The Amish Deacon's Daughter

by Samantha Price

  “Hello, Amy.”

  “Hi, Mark.” Amy had no idea what to say to him because she didn’t really know him.

  He scratched the back of his neck and looked around. “It’s a lovely day.”

  “Jah, it’s nice once the cold weather goes.”

  He swallowed hard and rubbed his jaw. “Amy, I was wondering if you might like me to drive you home tonight?”

  She had to give him a chance. “Jah, okay.” She nodded and smiled knowing he was nervous. “Have you tried these little sausages? They’re lovely.” Amy turned back to the table, stabbed a sausage with a toothpick and handed him one.

  He took it from her and popped it into his mouth. As he chewed, he nodded then when he'd swallowed, he said, “Very nice.”

  “I made them.” She smiled up at him.

  “Ah.” He laughed. “Good thing I liked it, then, isn't it?”

  As Amy was about to say something else, Martha rushed toward them. “We have to go home now, Mamm’s feeling poorly.”

  “Mark’s taking me home later.”

  Martha looked at Mark, gave half a smile and left them.

  “You can go with your familye if your mudder’s sick, Amy.”

  “Believe me, Mamm is always sick; it’s nothing out of the ordinary.” Amy shook her head.

  When Mark frowned, she realized how uncaring she sounded. “I mean, in her condition, it’s normal to feel ill some of the time.”

  “Ah.” Mark nodded.

  By now, it was plain for anyone to see that her mother was expecting. Even though pregnancies weren’t spoken about openly between men and women, it was a fact of life. Days away from having the boppli, Mamm had gone back to spending nearly every day in bed except when she forced herself out for meetings.

  “I’ll come and find you a bit later then?” Mark asked.

  Amy looked up at him and nodded. When he was gone, she looked for one of her friends to speak with. She found Olive, and all Olive could talk about was her upcoming wedding, which was a nice distraction for Amy.

  Once the meeting was over, Mark approached Amy. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Jah.”

  They climbed into his buggy and he clicked his horse forward. It seemed strange to be with another man. This was only the second man she’d ever gone on a buggy ride with and she was twenty already, now that her birthday had just passed.

  “How did you like your trip away?”

  “I enjoyed it. I didn’t think I would, but the familye was lovely. They have a dochder, Gabbie, the same age as Martha. She’s going to visit us soon, hopefully.” Amy glanced across at Mark. He had the same coloring as Jessie, thick, wavy light-brown hair and green eyes. He was a solid, well-built man.

  He looked over at her and she smiled and looked away.

  “Your broken leg has completely recovered I see,” Amy said.

  “Jah, that was a long time ago. My leg is better than new. Except when the weather is about to change — then I have my own weatherman.”

  Everything about the buggy ride reminded Amy of Andrew. She closed her eyes and remembered how it felt to sit next to him.

  “Are you okay, Amy?”

  Amy cleared her throat. “Yes, a little tired I guess. I’ve been waking through the night to make sure Mamm’s all right.” She hoped that might redeem her from her previous comment regarding her mother.

  “It must be hard for you to take your mudder’s place in the household now she’s not feeling well.”

  “She was a little better for the past couple of weeks; she’s gone downhill again over the past few days.”

  “Looks like it’s about to rain.”

  Amy put her hand out of the buggy. “Jah, it’s already raining.” Even the rain reminded her of Andrew. It’d rained when they were at the river the last time they had been together.

  “We might call it a night and I’ll take you straight home since it’s raining.”

  “If you want to.”

  “Do you want to?”

  “We can go a little further.” Amy guessed Mark sensed her lack of interest in him and she felt a little embarrassed. She wanted to like him. “How’s the farm doing?”

  “Great, at the moment. Last year we prospered and we’re hoping for the same this year.” After a silent moment, Mark said, “What do you like to do in your spare time?”

  Amy chuckled. “I haven’t had a lot of that lately, but I do like to sew—embroidery and needlework rather than clothes. Although, I just finished making new dresses for three of my sisters. When I sew samplers, I can make them different every time. Whereas dresses are all the same.”

