An Unexpected Amish Courtship

by Rachel J. Good

  Sovilla gasped. She’d known her onkel to be rude, but that had been out of bounds.

  “He’s not.” The stare Mrs. Vandenberg gave Lloyd made it clear she’d found his comment as offensive as Sovilla had. “Isaac’s a guide dog trainer, so he needs to keep the dog with him at all times.”

  Lloyd appeared ready to explode.

  Mrs. Vandenberg handed him a take-out box. “Why don’t we eat now while the meals are still warm?”

  “Good idea.” Annie scurried around the kitchen, getting out glasses, iced tea, and milk. “Sovilla,” she said, “can you call your mamm and sisters? They’re quilting in the basement.”

  Under Lloyd’s resentful frown, Sovilla headed for the basement door, and Isaac and Snickers trailed after her. When she opened the basement door, Mamm glanced up. She pressed her hands against her heart to signal her relief over Sovilla’s return.

  “Supper,” Sovilla called, and Mamm and her sisters rushed up the stairs.

  Isaac stepped back as Mamm, Lorianne, and Martha Mae enveloped Sovilla in hugs. Oh, how she’d missed their embraces! She welcomed every opportunity to hug them back.

  With a quick check over her shoulder for Lloyd, Sovilla introduced Isaac to her family. When her sisters clamored to pet Snickers, Sovilla explained why they couldn’t.

  Although Isaac had eleven siblings, he seemed overwhelmed by meeting her mamm and sisters. Or maybe he was worried about stuttering. He had no need to tense up. He performed each greeting perfectly.

  She smiled to encourage him. And once again, their gazes lingered.

  “We’d better get to the table before Lloyd gets upset,” Martha Mae said.

  She and Lorianne skipped off. Isaac followed, but Mamm took Sovilla’s elbow to hold her back a few steps.

  In a low voice, she said, “You’ve already gotten over Henry, I see.”

  “Jah.” Since Sovilla had been spending time around Isaac, Henry never entered her mind.

  “Mamm, you should know, Wilma’s here, and she brought her son.”

  “How wonderful. I always wondered if she married.”

  “Neh, she’s not married.”

  Her mamm blinked rapidly. “I don’t understand.”

  Sovilla’s heart sank. Wilma had mentioned Lloyd hadn’t given her time to say goodbye to her sister. Maybe Mamm had no idea about Wilma’s baby. She gave a brief recap of the story, punctuated by Mamm’s gasps.

  “Where are Barbie and Sovilla?” Lloyd’s irritated voice reached them in the hallway.

  “We’d better go.” Sovilla said as Mamm wiped away a few tears. “I’ll tell you more later.” She led her shell-shocked mother into the dining room.

  Isaac and the driver had squeezed onto the bench on the opposite side of the table with Sovilla’s cousins. Annie slid into place beside Lloyd just before Sovilla and Mamm got to the table.

  Isaac’s scarlet face made her wonder if her cousins had been teasing him. All three of them chuckled as she sat across from him, and she sent him a sympathetic message with her eyes.

  “It’s about time,” Lloyd said. “The food’s probably cold by now.”

  Annie laid a hand on her take-out box. “Mine’s still warm, so everyone else’s probably is too.” Her fake toothy smile did little to calm Lloyd.

  They all bowed their heads for the silent prayer. Wilma shocked Sovilla by lowering her head and shutting her eyes. Her aenti praying?

  When they lifted their heads, Annie smiled at David. “I didn’t get to meet this young man, but I’m guessing you’re a relative of Eli’s. You look so much like him as a young man.”

  Sovilla had warned Mamm. She wished she’d thought to do the same for her aenti.

  “David is my son,” Eli said.

  All three of Sovilla’s cousins had their heads bent over their chicken. At Eli’s announcement, their heads popped up.

  Annie’s brow knitted. “Maybe I misheard. I thought you said son.” She laughed a little. “You’ve been a bachelor forever.” Then her cheeks reddened, and she stared down at her unopened box.

  Wilma set down her plastic fork. “Actually, Annie, what Eli meant is that David is our son.”

  “But that’s impossible. I mean . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  “I don’t appreciate you flaunting your sinfulness at our supper table in front of the youngie.”

  Annie gasped and covered her mouth—whether because Wilma and Eli’s behavior had shocked her or her husband’s comment had, Sovilla couldn’t decide. Perhaps both.

