[2016] The Precious Amish Baby

by Faith Crawford

  “Are you feeling well?” Pastor Aaron asked as the outer buildings of the large city came closer.

  “Yes, I am, thank you, Pastor.”

  “You are welcome. I was hoping that you would be distracted and not feeling anxious as we made our journey.”

  “Not at all. You were very entertaining.”

  He laughed. “Glad to hear that!”

  “God gave you a good sense of humor.” She added with a smile.

  “Why, yes, I believe He did.” Instinctively, the Pastor looked up.

  “I’m glad it wasn’t raining.” Rebekah looked up, too, noticing the bright sun over her head.

  Pastor Aaron nodded. “Yes, it is a beautiful day for a new start in life.”

  “Yes. Very true.” She looked out at the buildings as they got closer. “Do you know where we are supposed to go?”

  “Andrew’s message said that he would meet us at the post office, which should be on this side of town, according to his directions. I don’t think we will have trouble finding it. This is a larger city but it’s not so large that we will get lost. And I’ll have no problem asking someone when we get in.”

  He fingered his black and white collar. “Most people do not feel intimidated by a traveling preacher.” He looked at her. “Or a little woman, either.”

  “Hey, you’ve got two vicious young people in the back of your wagon, too, Uncle Aaron,” Fred spoke up from the back, a wide grin on his handsome face.

  Aaron looked over his shoulder. “While that may be true, I am confident we will be safe from harm.”

  They all laughed.

  ***

  The post office was indeed close by. It was one of the first buildings they came up on. There was a man sitting in a wagon looking like he was waiting for someone and he sat up straight as they approached. Rebekah and Aaron both smiled at him and he smiled back.

  She was glad to see him. He looked to be about her age, had blond hair and blue eyes and was wearing a clean white shirt with a vest, jeans, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. She was glad he didn’t look like some of the gold miners she had seen in the past. They always looked rough, like they had spent too much time on their own out in the wilderness living off beans, bread and water. Andrew looked well put together, healthy and clean.

  “Hello!” He called out to them, lifting one hand to wave at them.

  “Hello!” Aaron called back. “You are Andrew Cunningham?”

  “I sure am!”

  “I have a special delivery for you!”

  Andrew laughed. Aaron looked down at Rebekah, who looked back at him, blushing to the roots of her dark blond curly hair. “Oh Pastor!” She said softly, giggling.

  “Well, you are the best delivery I’ve made in a long time, Rebekah. I truly wish you well.”

  “Thank you. Thank you.”

  They had reached Andrew’s wagon. Fred and Frank jumped down from the back and reached back in to pull out a trunk each.

  “You boys can just put those in here.” Andrew slapped the back of his wagon. He was watching Rebekah as she climbed down from the wagon. She’d waited for Aaron to get down and give her a hand. She was a small woman, her hair curling down her back from the bottom of her bonnet. She flashed hazel green eyes at him and he felt a surge of affection run through him. He was already glad she had decided to answer his ad for a bride. He hoped she was as pretty inside as she was outside.

  Chapter Four

  Rebekah stood back while the boys transferred her luggage from Aaron’s wagon to Andrew’s. She gave the pastor a hug and he wished her well.

  “You deserve so much better than you were getting, Rebekah.” He said. “I do hope you are happier here.”

  “I think I will be, Pastor,” Rebekah replied softly. “Andrew looks like a nice man.”

  Aaron glanced over at Andrew, nodding. “I think you’re right about that. If you do need anything, though, or find yourself to be in an unsafe situation, you will write to me right away, won’t you?”

  “Yes, I surely will.”

  He nodded. “Good. Farewell, dear girl.”

  “Farewell, Pastor. Thank you for all your help. Danki.”

  “You’re very welcome. Let’s go, boys!” He pulled himself up into the wagon and waited for the boys to jump in the back. Once they were in and sitting, he slapped the reins and waved to Rebekah once more.

