by Kelly Long
“Now, Felty. Don’t tease.”
Felty folded his paper, and it only took him three tries to get out of his recliner. He shuffled to Anna’s rocker, grunted as he braced himself on the arm of her chair, and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I wouldn’t tease you about a thing like that.”
Anna giggled. “You were such a handsome boy. I thought you were delirious with a fever when you asked if you could drive me home from the singeon. I nearly keeled over dead from surprise.”
“And I nearly floated off the ground when you said yes.”
Anna stuffed her yarn and Titus’s new beanie into the canvas bag she kept near her rocking chair. “I want Titus to be that happy, and he needs this beanie.”
“Do you still think we need to find him a wife?”
“Ach, I’ve already found him a wife, dear. It’s just going to be a little tricky getting them together. I don’t know if I have the crocheting skills to do it.”
Felty went into the kitchen and retrieved a ginger snap from the cookie jar. Like any true Amish mammi, Anna always kept her cookie jar full. “If anyone has the right crocheting skills, it’s you, Annie,” Felty said, taking a hearty bite. His teeth scraped against the cookie. Anna smiled. He liked his cookies hard. “Who is the girl you have your sights set on?” he said.
“Adam Wengerd’s fiancée.”
Felty choked on his ginger snap, and Anna had to get up and pat him on the back until he could catch his breath. “Annie, I know you’re worried about finding the right girl for Titus, but it doesn’t seem very nice to steal another boy’s fiancée.”
Anna sighed. “You’re right as usual, Felty. I suppose I should have mentioned that she’s not Adam’s fiancée yet, and quite honestly, she and Adam don’t suit each other at all. Katie Rose is a shy, sweet little thing who will be able to see Titus for the wonderful-gute boy he is.” Anna picked up an envelope from the table next to her rocking chair. “Katie Rose’s mater has written me a letter. You remember the Gingeriches, don’t you, Felty?”
Felty closed one eye in concentration. “Samuel and Martha Gingerich?”
“Jah. They used to be in our district.”
“They moved to Augusta eight or nine years ago.”
Anna nodded and slipped three pieces of handwritten pink paper out of the envelope. “Martha wants to send her daughter Katie Rose to stay with us so that Katie can secure a marriage proposal from Adam during the Christmas holidays.”
“Why Christmas?”
“Everyone knows that Christmas is the most romantic time of the year,” Anna said.
“And you want Titus to be the one to propose instead?”
“Jah, but Martha wants Adam Wengerd. Adam and Katie Rose played together as children, and their maters practically have them engaged already.”
“What does Adam think of all this?”
Anna shrugged. “He’s willing. Katie Rose was thirteen when she left Bonduel, and she was pretty, even then. Adam’s had a hard time finding a wife in Bonduel, he’s going to be in a hurry to propose before Katie gets to know him very well.”
“Now, Annie-girl, Adam is a very nice boy.”
Anna scrunched her lips together. “Well, dear, we’re all entitled to our own opinion. I’ll never breathe a word to anyone about how I feel about Adam Wengerd, even though everyone knows he’s too big for his britches.”
Felty stroked his long beard. “I don’t wonder but you’ll be able to bring Titus and Katie Rose together, Annie, but what will Martha Gingerich think if her daughter comes home engaged to the wrong boy?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’ve got bigger fish to fry just now. Titus will be here any minute, and I’ve got to think of a way to keep him coming back to Huckleberry Hill every day until Christmas.”
“Why don’t you just tell him you’ve found a girl for him?” Felty said.
Anna practically squeaked her disapproval. “I can’t do that, Felty. Titus is a gute boy, but if he thinks we expect anything from him, he’ll run for the hills. Katie is shy. They’ve got to get together without knowing we want them to.”
Felty took another bite, scraping his teeth against his cookie. “I would say it’s impossible, but that’s how most of your matches have worked out, Annie. If anyone can bring two people together who would rather not, it’s you.”
“Denki, dear. I’ve worked very hard to hone my skills, and not just the knitting and crocheting ones.”
“Titus comes up once a week to help with chores yet,” Felty said.
