The Hearts of Middlefield Collection

by Kathleen Fuller

  “You want to go home? We haven’t been here that long.”

  “It’s been long enough.” He looked down at the baby. “Don’t get me wrong, Velda Anne,” he said. “I love you, but you’re taking up mei frau’s attention. She’ll tell you herself, I don’t share very well.”

  Rachel laughed. “Fine. Let me take her to Moriah. Then we can tell everyone good-bye.”

  They walked into the busy kitchen. John Miller was seated at the table with Joseph Byler, the men engaged in a serious conversation. Emma and Ruth were at the opposite end, looking at a devotional book. She didn’t see Elisabeth, Lukas, or Stephen, and assumed they had gone upstairs to their room. Finally, she spotted Moriah standing by the kitchen sink, speaking to Gabriel in low tones. The two of them had spent a lot of time together since Velda Anne’s birth, and Rachel had never seen Moriah look so content. She smiled as she brought the baby to them.

  “Tobias and I are leaving,” she said, handing Velda Anne to her mother. “Danki for letting me hold her. She’s precious.”

  “You’re welcome.” Moriah glanced at the baby. “Thank goodness she’s asleep. She was up for most of the night.”

  “And here I thought she was the perfect baby,” Rachel quipped.

  “She is,” Gabriel responded, looking at Velda Anne, then at Moriah. “She is.”

  Rachel and Tobias said their good-byes and headed for home. She leaned back in the buggy, tucking the warm lap blanket around her.

  “You’re awful quiet,” Tobias said, as he led their buggy down the snow-covered road. There weren’t many cars out today, adding to the peace of the Sunday afternoon.

  “Just thinking.”

  “Want to let me in on your thoughts?”

  “I was just thinking about Gabriel and Moriah, and how much has changed in the past year. They look happy together, ya?”

  “Ya. I wouldn’t mind having Gabe as a schwoger some day. He’s a gut man.”

  “Do you think they’ll get married?”

  Tobias shrugged. “Who knows? I may have to warn him that marriage isn’t as great as I thought.”

  “What?” She turned to him, gaping.

  He grinned, then chucked her under the chin. “It’s even better.” Then he winked at her. “Gotcha.”

  “Tobias, when I get my hands on you—”

  “I can’t wait to find out.”

  She laughed, then scooted closer to him, leaning her head against his shoulder, more in love with him than she ever thought possible.

  Shortly after Tobias and Rachel had left, everyone moved to the family room except for Moriah and Gabriel. She had transferred Velda Anne to his strong embrace. He never seemed to get enough of holding her. They stood by the sink and looked out the window as dusk descended on the horizon, her mind consumed with thoughts and memories. Velda Anne had taken on the features of Levi, and in essence, Gabriel’s features too. But for the past couple weeks, she hadn’t dwelled on the past. Instead she had thought and prayed about her future.

  At one time she thought she wanted to face it alone, with only her child filling the space in her empty heart. Now she knew how wrong she’d been, how selfish and afraid. There was only one way she wanted to face her future, and only one man she wanted to spend it with.

  But had she thrown away that chance?

  She gazed up at Gabriel, willing him to look at her. Immediately, as if he sensed her silent pleading, he looked down at her, and smiled. “You look different tonight.”

  “Do I?”

  He turned and faced her, Velda Anne asleep in his arms. “Ya.”

  “In what way?”

  “I can’t put my finger on it.” He searched her face. “You’re just so . . . so . . .”

  “Ya?”

  “Beautiful.”

  She smiled. “There’s a reason for that.”

  He quirked a brow.

  “Because I’m with you.”

  She heard his breath catch. “Moriah,” he whispered, his voice husky. Then he gazed at her. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. If you still want me, that is.”

  “If I still want you?” He groaned. “Moriah, I love you. I would marry you right now if I could. The question is . . . would you marry me if I asked?”

  She stared at him for a moment, this man who loved her so deeply she could barely fathom it. Finally, she understood what love was, and she felt it nestle inside her heart. God had taken her brokenness, and through Gabriel’s love, had made her whole again. “I would be happy to marry you, Gabriel Miller. Nee, I would love to marry you.”