  “Well, he seems like a really nice man.” Andrew waved with Rebekah, even though he knew the Pastor was waving to her. He smiled at her. “I’m glad to meet you. I noticed you were using a different language there. What is that, German or something?”

  Rebekah nodded. “It’s German, yes. I was raised in an Amish community.”

  Andrew raised his eyebrows. “You were? Well, I’ll be. I didn’t think those people ever left their communities.”

  Rebekah flushed a dark pink, which he thought was very attractive. “Some of us do.” She said, quietly.

  “I can see that.” He lifted his head and gestured to the wagon. “May I help you up? Are you hungry? We can get a bite to eat on the way to the ranch, if you’d like.”

  “That would be very nice, Danki. Thank you.”

  He grinned. “You don’t have to use all English if you don’t want to. If you’re comfortable with your other language, you can use it. As long as you don’t try talking in full sentences. Then I won’t understand you.” He laughed. She let herself giggle, covering her mouth with one hand. “You are a very beautiful woman.” He remarked, holding out his hand to help her up into the wagon.

  “Thank you,” she said breathlessly. She wanted to tell him that she found him to be very handsome but she was too embarrassed from his compliment.

  He nodded. “You’re welcome, Rebekah.”

  As he rounded the wagon, she wondered if she should tell him about her past, about Gregory and the abuse she had suffered at his hands. When he was sitting next to her, he picked up the reins and answered her question for her.

  “So tell me about yourself.” He said. “What do you like to do? Have you been married before?” He grinned. “I’d ask you more but I don’t want to overload you with too many questions to answer right away. I didn’t really get a lot of information from your Pastor about you, just that you’d been abandoned. Did your husband just up and leave?”

  “The man I was living with did, yes. He…wasn’t a very nice man anyway. Quite a brute, to be honest with you. I am better off without him, I suppose.”

  “I will never be a brute, I can promise you that.” Andrew snapped the reins. “I will always treat you with respect and kindness. That’s a guarantee.”

  She didn’t know how to take that. She had only been with Gregory since she left her community. She had seen a great deal of love there but it had been many years since she had felt worthy or valuable.

  “That will be a nice change.” She said.

  He nodded. “I’m here to help you, to encourage you and to provide for you.”

  “I will do what I can to help at the ranch. I don’t want to just sit around. I can cook and clean.”

  “You won’t be a servant,” Andrew said. “But I’m sure the doctor will be grateful that someone is picking up after me.”

  Rebekah giggled. “Surely you don’t make that much of a mess.”

  Andrew chuckled. “You’d be surprised, my lady. You’d be surprised.”

  “Oh my goodness. I guess I will be surprised. You look very well put together.”

  “I clean up good, that’s all.”

  They both laughed.

  “There’s a nice restaurant down here. It’s only been open since the turn of the century. We will get to enjoy the new food and drink they are serving. You’ve had soda, haven’t you? Coca-Cola?”

  “I sure have. I do love it very much.”

  “That’s great. We’ll get some sandwiches and soda or you can have something else to eat if you want. Or drink. I don’t care what you get. Just get what makes you happy.”

&nbs
p; With every word he said, Rebekah was more and more pleased she had listened to the Pastor and taken the risk of changing her life.

  ***

  With a full stomach and a satisfied smile on her face, Rebekah was ready to meet the doctor and the rest of the servants on his ranch. Andrew had told her about them all while they had an early dinner. He spoke at length about one of his ranch-hand partners, a man named Daniel O’Reilly, whom he called his best friend. There were quite a few people working on the ranch, keeping the place as clean and organized as possible. The doctor apparently made quite a lot of money.

  “You don’t need to be nervous when you meet him.” Andrew pulled himself into the wagon and sat next to her.

  “I don’t?”

  Andrew shook his head, giving her a bright smile. “You not only seem like a good woman, you come from a good background. He’ll like that.”

  “Oh, good. I’m glad. And the rest of them?”

