The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth 1) (11 page)

The bishop steadied his hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “What are you saying?”

What
was
he saying? Did he truly believe her?

“Tell David to
geh
easy with Judith. Please, Father. David will listen to you.”

“What’s this about my sister, Andrew? What do you know?” David had come closer, arms still crossed.

“I believe her.” He turned from David to his father. “Why is everyone so willing to believe a doctor’s report? Is he not a man who bases his judgment on man-made machines?” Not seeing any response from his father, Andrew turned to David. “You want to discipline her for having faith. What if what she says is true? Our duty is to pray for her.”

“Andrew, watch your tone,” his father warned.

He drew a deep breath. “I didn’t mean to sound disrespectful.”

David patted Andrew’s shoulder. “Because
Ich
sent her to the barn, you think I’ll punish
mei
sister?” He shook his head. “
Ich
plan to talk to her, is all.” He looked at the house and then back to Andrew. “My
daed
has a weak heart and his breathing is poor.
Ich
don’t want him hearing what
Ich
say to Judith. She needs direction is all,
jah
?”

“
Jah
, and prayer too.” Andrew looked toward the barn. He wished he had a few minutes alone with Judith to gain her trust.

The bishop heaved a long breath. “It is late, Andrew. Let’s be on our way.”

Andrew placed his foot on the buggy step and paused. “I’ll help Levi with your father’s farm
meiya
.”

David nodded, then headed toward the barn.

Andrew noticed his father’s stern expression as the bishop flicked the reins. Despite his father’s disapproval of his speaking out, Andrew couldn’t leave without suggesting they pray for Judith. What if what she claimed was true?

Chapter Eight

A
ndrew anticipated his father’s lecture would start once they were out of the Fischers’ driveway, but they hadn’t even passed the mailbox before he began.

“Don’t ever do that again.” His father kept his voice low and his eyes focused straight ahead.

“Judith is—”
Innocent . . . frightened
. He could describe her in so many ways, but none of them would satisfy his father now.

“She’s trouble. I’ve never heard a child, and a female at that, speak to her elders with such blatant disregard. Others might become like her.”

Andrew bit his tongue. Even at twenty-two years of age, he knew not to argue with his father when he was speaking as the bishop. Tonight he had overstepped his bounds.

But he’d had to. Someone needed to defend Judith. “She loves God.”

The idea of an angel did seem extreme, but Judith’s conviction to stand against her family and community overpowered Andrew’s initial disbelief.

“She’s given the enemy rein to control her mind. Word came back to me that she’s corrupting the children with lies about colorful dresses and flowers.” His father slapped the reins.

“Those were make-believe stories. Told to entertain, not to harm.”

“That’s teaching vanity. It’s a sin.”

Andrew couldn’t disagree with that statement. Vanity was part of the world they had chosen to be separated from. Still, Judith’s humility was in solemn accordance with the
Ordnung
. Until her brother’s accident, her stories had been considered harmless, not rebellious.

He shifted on the buggy seat as an image of Martha flashed across his mind. Now there was a girl who had become vain. Look at the way she had draped herself by Levi after the barn was built and again in the hospital. That girl must have found a mirror somewhere, because she was self-absorbed in her own beauty.

Judith, on the other hand, hadn’t a clue of her own loveliness.

“She’s not a girl for you to think about,” his father said, interrupting his thoughts.

“I feel sorry for Judith.”

“You’ve been baptized into the church. You
muscht
live according to the commitment and rules of the faith.”

Andrew wanted to remind his father that Judith was currently attending the Dordrecht Confession classes and soon would be eligible for baptism herself. He kept his comment to himself, however, in fear that his father would remove her from the classes.

His father directed the horse into their drive. “She’s brought condemnation upon herself.”

Andrew swallowed hard, remembering that he had given Samuel that nail. His conscience pricked at him for the part he had played in what happened to Judith and Samuel.

“Whoa.”

Patsy stopped in front of the house, and his father handed Andrew the reins.

“Tend to the horse, son. It’s been a long day for me.”

Grateful his father didn’t want to continue the discussion, Andrew waited for him to step out of the buggy before directing Patsy to the barn.

Andrew unbuckled the harness, his mind still lingering over thoughts of Judith. He remembered how she had trembled in his arms. He wished more than anything that he could calm her fears. She might have gone to the river to hide, but something had caused her to become frightened.

Andrew slid the harness off the horse and walked it to the stud peg. The day Samuel fell, Judith had acted strangely, scanning the crowd as though looking for someone. He should have followed her into the apple orchard.

Andrew grabbed the horse’s halter and led the mare into the paddock. If given the opportunity, he planned to find out more.

Humiliation clawed at Judith. She trusted Levi, and he had publicly abased her, causing the entire community to turn on her without giving heed to her claims. Maybe if she told them about the dream. But she couldn’t explain the significance of seeing three roads. How could she expect anyone to believe she woke up knowing she would have to choose a path? Levi wanted her to choose between him and the angel . . . too many choices.

