An Amish Courtship

by Jan Drexler

  Mary got to the buggy just at Samuel was tying the horse to the hitching post. “Aunt Sadie says to put your mare in the pasture.”

  “I didn’t think the job would take very long. The horse can stand.”

  “We’ll have dinner ready for you and the girls. Aunt Sadie says we’re to have a good visit.”

  Esther climbed down from the buggy, followed by Judith. Each of them carried a bundle of fabric. “I’m glad we’re going to spend the day. We need Aunt Sadie’s help with our dresses.”

  As the girls went into the house, Mary couldn’t contain her smile. “I’m so glad they found material to bring. I wasn’t sure they would have any.”

  “We went into town yesterday afternoon.” Samuel fiddled with the reins in his hands as if he wasn’t sure what to do. He shifted his gaze toward the door, where the girls had disappeared. “I appreciate the offer of dinner. The girls will enjoy the visit, and I have plenty of work to do here.”

  Mary stepped back as he climbed down from the buggy. He was freshly shaven again today, and even with his worn work clothes, he was a fine-looking man. If Sadie’s Abe had been anything like his grandson, she could understand why Sadie had fallen for him.

  “I can show you where the repairs need to be done and where to put the horse.”

  He led the horse out from between the buggy shafts. “I know my way around. I’ve been helping Aunt Sadie since I was a boy.” He gave her a brotherly grin as he walked away. “I’ll see you at dinnertime.”

  Mary watched as he disappeared into the barn. Sadie’s story of his grandfather had made him more intriguing than ever.

  When she went inside the house, she followed the voices until she found Aunt Sadie and the others in the sewing room. Judith and Esther had spread lengths of light-colored muslin on the cutting table.

  “Samuel surprised us with the trip to town,” Judith was saying, stroking her piece of pale yellow fabric.

  Esther fingered her own light green piece. “For some reason, he said we needed new dresses.” She looked at Sadie. “He has never noticed what we’ve worn before, but yesterday in town he kept piling things on the shopkeeper’s counter. Fabric, flour and sugar, butter. He even bought a new crock, since our old one broke last winter.”

  Sadie fingered the edge of the fabric. “That must have cost a lot of money.”

  Judith nodded. “I think it did. But he had taken two of the hogs to the butcher shop and sold them. He kept saying he should have done it months ago.”

  Sadie looked out the window toward the barn, and Mary followed her gaze. Samuel had just opened the gate to the pasture and was letting the mare in with Chester. He glanced toward the house, and then went back into the barn. He looked like a man who was eager to start working.

  “I wonder what has gotten into him,” Sadie said softly, and moved her gaze from Samuel to Mary.

  Mary caught her look and felt her face turning red. Sadie couldn’t think that Samuel was trying to impress her. Romance seemed to be as far from his mind as it was from hers.

  Chapter Three

  Samuel straightened and thumbed his hat back on his head. Chester had punched a hole in the side of the stall, all right. After pulling off the scrap wood Mary had used to patch the hole and tearing away the splintered remains of the broken plank, he could see the extent of the damage. Mary might have thought her patch was adequate, but this needed more than a temporary fix. The entire board should be replaced.

  He climbed the ladder to the haymow, nearly empty after the long winter. Sadie had some hay left, but someone would have to fill the mow again before the summer was too far gone.

  Someone? Samuel rubbed at his bare chin. That someone should be him. Other years, the deacons had made sure the mow was filled, but he could do it this year.

  On the other side of the haymow a stack of planks rose from the dusty floor. They had been left from when the barn was built years ago. Grossdawdi had said something about building a chicken coop out of them someday, but Sadie had converted an empty stall for her few chickens, cutting a door through the outside wall for them to use, and the coop had never been built.

  Samuel picked up the top plank and stood it upright, thumping it on the wooden haymow floor to shake the dust off. From here he could see Sadie’s little house through the loft door. The windows were open to the spring air, and voices drifted up to him. He could distinguish Mary’s low voice, bubbling with laughter. He couldn’t keep a smile away at that thought.