Anna shook her head. “We need him on Huckleberry Hill every day. Katie will only be here until Christmas. Romance takes time.” Anna clutched her chest when a knock came at the door. “Ach, du lieva. He’s here already. I’ll just have to make it up as I go. You’ll play along, won’t you, Felty?”
Felty ambled to the door. “I’ll follow wherever you lead, Banannie.”
Titus stood on the porch wrapped in his heavy black coat with a straw hat on his head and a toothpick in his mouth. He was never far from a toothpick. “Hullo, Mammi. Hullo, Dawdi. It’s a wonderful cold day, and it ain’t even December yet.” Titus’s toothpick hung from his bottom lip and looked as if it would tumble at any minute, but it never did and he seemed to have no problem talking with it dangling from his mouth. Such a dear boy.
Anna bustled to the door to give Titus his weekly hug. “How is my very favorite grandson named Titus?”
Titus furrowed his brow before bursting into a smile. The toothpick stayed put. “Mammi, I’m your only grandson named Titus.”
“That is gute. I wouldn’t want to offend any of my other grandchildren. Cum reu,” Anna said, ushering him into the house before all the warm air escaped. A house heated by a woodstove couldn’t afford to lose even a trickle of warmth.
Before coming in, Titus stomped the snow off his boots. He was always wonderful thoughtful like that. Felty helped him off with his coat and took his hat. He did indeed have a bright red beanie on underneath his straw hat. Anna recognized it immediately. It was one she had knitted for him last year.
“Can I help you off with your boots?” Felty said. Anna pursed her lips. Felty had never taken Titus’s coat and hat before, and he had certainly never offered to help him with his boots. Felty was trying too hard, and for sure and certain, Titus would notice.
Ach, du lieva, he did. His eyes darted suspiciously between Felty and Anna, and his toothpick quivered on his lip.
She’d have to think fast if she didn’t want him to get scared off. “Cum,” she said, pulling a chair from under the table and motioning for Titus to sit.
Not taking his eyes from Anna, Titus sat as if he was afraid the chair might bite him. Anna poured him a glass of milk and grabbed three cookies from the cookie jar. Maybe she could soften Titus up with a hard cookie. She and Felty created further suspicion when they sat down at the table on either side of their grandson. Anna tried to smile as if nothing was out of the ordinary, as if Titus’s entire future didn’t hang in the balance. She’d never get him to agree to anything if he was suspicious.
Unable to relax in the face of so much attention, Titus shoved one of the cookies between his back molars and bit down hard. “Have you got a list of chores for me, Dawdi, or should I just do the regular ones?”
“Your mammi has something she wants to ask you,” Felty said, pinning Anna with a significant look as if to say that if she hadn’t thought of a plan, now would be a gute time to do it.
“Ach, jah, of course,” Anna said, clearing her throat and hoping by sheer willpower that something brilliant would come to her. Titus’s happiness depended on it. “Titus, you know we love you.”
Felty nodded eagerly, encouraging Anna with his eyes. “In the past year, you have done more work around our farm than anyone else.”
“It’s no burden,” Titus said. “You and Mammi treat me nice. Mamm says I’m scatterbrained.”
Anna reached out and patted Titus’s hand. “You’re no such
thing. You just have a lively mind, that’s all, and I need your help with something.”
“What is it?”
“I hesitate to ask, because it means you would have to come here every day. It’s a big commitment.”
“I’ll do anything for you, Mammi. Just say the word. Dat says we must help the elderly any way we can.”
Felty frowned. “I’m only eighty-six. Don’t put me in my grave just yet.”
“You see,” Anna said, fidgeting while waiting for an idea to come to her. “You see, I am going to need a great deal of help with our Christmas . . . goat.”
Felty kept a smile plastered on his lips as his brows inched toward the sky.
Anna stole a glance at Felty and shrugged. A Christmas goat was the only thing that had come to her. Crocheting that Vikings hat had drained her of all her creative juices.
Titus’s mouth fell open. The toothpick balanced precariously on his bottom lip. “Christmas what?”
“Our Christmas goat. It’s a family tradition.”
