Love Finds You in Amana Iowa by Melanie Dobson Read Free Book Online Page B

asked.
    He thumbed over his shoulder. “He’s waiting for her in his carriage, across the river.”
    She stared into the black space beyond their camp, trying to see the outline of a carriage, but she couldn’t even see how far it was across the river. “Where is he going to take her?”
    “To Lisbon.”
    She stood. “I need to go with her.”
    Mr. Faust shook his head. “We need you here to make breakfast.”
    She stared at the stripes lining his flannel shirt, trying to capture the bitter words in her throat before they spewed all over him.
    Was he speaking out of selfishness for his own belly or for the benefit of her people? Or was it selfish for her to go to town with Karoline and leave the men without someone to cook in the morning?
    She couldn’t begin to question her motives now. Instead she stood up beside Mr. Faust as he dismounted from his horse.
    “Someone needs to go with her,” she said.
    Niklas was beside her again. “We can make breakfast without Amalie.”
    Mr. Faust laughed. “Are you planning to cook?”
    Niklas didn’t return the laughter. “We managed to boil potatoes tonight. I think we can cook oatmeal over the fire.”
    Amalie held up her tin cup. “And they made coffee tonight as well.”
    Mr. Faust glanced back and forth between them and then down at Karoline. Without another argument, he began barking orders to the men, telling them how they were going to transport Karoline across the water in the wagon, to the doctor’s carriage.
    Amalie looked over at Niklas, and he shrugged his shoulders. Faust hadn’t told either of them who would be traveling with Karoline, so she sat back down beside her sleeping friend and waited.
    At Mr. Faust’s command, the men set down their plates and moved toward her wagon. Two of them climbed into the back and began rolling the heavy barrels of flour and sugar to the men below. Then they picked up her grandmother’s trunk, and she held her breath as they lifted it over the back of the wagon and put it safely on the ground.
    Mr. Faust turned toward John and appointed him to be a footman. “Take off your boots and roll up your trousers.”
    Amalie heard him explain how they would prod the riverbed in the darkness, searching for the firmest possible ground, so that Amalie’s wagon wouldn’t get stuck in the soft mud. They would mark the chosen path with sticks.
    Minutes later, the grass around her was strewn with burlap bags, barrels, pans, and her massive trunk. Mr. Faust and John secured the long sticks under their arms and each carried a lantern. As they waded into the current, they seemed to vanish in the blackness.
    Niklas rehitched the oxen to the wagon, but there was nothing for Amalie to do except sit quietly beside Karoline and pray her friend would make it safely to Lisbon.
    For the briefest of moments, Amalie entertained the thought of crossing the river like the men, but then her mind flashed to the feeling of mud oozing up between her toes. Slime clinging to her ankles. She shivered. The mud would swallow her feet if she stepped into the river.
    And what if she slipped on a rock and soaked her dress? The water might pull her under the current. It didn’t matter how fast or slow the water was running. She didn’t know how to swim. Maybe it would be better if she stayed here to cook for the men in the morning. Someone who knew how to swim could escort Karoline in the darkness.
    A whistle traveled across the river, and Niklas rushed back to her.
    “Mr. Faust wants you to travel with Karoline.”
    She brushed her skirt off, taking a deep breath as she stood up. “I can’t make it across the river.”
    “You’ll be riding in the wagon,” he said
    The men carefully lifted Karoline into the wagon. Amalie plucked up the satchel with her clothing from the ground, eyeing the remaining trunk, barrels, and all of her cookware. Surely the men would take care loading and carrying her belongings across the river.
    Well, there was no use worrying