Free Miriam's Quilt by Jennifer Beckstrand Page A

direction. “Where do you have to go that is so important? You don’t work today. Being with your friends does not count.”
    “Maybe I’m earning some extra money for a car,” Yost said. “What do you think about that, Miss High-and-Mighty?”
    She shook her finger at him. “That a silly idea has crawled into that empty head of yours and taken up residence. Come fetch me at two o’clock.”
    Yost jiggled the buggy reins and the horse started forward. “Walk home. I won’t be back to get you.”
    “But…”
    Yost snapped the reins and the buggy was a hundred feet down the road before Miriam could argue. She huffed in exasperation and hoped that brother of hers would come to his senses before two o’clock.
    Not likely.
    In front of the Lambrights’ house, young grapevines grew up a trellis that formed a fence at the edge of the grass. Later in the summer it would be heavy with grapes.
    Fourteen flagstones dotted the grass leading up to the Lambrights’ front door. Miriam remembered them well. When she and Susie and Mamm brought meals five years ago, Miriam would count the stones as she stepped on them. At the time, she’d found it fascinating that there were fourteen stones and she was fourteen years old.
    Her heart raced as she stepped onto the porch and knocked on the door. It surprised her how badly she wanted Seth and his sisters to like her, to think she was a good person. And when she was this anxious about pleasing someone, she usually messed up terribly, like at the stable when Seth told her she was trying too hard.
    But he’d smiled when he said it.
    A dog yipped incessantly inside the house as Miriam heard the patter of little feet. Priscilla opened the door, and a miniature white ball of wire and porcupine quills darted out of the house and barked around Miriam’s ankles.
    “Pookie, be quiet,” scolded Priscilla. “Pookie…be nice.”
    Pookie ignored the chastisement and kept up the noise until Seth appeared, grabbed the dog by the collar, and pulled it back into the house. Pookie gave Seth one yap of displeasure and trotted away without a second look at Miriam.
    “Sorry about the dog,” Seth said. “He’s been kicked out of three obedience schools.”
    Miriam willed her racing heart to slow down. “He’s cute.”
    Seth grimaced. “Only if you are fond of nails and pokey things. Please, come in.”
    Miriam walked into the Lambright house for the first time in her life. Neither she nor Seth thought it necessary to comment on the occasion.
    “I chose the fabric I want,” Priscilla said, taking Miriam’s hand and leading her into the kitchen. “It’s pink and purple. And with flowers.”
    Seth’s stepmother, Ellie, sat on her haunches, scrubbing a table leg. Ellie had come from Ohio to marry Seth’s fater a few years ago, but Miriam knew almost nothing else about her. Miriam scolded herself again. She hadn’t taken interest in any of the Lambrights.
    Ellie popped up the minute she saw Miriam. “Why, Miriam Bontrager, how nice to see you. You were not here at church two weeks ago. Was everything all right?”
    “Callie came down with a fever, and I stayed home to care for him.” She glanced at Seth. “I most surely would have come if I could have. Mamm told me the sermon lifted her heart, and she said you made delicious cookies for the dinner afterward.”
    Ellie beamed. “Oh my, I never had so many people in my house. I wish you could have seen. I scrubbed and waxed this floor till it shown like a mirror, and then the men tramped the dirt in on their boots. But my walls shone clean and the whole room smelled of Pine-Sol.”
    Miriam nodded. “I’m sure it was a wonder to behold.”
    “Trying to keep this house clean with five messy children can send anyone to an early grave. It’s a task, I’ll tell you that.”
    Miriam smiled to herself. She wasn’t the only one trying too hard. “You do a fine job. This home is cleanliness itself.”
    Ellie wiped her hands on a dish