Wil’s thoughts turned to the old haus he tried to buy. He could still buy the haus if he sold his farm, but then he would lose income, which he got from leasing the farm for crops. Alternatively, he could take out a loan against his farm, which is something he did not want to do. All the money he had inherited he’d loaned to people in the community and he could not ask for it back. He might have to take out a loan anyway, to pay Emma back for the money she lost on supplies for the haus renovations.
He’d find a way to pay Emma back and now, he’d have to go and speak to her. If she was having second thoughts about marrying him, it’s best that he find out sooner rather than later.
He walked to her haus and knocked on the door.
“Wil, you don’t usually knock.” Emma looked into his face. “What’s wrong?”
“You tell me,” he said.
Emma pulled slightly back away from him. “What?”
“We need to talk.”
Emma nodded. “Come to the couch.”
As soon as they sat, Wil said, “I feel that things aren’t the same between us lately. I have thought that you might be having some hesitations about marrying me. Before you answer, let me just say, I will pay you back every cent that you lost on the haus.”
“Once you sell all the materials you bought for the haus, just pay me back half of what I lost. That way we both lose a little.” Emma put her hand to her head and tried to work out whether what she had just said made sense. She realized it didn’t, but Wil did not seem to notice so she kept quiet.
Wil lifted his hand. “Nee, it was my silly decision and I dragged you into it. I will pay back every dime. Now, back to us. Tell me in all honesty, how you are feeling about us.”
Emma took a deep breath. “I’m feeling confused about whether we should get married.”
“When did all this start?” Wil knew deep in his heart that it had started a while ago.
“I’m not sure. I feel in my heart I love you, but I wonder whether we are a gut match in a lot of ways.”
Wil nodded. “I understand. I don’t like it, and I don’t agree, but I understand. We can’t get married if you feel like this.”
Tears started to brim in Emma’s eyes. Wil put his arm around her. “I’ll still look after you. We’ll still be friends.”
Emma nodded. “I know. It’ll be hard to let go.” They were silent for a moment. “Wil, why did you come over here all of a sudden to speak about this?”
Wil pushed some strands of her dark blonde hair back beneath her prayer kapp. He knew it would cause a lot of trouble between friends if he spoke of Sabrina’s visit. “I just thought it was the right time.”
“I’ll always love you, Wil.”
“And I will always love you.” Wil did not want Emma to see him cry. He looked at the low table in front of them and saw Emma’s chocolates. “I’ll be going now so you can eat your chocolate in peace.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
Chapter 12.
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love;
but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
Proverbs 17:9
After Emma closed the door on Wil, she felt sad, but at the same time she felt a weight had lifted off her. She knew that she had to make a decision one way or the other. It wasn’t so bad living alone especially since she had a lot of friends and thanks to Growler, her fat tabby, she was never truly alone.
Emma lifted her face upward. “Denke, Gott for helping me through.” She hoped that Wil might tell the bishop of the cancellation. She knew people would talk and speculate on why they stopped their wedding, but Emma did not care.
No sooner had Wil left her haus than Dorothy came to the door.
“Dorothy, I’ve cooked dinner for us, but after dinner do you mind if I pop out for a couple of hours tonight? I’ve got a meeting to go to.” Emma had the widows’ meeting to go to that night, and she needed their support after everything that she had been through.
“Of course, dear. I’ve come to tell you that my son, Harold, is going to drive Harold and me all the way back to my home. My son, Harold, has offered me to stay at his place until Harold is ready to go to Florida. My son’s picking me up in half an hour.”
Emma rushed to hug Dorothy, “I’m so happy for you that you’re with Harold finally. Do you need help to pack your things?”
“I’d like it if you come up and talk to me while I pack.”
“Of course.” Emma followed Dorothy up the stairs. “It might be confusing for you now with two Harolds.”
Dorothy laughed a little. “Yes, it’s already caused a bit of confusion. I was wondering if you and your friends might come to our wedding?”
“I’d love to and I’m sure that they would too. Thank you.”
Dorothy sat on the bed and folded the few clothes that she had brought with her. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you and Maureen for what you’ve done.”
Emma sat down on the other side of the double bed and smiled. “It was our pleasure; it was lovely to meet you and Harold and I’m glad you ended up back together.” Remembering the detective’s words, Emma said, “I bet you were very angry with Josephine for lying to Harold about you being dead.”
The old lady looked at Emma. “No, I’m not angry at all; everyone gets what’s coming to them eventually. I got my Harold back as I was meant to and Josephine... well, she got hers.”
Emma bit hard on her lip, and then asked, “What do you mean?”
Dorothy gave a bit of a chuckle. “Well, she’s not here anymore is she? And what’s more her thick jet-black hair that she was so proud of turned white and sparse, she was nearly bald.”
Emma’s blood ran cold. When did she see her last? Could she have been in that hospital room on the day she died? Could she have been the one to inject her with the fatal dose of insulin just as Detective Crowley suspected? Nee, she could have simply seen a photo.