  “I have to wonder, Amy, why you have never married.”

  Amy giggled. “What about you? You are a little old to be unmarried, don’t you think?”

  “That’s true enough. Perhaps you and I have to be more practical in our choices.”

  Amy looked at him. He stared straight ahead at the road. What did he mean? Did Jessie tell him she was in love with Andrew and Mark knew it was never going to happen? “I’ve never made a choice, so I don’t know how I could make a more practical one.”

  “What I mean is, that you and I are unmarried. We’re both from the same community and both our families know each other very well. You and my schweschder, Jessie, have grown up together. I was hoping you’d consider me as a possible choice for you.”

  “Ach.”

  He looked over at Amy and she twisted her mouth.

  He gave a half-hearted chuckle. “I’m not speaking my mind very well. I guess I’m not good at this kind of thing. I need a fraa and you’re single and I thought that you and I might make a pair.”

  “Jah, I see what you mean. Well … this is all sudden.”

  “Nee, Amy. I don’t mean to put you under pressure. I’m not asking you to marry me right now. I was hoping your mind might be open to the possibility of that happening.” He glanced at her and put his hand to his head. “I’ve made a complete hash of things. I’m taking you home.”

  “You haven’t made a complete hash of things. I’m glad you spoke your mind. I will consider what you’ve said.”

  He turned the buggy and headed toward her haus. Once he was outside Amy’s house, he drew the buggy to a halt. “I would be pleased if you gave it some thought, Amy.”

  Mark smiled at her and his eyes were kind. Amy smiled back. “I will, Mark.”

  Amy walked into the house and went straight up to see her mudder.

  Martha was there, sitting on the bed. She looked up when Amy walked in. “The midwife is coming soon.”

  “Is the boppli coming?” Amy asked.

  “Jah, Mamm said that the boppli should be here by morning.”

  Chapter 13

  Amy sat on the other side of the bed and stroked her mother’s head. “I’m sorry I took so long to come home.”

  Her mother reached her hand up and patted Amy’s hand as if to say it was okay. Amy knew she should’ve gone home with the familye and not gone on that buggy ride.

  When June Byler, the midwife, arrived with her assistant, the two girls were shooed out of the room. While the younger girls slept, Martha, Amy and their father waited in the living room. The three of them dozed in the early hours of the morning and were woken by the broken cries of a newborn.

  They ran up the stairs with Dat leading the way. The girls stayed back as he opened the door and after a few minutes, the girls were allowed in to find they had a bruder. The Yoders finally had their first son after six girls.

  Their smiling mother kissed the red, wrinkly baby on his head. “I don’t know what to do with a boy. I’m used to girls.”

  “You’ll soon learn,” their father said with tears of joy still lingering on his cheeks.

  “He’s so tiny,” Martha said.

  Amy looked at the tiny person who was the cause of her separation from Andrew. She wanted to resent him, but he was simply too cute.

  The midwife and the assistant cleaned the room around
everyone before they left.

  With some hours of darkness still left, Amy fell into bed pleased she still had time for some sleep. She could snatch a few hours before she had to wake for the younger girls, to see that they did their chores before getting them off to schul. Amy was too tired to think of what Mark had said and too tired to think of Andrew.

  The next time Amy saw Mark was when she went to Jessie’s house for the last fitting of her attendant’s dress for Olive’s wedding. Jessie was the best seamstress in the group of friends, so she was the one who had offered to sew the attendant’s dresses. Olive sewed her own dress and the suits of the male attendants.

  It was a Saturday afternoon and, because the wedding was on the next Thursday, the girls had skipped their normal get-together at the coffee shop to meet at Jessie’s house. Amy hoped she’d see Mark, but wasn’t sure if he’d be there.

  Mark had been the first person she’d seen when she stopped her buggy outside Jessie’s house.

  “I hear your mudder had a boy?”

  Once Amy got out of the buggy, Mark took the reins to tie the horse up.

  “Jah, they’ve called him Micah.”

  He looked up from looping the reins around a post. “That’s nice.”

