turned away, examining a bolt of fabric. “Anyway, least said, soonest mended. I had to tell you, but no one else needs to know why Rhoda is here.”
    Katie leaned against a box of quilt batting, trying to settle her mind, and her ears caught a sound through the archway . . . the creak of a rocking chair.
    Mammi was wrong. Somebody else already knew, because Caleb Brand was still in the shop next door.
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    â€œAre you sure you don’t want us to help you finish clearing up?” Katie’s mother paused at the door after the long opening day of the shop. “We can stay.”
    But fatigue drew at Mamm’s face, and Katie patted her arm. “Ach, no, you and the girls go on to Molly’s. She’ll like fine to have a longer visit with you, and likely she has supper almost ready. I’ll be along soon, for sure. Molly lent me her buggy today.”
    Mamm nodded, gesturing Louise and Rhoda out to where Jacob, Molly’s young husband, waited at the curb with their horse and buggy. Mamm started to follow and then turned back toward Katie.
    â€œThis was a gut beginning.” She closed the door before Katie could respond.
    Katie stood at the window, watching as they moved off down the street, and then locked the door, pulling down the shade. Her opening day was over.
    She leaned against the door for a moment, still holding the napkin and paper plate she’d intended to toss in the trash, and felt the tension seep out of her. She hadn’t realized how nervous she’d been about this day until now, when she was as boneless as one of the faceless rag dolls she’d displayed along a top shelf.
    The opening had been gut, and she imagined Mamm had mixed feelings about saying so. Not that Mamm consciously wanted Katie to fail. She just wanted their lives to go along the way she’d envisioned them.
    Maybe that was what Katie had wanted once, too, but that would never be. Only her tiredness let the tears form in her eyes at that thought, and she blinked them away. Eli was as gone from her future as if he’d died. And if she couldn’t stop loving him, at least here she wouldn’t have to see him and Jessica, happily married and living next door.
    A lock snapped