“Perfect. This ‘asking people for things’ really works.” Evelyn giggled.
“You’ve never had any problem asking me for anything. It’s other people you have a problem with.”
Evelyn nodded.
Chapter 11
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum 1:3
* * *
Beth took Martha back home with her when she left Evelyn’s place, as Evelyn had to go into town. On her way, Evelyn stopped at Sally’s house hoping Mark would be home so she could discuss selling Amos’ buggy horse. Then she would drive to the bank to close down her husband’s account.
When she got down from the buggy, Jed came out of the barn and waved to her. “They’re not here,” he said as he walked closer.
Evelyn stayed by her horse’s shoulder. “I was hoping Mark would be here.”
“Do you need help with something?”
“I have to put Amos’ horse into auction.” She pointed to the tall black horse in the paddock.
Jed turned to look and then smiled at her. “He’s a good looking horse.”
Evelyn nodded. “Amos liked horses.”
“Why don’t you keep him and sell your other horse?”
“Nee. I’m used to this one.” She patted her horse’s neck. “I’d get more money for the black one. I think Amos paid quite a bit for him just six months ago. He said he cost more because of the way he looks.” Once she’d uttered the words she realized that Amos had used Hezekiah’s money to buy the black horse. She was annoyed that he’d have done such a thing.
“You might do well from the auction, then.”
“I hope so.” Remembering what her sister said about asking, she said, “What are you doing right now?”
“Nothing. Just trying to fill up my time until Mark gets home. They’ll be another two hours.”
“Perhaps you’d drive me to talk to the auctioneers and then drive me to the bank?”
“I’d be happy to.” He leaned over and looked into the back of the buggy. “You’re by yourself?”
“My sister, Beth, is minding Martha while I go into town.”
He jumped up into the buggy. “I’m driving.”
Evelyn giggled. “Okay.”
“Oh, do you need help?” he said to her as she climbed into the buggy.
“I’m fine.”
He turned the buggy around and they headed toward the road.
“You’ve got a lot of familye here?” he asked.
“Jah, I’m the youngest of nine girls. Sally is the second youngest and I suppose that’s why we’re close. It’s handy that she lives close by too. My oldest schweschder is Beth, and she’s the one who’s minding Martha. What about yourself? Do you come from a large family?”
“There are five of us brothers, and I’m the one in the middle. I’m the only one not married.”
“But you’ll be married soon.”
“I hope so.”
“What’s her name?” Evelyn asked.
“Mary Jones.”
Evelyn nodded and tried to hide her disappointment at hearing a name. Up until now, she’d hoped that there wasn’t a fiancée, and maybe he had said he was getting married soon simply because he hoped to get married. “That’s a nice name—Mary.”
“Jah, it’s a gut name.”
“Is she from Ohio too?”
“Jah, she is.”
“Nice.”
“Jah.” He looked over at her and smiled.
Why was it that she felt this connection? The man was soon to marry someone else. “Have you been to our county before?”
“When I was younger I visited. I stayed with the bishop back then. He’s my onkel.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. I don’t know much about the bishop’s relatives.”
“He’s not really a close onkel, we’re distantly related. My father’s aunt is his cousin, or some such thing.” He laughed. “I can never keep track of who is related to who.”
“I have that problem too.”
“I never asked you before, but how is Martha coping without her vadder?”
“She doesn’t really understand.”
“She seems to have a liking for Mr. Hofstetter.”
Evelyn laughed. “You said his name just like she says it. Jah, she does like him. He’s a kind man.”
Jed glanced over at her, momentarily taking his eyes from the road.
“What?”
“Since you told me so much about yourself yesterday, I owe it to tell you something about myself.”
Evelyn stared at him waiting for him to continue.
“I have no woman that I’m going to marry.”
Evelyn sat there stunned. What reason would he have for lying to everyone? “There’s no Mary?”
“There is a Mary. There’s a Mary that everyone thinks I should marry, the way it might make sense for some that you marry Hezekiah.”
Finally, Evelyn understood a little better. “But why tell us that you’re engaged to be married when it’s not true?”
“For the simple reason that each time I go to a different community, people find single women to introduce me to. People automatically think I’m there looking for a wife when I’m not. I like to move around and see different parts of the country.”
Evelyn knew what he said was true. People would try to match him with a suitable wife once they learned that he was a single man.
“What you’re saying makes sense, but what if Mary hears back that you’re telling people that you’re going to marry her?”
He laughed. “I never mention a name to anyone. No one has ever asked me about her, except for you.” He glanced over at her. “Most people only want to talk about themselves and that shows me that you’re not a selfish person.”
Evelyn gave a little laugh. “Sometimes I am.”
He shook his head. “I can’t believe you have any faults.”
And there it was—the warm fuzzy feeling that Evelyn had waited all her life to feel.