  “I’ve been thinking about what you said to me last week, Mark.”

  “You have?”

  “I ... I don’t see things the way you do.”

  He crossed his arms. “What do you mean, Amy?”

  “I want to marry for love.”

  “We’re all Gott’s children and have love for one another.”

  “Not that kind of love. I’m speaking of romantic love.”

  He sighed and rubbed his neck. “I know how you girls think, and you might be looking or waiting for something that doesn’t exist.”

  It did exist. Amy knew it because she was in love with Andrew, but she couldn’t tell Mark that. Mark would ask why Andrew and she weren’t married if their love was that strong. “I believe that it does exist.”

  Mark nodded. “The offer’s there, Amy. Jessie’s waiting in the house for you.”

  Although Amy had as good as rejected him, Mark stayed polite and friendly. It was at least nice to know that she had some sort of offer if she started to get cranky like old Marie Byler.

  Jessie had already made the dress. Amy pulled the blue dress on over her head. “It’s nice, but it’s a little long, isn’t it?”

  “Jah, I’ll need to take it up a little. I think that’s all that needs doing to it.”

  Amy searched for something positive to say. “It’s a pretty shade of blue.” Just like Andrew’s eyes, she thought.

  “Stand straight and I’ll pin the hem.”

  While Jessie leaned down and pinned the hem, she said, “I saw you and Mark speaking.”

  “He took me home from the gathering on Sunday. You knew that, didn’t you?”

  “Jah, I saw you in his buggy. Do you like him?”

  “I wish I did. That would make things so much simpler. I do like him, but not in a romantic way.”

  “Okay, you can take it off now. Careful of the pins.”

  Amy took off the dress and then pulled her own dress over her head. “I’m excited about Olive’s wedding. She’s the first one out of the five of us to get married. Well, the first Amish one, if you don’t count Claire’s wedding.”

  “Elijah didn’t want to get married until we had a haus. I told him I wanted to get married sooner than that. Now we’re the next ones to get married after Olive.”

  “I’m the last one. What if I never get married?” Amy placed her prayer kapp back on.

  “You will; we all thought that we might never and then someone appeared for each of us.”

  Amy nodded, still unconvinced.

  When Amy was at Olive’s wedding, her mood hadn’t improved. She sighed. Here she was at another wedding and it wasn’t hers. She'd watched Blake and Olive get married, while Blake’s mother, an Englisher, had cried into a white lace handkerchief throughout the entire lengthy service. Blake’s small son, Leo, sat well-behaved next to his grandmother doing his best to comfort her by patting her arm.

  When will it be my turn?

  She felt as though her youth was slipping away. The girls hardly ever met at the coffee shop now that the others were occupied with their men. Claire was still trying to talk Donovan into joining the community, but all Claire’s friends knew he never would. He'd refused to come to Olive and Blake’s wedding, so Claire had come on her own.

  Amy desperately wanted a family of her own. She was busy with a household, her mother’s household when she should’ve had one of her own. It all seemed so unfair. And, still, she hadn’t heard from Andrew in weeks.

  Chapter 14

  Months have passed.

  “Gabbie’s coming to stay with us,” Mr. Yoder announced over the evening meal.

  Martha clapped her hands. She’d been writing to Gabbie since Amy had come home and told her about Gabbie, but they’d never met. “Is she staying a long time?”

  “Her vadder’s allowing her to stay here to help us out while your mudder’s feeling poorly.” Mr. Yoder smiled lovingly across the table at his wife.

  “I can manage,” Amy said.

  “You can do with doing less than you are.” Mrs. Yoder smiled at Amy, and then said to Martha, “I’ve not been the same since Micah was born. I might have to start taking the tonic Nellie Byler keeps telling me about.” Micah, the Yoder’s only son, was now nearly a year old.

  “Jah, do that, Mamm.” Martha’s green eyes fixed on her father. “When is she coming? I just got a letter from her and she hadn’t mentioned anything about it.”

  “Her vadder thinks it best that she comes here for a time.”