  Her cousins had given up all pretense of eating and were staring avidly at Wilma, Eli, and David.

  “Pay attention to your meals,” Lloyd barked at them. “We should never give sinfulness our attention. Instead of being here, they should be confessing in front of the church.”

  “I already did so. Have you?” Eli, his voice as stern as a preacher’s, pinned Lloyd with a steely glance.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Lloyd sawed at his chicken leg, snapping his plastic knife in half.

  Wilma’s eyes narrowed. “We wasted thirty years of our lives because of your lies. And you deprived David of his home and parents.”

  David started to protest, but Wilma waved for him to be silent. With an understanding nod, David closed his mouth.

  “What are they talking about, Lloyd?” Annie sounded close to tears.

  Giving up on his knife, Lloyd savagely ripped the leg from the rest of the chicken with his fingers. “I saved your reputation, Wilma. Yours too, Eli. You should be thanking me.”

  “Thanking you for separating us? For destroying our relationship? For leaving me alone with no place to live?” Wilma’s voice rose higher with every word until she was practically shouting.

  “Lloyd?” Annie’s deadly quiet tone carried more of a lash than Wilma’s hysterical one.

  “All right, all right. So I fibbed a bit to keep the two of you apart. I did what I thought was best at the time.” Lloyd jammed the chicken leg into his mouth and bit down hard.

  “All sin is the same in the eyes of God.” Everyone turned to stare at Mrs. Vandenberg. “Let him who’s without sin cast the first stone.”

  Lloyd choked on his chicken. Annie pounded on his back, and he coughed so hard tears spurted from his eyes.

  Eli gave Lloyd a minute to catch his breath before saying, “Perhaps you can also explain why you left your sister homeless in a strange city when she was only seventeen.”

  “Seventeen?” Annie’s head shot up. “That’s when—” A sick look came over her face. “Neh, Lloyd. You didn’t do this because of my daed. Please tell me you didn’t.”

  “Why would you think that?” he blustered.

  “You did, didn’t you?” she said heavily. “The timing’s right. You told me Wilma—”

  Lloyd cut her off with a wave of his hand. “There’s no need to go into that.”

  “I think there is.” Eli nodded for Annie to continue. “I need to know why you abandoned my sweet, loving girlfriend.” His face squinched in pain. “She does too.”

  Annie pushed away her take-out container. “Lloyd said that Wilma had gone—”

  Lloyd tried again to silence her, but Annie ignored him.

  “I’m so sorry, Wilma. I didn’t know. Lloyd said you’d gone to stay with a great-aunt in Pennsylvania.” Placing her hands on the table in front of her, Annie stared down at her work-worn fingers. “My daed was very, very strict. He wouldn’t have let me marry Lloyd if he thought I’d be around anyone . . .” She lifted a hand.

  Tears welled in Sovilla’s eyes. She hoped Annie didn’t blame herself for Wilma’s plight.

  “Although I totally disagree with what you did”—Annie swallowed back tears—“I can understand why you wanted to send Wilma away, Lloyd. But not supporting her, that’s—that’s criminal.”

  Lloyd lowered his head and shaded his eyes with his hands. “I had no money to send her. Your dad asked me to go into partnership.” Lloyd hesitated. “When he
told me how much we each needed to buy into the milking business, I told him I had the money, but I didn’t.”

  “You lied?” Eli offered.

  “I suppose. I mortgaged the house and took everything out of savings, even sold off furniture. For the next few months, I could barely buy food for Barbie. Many nights, I went hungry so she could eat.”

  “Don’t play the victim, Lloyd. If you hadn’t lied, Daed would have worked out a payment plan. He may have been strict, but he was generous.”

  “I couldn’t admit that to him,” Lloyd said miserably. “I didn’t want him to think I couldn’t afford to support you.”

  “So you sacrificed your sister for me?” Annie reached over and squeezed Wilma’s hand. “I wish I’d known. I’m so, so sorry.” Then she stood. “If you’ll all excuse me. . .” Annie rushed from the table, and nearby, the bedroom door slammed.

  Lloyd rose. “I’ll be back.”

  Everyone stared at the two empty places in silence.