  “Oh, don’t worry. Everyone will love ya, Beck. I promise.”

  Rebekah had never heard her name shortened to “Beck”. She liked it. Gregory had never called her anything other than Rebekah and a few other words that she didn’t like to hear and didn’t want to be called.

  She settled into the seat with a smile. She looked around her, enjoying the surrounding mountains, trees, bushes and foliage. Once they left the town, the houses became few and far between, with vast fields of corn, wheat and other produce. Large gardens sprouted up next to big farmhouses.

  There were several large carts set up on the side of the road, people selling their fruits and vegetables fresh from their gardens. She grinned at them all, happy to see their return smiles. It felt good to see so many welcoming people. They looked like they worked hard every day but didn’t mind it very much. They reminded her of the people she’d grown up around.

  She shook off her nostalgia and paid closer attention to Andrew’s rambling small talk. He called out to several of the cart people by name, lifting one hand. They waved back, yelling out friendly greetings.

  “You’ll like the ranch, too, I’m sure. It’s really big.”

  “Well, that’s never really meant a lot to me, to tell you the truth. I can be content in a very small space. I just like it when the roof doesn’t leak when it rains. That’s one of the things that bothered me about the house I used to live in. There were two separate leaks. And we didn’t even find out about one of them until the rain came pouring in on our heads during a rainstorm while we were sleeping in bed.”

  “Oh no! That must have been a shocker.”

  “It was. Gregory…was very unhappy about it.”

  “I’ll bet he got out there the next day and fixed that leak, didn’t he?”

  Rebekah didn’t say anything.

  He noticed. He turned his head to her, looking confused. “He did fix it, didn’t he?”

  “He said he was going to,” Rebekah answered him weakly.

  “But if he didn’t, what did you do the next time it rained?”

  She turned her head away. “He moved the bed.”

  Andrew looked back out over the road. “Oh.”

  “It was a very small house. A shack, really. And there wasn’t really much room to move the bed. So…” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “Sometimes when it rained enough, the water would…splash up onto…my side of the bed. There was a bucket there…but, well, it would get filled up and if I didn’t get up in the middle of the night to empty it, it would overflow and it would splash up on me even more.”

  Andrew was still quiet so she continued.

  “I didn’t really mind getting up to empty the bucket. But after a few months, I got tired of it. Sometimes there were surprise storms and I wouldn’t have put the bucket out. The other leak was in the kitchen. The floors started to mold from constantly being soaked in water. So, well, I went up there and repaired it.”

  He looked at her. “You did?”

  “Yes.”

  He put his hand around her shoulders and squeezed her to him. “You’re amazing, Rebekah. You really are.”

  “Thank you, Andrew.”

  “Call me Andy, honey. That’s what the people I care about call me. And I definitely care about you. I think you’re going to prove to be a wonderful decision for me.”

  “What made you decide to put out an ad for a bride, Andy?” Rebekah asked. "Surely you could have found someone here in this nice little town? You don’t seem like a desperate cowboy…or ranch hand.”

  “No, I’m not desperate.” He laughed. “I…I guess I was just tired of looking, tired of being alone…I’ve met all the ladies in town and I just didn’t find the right one that way. There are some older ladies that are very interested in me.” He gave her a big smile. “But I’m not very interested in them. I spent a lot of time on my own when I was mining for gold. And I was good at it. But it was a lonely lifestyle. I’m done with that.”

  “Yes.” She giggled. “I can see why they would be. You are very handsome.”

  “Thanks, Beck.” She was pleased to see his cheeks flush. It made him look even more attractive than he already did.

  ***

  The doctor was sitting in the den of his very large ranch house when they got there. Rebekah was immediately impressed. The doctor’s cornfield stretched as far as she could see. He had a huge barn, a stable and, from what Andrew said, eight horses.