Not long after Emma carried Dorothy’s two small bags downstairs, her son, Harold, called for her in his car. Emma hugged Dorothy goodbye and waved as she drove away.
Emma sat on the couch and stroked Growler while she thought about what the detective had said. Could Dorothy have discovered Harold’s whereabouts and waited for an opportunity for revenge? It did seem odd that she stopped checking for records of him. Did Dorothy deliberately leave the letters in the house so someone would reunite them? If she did cause Josephine’s death she would not have gone to Harold straight away. She would have been careful of her next move, particularly if she knew that there was a witness.
If she did do it, Emma thought, what gut would a life in jail do her? It’s not as if she’d kill again. Gott is the one who gives the final judgment on the day of reckoning. “Well, Growler, we’ll probably never know, and sometimes that’s the best way – not to know.”
Growler looked at her and for the very first time since she had him, began to purr.
* * *
Later that night Emma arrived at Elsa-May and Ettie’s haus for the widows’ meeting. After she tied her horse up she waited for Silvie who had just pulled up in her buggy.
“Emma, I’m glad, I can talk to you before you go in?”
“What is it, Silvie?”
“Sabrina overheard you and me speaking. I told her not to mention any of our conversation to anyone. I’m hoping she’ll never mention anything to Wil.”
Emma held her stomach and wondered whether she might have already repeated it. “Did she hear all of what we said?”
Silvie nodded. “I made her promise she would not say a word to anyone.”
Emma relaxed. “That’s gut. I thought she was at work today.”
Silvie rolled her eyes. “My fault, I had the day wrong.”
“Wil and I are not going to get married now.” Emma felt sick to the stomach at her own words.
Silvie caught Emma by the arm. “What?”
Emma shook her head. “I’ll tell everyone tonight. C’mon, they’ll b
e waiting for us.”
Emma and Silvie walked through Elsa-May and Ettie’s front door.
Emma knew she would be able to think of little else the whole night, so once everyone was seated she blurted out her news. “Wil and I are not going ahead with the wedding.” When the words came from her mouth, she wondered if maybe she had made a huge mistake. She longed to be held in Wil’s arms. Then she had to wonder, did she want only what she did not have?
Emma looked at everyone in turn, and no one looked shocked. “Well, isn’t anyone going to say anything?”
Elsa-May spoke. “I think we saw it coming.”
Emma frowned. “You did? I didn’t see it coming.”
“I think you did,” Ettie said.
Maureen patted Emma on the shoulder. “It’s best that you made that decision now. You’re a long time married, you know.”
Emma smiled and remembered how Maureen and she hid on the train away from Maureen’s ex-fiancé. “I won’t have to hide from him though,” Emma said with a laugh in her voice.
“Nee, you won’t.” Maureen chuckled and then told the other widows in on her ex-fiancé and how they hid from him on the train.
Just as Maureen had finished her story, there was a knock on the door.
Ettie got up to answer the door, and Elsa-May leaned forward and whispered to the others, “That’ll be Crowley.”
Crowley walked in and nodded to the ladies then sat on the only chair left in the room.
Elsa-May said, “Emma is not getting married now. They’ve called the wedding off.”
Emma felt heat rise to her cheeks under the detective’s gaze. She felt she should say something, but what could she say? She certainly did not owe anyone any explanation. Sadness over the loss of Wil as a future husband tugged at her heart. If love was acceptance, should she have accepted Wil just as he was?
“I’m sorry to hear that, Emma.”
The detective’s response surprised Emma with its sincerity. More surprising than that was the softness of his words.
Emma pressed her lips together and nodded her head in acknowledgement of his sympathy.
“I hope your grief didn’t stop you from baking, did it, Emma?”
A laugh escaped her lips. She laughed at herself for thinking that there might be some softness about the detective, but his question proved he was totally insensitive. “It did, actually. I brought nothing with me today. No chocolate chip cookies and no chocolate slices.”
“I’ve got chocolate cake, Detective.” Ettie jumped to her feet and headed to the kitchen.
“I’ll give you a hand, Ettie.” Maureen rushed to help Ettie in the kitchen.
The detective smiled and looked at Emma.
Emma looked away from him and said, “My visitor has left. She’s staying at her son’s place until Harold is ready, and then they are both going to live in Florida, and they are going to marry.”
“That’s lovely,” Silvie said.
“They were a lovely couple,” Emma said.
“They were indeed,” the detective said.
Emma wondered whether the detective was being sarcastic going by their earlier conversation regarding Dorothy.
Elsa-May placed a tray of cookies and cake in front of the detective. “So, how exactly did Josephine, Harold’s wife, die, if I might ask?”
Emma held her breath and her eyes fastened onto the detective. He had more or less told her that even if Dorothy were guilty that there would not be enough evidence to convict her. Emma nibbled on a fingernail. The detective’s theory was too far fetched to be true. Surely, Josephine had been given insulin by one of the hospital staff in error.
The detective reached for a cookie. “Stopped breathing,” he said as he bit into the cookie.
