Seated among the women on one of the narrow wooden benches at the preaching service, Karen glanced across the aisle, looking for her brother. Her father and Noah were seated among the men but she couldn’t see Jacob. Once again her heart grew troubled as her worry about him intensified. He had come ahead bringing the bench wagon to the Beachy farm, but Karen had not seen him since they arrived.
At the front of the room the bishop began speaking. Forced to give up her search she turned her attention to the preacher. Bishop Zook, in a solemn voice, announced the banns of Adam Troyer and Emma Wadler. The wedding was to take place the Thursday before Christmas.
There were quite a few soft murmurs of surprise from the congregation. Emma had long been considered an old maid in their community. At thirty-three she was still single but God had seen fit to bring the right man into her life. Karen had suspected as much but hadn’t known for sure. Amish couples frequently dated and planned their engagements in secret.
Although Karen was happy for her cousin, she couldn’t help the twinge of envy that marred her joy. Chiding herself for the selfish thought, Karen decided she should take it as a sign that someday God could bring the right man into her life when the children were grown and able to manage without her.
The Sunday service lasted nearly three hours. Afterward, as the men set up tables and the women began unpacking the food for the meal, Karen and Anna followed the crowd of young people into the barn. They would have to wait their turn to eat. The elders would be served first.
Anna took off to play with several of her school friends. Looking around, Karen spied Emma and Adam being congratulated. Beyond the pair she caught sight of Jacob at last. She breathed a sigh of relief until she saw he was with a group of older boys.
They were all fast boys, known to be troublemakers and a worry to their parents. Karen wasn’t happy to see Jacob so comfortable among them. The ringleader was Henry Zook, the bishop’s youngest son, a young man who should know better.
Karen joined the group around Emma and Adam and spent a pleasant half hour listening to Adam’s family tease him about giving up his bachelor ways.
Later, on their way home in the early afternoon Karen noticed her father had become unusually quiet. He’d had his cast removed the day before, but he still wore his arm in a sling. Checking on her siblings, Karen saw Anna and Noah were dozing in the backseat. Jacob followed behind them with the bench wagon.
Karen said, “Is something wrong, Papa? Is your arm hurting?”
“What?” He sat up straight. Karen could’ve sworn he looked guilty about something.
“I asked if your arm was bothering you?”
“Nee, it is fine. Did you know that Emma and Adam Troyer planned to marry?”
Karen smiled. “I knew something was up between them. I’m sure they will be happy. They have both waited a long time to find the right person.”
“A man is blessed indeed to find a woman who will make his house a home. I pray God grants them many children.” He fell silent again. Karen couldn’t shake the feeling that something was troubling him.
“You had best tell me now, Papa. You know I will find out.” Had he learned something about John? Was he trying to tell her that John would be leaving?
His eyes grew round as saucers. “What do you mean?”
“You have something on your mind. I see the signs. Whatever it is, do not be afraid to tell me.”
He nodded, then said slowly, “Ja, you will find out.”
“And you are afraid I’ll be upset? I won’t, Papa.”
“Very well. I have asked Nettie Sutter to marry me and she has accepted my offer.”
Karen stared at him in blank astonishment. Whatever she had been expecting, it was not this. “You’re getting married?”
Exactly where did that leave her?
The words seemed to rush out of him. “I have wanted to ask her for many months. Then I broke my arm and lost the feeling in my hand. I knew I couldn’t ask her to marry a man unable to support her or his own children. But God has seen fit to heal me and I thank Him for that. Today, when I heard the bishop publish the banns for Emma I felt it was the right time to approach Nettie. She said yes. She will make a goot stepmother. She is a devout woman. The children already know and like her.”
“Ja, she is a goot woman.” Karen’s mind reeled. Nettie would become the woman of the house. She would run the home as she saw fit and Eli would support her decisions. Karen would have to step aside and give up the reins of control.
She would go from being the woman of the house back to being an unmarried daughter. In her community she was already seen as an old maid with few marriage prospects. All of her friends had married by twenty. Most had several children by the age of twenty-four.
“You are taking this very well.” Her father smiled in relief and patted her knee.
“I want you to be happy, Papa.”
“Danki. We have decided to wait until next fall. Nettie wants her children who live in Pennsylvania to be able to attend and one of her daughters there is expecting soon. I’m telling you this because I want you to start going to the singings again. You must look about for a husband of your own, Karen. Who knows, perhaps there will be more than one wedding in the family.”
A husband of her own. As her father’s words sank in, one name slipped into Karen’s mind. John Doe.
Quickly, she dismissed the thought. Even without her responsibilities to the children and her father, she had made a vow before God and the community to uphold the ways of the Amish faith. Her first responsibility was always to God.
John was an outsider and forbidden. No matter how much she liked him she could never forget that fact.
Anna pursed her lips as she stared at John. “What is haus?”
John held back his grin. The kid was so serious. “House.”
“Haus-dach?” Anna snapped quickly.
House something. He racked his brain until the answer popped into his head. “House roof.”
“Goot. What is natt?”