  Such joy filled his eyes that Moriah felt like she was in a dream. Slowly he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, his kiss filling her with promise, with desire, with love.

  Velda Anne stirred, breaking them apart. She gazed at her daughter, then looked up at Gabriel. “I love you,” she said softly.

  “I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to hear those words.” His eyes glistened. “I can barely believe I’m hearing them.”

  “You can believe them,” she said. “Because I’ll be saying them to you for the rest of our lives.”

  An Honest Love

  To Tera

  Pennsylvania Dutch Glossary

  ab im kopp: crazy

  boppli: baby

  bruder: brother

  bu: boy

  burre: boys

  daed: father

  demut: humility

  danki: thank you

  Dietsh: language most commonly used by the Amish

  dumm: dumb

  dochder: daughter

  dummkopf: dummy

  familye: family

  frau: wife, Mrs.

  fraulein: unmarried woman, Miss

  geh: go

  gschenk: gift

  gut: good

  guten morgen: good morning

  gutguckich: handsome, good-looking

  gut nacht: good night

  guten owed: good evening

  Hallicher Grischtdaag: Merry Christmas

  haus: house

  herr: Mr.

  hochmut: pride

  kapp: an Amish woman’s prayer covering

  kinn: child

  kinner: children

  lieb: love

  maed: girls

  maedel: girl

  mann: man

  mami: mother

  mei: my

  mudder: mother

  nee: no

  nix: nothing

  onkel: uncle

  rumspringa: the period between ages sixteen and twenty-four, loosely translated as “running around time.” For Amish young adults, rumspringa ends when they join the church.

  schwester: sister

  schee: handsome

  sehr: very

  sohn: son

  wunderbaar: wonderful

  ya: yes

  Yankee: a non-Amish person

  yank over: to leave the Amish faith

  Chapter One

  Elisabeth Byler cradled her nine-month-old niece in the crook of her arm while she fumbled with a baby bottle. Powdered formula was normally easy to prepare, but with Ester squalling and Velda—

  “Velda?” Elisabeth glanced around the kitchen, then ran into the living room in search of her other niece. “Velda Anne! Where are you?” She looked behind the couch and one of the armchairs, gripping the baby to her side.

  Elisabeth ran up the stairs to Velda’s bedroom, shouting her name several times. She panicked, unable to find her little eighteen-month-old niece in any of the bedrooms. “This is the last time I’m babysitting for Moriah and Gabe!” Ester’s cries grew louder.

  A check of the bathroom proved fruitless, so she ran down the stairs to the back door, hoping, praying with all her might that Velda was outside and hadn’t strayed too far from the house. She flung the door wide and took a step outside—

  “Oof!” She’d run into a solid wall. Of muscle, she realized as she stared at the front of a light blue shirt and black susp
enders. She looked up and saw the face of Aaron Detweiler. “Oh, thank God you’re here. Velda Anne’s missing! You’ve got to help me find her!”

  Aaron’s expression was inscrutable. She shoved the baby into his arms. “Watch her while I geh find Velda.”

  “You don’t have to do that—”

  “Are you crazy? Of course I do!” Elisabeth moved past him, wringing her hands together. “Velda! Velda Anne Miller, you come here right now!”

  “Elisabeth.”

  She spun and faced Aaron. “What!”

  “She’s right here.” He shifted the baby to one arm, then pointed at the little girl clinging to one leg of his gray, broadfall trousers.

  Elisabeth looked down at Velda, who stared back at her, sucking her thumb. Her black kapp was askew on her head, and strands of light brown hair rested against her plump cheeks.

  Elisabeth rushed over and squatted down on the ground, clutching the child to her chest. “Where have you been?” She looked up at Aaron. “What are you doing with her?”

  “She came out to the blacksmith shop.”

  “Da.” Velda wiggled out of Elisabeth’s grasp. She pointed at the shop behind Elisabeth. “Da.”

  “Guess she was looking for her daed.” Aaron shifted Ester in his arms.

