Chapter 1.
Florence Baker woke up exhausted. She’d just gotten over all the sewing, the organizing, and the cooking for Mercy’s wedding, and tomorrow was Honor’s birthday. Her throat was dry from breathing the chilly air so she pulled the covers over her head to keep out the cold.
Normally when Florence woke, she hurried downstairs to put more logs on the embers from last night's fire and then she’d have a quiet mug of coffee before the rest of the household woke. Today, though, she was weary—weary in body and mind.
Besides doing much of the cooking today for the birthday dinner tomorrow, Florence was determined to come up with a way to make more income in the winter months.
* * *
Over breakfast, Florence asked her family to think hard on what they could do.
“You see, it’s important we put money aside for bad seasons. That’s why Dat had to sell the five acres next door to the Graingers.” Florence shook her head. If they still owned that land, and the house that sat on it, they could’ve had the money from leasing it. The Graingers had since sold to Carter Braithwaite. Florence’s father had always hoped to buy back the land, and that was now one of her dreams.
“Any ideas anyone?” Mamm asked.
Florence looked at each of her half-sisters, and all of them had blank looks on their faces. All of them, that was, except for Honor.
“I have an idea and, if I can take the buggy, I’ll look into it further.”
Florence narrowed her eyes at Honor. “Well, what is it?”
Honor didn't respond. She wasn’t only concerned about money for the family. Her idea would also help her to see more of Jonathon Wilkes without anyone looking over her shoulder. The trouble was, Florence didn’t like Jonathon, and her youngest sister Cherish had a huge crush on him. Two reasons why she couldn’t have him visit at the house.
“What is it, Honor?” Mamm finally asked when Honor hadn’t answered.
“I’d rather not say until I know if it’s a real possibility. All I need is to use the buggy for half a day.”
“She just wants to get out of chores,” Cherish said.
Joy shook her head at their youngest sister. “That’s what you’d do. You can’t judge other people like that. In fact, you shouldn’t judge people at all.”
“You just did.”
Joy looked at Favor. “I’d never …”
“You just judged Cherish by saying that’s what she’d do,” Favor said.
Florence groaned. “Stop it, all of you. Okay, take one of the buggies, Honor. You can do your chores once you get home.”
“Denke, Florence. Of course I will.” Honor looked over and saw Cherish staring at her, and Honor knew what she was thinking. Cherish thought she was sneaking off to spend time with Jonathon Wilkes. She wasn’t totally wrong. Her plan did involve Jonathon. If she had a job—say, at the markets—she’d see more of Jonathon with no one knowing.
* * *
As soon as Honor arrived at the markets, she headed over to Warren, one of their large customers for apples. He was an Englischer who worked with his father in the largest fruit and vegetable stall there.
“Hi, Warren.”
“Hello. What are you doing out this way?”
She looked over at Warren’s father busy serving some customers. “I’m thinking of looking into having a stall where we could sell our small goods. We won’t sell apples because we don’t want to compete with you or our other customers.”
“It wouldn’t matter if you did,” said Warren. “You need to speak with Lionel Pettigrew about getting a stall. He’s the manager. I’ll put a good word in for you.”
“Thank you. That would be appreciated. Where would I find him?”
"I saw him heading out to the parking lot a few minutes ago. I’ll see if I can catch him. Stay here.”
"Thanks so much."
Warren called out to his father telling him where he was heading. Less than two minutes later, Warren came back with Mr. Pettigrew, a short chubby-cheeked balding man.
Once Warren introduced them, Mr. Pettigrew smiled and said, "Warren tells me that you want to sell apples here."
"No. We have an apple orchard, but we want to sell small goods—canned goods, baked goods, pickles, and chutneys here. Also, apple pies and such.”
He nodded. “Come with me and I'll show you one or two spots we might be able to squeeze you in. I’ll give you an idea of pricing too."
"Okay, thank you." Before she walked away with the manager, she gave Warren a smile and a nod.
After Mr. Pettigrew had taken her on a tour, showing her where she could set up, he told her the rates. She was pleasantly surprised that they were low in comparison to what she had thought they’d be.