“That is… Don’t tell me. That is wet.” Proud of himself, he smiled broadly.
“Nee. Wet is nass. Natt is north.”
“North, natt. Wet, nass. Got it.” Learning a new language wasn’t easy. Especially when Karen was nearby to distract him.
“Handkerchief?”
His shoulders slumped. “You’re making this too hard, Anna.”
“We did this one yesterday.” She gave him that look. The one that reminded him so much of Karen when one of the children stepped out of line.
He took his best guess. “Handkerchief is shoe-duck.”
“No, it’s shnubbe-duch,” Anna corrected in her most serious voice.
“Oh, come on. I was close.”
Glancing to where Karen stood at the sink listening, John caught her smile at his wheedling. He didn’t know what was more adorable, Anna as the benevolent and determined teacher or Karen as his amused and supportive audience.
For the past three days when Anna arrived home from school she quickly finished her chores and set up her classroom at the kitchen table. She called John in from work when she was ready. Their interchanges had become the highlight of his afternoons.
Anna said, “Now we’re going to work on colors. What color is Karen’s dress?”
He leaned back in his chair happy for the opportunity to study Karen openly. “That’s difficult to say. Your sister’s dress is sort of sea-foam green. Her apron is black, but her hair is honey-gold. Her lips are ruby-red and her eyes are the same beautiful sky-blue that you have, Anna.”
Karen continued peeling potatoes. “And John is trying to avoid answering the question because he doesn’t know the Amish word for green.”
Busted. “Sadly, that is exactly what I’m trying to do. Anna, can we do the colors tomorrow? I have to go into town this afternoon. I’ve got a job interview.”
Karen looked at him in surprise. “A job interview? Where?”
“Your fat
her made arrangements with Reuben Beachy to give me a try. If I can do the job he’ll take me on as an apprentice.”
“The harness maker? That sounds like a fine job.”
Without a driver’s license or a social security card John was limited to where he could apply for work. The Amish carried neither of those trappings of the outside world. “Any job is a good thing because I need to be able to support myself. Your father has kindly loaned me the farm wagon to drive.”
“Why don’t you take the buggy?” Karen offered. “Your daed is using it.” John glanced at Anna to see if he’d gotten the word for father correct. She grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
A puzzled expression appeared on Karen’s features. “Where has Papa gone?”
“To see Nettie Sutter,” Anna answered. “He’s sweet on her.”
“No kidding?” John looked to Karen for confirmation.
She nodded. “Anna, can you get me a jar of peaches from the cellar?”
When the child was out of the room, Karen turned to John. “My father and Nettie are to be married next fall. Please don’t say anything to the children yet. He hasn’t told them.”
“Sure. Are you okay with your father getting re married?”
Her chin came up. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Won’t it make some big changes for you?”
“I will have more help in the kitchen. I won’t mind that.” She didn’t sound enthusiastic.
“What things will you mind?” he asked gently.
Laying her knife aside, she bowed her head. “I have raised them like my own children. Anna can barely remember our mother. Now I must step aside and let another woman take my place. How do I do that?”
Rising from the table, John walked to where she stood and rested his hands on her shoulders. “You have always done what is best for the children. You will continue to do that.”
She tipped her head to the side and laid her cheek against his fingers. “You are right. The children must come first.”
John’s gesture of comfort quickly changed into something deeper. His need to hold her threatened to destroy his self-control. He could feel her slender collar bones beneath his hands, the softness of her cheek against his knuckles. His body ached with the effort it took not to slip his arms around her and pull her against him. “Danki,” she breathed the word out and he knew she treasured his touch as much as he treasured her nearness.
The cellar door banged opened and Anna raced into the room with a jar of peaches in her hand. “Is one enough, sister?” she asked, setting the quart container on the table.
John quickly dropped his hands and stepped away, hoping the child hadn’t noticed. “Ja, one is fine.” Karen picked up her knife and began peeling potatoes again.
John took hold of the jar. “Let me open this for you.”
“I can manage,” Karen turned to take it from him, but he shifted away.
“I’ve got it.” He gritted his teeth as he tried to twist the lid and break the seal. It didn’t budge.
“I have a jar opener if you need it,” Karen offered, a smile twitching at the corner of her adorable lips.
“No.” He grunted as he battled the tightest lid ever to grace a jar of produce. Karen folded her arms and waited. Anna giggled.
He held it below his waist to try a new angle. That did the trick. The ring gave way, he popped off the seal and in triumph, held the jar aloft. It slipped from his hand, struck the corner of the table and shattered, spilling peaches, glass shards and juice down his pant legs and across the floor boards.
In the ensuring stunned silence, Anna sighed and said, “I’ll go get another jar, but John can’t open this one.”
Feeling his face heat to flaming red, he said to Karen, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry.” Karen struggled to keep from laughing but lost the battle. Her delightful giggle gladdened his heart.
Suddenly, he was laughing, too. He spread his hands wide. “I got it open. What more do you want?”
She regained a modicum of composure, but giggles continued to slip out. “I didn’t want them on the floor, John.”