  Elisabeth’s panic subsided, replaced by anger. She met Velda’s wide, innocent gaze. “Don’t you ever, ever run off like that again!”

  Ester, who had quieted down while Aaron held her, started howling again. At the same time Velda’s bottom lip began to tremble. “Da!” She burst into tears.

  Aaron turned and walked into the house. Elisabeth picked up Velda and followed, watching him as he calmly walked over to the sink, as if he dealt with screaming babies on a daily basis. Within a minute Aaron had not only made the bottle, he had gently nudged the nipple into Ester’s mouth, silencing her cries. He held the baby in the crook of one arm as if she weighed no more than a football.

  Elisabeth put her niece down and leaned against the kitchen table, letting her heart rate slow. She tried not to stare at Aaron, but he seemed completely unaffected by the commotion. And there was something mesmerizing about seeing such a large man feeding a little baby. The bottle looked like a toy in his hand. She tried to remember back two years ago when Aaron Detweiler had been a scrawny kid of seventeen who had just gotten out of jail after serving time for dealing drugs. So much had changed since then. Not only had he grown a couple inches taller, he’d also filled out, probably due to the physical exertion of being a blacksmith.

  Pulling her gaze from Aaron and Ester, she glanced around the kitchen for Velda, who had disappeared again. Her sister’s firstborn had been a complete angel until she’d turned fifteen months. Since then the child had become a complete terror, and Elisabeth could barely keep up with her. Elisabeth started for the living room again, her patience as thin as parchment paper. “Velda Anne, I’m warning you—”

  “Down the hall.” Aaron took a step forward, his boot thudding on the floor.

  “What?” Elisabeth asked from the living room.

  “Velda went down the hall.”

  She leaned back and poked her head back into the kitchen. “How do you know?”

  “Watched her go.” He looked down at Ester just as her little chubby arm slipped from the bottle and hung over his muscled forearm.

  Elisabeth groaned and walked to the short hallway adjacent to the kitchen, just in time to see Velda duck into the bathroom a few feet away. By the time she reached her niece, Velda had already started pulling the toilet paper off the roll, letting it fall in airy, folded layers at her feet.

  “Velda, nee!” Elisabeth rushed to her and snatched the paper out of her tiny hands. She quickly rolled it up. “That’s naughty, Velda!”

  “Da,” Velda said, then dashed out of the bathroom.

  Elisabeth raced after her, scooping her up in her arms as soon as they reached the kitchen. Aaron and Ester had disappeared, but she couldn’t worry about them right now. She sat the child down in a chair and bent down in front of her.

  “Now you listen here, Velda Anne Miller. No more disappearing. You march into the living room and play with your toys, and do not leave until I tell you to. Understand?”

  Velda stared, and Elisabeth knew her niece didn’t understand at all. She took her into the living room and put her inside a playpen next to the couch. She surrounded her with a stuffed bear and two board books. “Play with your toys.”

  Elisabeth turned around and took a step toward the stairs but stopped when she heard a book hitting the wood floor. She looked back at Velda who held the other book poised for flight.

  “Da!” Velda said.

  “Your daed’s not here, remember? He and Mami went to visit your Aenti Rachel. She’s in the hospital, and she just had a boppli.” Elisabeth put the heel of her hand to her forehead. “Why am I explaining this to you? It’s not like you understand what I’m saying.”

  Velda dropped the book and pointed to a wooden toy chest next to the playpen. “Na!”

  With a sigh Elisabeth opened the lid of the chest and searched for a toy that might resemble a na, whatever that was. After three failed attempts, she held up a raggedy, faceless doll, the one she had given Velda shortly after she was born.

  “Na! Na!” Velda waved her arms and jumped up and down in the pen. When Elisabeth handed her the doll, Velda held it close, plopped down in the pen, and put her thumb in her mouth.

  “Finally.” Elisabeth moved the playpen toward the center of the room, made sure Velda couldn’t climb out of it, then went to search for Aaron and Ester. She hadn’t heard a sound from the baby since Aaron had fed her. As she made her way to the bottom of the staircase, she heard the heavy tread of Aaron’s boots as he came down.