“Family tradition?” Titus said, scratching his head. “I don’t remember that tradition.”
“We’re starting a new one. There’s nothing like a goat to perk up the Christmas season.”
“But, Mammi, you don’t have a goat.”
“We will buy one. That’s why it’s called a Christmas goat, because we get it at Christmastime to fill our hearts with cheer.”
Titus looked excessively concerned and even more confused. “I’ve never heard of a goat filling hearts with cheer.”
“That’s why it’s important that we start this new tradition. You’ve been missing out on half the fun of Christmas for far too long.”
“I had no idea,” Titus said.
Anna poured more milk into Titus’s nearly full glass. “I will need you to come up every day in December to feed it and milk it and take care of it. I’ll be too busy, and Felty is too old to learn how to milk a goat.”
“I’m only eighty-six,” Felty said.
Oh dear. She hoped she hadn’t offended Felty, but it couldn’t be helped. They needed Titus to come to Huckleberry Hill, and Felty’s age would have to be the excuse, no matter how weak it sounded.
Titus pinched his toothpick between his thumb and index finger. “I really want to help you, Mammi, but there’s one problem. Once when I was little, a goat tried to eat me.”
“A goat tried to eat you?” Felty said.
Titus’s head bobbed up and down like a buoy on the lake. “I was five years old. He jumped and rested his hooves on my shoulders and knocked me to the ground. Then he snatched the lollipop out of my mouth with his teeth and ate it, stick and all. I’ve been afraid of goats ever since. Maybe we should ask Ben to help you with your goat. I don’t know if I’m brave enough.”
Anna swiped at the air as if pushing that suggestion as far from her mind as possible. “Ben has a wife, a little one, and another on the way. He couldn’t possibly come every day.” She squeezed his hand, probably a little too hard, because her knuckles turned white. “Titus, I need all the courage you can muster. Our goat needs you. You’re the only one who can save Christmas.”
“You need me to save Christmas?” Titus stared at her for a few moments as the toothpick between his lips bobbed up and down like the second hand on a watch. “You’re not planning on eating this goat, are you, Mammi? I don’t like to eat a pet once I’ve named it.”
“Eating it? Titus, I could never eat our Christmas goat. Christmas is a time for peace on earth and goodwill toward men . . . and goats.”
Titus nodded as the uncertainty in his eyes gave way to calm determination. “I’ll do it, but only because I love you so much, Mammi.”
“Wunderbarr,” Anna said. “You won’t regret it.”
Concern passed across Titus’s features. “I’ll be okay. I just have to remember to leave my lollipops at home. No sense in looking for trouble.”
“Gute idea,” Anna said. “Now. I want to talk to you about a special Christmas beanie.”
CHAPTER 2
Trina Benson rolled her car to a stop in front of the gravel road that led up to Huckleberry Hill. She bent her head to peer up the snow-covered lane. “Katie Rose, I hate to say this, but I don’t think my little hatchback is going to make it up that hill, even with snow tires. I’m sorry, but can you manage?”
Katie peered up the hill. It had been eight years since she’d been to Bonduel, but she still remembered the steep and long walk up Huckleberry Hill. She had a large, heavy suitcase to drag up with her, but she would be in trouble if Trina got stuck in the snow or lost control and slid down the hill and into a tree.
“The older I am, the more nervous I get driving in the snow,” Trina said. “I should probably quit driving altogether and move to Florida.”
Katie fished into her pocket and handed Trina some money. “I could use a little fresh air after that stuffy bus.”
Her heart only started galloping when she got out of the car and pulled her small traveling bag and her giant brown suitcase out of Trina’s trunk. For once, she regretted being such an obedient child. If she’d had her way, she’d be at home baking cookies for the school Christmas program or delivering Christmas fudge to her neighbors and friends. Instead, she was standing at the bottom of a daunting hill contemplating the miserable task before her.
Get a proposal from Adam Wengerd by Christmastime or die an old maedle, Mamm had warned.