Elsa-May gave a disapproving grunt at Detective Crowley’s answer, but kept quiet and picked up her knitting.
Emma desperately hoped that no more would be said on the matter.
“Do you think it’s odd that Dorothy never kept checking whether Harold had surfaced somewhere after the war? If she was so in love with him, it seems she gave up quite quickly,” Elsa-May said.
“Elsa-May, you are seeing a murderer behind every tree. You really should stop being so suspicious of everyone,” the detective said.
Elsa-May pursed her lips and her eyes fell to her knitting.
Emma looked up at Detective Crowley and his hard features softened into a smile, and he gave her a wink.
* * *
As Wil walked back to his haus from hearing the news that Emma did not want to marry him, he knew that he could not leave things there. He knew that Emma was the only one for him. Dear Gott, if it is your will I ask you in desperation to bring my Emma back to me. If there is a way, I ask that you point me to it. Denke, Amen.
Wil was only at home for five minutes before his friend Smithy knocked on the door.
“Come in. It’s not like you to visit.”
“David and I heard that the house fell through and we know that with all the money you’ve loaned people it would’ve been more than enough for a deposit.”
Wil scratched his eyebrow. “I can’t ask for it back.”
“I’ve got four men organized to meet you at the bank at ten in the morning tomorrow. Altogether there’ll be $42,020. That’s your deposit right there.”
“Can they afford it, Smithy? Do they still need it?”
“It’s all been taken care of. Don’t forget, ten tomorrow.” Smithy hit Wil on the back of his shoulder and got in his buggy and drove away.
Denke, Gott, I didn’t expect such a fast answer. I can get the haus back, and now I have to find a way to win Emma’s heart.
Wil closed his door and went inside. He had to come up with a plan. Emma had always told him that he was too quick to jump into things. He would secure the house with a sizeable deposit and then he would tell Emma that they would have a fabulous life together.
The ‘old Wil’ would have raced to Emma to tell her that they could still buy the haus if she would have him back, but the ‘new Wil’, the ‘Wil who thought things through,’ would have everything in place before he spoke of it.
* * *
The next day while Emma was fixing her midday meal she was deep in thought about Wil. She jumped when she heard a loud knock on her front door.
When she opened the door, she was glad to see Wil. “Wil, you don’t normally knock, you usually walk straight in.”
Wil ignored her comment. “Emma, will you come somewhere with me?”
“Where?”
“I have a surprise for you.”
Emma frowned, and she knew by the look on Wil’s face that he was up to something. “I don’t know if my heart can take any more surprises.”
“I think it will be able to take this one; I’m hoping anyway.”
Emma agreed and went with him in his buggy.
After they had been driving for a while, Emma asked, “Is this the way to the haus we tried to buy?”
Wil looked over at her, smiled and said, “Nee.”
When they pulled up outside the old haus Emma frowned. “Why did you bring me back here? You said we weren’t coming here.”
As they sat in the buggy outside the haus, Wil was silent for a moment before he spoke. “It’s not the haus we tried to buy, Emma. It’s the haus I’ve just bought. I’ve been able to put a sizeable deposit on it.”
Emma put a fingernail to her mouth. “But how?”
“When he heard I couldn’t raise money for the haus, without me knowing, Smithy rallied around and found the people I’d loaned money to and most of them had money ready to repay.”
Emma opened her mouth to speak, but Wil raised his hand. “Emma, I know I’ve been unreliable and I know that’s not how a provider should be. I should never have taken a risk like I did with the haus that first time. I give you my solemn word that I will be more practical, and I will even make plans. I’m asking you again, to leave the past behind us. Emma, will you marry me?”
In that moment Emma realized that she was at fault just as much as he. She was living in the past and expecting Wil to be someone he was not. Wil showed he could change and be more responsible, and if he could do that then she could be less rigid and live in the present.
Emma nodded. “Jah, I will marry you.”
Wil reached his arm around Emma and pulled her toward him. “I’ve got enough money to give you back your contribution, too.”
“Nee, keep that, Wil. Put it toward the haus so I will feel a part of it.”
Wil shook his head. “You are a part of it, a part of everything I do from now on. And, I give you my word that I will be responsible, I will talk things over with you and we will plan things together. I will be a strong and proper husband for you.”
Deep in her heart Emma felt secure and safe, at last. She sniffed back her tears. “I’m sorry, Wil, that I called things off; I was confused, it wasn’t that I didn’t love you.”
Wil laughed. “I’m glad you called it all off, Emma. It made me realize that I had to think of someone beyond myself. I had to grow up and become a better mann.”
Emma felt lightheaded and dizzy as Wil pulled her toward him and touched his lips softly on hers.
* * * The End * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Thank you for your purchase of
Amish House of Secrets.
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The next book in the
Amish Secret Widows’ Society series is Book 6
Amish Undercover
FBI agent, Bailey Rivers, has thought long and hard about his life.
He has spoken to the bishop and is set to join the Amish community and leave the English world behind.
Amish House of Secrets Page 8