  “She’s asleep.” He walked past her toward the kitchen, holding an empty bottle. Elisabeth followed closely behind.

  Aaron went to the sink and added the bottle to the dirty stack of cups and plates. She hadn’t had a chance to wash the breakfast dishes and it was nearly noon.

  “Want some help?”

  She looked at Aaron, stunned by his offer, and more than a little embarrassed. First she couldn’t handle the children, and now it looked like she couldn’t even take care of a simple kitchen chore. He probably thought her completely incompetent. “Nee,” she snapped, sounding harsher than she intended.

  Something flickered in his blue eyes. Before she could figure out what it was, he stepped away from her, then turned and left without saying another word.

  Elisabeth turned on the water and stared at it pouring out of the tap, regretting her sternness with Aaron. Squeezing a couple drops of dishwashing detergent into the hot water, she started washing the breakfast dishes. But as she wiped the first glass, she gazed out of the window for a long moment, letting the slight summer breeze cool her embarrassment. When she finished the dishes, she would go out to the shop and apologize to Aaron. He’d helped her out, and that certainly didn’t deserve her rudeness, even if she was a bit jealous of how easily he handled the children.

  With the tips of her damp fingers, she rubbed her forehead. This was the third time she had babysat Moriah’s daughters, and each time she felt more inept. If she couldn’t handle her nieces for a few hours at a time, what kind of mother would she be? A terrible one. And her failure to keep Velda under control and Ester fed and content today made that clear. It wasn’t the first time she worried about having children . . . or wondered if she even wanted any. Not that she would ever tell anybody that. That would be akin to heresy, an Amish woman announcing that she wasn’t sure she wanted children.

  She thought about Aaron and how he had made it look so easy. How’d he get to be so good with children? She would have never expected it of him. Of course, Aaron had been around Velda and Ester before. Aaron’s older sister was married to Elisabeth’s older brother, so Aaron had been to at least one of the Byler family gatherings. But he hadn’t interacted with the children much—or with m
any of the adults for that matter. She didn’t know what to expect when it came to Aaron Detweiler. But she had to admit she was grateful he’d been there to lend a hand.

  As she finished the last plate, her sister Moriah came in the door, followed by Gabriel. Gabe set a few plastic bags filled with groceries on the table, then kissed Moriah on the cheek. “I have to geh back to work,” he said, staring into her eyes.

  “I know. Danki for coming with me to see Tobias’ boppli.”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it.” Gabe smiled. He leaned down and kissed her lips.

  Elisabeth reddened and averted her gaze. She cleared her throat. “I’m standing right here,” she said, lifting her voice an octave.

  Gabe moved away from his wife, his face turning the same shade as the tomatoes in their garden. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you were here.”

  “You asked me to babysit.”

  “I meant in this room.” He looked at Moriah and gave her a tight smile. “See you later.”

  Moriah nodded. “Ya. I’ll have supper ready when you come in.”

  Gabe gave another slightly embarrassed look at Elisabeth, then disappeared out the door. Moriah looked at her sister, clearly not as self-conscious as Gabe had been. Which wasn’t surprising, considering Moriah had grown up with five brothers and sisters, while Gabe had grown up with only one brother, an identical twin who had died in a car accident only three years ago.

  “Where are the maed?” Moriah asked, removing her black bonnet and revealing her starched white prayer kapp.

  “Ester is upstairs taking a nap, and Velda is in the living room, playing in her playpen.”

  “I’ll geh check on them.”

  “Okay. I just have a couple more dishes to dry.”

  Moriah went into the living room as Elisabeth finished wiping the damp dishes with a clean kitchen towel. A few moments later her sister reappeared. “Velda’s asleep too.” Moriah smiled. “You must have worn them both out.”

  “I think it was the other way around.”

  “Kinner can be exhausting, can’t they? But they are such blessings.” Moriah walked over to Elisabeth, beaming.

  Elisabeth tilted her head. “Okay, I know that look. Spill it.”