He looked down and saw a peach half had landed on the toe of his shoe. He raised his foot toward Karen. “This one is still good.”
She broke into laughter and turned her face away. “Yuck.”
Plucking the peach from his soaking shoe, he said, “Yuck. After my great display of strength all you can say is yuck? I’ll show you yuck.”
He made as if to press the fruit to her face. She squealed and ducked away, slipping around to the other side of the table.
“John, you wouldn’t.”
“Don’t tempt me, woman.” He advanced slowly. He was between her and the doorway. There was nowhere for her to run. That didn’t stop her from trying. She darted past him, but he caught her and backed her into the wall. With her laughter still ringing in his ears, he touched the peach to the tip of her nose.
“John!” She rubbed her nose vigorously on her sleeve. The laughter died in his throat as he realized he had her exactly where he wanted her. In his arms. Close to his heart.
She met his gaze and the smile faded from her face, too. Her lips were so close. All he had to do was bend down a little. When he did, she turned her face away. With her arms braced against his chest, she said, “Please, don’t.”
She might as well have asked him to stop breathing. But for her—he would do even that.
Karen heard the sound of Anna’s footsteps coming up the stairs over the drumming of her pulse. Staring into John’s eyes, Karen saw the same intense longing there that was racing through her blood. Her heart yearned to answer his unspoken request, but she could not.
His expression went carefully blank. Dropping his arms from around her, he stepped back and said, “I’ll help clean up.”
Anna came into the room and set the second jar on the cabinet. “I’m not going to fetch another one.”
Karen moved away from John, keeping her gaze averted but she could feel him watching her every move. “I can manage. John, you need to get changed for your job interview unless you want to go smelling like peaches.”
He looked down at his pants. “These are my only jeans.”
Anna’s mouth opened in shock. “You’ve been wearing the same pair of jeans every day for a month?”
He was quick to defend himself. “Hey, I wash them. They dry pretty quick in front of the fire but they won’t get dry before I have to see Mr. Beachy today.”
“I have some clothes you can borrow.” Karen’s thundering heart slowed painfully. She couldn’t take much more of this.
Anna said, “Papa’s clothes will be too big on him.”
“I know. I have some of Seth’s things in a cedar chest. I think they will fit. I’ll go get them.”
“If you’re sure you don’t mind.” John watched her closely. He always sought to make sure she was okay. She admired that about him.
“I do not mind, John Doe, but I thank you for your concern. It is goot that some use can be made of them.”
He spread his arms wide. “Okay. I will take care of this while you do that.”
His eagerness to help was another thing she found endearing about him. Quickly she climbed the stairs to the attic and opened a large flat trunk in the center of the room. The clothes lay where she had put them the day after the funerals. Her mother’s dresses and shoes and her songbook lay on top. Beneath it her sisters’ aprons, handkerchiefs and kapps were neatly folded. To one side was Seth’s dark suit and his black hat stuffed with paper to keep its shape.
Karen sank to her knees beside the trunk. She hadn’t been up here in over a year. As much as she loved and missed the members of her family, life went on.
Pulling Seth’s clothes from the trunk, Karen closed the lid and walked down the stairs. John and Anna were emptying the last of the broken glass into the trash can. The floor had been swept and washed.
Forcing a smile to her face, Karen approached John
and handed him the bundle. “Try these on, I think they might fit.”
“Thank you.” He accepted the clothes from her.
“It’s danki, John,” Anna corrected.
“Danki, teetshah.” He bowed in her direction and she beamed.
When he went out the door Karen clung to the soft glow he left behind. Never in her wildest dream had she thought she would fall for an outsider. In spite of all her resolutions and prayers, she was falling hard for John Doe.
John changed into the plain clothes with mixed feelings. Once again Karen had come to his rescue. Was it possible his affection for her was nothing more than misguided gratitude? She had been there for him at every turn.
No, he didn’t believe it. Maybe he didn’t remember what loving someone felt like, but being near Karen felt like love.
The trousers were a little big at the waist and the cuffs fell over the top of his shoes. They would need to be shortened, but they would do for today. The shirt was a better fit. He searched for belt loops and found none. He clipped on the suspenders and raised them over his shoulders but they didn’t feel right. In his mind old men wore suspenders.
Maybe it just felt odd wearing another man’s clothes.
After pulling on the jacket John stared at the black felt hat lying on the table. The hat was the crowning touch. It, more than anything else, would make him appear Amish. Should he wear it? What would Karen think? Would she like him better in plain clothing?
Sighing, he hung the hat on a wooden peg by the front door. He didn’t want to pretend he was something he wasn’t.
Stepping outside the grandfather house John brushed at the creases in the coat. Summoning his courage he walked to the main house front door and entered. Karen was rolling out pie dough on the kitchen counter. She turned around to study him with a flour-covered rolling pin in one hand. There was a smudge of flour on her cheek. His hand itched to brush it away but he knew such attention would be unwelcome. Anna was nowhere in sight.
“What’s the verdict?” Spreading his arms wide, he turned around slowly.
“You look Plain, John Doe.”
An Amish Christmas Page 12