  Chapter Thirty

  Isaac caught Sovilla’s eye. This had to be hard for her. Her eyes brimmed with appreciation for him despite the sadness on her face. Her cousins had returned to their meals as if unperturbed. Her sisters looked as if they were fighting back tears.

  “I’m so sorry, Mamm and Daed,” David said.

  “It’s not your fault, son.” Eli put a hand on his shoulder.

  Wilma’s shoulders slumped. “Before this, I ached inside because I’d been abandoned, left alone to fend for myself. Now, knowing my brother destroyed my life and happiness for his pride . . .”

  “And for love,” Eli reminded her. “But what he did was so wrong.”

  Sovilla’s Mamm had her head bowed, and her cheeks were wet. “Wilma, I never knew why you left me. If I’d known, I’d have tried to find you.”

  “Barbie?” Wilma’s voice held a deep tenderness. “You were young. I never even got to say goodbye, and Lloyd forbade me to contact you.”

  “Why did we listen to him?”

  “Because he was our older brother. He took Mamm and Daed’s place.”

  Isaac prayed for healing for all who’d been hurt by this situation, including Lloyd. He had to live with the guilt.

  Almost everyone had finished their meals, so Sovilla cleared the table while Barbie went to the kitchen to bring out dessert.

  Isaac stood. “I c-can help.”

  Sovilla’s cousin Marvin snickered and repeated Isaac’s sentence, but stuttering on every word. “Sounds familiar, don’t it?” He poked his brother in the ribs.

  Before their teasing could escalate, Barbie set slices of pie in front of them. They’d all settled in to eat their desserts when Lloyd returned.

  “Annie won’t be coming back to the table. She’s not feeling well.”

  Mrs. Vandenberg’s voice cracked across the table like a whip. “Did you not learn anything from the dinner table discussion?”

  Lloyd’s head jerked back. “What do you mean?”

  “Your lying destroyed several lives at this table.” She gestured toward Wilma, Eli, and David. Then she included Sovilla.

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t mean to hurt them.”

  “If you’d truly repented, you wouldn’t have lied when you just sat down. Is Annie really ill? Or were you saving face because she’s upset with you?”

  Lloyd bit into his chicken leg, perhaps hoping Mrs. Vandenberg would drop the subject.

  Isaac smiled to himself. Lloyd had no idea how persistent Mrs. V could be.

  Sovilla met his eyes and pinched her lips together to hold back her giggles. Seeing her struggling to keep her mirth inside made him want to burst out laughing. Her eyes danced as his shoulders shook in silent chuckles.

  Maybe he shouldn’t find Mrs. Vandenberg’s lecture on such a serious topic so hilarious, but she’d made Lloyd uncomfortable and forced him to face his lies.

  “Lloyd, you still haven’t answered me.”

  “What was the question?”

  Annie returned to the dining room, her eyes red. “I worried about dessert, but I see you already have pie.”

  “Barbie served us.”

  “Danke.” Annie appeared tired and drained.

  Mrs. Vandenberg went after Lloyd again. “Well, Lloyd, Annie’s here, so what’s the answer? She can decide if you’re truthful.”

  He shrugged and finished chewing. “You can see she’s not sick. Why are you making such a big deal about it?”

  “Lloyd Mast”—Annie planted her hands on her hips—“is that any way to speak to a guest? And an elderly lady?”

  With a loud sigh, Lloyd mumbled an apology.

  “I can see you’ll have your work cut out for you, Wilma.”

  Mrs. Vandenberg startled Wilma, and she stopped staring dreamily at Eli. “What? Oh, yes, I’ll try to be like you, Liesl, when I move in here on Monday.”

  Lloyd’s fork clattered to his plate. He’d finished his chicken and started on his pie, but his mouth seemed glued shut.

  This time, Isaac couldn’t help snickering, and Sovilla grinned.

  Sovilla’s onkel glared at Isaac before he faced Wilma. “What did you say?”

  “Eli and I will be getting married.” Wilma waited a moment to let that sink in. “Because I never joined the church, I’ll need to take baptismal classes. I’ll stay here to do that.”

  “Here? As in this house?” Lloyd’s eyes seemed about to pop out of his head.

  “That’s the plan. Sovilla’s already taken over my market stand in Pennsylvania, so she can continue to work there.”

  “Sovilla is not returning to Pennsylvania. She’ll be staying here.”