"Is that per week or per month?" she inquired.
"Per month. Is it too much for you?"
"No, not at all.”
“And then we have one closer to the front, but that’s more than double the size and double the price."
"Would we be able to start with the small one and see how we do?"
"By all means. When would you like to start?"
"We could start tomorrow if that's not too soon."
"That's fine by me. Come with me to my car. I don’t have an office at the moment. It’s being repainted. I’m reduced to working out of my car. I'll give you some paperwork to sign and bring back tomorrow.”
When they got to the car, he pulled some paperwork out of a well-worn leather briefcase and scribbled some figures on it. “Here it is. Read through it and if you agree, bring this with you and be here tomorrow. On the last page, you’ll see where to make the weekly payment.”
She stared at it to see he’d written a figure even lower than he’d quoted her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Do we pay at the start of the week or the end?”
“At the start.”
“Oh.” She wondered what Mamm would say about that. “I’ll have to get my mother to agree to this first. Don’t worry, I’m sure she will. We run a roadside stand in the warmer months, but it makes so much more sense to be here.”
He smiled. “The end of the week is fine if that’ll make your mother happier. We all have to keep our mothers happy.” He pulled more sheets of paper out of his briefcase. “This is a list of rules." He chuckled. "It's nothing too strange. Operating hours and what not.”
She nodded.
“Is it a deal? Assuming your mother agrees?” He put out his hand and she shook it.
“It’s a deal.” She felt grown-up making a big decision like this with a proper businessman. Now, she just had to get Florence and Mamm to agree. Her idea wasn’t a new one. Florence had wanted to do it before but Mamm had squashed the idea. Mamm’s main objection had been the cost. Setting up on the roadside was free. In spite of how much a stall was to lease, Honor reckoned they’d make more money there than sitting at home not selling anything. In the springtime they'd have to decide about the roadside stand.
* * *
As she traveled home, she knew Florence would be okay with the idea and she’d help Mamm see it was a good one. The girls could all take it in turns, just like they did with the roadside stand, while Florence stayed home and ran the orchard business.
To put her mother in a good mood, she stopped at their favorite coffee shop and bought her a fancy take out coffee. Mamm liked hers with hazelnut-flavored syrup and plenty of chocolate sprinkles. For Florence, she got an oversized chocolate marshmallow cookie to satisfy her sweet tooth.
When she arrived home, Florence was waiting for her on the porch, with her arms folded and looking none too happy. As soon as Honor stopped the buggy, Florence strode out to meet her.
“You've been gone plenty long enough, and your chores are still waiting.”
“Jah, I know, but it’s my birthday tomorrow and I thought you’d be able to do without me for a little bit. I did something.” She stepped down from the buggy. “I committed us to taking out a stall at the markets. I negotiated that we pay at the end of every week and it’s not really that much money.”
“What markets?”
“The main one in town.”
Florence gasped. “The farmers market?”
Honor nodded.
“How much is that going to cost? You didn’t sign anything, did you?”
“Not yet. I’ll show you.” From the passenger side of the buggy, she grabbed the agreement and showed her the figures Mr. Pettigrew had written in.
Florence took the paper and held it up. “That’s a lot less than I thought it’d be. Are you sure it’s right?”
“Jah. I asked him the same question. He wrote it in himself. What do you think?”
Florence narrowed her eyes at her. “You had this idea all by yourself?”
“Jah, because we can’t stand by the roadside freezing, and what else are we going to do when it’s so cold? And how will we make money?”
“We’ll get by.”
“Yeah, well ... now we can get by better—hopefully. What do you think? Also, we didn’t have to commit to a lengthy lease or anything. If we want to stop, we just give one week’s notice. It says so right there.” She pointed at the rules paperwork that she’d skimmed through on the way home.
Florence wiped away a tear. “You’ve lightened my load. If I didn’t have so much to think about I would’ve thought of this.”
“I remembered you wanted to do it a couple of years ago.”
“Jah, but Mamm didn’t like the idea.”
“Will she allow us to do it now?”
Florence smiled. “You said you’ve committed us to it.”
Honor giggled. “I did. Oh, wait, did I? I don’t think so. We shook hands, but nothing is signed.”
