A Plain Love Song by Kelly Irvin Page A

an escapade on which her twin Lillie never failed to follow. Older stepsister Rebecca’s influence helped some, but Emma despaired of taming their unduly stubborn streak. While no one offered the excuse, Adah often wondered if it had to do with losing their parents at such a tender age. They were sweet yet wayward girls. “I’ll get them back on track.” She brushed past Elizabeth, who had a puzzled look on her heat-flushed face. “They know me. They’ll do as I ask.”
    The implication being they didn’t know Elizabeth.
    “Make them pick the beets. Don’t you do it,” Emma directed. “They can’t be allowed to shirk their assigned duties.”
    “Don’t you worry. I have no problem with that.” Adah liked digging around in the fresh-smelling dirt in the garden, but today her job was at the stove. Still, the cooler air outdoors—if July air could be called cool—would be nice after the stifling, damp heat of the kitchen. “I know how it is. I used to be just as wayward.”
    “Used to be.” Mudder and the others cackled with laughter. “You’re a reformed soul now, are you?”
    “I’m a grown woman.” Adah trotted to the door, trying not to catch her mother’s gaze. “I’ve given up childish play.”
    She hadn’t written a single word since her encounter with the various members of the Hart family. She wanted to be good. She didn’t want to stray. Yet the words pressed inside her head, longing to be released. Words with notes attached. Now that Jackson had opened her eyes to the possibilities of writing music to go with the lyrics, she couldn’t stop hearing the tunes in her head. When she lay down at night, when she awoke in the morning. Why was writing music—playing music—wrong? How wrong could it be? The rest of the world did it. They couldn’t all be sinners.
    Such thoughts for a Plain woman. She did her best to stifle them. Time to set aside childish play. Time to grow up. The Ordnung was theOrdnung. One didn’t question why. The point was to give oneself up. To put God first. No others before Him. No idols. The women’s laughter followed her as she fled out the door and down the back steps, her thoughts chasing her like a pack of snarling, hungry coyotes.
    Mary’s garden had flourished despite the endless days of one hundred degree weather—with the help of a few soaking rainstorms scattered across the last few months. To Adah’s surprise, the twins hunkered down next to Rebecca at the far end, a nice pile of beets next to them, dirt still clinging to their roots. Like her, the girls were trying to be good, it seemed.
    “Girls, that’s probably enough for today,” she called, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. “We have a bunch of pickles and green beans to do first.”
    “Does that mean we have to go inside?” Lillie’s face puckered in a frown matched by the one on little Mary’s face. “It’s too hot in there.”
    “I’d like some lemonade,” Rebecca offered. “Wouldn’t you? Let’s take these in and get a nice, cool glass of lemonade.”
    “You need to clean the beets and get them ready to pickle,” Adah added. “They’re waiting for you. One of you needs to bring another box of empty jars up from the cellar too. It won’t take all three of you.”
    “I’ll do it.” Rebecca popped to her feet, brushing dirt from her apron. “Meet you inside, girls.”
    Lillie frowned. Little Mary pulled another beet and plunked it down on the pile. Neither responded to Rebecca’s cheery statement.
    “Let them have their fun.” Richard Bontrager strolled across the yard toward her, his broad shoulders silhouetted against the fierce sun. “Can’t you see they’re having a ball getting dirt on their faces and under their fingernails?”
    They didn’t look particularly content to Adah. “What are you doing here?”
    “Helping finish out the dawdi haus.” He glanced at the house and then back at Adah. Something about his expression told her there was more