The thought of dying an old maid had been enough to get Katie out of Augusta and back to Bonduel. She wasn’t brave enough by half to try to get a husband, but she didn’t want to end up an old maedle, either. In her Amish community, old maids lived off of the kindness of their brothers and sisters, never having a home of their own or respect from their neighbors. Old maids ended up keeping house and taking care of other people’s children. Katie would do just about anything to keep from becoming an old maid.
Even marry Adam Wengerd.
It wasn’t that Katie was against Adam Wengerd as a husband, but she didn’t know him that well. They had been friends in sixth and seventh grade, before Katie had moved away. All Katie could remember was that Adam had been handsome and tall and that he liked to talk about softball and hunting. Now she had to make him fall in love with her.
What if he didn’t? What if he found her boring and awkward? He might decide she was too quiet. Her brothers scolded her constantly for being mousy and shy. “What boy will try for a date if you won’t talk to him, Katie?” her brother Mahlon had said.
But what of her feelings? She didn’t want to be an old maid, but that didn’t mean she should settle for just anyone, did it? What if Adam turned out to be mean or lazy? How could she even know such a thing before she married him?
Maybe there was still time to find someone in Augusta.
She shook her head. She was twenty-four years old, timid, and quiet. Adam Wengerd was the boy who could save her from dreaded spinsterhood, but the thought of trying to convince him to marry her made her sick.
Being the seventh of ten children, Katie had been all but ignored by her parents. Mamm had always been too busy running the house to give Katie or her siblings much attention, but Katie didn’t mind being insignificant. As long as Mamm would let her cook for the family and try out new recipes, she was perfectly content. The thought of trying to win a husband terrified her. She’d cried all night the night before she’d left home. How could she bear the embarrassment of it all? Cooking all her best dishes to wheedle a proposal out of Adam, trying to come up with interesting things to say, and Adam all the while knowing she was so desperate that she had to come all the way to Bonduel to find a husband.
Maybe being an old maid wouldn’t be so bad.
Katie exhaled slowly and picked up her bag and her suitcase. She’d better get going. Mamm said Adam would arrive at Huckleberry Hill in time for dinner, and Katie was expected to cook for him. That’s how Mamm said Katie would win Adam’s heart—with her cooking. What boy could resist Ka
tie’s sour cream apple pie?
Her suitcase clattered as she hefted it in her hand and began her journey up the hill. She certainly hoped Anna Helmuth was expecting her. What would she do if she showed up and Anna had no place to put her? Katie imagined trudging back down the hill and going from house to house in search of a job as a cook or a maid. What would Mamm think if she walked all the way back to Augusta?
The suitcase got heavier and heavier as she hiked up Huckleberry Hill. Katie almost regretted bringing it, but she had to impress Adam with her cooking skills. For sure and certain, she wouldn’t win Adam’s heart with clever conversation. Her mater had made that perfectly clear.
With her arms shaking and her legs feeling like jelly, Katie finally made it to the top of the hill. A friendly white clapboard house with a big front window stood to her left, and a red barn with white trim sat farther down the lane directly in front of her. In such a pretty place, perhaps she could convince Adam to fall in love with her.
A caramel-and-white blur of hair and legs ran toward her, bleating as if it was very happy to see her. She caught her breath as the floppy-eared goat jumped up and propped its hooves on her legs just above her knees. In surprise, she dropped her travel bag and suitcase, and they clattered into the snow. “Ach!”
“Beth, stop!”
Katie tensed as a young man, probably about her age, with long legs and a gray beanie with horns came running toward her. The goat was either playing a game of tag or wanted to escape. It pushed off and ran down the hill as fast as its little legs would go, baaing all the way.
The young man, who seemed very intent on catching the goat, took a gute look at Katie and stopped as if he’d run into an invisible brick wall. His eyes grew wide, and the toothpick between his lips tumbled to the ground. His beanie was the most unusual thing Katie had ever seen—gray and lumpy, with what looked like two horns sticking out of either side. She thought it was sort of cute, as if she could tell he was good-natured just from his choice of beanies. Surely no one who wore a beanie like that would take himself very seriously. He stood frozen to the ground and stared at her, as if he wouldn’t mind being there all day. As if he hadn’t just been chasing a goat.