“Let’s unhitch Morgan and then we can tell her together.”
“Okay.”
“When do we start?” Florence asked.
“He said we can start tomorrow.”
“Wunderbaar.”
“I got Mamm a hazelnut coffee and I got you a great big cookie.”
“Ach, denke. I love those giant cookies and the coffee will make Mamm happy. Good idea—let's go tell her now.”
When they walked into the kitchen, the girls were all there. They heard what Honor had done while she told their mother. “What do you think, Mamm?”
“It’s up to Florence. Do you think it’s a good idea?”
Florence couldn’t hold back her enthusiasm. “I think it’s a wunderbaar idea. We don’t have much to lose and we have enough goods to sell.”
Joy nodded. “We do now, but what if we sell out?”
“Then we’ll make more,” Favor said. “Like we always do, even if we have to stay up into the night.”
“Ach nee! The nights are too cold to stay up,” said Cherish. “I’d much rather be warm and toasty in bed.”
“Honor, why don’t you make up a schedule for the girls for the first couple of weeks and also figure out what stock we’ve got and how long you think it’ll last?”
“Okay.”
“Can I help?” Hope asked. “I’ll get the pens and paper.”
“Sure.”
“You don’t want to work on your birthday, do you, Honor?” Mamm asked. “Make sure not to put yourself down to work on your birthday.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Before you do your schedule, stay still for one moment and let’s talk about your birthday,” Mamm said.
“I don’t want a fuss. A dinner is fine and I don’t want presents.”
“Ach, you’re easily pleased,” said Cherish. “I like loads of presents. Don’t tell people you don’t want gifts and you can give ‘em all to me.” Cherish giggled.
“I’d just like a dinner like I always have, but with a couple more people invited. Jonathon, and Isaac too, since they’re both staying with Mark and Christina. It would be rude not to include him.”
“Jonathon’s coming already,” Cherish chimed in. When everyone stared at her, she said, “He’s our bruder-in-law now that Mercy’s married Stephen, and he’s also staying with Mark and Christina. Mercy might’ve even married him if she’d met him first. Anyway, I happen to have overheard Mamm inviting the four of them.”
Mamm nodded. “I did. And there’s Ada and Samuel, who’ll come too.”
Mamm’s best friend Ada and her husband were just like family and came to all the girls’ birthday dinners.
Florence asked, “Anyone else you’d like to include, Honor, since it’s your birthday? Any friends?”
“I’ll see my friends through the day, if I’m not going to be working at the market stall. I’ll take the buggy and go see them. No need to invite them for dinner. So, just those four will be fine.”
“Six.” Mamm corrected her.
“I meant six. Gut.” Honor nodded.
Once all the girls had left the kitchen, Florence had a quiet moment alone with Mamm. “It's not a good idea for Jonathon to come to Honor’s birthday. He should be keeping away from Cherish. You know she’s got a crush on him and also I think that Honor likes him.”
Mamm shook her head. “We can’t leave him out. Besides, I already invited him. He’s your bruder-in-law now.”
“Not really. I don’t believe he’d be technically classed as my in-law. He’s Mercy’s bruder-in-law, but he's not mine.”
“Besides that, Christina and Mark are coming as well as Isaac, and Jonathon is living on the same property. It would be rude to leave him out.”
Florence wasn’t happy to hear that. “I’m just trying to stop problems before they start.”
“Florence, you’re just like your vadder—overly cautious.”
“Well …. That’s a good way to be.”
“Not if it’s going to upset people and ruin Honor’s birthday. Jonathon’s coming to Honor’s birthday and that’s final.”
She stared into Mamm’s eyes. Once her stepmother had made up her mind it was always final. It was rare for her to be firm like she’d been just now, so Florence chose to go along with it. “Okay, but I’m wary of him.”
“Why ever for?”
Mamm had never learned how Jonathon had tried to drive a wedge between Mercy and Stephen. Florence had chosen to keep that quiet. She wasn’t sure why. “Never mind.” It was too long a story to tell and now that Mercy and Stephen were married, Mamm would most likely shrug it off.