  Judith’s voice rose above the others, cheerful and eager. If he had known a length of fabric would make her this happy, he would have taken the girls to town long ago. Why didn’t he? He thumped the board one last time. Because Daed wouldn’t have. He didn’t remember Daed ever taking Mamm to town. None of them went anywhere except for Daed. He kept everyone at home, where no one would see Mamm’s bruised face.

  He gripped the board as if he could split it in two. He had been following Daed’s example like a wheelbarrow following the rut he had left behind. As if he had no power over his own actions. He hadn’t treated Judith and Esther any differently than Daed had, and there was no reason for it.

  How had Bram gotten free of Daed’s shadow? Or had he? Did his pretty wife live in fear of Bram’s temper?

  Samuel leaned his head against the board, closing his eyes against the ache in his head. No woman would ever live in fear of him. He couldn’t be sure of controlling his temper, but if he stayed single and kept to himself, he could avoid Daed’s legacy in at least one area of his life.

  He lifted the board and took it to the main floor of the barn.

  Replacing the plank didn’t take much time. He spent another hour giving Chester’s stall a thorough cleaning, leveling the dirt floor and scrubbing the walls. The chickens’ area, divided from the rest of the barn by a fence of wood slats and chicken wire, was already clean with fresh straw spread over the floor. Mary and Ida Mae were giving Sadie the help she had needed.

  Movement in the vegetable garden caught his attention. Mary was there, picking lettuce. Samuel stood in the shadows just inside the door, watching the young woman in the garden. She bent, stooped and then straightened as she worked with a grace that drew him.

  A few steps brought him close. Her back was turned to him as she leaned down to reach some lettuce that was tangled in the young bean plants.

  “I’ve finished repairing the stall.”

  Mary jumped, whirling to face him. Her face was pale, and her hand clutched at the front of her apron.

  “Are you all right?” Samuel took a step closer to her, but stopped when she moved away. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Ne.” She shook her head. “I mean, I’m all right. I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be there. You surprised me.”

  Her hands trembled, and she clasped them together.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  She nodded and smiled, but the smile was stiff. “I’m picking some vegetables for dinner. Esther and Judith are having such fun with their new dresses. Aunt Sadie is teaching us all sorts of sewing tricks that I’ve never known before.”

  She chattered on as she turned to the peas. Her voice became more natural, and her trembling hands stilled as she worked. When she got to the end of the row, he lifted the basket of vegetables and carried them to the back porch.

  After dinner, he would work on the pasture fence. A few loose boards near the gate needed to be tightened, and a few more around the perimeter needed to be replaced. When he finished with that, they would return home...

  “Do you think they would want to come?”

  Mary’s question brought his attention back to her one-sided conversation. He was too used to ignoring his sisters’ chatter.

  “Where?”

  “To the quilting in Eden Township on Thursday.
”

  Samuel set the basket on the porch step. “Why would they want to go to another quilting?”

  Mary’s hands became fists that perched at her waist. “You weren’t listening to me, were you?”

  One look at her pursed lips, and he was done. Caught. He’d never be able to get anything by her.

  “I missed the part about the quilting.” He stared at her brown eyes. A trick he had learned from Daed. Put up a bluster. Make them think you are right, no matter what happens.

  She met his stare, her eyes narrowing. He shifted his gaze to the peas, lifting one as if to inspect it for brown spots.

  “You missed everything.” She sighed and brushed some dirt off her apron. “On Thursday, the Eden Township group is meeting at your sister Annie’s house. Aunt Sadie is planning to go, and we wondered if Judith and Esther would like to come along.”

  Annie. A pain he didn’t know he held washed through him at the thought of her curly red hair. She had left...how long ago? Almost two years? It had been soon after Daed passed away. He hadn’t spoken to her since, and he never even thought of taking the girls to visit her. Why had he ignored her after she left to marry the deacon’s son?