  Martha studied her father’s face. She knew he was keeping something from her. There was a definite reason Gabbie was being sent away from Augusta, just as there had been a purpose when Amy had been sent away from home over a year ago. Martha chewed on a piece of fried chicken while she tried to figure it out. It didn’t make sense. Amy had been sent there to find a husband, but there was no man here for Gabbie. “So that’s it then? She’s coming here to help Mamm?”

  Her father looked down at his food and nodded. Martha knew that he always looked away from her when she asked a question that he didn’t want to answer. She glanced across at Amy and knew she was wondering the same thing. She and Amy were perfectly capable of looking after the whole family when Mamm had one of her sick days. Although, it would be good to have an extra pair of hands especially when Micah got fussy and cried during dinner.

  Mary’s face beamed. “That will be nice, won’t it, Martha? Your best friend in the whole world is coming to stay with us.”

  Martha smiled at her little sister and nodded. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “You only met her through writing letters, so how can she be your best friend?” Rose, another sister, asked.

  “She is my best friend. We write to each other nearly every day.”

  “Now girls, no more talk about it over dinner.” Mr. Yoder’s stern gaze moved to each girl in turn.

  Martha narrowed her eyes at Rose when her father wasn’t looking. She hadn’t even had a chance to learn when Gabbie was arriving and now she’d have to wait to find out.

  Mr. Yoder looked at his wife. “Did you hear Mr. Glick broke his leg?”

  “Nee, I didn’t know. Who’s helping him on the farm? He’s got no sons; he’s only got Anna,” Mrs. Yoder said.

  “He’s got his fraa as well,” Martha said.

  Mr. Yoder stuck out his chin. “He needs a man to help him. His fraa and dochder will be no gut to him with the farm work. He’s got people who helped him today, and he’s got his nephew coming from Ohio tomorrow.”

  Mrs. Yoder raised her eyebrows and gave a quick glance in Martha and Amy’s direction. “And how old is his nephew?”

  Mr. Yoder’s face lit up. “Twenty-five, I’d say.”

  “Ah.” Mrs
. Yoder nodded.

  Martha noticed a slight smile twigged at the corners of her mother’s mouth. “Mamm, Amy and I can find our own husbands.” Martha breathed out heavily.

  “What makes you think I was thinking of you? Rose is nearly eighteen; she might beat you both and get married first.”

  Mary giggled and Martha looked across at Rose, who gave her a look as if to say, ‘so there.’ Amy didn’t laugh at all and Martha knew she was still pining for Andrew from Augusta. One day, Amy might make it back there to see him if Mamm ever allowed her to leave again.

  Mr. Yoder put down his fork and raised his hands. “That's enough of that topic at the table.”

  Mrs. Yoder turned to her husband. “As soon as Mr. Glick's nephew gets here, I’ll have him to dinner. We’ve got girls and none of them are married yet. Surely you wouldn’t deny Amy this chance?”

  Amy frowned and took a gulp of water.

  Mr. Yoder made a gruff sound from the back of his throat while Martha knew to keep quiet; there was no use arguing with her parents, it had never worked for Amy.

  “What’s his name?” Mrs. Yoder’s face contorted as she tried to contain a grin.

  “His name’s Michael Glick,” their father said.

  Martha pushed the food around on her plate wondering what Michael Glick would think of being their chosen topic for the over-dinner conversation.

  It was only after her mother and siblings went to bed that Martha had a chance to speak to her father in private. “Dat, when’s Gabbie arriving?” She sat down on the couch next to him.

  Mr. Yoder looked up from his Bible. “She’ll be arriving this Saturday, and since Micah is now sharing Amy’s room, Gabbie will share your room. I’ll move another bed into your room tomorrow.”

  Martha was pleased they’d be sharing. They’d have so much fun and could talk into the night. “Is there a reason she’s coming? Has she been sent by her folks like how you sent Amy to Augusta?”

  Closing his Bible, Mr. Yoder said, “Gabbie’s vadder thought it best she go somewhere different for a time. He didn’t tell me his reasons, and I didn’t ask.”