  Isaac drew in a deep breath, and all three of Sovilla’s cousins stared at him mockingly. He had to get out one sentence without stuttering. “Sovilla’s old enough”—he gasped for air—“to choose.” He’d done it—defended her and completed a sentence.

  The joy in Sovilla’s eyes added to his triumph.

  But Lloyd dashed his hopes. “If Wilma’s moving here, I have no idea where she plans to sleep, because we still have to make room for Sovilla.” He turned to Isaac as he emphasized each word. “She will remain here where I can keep an eye on her.”

  Isaac had vowed not to let Sovilla out of his sight. He refused to leave Ohio without her. “She’s g-going b-back with me.”

  * * *

  Sovilla loved that he’d become her champion. She refused to let Lloyd separate them.

  “Isaac’s right.” Wilma shot Lloyd a triumphant glance. “As for where I’m sleeping, I intend to move into the bedroom Barbie’s using.”

  “Ach, that’ll be much too crowded,” Annie protested. “We can’t fit another bed in there.”

  “You won’t have to. I’ll take Barbie’s bed.”

  Annie’s face wrinkled with distress. “But—”

  Even Barbie appeared surprised, but she offered, “I can sleep in the basement.”

  “Neh, Mamm, you can have our bed. We’ll go downstairs,” Martha Mae volunteered.

  Lorianne nodded. “Even if I’m scared of the spiders.”

  “How touching.” Lloyd’s sarcasm interrupted them. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Wilma cut him off.

  “If everyone could be quiet a minute, I’ll explain.” With a twinkle in her eye, Wilma waggled her eyebrows at Mrs. Vandenberg. “I’ve learned something about being bossy and directing people’s lives from you.”

  Lloyd started to speak again, but Wilma ignored him and turned back to the others at the table.

  “When I went into the hospital,” she said, “I put my house in Sovilla’s name. She owns it and everything in it.”

  “In your will, you mean,” Sovilla corrected her, then regretted it. Maybe she’d undercut her aenti’s opportunity to best Lloyd.

  “That’s what I told you, but I actually deeded everything to you. I didn’t trust certain people at this table not to cheat you out of your inheritance and leave you homeless.”

/>   Lloyd pursed his lips and clenched his fingers around his fork.

  Wilma faced Eli. “I was positive I was going to die.”

  His anguished eyes revealed the depth of his love. “I wish I’d been there for you. For that and—and everything else.” He lowered his head into his hands. “Thirty wasted years.”

  All eyes focused on Lloyd. He squirmed. Then he lowered his head and made a show of scraping up the last crumbs of pie on his plate.

  “I wish you’d been with me.” Wilma’s face grew wistful. “But we’ll make up for it.”

  Eli lifted his head. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Wilma’s happiness radiated from her. “I am too.”

  Sovilla had been sitting there stunned ever since Wilma’s announcement. She owned the house and everything in it? She couldn’t accept it. Rightfully, it should be David’s. For now, she’d go along with the plan so she could get away from Lloyd and return to Pennsylvania with Isaac. But she’d talk to Wilma in private later. The whole idea thrilled her. But she hated leaving Mamm and her sisters.

  “So, Sovilla is all set in Pennsylvania,” Mrs. Vandenberg prompted Wilma.

  “Right. And I know how much she misses her mamm and sisters, so Barbie, why don’t you and the girls go back with her? My old farmhouse has five bedrooms.”

  “What about her quilting?” Lloyd asked. “She can’t go. She has commitments here.”

  “Quilting?” Wilma waved a dismissive hand. “Barbie, you can talk to Mrs. Vandenberg about finding work. Lancaster has many quilt shops, and I’m sure Liesl has plenty of connections.”

  Mrs. Vandenberg nodded. “I can take care of that. And Sovilla, I assume your sisters can help at the market when they’re not in school.”

  Mamm’s delight shone on her face.

  Lloyd stood up. “I won’t have it.” He waved in the direction of Mamm and the girls. “You are all staying here.”

  “I believe,” Mrs. Vandenberg said coolly, “you’ve been outvoted.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He stalked from the room.

  Amidst the excited chatter, Sovilla focused on Isaac. She couldn’t believe it. She’d not only be with Isaac and working at the market, but she’d also have her whole family around her. Maybe David would be willing to rent them the house. He already had a place of his own. Could she have asked for anything more?