Chapter Twenty-One
Grace
"Grace! Verity! Where are you?" Faith called as she and Hope hopped down out of the shiny black buggy Hope had borrowed from her in-laws. "Honor? Danny? Are you around?"
"I thought I saw someone in the barn," Hope said as she walked across the drive and into the barn. "Oh, there you two are!"
"What are you doing here?" I asked as I stood up and brushed the hay off my dress. Honor remained seated on a bale of hay with her arms crossed across her chest stubbornly refusing to look at any of us.
"We wanted to come talk to you, Grace," Faith said looking nervously at Honor as she pulled at the strings on her kapp. "Just you."
"Fine, why should this be any different than any other time?" Honor said as she pushed herself up off the bale and stomped out of the barn.
"What's wrong with her?" Hope asked wrinkling her nose.
"Oh, I don't know," I said in exasperation. "Maybe she's upset about something, like losing her parents?"
"There's no need to be sarcastic, Grace," Hope said sharply. "We're here to try and help."
"You could have fooled me," I muttered as I led them out of the barn and back to the drive. "What do you two want?"
"Grace, we talked to Uncle Amos and you just can't keep that English stranger here at the house with the younger ones," Faith blurted out. Hope grabbed her arm and shushed her before she could say anything more.
"Why does it matter to him? Or you, for that matter?" I asked. I was annoyed by their gossip and the fact that they didn't even try to hide it. "He's not a threat to anyone and he'll be gone in a few days."
"But Grace, it just doesn't look right," Faith said as she looked down and fiddled with the pins on her dress.
"It doesn't look right?" I said. "My goodness, Faith, since when did you become so concerned about what things look like? You, the woman who was pregnant with her first child at her own wedding."
"No need to be mean, Grace," Hope warned.
"I'm not being mean," I shot back. "I'm just sick of you two always judging everything I do and how I do it. You're no better than I am!"
"Who's calling who judgmental?" Hope shouted. "You're the one who looks down on us and our simple, little lives!"
"I've never said that!" I shouted back.
"Oh really?" Faith interjected. "You could have fooled me! You always have something to say about the great big life you lead and how quaint everything seems when you deign to come back!"
"I've never said anything about how great my life is! You're imagining things, Faith," I said turning toward her and catching the look of disapproval that flashed across her face. "Look at you, Mamm would be so disappointed in the two of you and how unkind you're being right now."
"Give me a break, Grace," Hope said crossing her arms over her chest and frowning at me. "Don't invoke Mamm or Dat or anyone else. This is about how you just waltz in here and take over without asking anyone else for input. What about us? What about what we think? We're the ones who live here. We're the ones who do the work and keep things going!"
"I am trying to help!" I shouted at her.
"Well, you're doing a poor job of it," Faith muttered.
"Grace, have you stopped and thought about Verity even once?" Hope asked as she tipped her chin up and looked at me haughtily. "She's the one who's going to suffer if the English man doesn't leave the house."
"How on earth is Verity going to suffer?" I asked incredulously.
"Well, I know it doesn't cross your mind, but Verity has a reputation to protect," Hope said dropping her voice to almost a whisper. "If word gets out that you've got some strange man living here, what are her in-laws going to think about her? What will Levi think about her?"
"They'll think she's a kind girl who took care of an injured stranger when he didn't have anywhere else to go!" I shouted at them. "You two are the most small-minded gossips I've ever met. You make me sick."
"I don't think you should be insulting us," Faith said following Hope's lead and frowning at me. "I think you should be listening to us and thinking about what Mamm and Dat would say about all of this."
"For the last time, Mamm and Dat would have taken him in and cared for him," I said throwing my hands up in the air. "You two are the only ones who are advocating we throw him out into the street!"
"We're not saying you should throw him out," Hope said shaking her head.
"We're just saying he should stay...somewhere else," Faith finished.
"And what if I don't give into your veiled threats?" I asked, feeling trepidation about the possible answer.
"Then we won't be coming around to see you and you won't be welcome in our homes," Hope said slowly. "I'm sorry, Grace, but it's just not right what you're doing. I know things are different for you, but they're not different here and we can't accept you doing things that defy the Bishop's orders."
"You two are so narrow minded," I sighed. "It's a pity really, because otherwise you're not so bad."
"There's no need to be mean, Grace," Hope said as she turned and walked back toward the buggy with Faith following close behind. "We're only doing what we think is right. I'm sorry if it's too small town for your big brain and big life."
"Please let the others know that if they want to visit us, they are welcome," Hope said looking down at me from the driver's seat. "You, however, are not."
"Take care, Grace," Faith said as Hope clicked the reins and turned the buggy back toward the road.
"Goodbye, Grace," Hope said as the horse picked up speed and carried them away.
I stood in the drive watching the buggy rolling down the road back toward their homes, and as they disappeared into the dark night, I felt the sting of rejection overwhelm my self-righteous outrage. In the span of a couple of weeks, I'd lost my parents and been shunned by my own sisters. I inhaled deeply to try and keep my pain from leaking out, but once I opened the front door, my carefully constructed walls came tumbling down and I sunk to the floor.
"I want to go home," I whispered as the tears began to flow. The problem was that I wasn't quite sure where home was anymore.