  Because Daed would have been angry when she went behind his back, and he had followed in Daed’s footsteps without even thinking.

  “Ja.” He made the decision quickly, before he could think of all the reasons not to go to Eden Township. All the reasons to avoid mending the family ties. “And I’ll drive you all in our buggy.”

  “You don’t need to do that. We can take Chester.”

  “I’m going to drive. I have something to do down there, too.”

  Samuel lifted the basket and followed Mary into the kitchen. He needed to mend more than just the pasture fence. Daed had never apologized for anything he did, no matter how deep the wounds ran. But he wasn’t Daed, and he wasn’t going to act like him anymore.

  He paused as Judith’s and Esther’s happy voices drifted into the kitchen from the back room. It was past time to apologize to Annie and her husband, and he had two days to prepare himself to face Bram.

  * * *

  “I can’t wait until Thursday,” Judith said.

  The dress pieces had been cut out of the new fabric before dinner, and now, while Samuel mended the pasture fence and Aunt Sadie napped in her room, the girls sat together in the sewing room, each with pinned pieces to sew together.

  “How long has it been since you’ve seen Annie?” Ida Mae asked.

  “She left home two years ago.” Esther snipped the end of her thread as she finished the shoulder of her dress, then tied a new knot to begin sewing the side seam. “She had met Matthew Beachey when he came to one of our singings, and they courted secretly for months.”

  “It wasn’t a secret to us,” Judith said.

  Esther smiled, her sewing forgotten in her lap. “She was so happy with Matthew. When she came home from one of their buggy rides, we’d be waiting up for her. She’d tell us all about what they had done and where they had gone. Most often, he took her to his family’s house after dinner to play games with his brothers and sisters in the evening, or he’d take her for a ride around Emma Lake. It sounded so romantic.”

  “Why was it such a secret?” Mary drew her thread through the seam. She had chosen the more difficult task of inserting the sleeves into the bodice of Judith’s dress.

  “She was afraid that if Daed had known she was seeing someone, he would have put a stop to it, the way he had tried to do with Katie.” Esther’s voice dropped, remembering. “Katie ran away with her beau to get married in Ohio, but Annie didn’t want to run away. She didn’t want to be separated from us.”

  Mary shifted in her chair. “But the bishop wouldn’t allow them to marry without your daed’s permission, would he?”

  “I don’t know how Annie did it, but Bishop Yoder in Eden Township came here to talk to Daed, along with Matthew and Deacon Beachey. They wanted Daed to give his permission for the marriage.”

  Judith looked up from her sewing. “Ach, remember how angry he was?”

  “He was so angry that Matthew left without Annie.”

  “I remember how she cried,” Judith said. “She was afraid she would have to run away like Katie did.”

  “But Matthew came back when he heard Daed had died. It was after the funeral, but not too much time had passed.” Esther sighed. “Samuel acted just like Daed, until Annie told him she was going to marry Matthew with his permission or without it.”

  “He stomped off to the barn then, didn’t he?”

  “But he gave her his permission first.” Esther picked up her sewing again. “We haven’t seen Annie since that day. We didn’t go to the wedding, and we never go to visit the Eden Township folks.”

  “But she lives so close,” Mary said. “I can understand that you wouldn’t see Katie, living in Ohio the way she does, but Annie is only a few miles down the road.”

  “Even so,” Esther said, “we’ve never gone for a visit, and she hasn’t come here.” Esther stopped to thread her needle. “I hope we get to see Bram on Thursday. He’s our other brother, and also lives in Eden Township.”

  “I do, too,” said Judith. “I was only five years old when he left home, and I hardly remember him.”

  Mary sewed basting stitches in the right sleeve and then gathered them before she pinned the sleeve to the bodice. She had never met a family like the Lapps, where the scattered family members didn’t try to see one another, even when they lived in the same area. But if Samuel had been as angry as the girls said when Annie left...