“Mary’s a close friend even though she’s years younger. She lives on the farm next to ours. She’s like my young schweschder and I don’t feel a marriage between us would be the best thing for either of us.”
“How does she feel?”
“Mary’s quite outspoken about her feelings. She said she’d only marry a man with brown eyes and dark hair.”
Evelyn giggled. “It’s good that she knows what she wants. Do you feel rejected?”
He laughed. “I suppose if I were in love with her, I’d be very upset. Her parents are pressuring us to marry, which is the real reason I’m here. We both—Mary and I—thought if I went away for a few months that would take the pressure off.”
“So that’s why you’re here?”
“Jah, but you’re the only person who knows.” He put his finger to his mouth to signal ‘sh.’ “I haven’t even told Mark. You know how news travels around the communities like wildfire.”
“I know. I’m glad you told me, and your secret’s safe with me.”
“Now we hold each other’s secrets. I know that Hezekiah asked you to marry him, and now you know why I’m here.”
“That’s a fair exchange.”
They came to a fork in the road.
“You’ll have to direct me from here.”
“Go left,” Evelyn said.
“Do you know how much you want for the horse?”
“Nee, I don’t. I’ll book him in and see what their process is. I’d keep him but I don’t think I’d need two horses. If mine goes lame, I can always have Mark and Sally drive me places until he recovers.”
“That’s the best way,” he said looking out into the fields.
“Do you like it here?”
He smiled at her. “I’m liking it more every day.”
After Jed took her to all the au
ctioneers and then the bank, the last stop was the supermarket. With the money left in Amos’ account, there was enough food for a month’s worth of groceries. Since she didn’t want to hold Jed up too much, she only bought the weekly necessities.
He followed her around the supermarket pushing the shopping cart. Amos had never gone to the supermarket with her; it was nice to have a man shop with her. Once he loaded the groceries into the buggy, he suggested that they find somewhere to have lunch. She agreed.
They found a diner up the road from the supermarket.
She opened the menu after they were seated. “I can’t remember the last time I ate out.”
“Didn’t Amos take you out to eat? Many people in the community back home eat out nowadays.”
“I know it wouldn’t have happened years ago, but now they even go through the drive though section of the fast-food outlets in their buggies. To answer your question, Amos never liked to eat out. He liked to eat at home and his food had to be exactly how his mudder made it.” It’d been exhausting and awful, but Evelyn didn’t tell Jed that or she would’ve sounded rude.
“Did he ever compliment your food, or say thank you for the effort you’d gone to?”
“He did if I’d made it just like his mudder, but he was a man of few words. And I don’t think he was being rude or uncaring, it was just that he wasn’t that interested in food. Maybe it all tasted the same to him—I don’t know. To be fair, I never thanked him for his contribution to our familye, for working so hard. I never thought to thank him—I just expected him to do it.”
“I’ve never been married, but I hope when I marry that I will appreciate my fraa every single day because she’ll be a very smart woman.” He laughed.
Evelyn gave a little laugh at his humor, and then hunger drew her eyes back to the menu.
He opened his menu. “Let’s see now. I think I’ll go with the hamburger and fries.”
“I was about to say the same.”
When they closed the menus, the waitress took their order.
“I hope you’re not going to be late to see Mark. Did you have something planned for this afternoon?”
“He’s visiting people to see how many people we can find to work on your haus over the next few weeks.”
“Really?”
“Jah.”
“That’s good of him, but I didn’t know I had agreed to that.”
“There’s no reason not to. We all help each other. There’s nothing wrong with reaching out and taking someone’s hand when you can’t see in the dark.”
“Well the next horse auction is not for another month and I’ll have to rely on Mark or one of my other bruder-in-laws to get the horse there. I don’t like to ask people to do too many things.”
“No one will mind. People want to do things for you. We’re all a familye.” He smiled at her. “One week you help someone, the next week they’re helping you.”
Evelyn nodded. “I know. Sally tells me things like that all the time. It’s hard for me to accept help, or to ask for it.”
“You give help though, don’t you?”
“I would, if someone asked me. But I don’t think I’ve helped too many people and that’s something I’ve been thinking about lately.” Evelyn laughed. “I don’t know why I’m telling you so much about myself. I normally don’t speak about myself so much.”
“I’m glad you’re telling me about yourself. I want to get to know you better.”
Chapter 12
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
* * *
Before Evelyn had gone home that day, Sally had insisted she’d have Jed bring Amos’ buggy to her house. The buggy Amos had been using was in better repair than the old one Evelyn had been using. It made perfect sense for her to use the good one. Mark had taken the horse and buggy from William’s house for safekeeping not long after Amos had died.
Knowing she’d be getting a visitor that day—Jed—Evelyn had been on a cleaning frenzy. If the house looked clean and tidy it wouldn’t look so drab and in need of repair.
“He’s here, Mamm.”