The barn door opened. Judith looked up from her seat on the milking stool long enough to see David enter, then she looked back down at the straw-covered floor. The lantern he carried didn’t offer much light, but she didn’t want to see his face. Outside, his eyes had narrowed when he looked at her. She didn’t expect him to be kind now that they were alone in the barn. Judith had never given him reason to punish her. Until now.

He stopped in front of Judith, arms crossed and leaning heavily on one hip. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Indignation welled within her. And hopelessness too, as she realized that no explanation would appease his angry mind-set. He wouldn’t believe anything she said. She shook her head and watched from the corner of her eye as his arms uncrossed and his hands twitched at his side.

“Well?” His voice deepened.

What do I tell him, God?
Judith kept her head bowed.

“How do you think
Mamm
and
Daed
will feel if you’re forbidden to join the church? Leniency toward your outburst will not continue. You are of age to choose to follow God or the world.”

Judith hadn’t considered such consequences of her actions. Her parents would be devastated if their daughter were adjudged by the bishop as offending God, and she were forbidden to stay within the fold.

“I don’t want you seeing that
Englisch
man again.”

David’s tongue-lashing struck her heart as painfully as if he’d taken a strap to her. Then he did something she never expected. He bent to his knees in front of her, his eyes hooded with concern.

“Judith, I don’t want you to destroy your reputation. But even more important, I don’t want you going to hell because you opened your mind to deception.”

Her throat swelled. False prophets deceive people. Pride, greed, self-ambition, and lust were all tactics she knew the enemy used to mislead those in the world. A world of which she wanted no part. Loving the Lord and serving Him all the days of her life was her goal. She wanted to be pleasing in God’s sight. Judith bowed her head. She wanted to be pleasing in her parents’ sight too.

David interrupted her thoughts by squeezing her folded hands, the first time in a long while that she could recall an outwardly kind gesture from him. “You need to pray and ask for forgiveness.”

Judith nodded. She had several issues to pray about.

He stood, started toward the door, and stopped. “Don’t ever let me hear you’ve been with the
Englischer
again.”

She sat silent, her mind whirling with David’s words of counsel. Once he left the barn, she fell to her knees. “Forgive me, God. Let my heart be not deceived with empty words. My desire is to be Your obedient servant.
Aemen
.”

Walking to the house, Judith silently repeated her prayer for wisdom. She sighed with relief when she saw that David’s buggy was gone from the yard. She climbed the porch steps wondering what he had told her father.

Martha met her at the door with a smirk. “Did he use the thin leather strap?”

Judith groaned. “I’m nineteen, Martha.” She scanned the room. “Where’s
Daed
?”

Her sister’s smile faded. “He went to spend the night with Samuel at the hospital, and David and Ellen took Rebecca home with them again.”

Judith went into the kitchen. Feeling her stomach rumble, she realized she hadn’t eaten supper. Several dishes of food brought by the womenfolk lined the counter. She peeled back the lid from a dish of beans, then looked inside the next container.

Martha came into the kitchen and leaned against the wall. “Did you really see an angel?” She rolled her eyes. “I told Levi that you make up so many stories, no one knows the truth.”

“I tell stories to children, not adults.”

“That isn’t what I heard. Levi said you angered the bishop.” Judith closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. Levi had told Martha everything. The two of them must have had a long laugh together.

“Another story I heard was that you spent all day with an
Englisch
man.” She made a
tsk-tsk
sound. “What evil are you weaving in all your lies?” Martha turned and walked down the hall to her bedroom.

Judith brought her hand up to the back of her neck, applied pressure, then decided she wasn’t restraining these words. Anger fueled her steps down the hall.

She swung the bedroom door open hard, slamming it against the wall. “I didn’t lie.” Her eye caught the lamp on the windowsill. “What are you up to, Martha?” She pointed at the lamp. “You don’t think I know what it means to have a lamp lit in the window?”

Martha flipped her nose into the air. “I don’t care. I’m seventeen, and you can’t stop me from going out.”

Judith walked to the window and turned the wick down to extinguish the flame. “You’re a tease. I saw you flirting with Levi . . . touching his hand every time you passed him a pumpkin.”

Martha laughed. “Then you
muscht
have seen how much he liked it.” She raised her chin, removed the top two straight pins that held her dress together, and tossed them onto the dresser. Then she turned and swept out of the bedroom.

Judith stormed after her. “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere the world takes me. I plan to have fun. Not live a boring life like you.”

Judith pulled Martha’s arm. “The devil seeks those he can devour . . . and I hope you reap what you’ve sown.”

Martha jerked her arm from Judith’s grip. “My life’s in my own hands,” she said and fled out the back door.

Judith turned her face to the ceiling. “I suppose I’ll be blamed for not stopping her. With
Mamm
and
Daed
gone, this will be my fault.”

If there was ever a time to pray, it was now.

Chapter Nine