  He rose from a long red velvet couch when they came in and extended his hand to Rebekah right away, a large grin on his face. He was older, probably in his early sixties, she thought, with a neat, trim beard and mustache. He wore a western business suit and his cowboy boots looked like they might have been polished recently.

  “You must be Rebekah! How wonderful to have you here. I know Andrew has been looking forward to your arrival.”

  “Oh?” She gave Andrew a glance and a smile. “This is quite a home you have here. Da…Thank you for allowing me to come.”

  “Oh, I usually let Andrew do pretty much whatever he wants. He kind of runs this place, you know.” He leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered dramatically. “But don’t tell Mrs. Patterson that. She’s the ranch manager and if she thinks her position is being usurped, she might have a little fit.”

  They all laughed.

  “Ooops,” Andrew said. “I think that cat was out of the bag long ago, sir. She usually comes to me to ask questions and get ideas and advice.”

  The doctor raised his eyebrows. “Oh, does she now? Perhaps you deserve a raise then.”

  Andrew’s face lit up. “I won’t say no to that, sir!”

  Doctor Zimmerman chuckled. “I’ll consider it.” He looked at Rebekah with sparkling blue eyes that looked much younger than his years. “Rebekah, I’ve had a room set up for you to occupy until you and Andrew get acquainted and do your falling in love. Does that sound all right to you?”

  “You are very kind. Danki. Thank you.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Are you from an Amish family?”

  She looked at him, surprised. “Yes. How did you know?”

  He nodded. “I have some friends that are part of that community over in Devonshire. I will be glad to introduce you to them sometime.”

  “Oh, thank you. That would be lovely!”

  “It will be my pleasure, young lady.”

  Rebekah looked at Andrew, hoping he wouldn’t be displeased with her wanting to reconnect with people who understood her past. He didn’t look upset. He looked very pleased and gave her a warm smile.

  Rebekah was relieved. Gregory would have had many unpleasant words to say about it.

  Chapter Five

  The next two weeks flew by for Rebekah. Every morning, she was greeted by smiles from Andrew’s co-workers. There were almost a dozen of them. The cook, Amanda, was always a riot, making everyone laugh with her funny jokes. It turned out that she was mother to Andrew’s best friend, Daniel, and had a distinct Irish accent that made her jokes sound even funnier than they actuall
y were.

  Daniel, Andrew and Rebekah set out on a bright Saturday morning to go into the town and fetch extra spices for Amanda. She said she wouldn’t be able to make her roast just right without them and sent them off with her usual bluster.

  Rebekah sat in between the two men, feeling safer and happier than she had in many years. She was sure it was going to be a beautiful day.

  When they got into town, Andrew stepped down from the wagon and held up his hand for Rebekah. “All right, my lady. Come on down. You go over to the ice cream parlor and get a cup, we’ll get the spices and meet you there. How does that sound?”

  “Oh, isn’t it a bit early in the day for ice cream?”

  “Has your lassie lost her mind?” Daniel asked, rounding the wagon and stepping up onto the wooden deck of the general store, his hands pushed down into his pockets. He grinned at Rebekah. “It’s never too early for ice cream. You get on in there, little lady, and we’ll be there in about ten minutes. That is, if I can keep this boy from lolly-gaggin’ around the new iron tools. He’s got a thing for those blades, ya know.”

  “What in heaven’s name do you need a blade for?” Rebekah looked at Andrew.

  Andrew shrugged. “I don’t need one. I just like to look at them. Our tiller and some of the other equipment are going to need some replacements soon and I just want to check them out.”

  Rebekah grinned. “You’re not going to clear that with Mrs. Patterson.”

  The three of them laughed.

  “All right, Andy, I’ll see you in a little bit then.” She held out her hand to him. He took it and placed a soft kiss on top, leaning forward and giving her a quick hug.

  She felt a thrill run through her chest when he touched her. She turned away with a soft sigh that he heard. Daniel leaned over and nudged him with one elbow, nodding his head at Rebekah and grinning wide.