Evelyn rushed to the window where Martha had been waiting for their visitor. “Gut, now hold my hand and we can go out to meet him. I must thank him for bringing the buggy here. Now remember, his name is Mr. Esh.”
“Okay.”
When he looked over, he said, “Guder Mariye.”
“Guder Mariye.” Evelyn replied while Martha ducked behind her, hanging on to her mother’s dress.
“Where would you like the buggy?”
“Just in the barn next to the old one, denke. I suppose I could’ve changed buggies while I was there yesterday, but that would’ve left the old buggy at their place.”
“Mark said not to bring your black horse, just the buggy.”
“You could’ve brought my horse and we could’ve led him back. I’m taking you back to Mark’s place anyway.”
“Mark said this horse needed the exercise, and he didn’t want to risk the other getting injured before the auction.”
Evelyn nodded. “He’s got so many horses I lose track of them.”
Jed jumped down and led the horse closer to the barn.
“Hello, Mr. Esh.”
He stopped and looked over. “Hello, Martha. I didn’t notice you there.”
“I was hiding.” She giggled.
“That’s her favorite game at the moment.”
“That was one of my favorites too.”
“Will you play?”
He stopped and looked over at Evelyn. “I don’t know if we’ll have the time today.” He raised his eyebrows and looked at Evelyn.
“It depends if you have the time. We don’t want to hold you up from anything.”
“I’ll put the buggy away, tie the horse and I’ll come and tell you what I’ve got planned for your vadder-in-law’s haus.”
She smiled and nodded, but realized that meant he would need to come inside the house. It was far too cold to discuss matters on the porch and it would seem rude. “I’ll boil the pot for a cup of tea.”
“Denke, just what I need. It’ll warm me.”
“Come on, Martha.” She held Martha’s hand and turned to go inside.
“I want to play.”
“Mr. Esh is coming inside to speak with me and he might play with you after that, but only if you’re quiet while he’s talking to me.”
“Okay, Mamm.” Martha let out a sigh.
That was the first time she’d heard Martha made such a noise and she was well aware that Martha had picked up on her tendency to sigh. Evelyn knew she’d have to stop doing that.
Evelyn set Martha up on a blanket with toys and then put the pot on to boil. She hadn’t had anyone fix the leaking tap yet and had been using the more easily accessible rainwater tank that was originally supposed to be used for the livestock. The tank for the household was designed to go straight into the house pipes and if there were an outside access point, Evelyn had no idea how to find it.
Jed settled himself at the kitchen table. “Because of the time of year, Mark couldn’t find many people to work on your haus. You’ll be doing me a favor if you’ll allow me to fix the house for you. It might take some time, but it won’t cost you. Mark will be able to take time off and, between the two of us, we can do the bulk of it in a few days.”
“Why would you do this when you’re saving for a house? Wouldn’t you be better off doing paid work somewhere?”
“Nee. My situation is nothing for you to concern yourself with. And I don’t mean that in a rude way,” Jed said with a chuckle. “I came here for a change of scene and I’d be happy if you would allow me to do work for you and bring the haus back to what it was.”
“Are you certain you want to do this? I can pay you in time.”
He shook his head. �
�Not necessary. Between Mark and me, we’ll organize materials and see what we can get for nothing. People have offered materials already.”
“That’s so gut of them. All right, denke, I’d be happy for you and Mark to look after things for me at the haus.”
“Gut! Now where’s that cup of tea? And then you’ll have to take me back in the buggy.”
Evelyn smiled, stood up and filled the teapot.
“I guess I shouldn’t have unhitched it. If you take me back then you’ll have to unhitch the buggy by yourself when you get back. I’ll walk back. It won’t take me long.”
“Nee you can’t do that. It’s too cold.”
“It’s not that far at all and I’ll jog to keep warm.”
“What about Mark’s horse?”
“Ah! I could jump on his back and hopefully he’s been trained for a saddle.”
Evelyn giggled as she lit the stove. “If he hasn’t been, you’ll have to hang on.”
“Jah, I might get home quicker than I expected.” Jed laughed.
Chapter 13
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,
kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
bearing with one another and,
if one has a complaint against another,
forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you,
so you also must forgive.
Colossians 3:12-13
* * *
After leaving Martha with her oldest sister, Beth, Evelyn headed to Sally’s house, as Sally was going to take her to her appointment with the midwife. When Sally’s house came into view, she knew she would be too late to see Jed; she kept looking and hoping he might be there.
Before she could knock on the door, Sally flung it open.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve both been child-free.” Sally said smiling as Evelyn walked in.
“It has been. I can’t recall the last time I had someone mind Martha; she normally goes to visit Dana with me.” The sound of the crackling fire made Evelyn feel as though she didn’t want to go anywhere; rather she wanted to stay right in front of the fire with a cup of tea. That would be the nicest thing.
Amish Widow's Proposal Page 6
