Naturally, Isaac didn't agree. He went on speaking in the guttural dialect out of stubbornness more than habit, she suspected. “There is family business. You are needed at home. Come and pack your things.”
“What family business? Why am I needed? Is Mom ill?” Sarah asked, concern for her fam ily overriding all else. Wringing her hands nervously, she moved closer to the steps to get a better look at her father's impassive face. “What's wrong?”
“Plenty is wrong. We had visitors today. First, Micah Hochstetler, then the deacon.”
Sarah felt a deep chill settle in her bones at the mention of the deacon. If her father was there because the deacon had come, then it hadn't been a social call; it had to do with her. It was the deacon's duty to approach any member of the community suspected of disobeying the Ordnung, the rules of the church. Deacon Lapp was a close friend of Isaac. He would have gone to Isaac first in any matter concerning one of the Maust children. What she didn't know, what she was afraid to know, was what the concern might be about.
“I've spoken with Deacon Lapp and also with the bishop about my job here,” she said, grasping desperately for what she hoped was the root of the trouble. “They said I could—”
“This isn't to do with the work,” Isaac interrupted. His face grew dark and his hand trembled as he raised it and pointed a gnarled finger at Matt. “This is to do with this Yankee.”
“Whoa, wait a minute here!” Matt protested angrily, bringing his hands up in front of him to halt Isaac's verbal assault. “I may not speak the lingo here, but I think I know when I'm being insulted.”
“Insults?” Isaac said, finally consenting to using English. “You speak to me of insults when you shame my daughter before God and her people?”
The look in Matt's eyes hardened to something like hatred. He stared at Isaac Maust and saw the personification of what would forever keep him from the only woman he'd ever loved. He cherished Sarah with everything that was in his heart. To have that love sullied by accusation was something he wasn't going to stand still for, and it didn't matter if the accuser was Sarah's father or God himself.
“Sarah hasn't done anything to be ashamed of. Your daughter is a bright, vibrant, loving young woman. I happen to care for her very deeply.”
“What has Micah Hochstetler to do with this?” Sarah asked, jumping in as quickly as she could to derail her father from the train of conversation Matt had started on. She didn't know yet what damage had been done or what the deacon had had to say, but she didn't want the hole to get dug any deeper.
Her father turned to her with a sour expression. “As he was driving past here yesterday with a load of corn he saw you out on the lawn chasing around with this Englishman, behav ing wild, your hair loose and down for all to see. Do you deny this?”
For an instant Sarah had the wild urge to make up a story that might excuse what her father's neighbor had seen, but none come to mind, and she only felt wretched for even thinking it. How could she consider degrading the love she felt for Matt just for the sake of placating her father? What kind of coward was she?
“Do you deny it?” Isaac demanded again, coming down a step to loom over his daughter like a righteous judge. The breeze caught the ends of his beard, and the porch light backlit him like a holy aura, making him look as formidable as Moses on the mountain. “Do you denyit?”
“Do you ask for an explanation?” Sarah questioned softly, tears crowding her throat. “Do you give me any benefit of doubt?”
“Do you deserve it?”
That wasn't the point, Sarah thought sadly, but she didn't waste her breath saying it. Isaac wouldn't hear her. She looked away from him, tears sliding down her cheeks, hurting too badly to go on looking for some hint of approval or understanding or even compassion from him. Her father was a hard man, unyielding, severe. He loved his family, but he tolerated nothing save absolute obedience. Pity she had been born as stubborn as he was and with a spirit that defied authority at most turns.
“Go and pack your things,” he said, his voice thick with disgust and disapproval.
Sarah's first instinct was to defy him, but she thought of her mother and her family, especially Jacob, and curbed her rebellion. In that moment she didn't care how Isaac might suffer from her disobedience, but she couldn't cause the rest of her family undue anxiety just for the sake of spite. Besides, if it were possible for the trouble to be cleared up by a simple visit to her home for a few days and perhaps an earnest talk with some of the church elders, then she knew she had best take the opportunity and save them all a lot of pain.
She moved toward the steps, but Matt reached out and stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Wait a second,” he said, glaring at Isaac. “This isn't Sarah's fault. I didn't know it was against her religion to have fun. I was just teasing her. It was harmless.”
“Was it?” Isaac said, his gaze going meaningfully to the hand Matt had unconsciously settled on Sarah's arm. “Let me tell you something, Mister English,” he said, wagging a finger in Matt s face. “You may not know our ways, but Sarah knows them well. It is for her to resist the temptations of the world and when she don't, it is for her to atone for her sins.
“She hasn't committed any sins!”
Isaac gave a snort and took hold of his daughters other arm. “That is sure not for you to decide.”
“And it is for you?” Matt questioned angrily. His grip tightened on Sarahs arm. “Who do you think you are? God?”
Isaac's weathered face colored deeply. “I am not God,' he hissed. “I am God's servant. I obey his laws.” He tried to jerk Sarah toward him, but Matt held fast.
“You obey your own laws,” Matt sneered. “Sarah isn't guilty of anything but being in love. That might be a sin in your eyes, but I doubt it is in God's.”
“Love.” Isaac spat out the woitl as if it made a foul taste in his mouth. “I know of your kind of love, Englishman. Love of the flesh. Have you defiled my daughter so?”
A red mist washed before Matte eyes. It was all he could do to not let got of Sarah and take a swing at her father. His muscles tensed to the hardness of granite, his left hand clenched into a fist, but something told him his most important priority was holding on to Sarah, so he clung to the leash of his temper as he clung to the woman beside him.
“I've never defiled anyone,” he said, his tone dangerously low and thrumming with fury.
Isaac looked away from him, pinning Sarah with his gaze instead. “He speaks of your love, daughter,” he said, reverting to German once again. “Are your sins even more terrible than I thought? More terrible than anyone knows?”
Once again Sarah refused to answer. She wouldn't soil what she had shared with Matt in love by calling it a sin. It wasn't a sin in her heart. Her soul was twined with Matt's more closely than it had been with her own husbands. She was married to him in her own eyes and, she prayed, in the eyes of God. She lifted her chin, winning her another black mark in her father's eyes.
“You have lain with this English?” he said, his voice shaking with anger. His fierce grip tightened on her arm, and she had to grit her teeth to keep from wincing. “You are a forni-cator? A whore?”
She bit her lip to keep from saying anything at all. She knew she should have bowed her head. Expressing shame and humility might have won her some mercy, but she wasn't ashamed and she wouldn't pretend it. She looked at her father squarely and let him see her defiance, let him see the rebellion she had held inside for so long. She raised her chin another notch in pride, which was itself a sin.
Isaac cursed her, an expression of pure rage twisting his features. His right hand lashed out like a bolt of lightning and caught Sarah across the mouth, splitting her Up. The force of the blow turned her head and burned her cheek, but still she refused to cry