Chapter 1.
Everybody would’ve learned of it by now since her half-sisters knew.
It would’ve caused a scandal within their Amish community!
Her stepmother would be most upset.
Liza, her best friend, would be shocked.
The bishop and the elders would be disappointed.
Florence hadn’t run away. She’d only moved one property over, but she’d certainly escaped from her life with the Baker family.
* * *
At the Baker household, things weren’t running smoothly ever since Florence had left. Timmy, the late Aunt Dagmar’s blue budgerigar, had taken to chirping loudly whenever anyone was in the kitchen, and that was most of the day.
“I knew that bird would be trouble,” Mamm grumbled as she sat at the breakfast table glaring at the poor little bird in his cage.
“Timmy’s no trouble at all,” said Cherish, who’d been the one to bring him into the home from Dagmar’s farm—now, her farm thanks to Aunt Dagmar’s will. Cherish plucked him out of his cage and placed him on her shoulder. “There. He just wanted to get out.”
Mamm’s mouth turned down at the corners. “He’s a smelly bird.”
“He’s not. It’s just his cage. And I cleaned it as soon as I got home yesterday. I clean it nearly every day. I don’t know why you’re so upset.” Cherish looked up and she saw Joy frowning at her. Joy thought she was being rude to Mamm, but she wasn’t. Mamm was being rude to her and to Timmy.
“Is the bird really upsetting you, Mamm?” Hope asked.
“Of course it is. Everyone knows I don’t like birds.”
Cherish frowned. “I asked you if I could have Timmy here and you said I could.”
Hope agreed, “That’s right, she did ask you.”
“It was Dagmar’s bird and she’d just died. I was put on the spot in the most dreadful way like you girls so often do to me. You already had the bird at the haus, Cherish.”
Before Cherish could say anything further, Favor spoke. “He’s just a little bird and he makes cheerful sounds and his little chirping noises make me happy.”
“That’s your opinion,” Mamm grunted. “I just don’t like birds of any kind. Or dogs, and I’m forced to have those two dogs running through the haus.”
Joy frowned. “Isaac asked you if he could give me Goldie, didn’t he? He told me he cleared it with you first.”
Mamm narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t feel as though I could say no because it was your birthday or some such occasion, but from now on I’m going to have my say around here. I’m going to worry about myself for a change, just the same as you girls do.”
“That would be good, think about yourself for a change,” Joy said, nodding.
Cherish glared at Joy, the sister who prided herself on being so good. Didn’t she know that pride wasn’t good at all? All do-gooders were prideful in Cherish’s opinion. Didn’t pride go before a fall?
“What?” Joy asked when she saw Cherish staring at her.
Cherish put out her finger and Timmy moved onto it. “Why are you always agreeing with her all the time?”
“That would be because she’s our mudder. We have to respect our parents.”
There she goes again, with her constant corrections. “It doesn’t mean she’s right, and it doesn’t mean she can treat us like this, saying yes to things when she really means no. It’s confusing. I didn’t ask to have a confusing parent. At least Dat wasn’t confusing. He never said one thing when he really meant another.” She moved her hand back to her shoulder and Timmy jumped from her finger to her shoulder.
“You’re lucky to have any parent at all. I should’ve adopted you out, Cherish. Five girls were enough for me.”
“Don’t forget Florence,” Favor said.
“Yeah,” Hope said. “You had six girls even before Cherish came along.”
Cherish couldn’t help speaking her mind. She’d never tried to stop saying what she felt and she wasn’t going to start now. “Jah, Mamm, you should’ve got rid of me like you got rid of Carter. Tossed him out because he was an embarrassment.”
A stunned silence fell over the room, and even Timmy must’ve sensed the tension because he stopped running from one shoulder to the other.
For some reason, Cherish couldn’t stop herself from saying more. “He was a product of your—”
Favor, who was sitting next to Cherish, quickly covered her sister’s mouth with her hand. “Don’t say it,” Favor urged, obviously knowing she’d say something worse.
Mamm jumped to her feet at the same time as Cherish scrambled to hers. She moved so fast that she scared Timmy and he flew back to his cage.
Cherish was about to get a beating and she knew it.
It was something she hadn’t gotten in many years.
She was much quicker than Mamm and after a quick look to see that Timmy was okay, she managed to race out of the kitchen ahead of Mamm.
“I’m going. I’m going to my room,” Cherish announced just as she had one foot on the bottom step of the staircase.
Her mother hadn’t continued her pursuit and was heading back to the breakfast table. “And you’ll stay there all day with no food and no water. See how smart your mouth is then.”
Cherish hurried up the stairs, thankful she’d escaped a slapping. She’d gotten a few stinging slaps across her face from her mother over the years. She wasn’t the only one; they’d all gotten them in the past except for Florence and her two older brothers, but they were too old to get into too much trouble.
Once Cherish closed her bedroom door, she collapsed onto her bed. Things weren’t the same now that Florence was gone. There was no escape for her from this hellhole of a place called home, until she was older. Then she’d live on Dagmar’s farm with no one to tell her what to do. She’d be free and could live her life as she saw fit.
She jumped to her feet, walked over to the window and opened it up. Then she stuck her head out and breathed in the fresh air. How she wished things could go back to how they were when Dat was alive and all her siblings still lived at home. It had been a happy home back then.
Now everything was a mess.
Literally.
Even the house wasn’t as clean and tidy without Florence.
Dat was dead, her older half-brothers were gone, and Florence had abandoned them for love. She didn’t blame Florence because she’d do the very same thing if she ever had the chance. Neither would she wait two plus years like Florence had.
She’d run away with a man when she knew she loved him.
Why wait?
Life was short and she intended to live it. And if her life happened to be long, it would be worse to live so many years with regrets.
So many changes were coming. Both Joy and Mamm were getting married soon and when Mamm got married, Bliss and Levi would move in.
What if Levi thought he could tell her what to do just because he was their stepfather?
What if he gave them more chores, or expected more from them?
That would be just awful.
She never asked for a stepfather and she didn’t really get along with Levi. A more boring man she couldn’t begin to imagine. He was too quiet and she never knew what he was thinking.
The thing that was especially distasteful was that Mamm seemed to go along with whatever he said.
As much as she liked Bliss, her step sister-to-be, she didn’t know what her mother had been thinking when she agreed to marry Levi.
She closed the window when a cool breeze swept up.
Just as well her stomach was full from breakfast. She could last all day without eating and by night time Mamm would’ve forgotten her earlier words. She normally didn’t carry through with her punishments, not like Florence. Florence was really strict.