  Rethreading her needle, Mary tried to imagine Samuel being angry. She had seen him embarrassed, and a bit grumpy, but angry? She imagined his eyes darkening, his mouth twisting, his hand reaching toward her... Her vision suddenly blurred, swirling so that she couldn’t see the needle’s eye. She took a deep breath and started counting.

  There was nothing to fear from Samuel. He was a neighbor. Judith and Esther’s brother. She would never be foolish enough to be alone with him in a secluded place. She would never let herself be at the mercy of any man again.

  She started over. One, two, three, four... She fixed her eyes on the wooden planks of the floor in front of her toes. Ten, eleven, twelve... Her breathing slowed and she relaxed. Twenty-five, twenty-six...

  Safe. She was safe in Aunt Sadie’s home. Safe with the girls and Ida Mae, without any men around to intrude.

  Except Samuel, and he would soon learn that they didn’t need him to do Sadie’s chores any longer. Then she would only have to see him on church Sundays.

  Esther’s voice penetrated the hum in Mary’s ears.

  “What?”

  “Did you enjoy church on Sunday?” Esther asked, looking at both Mary and Ida Mae.

  “We did,” Mary said. She forced herself to smile. “There were a lot of new people to meet, but other than that it was very much like church at home.”

  Judith giggled. “I saw someone taking notice of Ida Mae during dinner.”

  Mary exchanged glances with her sister, but Ida Mae shrugged, her eyebrows lifted.

  “What do you mean? I didn’t see anyone noticing me in particular.”

  The girl grinned, looking at their faces. “I can’t be the only one who saw him. He couldn’t take his eyes off you.”

  “Whoever it was,” Mary said, “he was probably only looking at us because we’re new.”

  Judith shook her head. “He was only looking at Ida Mae. I don’t think he saw anyone else all day.”

  Esther leaned forward. “You have to tell us who it was.”

  Judith only grinned until Esther nudged her knee with her foot.

  “It was Thomas Weaver.”

  “The minister’s son?” Esther sat back in her chair. “Every girl arou
nd has been trying to catch his attention.”

  Ida Mae turned to Mary. Her face was mottled pink. “I...I’m going to check on Sadie. I’ll be right back.”

  After she left the room, Esther said, “I hope we didn’t say anything to upset her.”

  “It isn’t anything to worry about. Ida Mae just isn’t interested in getting to know any boys right now.” She shifted the bodice in her lap and changed the subject. “There were so many other young people at church on Sunday. I’m looking forward to getting to know the girls. Do you attend the singings?”

  “Samuel won’t take us, and he won’t let us drive ourselves. I think he’s afraid we’ll end up the same way as Annie and Katie.”

  “But he lets you go to the quilting on Wednesdays.”

  Judith nodded. “That’s because there aren’t any boys there.”

  Esther stifled a giggle. “Can you imagine a boy at a quilting frolic?”

  They all laughed at that.

  Ida Mae came back into the room. “Sadie is sound asleep.”

  “I’m so glad,” Mary said. “If she doesn’t take a rest she gets overtired in the evenings and forgets things too easily.”

  “Everyone is glad you came to live with her,” said Esther. “She shouldn’t live alone anymore, not at her age. Too many things can happen.”

  “Like when she didn’t come to church one Sunday last winter.” Judith’s face had grown pale. “The deacons went to check on her after the worship service was over. It turns out she had made a wrong turn on the way to meeting. They got here to her house just as she returned. She had gone all the way to Middlebury, but when she knew she had gone the wrong way, she let Chester bring her home.”

  “It’s a good thing she has a smart horse,” Esther said.

  Mary and Ida Mae looked at each other. Mary saw the same alarm she felt reflected in her sister’s eyes.

  “That could have ended in disaster.”

  “But it didn’t.” Esther tied a knot in her thread. “The Good Lord was watching out for her that day.”