Her father opened his mouth, but Lucy shot him a pleading look, knowing he wouldn’t protest when she added, “Even if I’m not going to be one of the carolers, listening to the singing always puts me in a festive mood. You know how I love Grischtdaag.”
“Take an extra blanket then,” her father advised. Having gotten her way, Lucy leaped up to wrap her arms around his midsection. Sometimes she felt as manipulative as her stepsisters. “And don’t stay out late.”
“We won’t,” Lucy promised. “We’ll be home before ten.”
Mildred grumbled, “Ten? Speak for yourself!” But then when Marvin narrowed his eyes she quickly suggested. “I mean, if you want to get home by ten, I’m sure Nick will take you.”
“I don’t even know if he’ll be there.” The very possibility Nick might be present caused Lucy to flush, and she looked away as she gathered her writing materials and left the room to wash her face and put on a clean dress, just in case he was.
* * *
Nick recognized it was prideful to wish he had a better singing voice, but since he was stuck with the voice he had, he figured it was better not to sing at all. Which didn’t mean he was going to miss the caroling rehearsal on Sunday night. Melinda and Jesse Schrock were hosting, which meant there was sure to be a boisterous party with lots of good food after the carolers practiced their songs.
But the party wasn’t the main reason he wanted to attend. He wanted to go, firstly, because he loved to exercise Penny at every opportunity. The animal seemed to enjoy it as well, zooming along at a smooth, swift pace. Some horses you had to urge onward, but Penny was the opposite, and more often Nick had to keep her from breaking into a hard run.
Secondly, he hoped Jesse might have invited Hunter Schwartz and possibly Fletcher Chupp. Although both of the men were married, Jesse and Melinda often opened their home to both singles and married couples, claiming the bigger the party the better. Fletcher was a carpenter and Hunter restored furniture, and Nick needed input about his project from both of them. The paneling he had removed from the wall was high quality wood, and while he had managed to salvage about half of it, Nick wanted to ask Hunter about staining the new pieces so they matched the original color. He also hoped Fletcher would give him advice about the drywall behind the paneling, which was in considerably worse shape than the paneling itself.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll see Lucy there?” Kevin asked when Nick told him he was going to the rehearsal.
Afraid? No. It was more like he was...hopeful. In fact, the hope of seeing Lucy was one more reason Nick had decided to attend the gathering.
“She probably won’t be there,” he said nonchalantly. “But if she is, then she is.”
“But you said those sisters of hers know you’re supposedly courting her.”
“So what?”
“So won’t it seem strange that you didn’t offer to take her to the singing?”
“Neh. Lots of couples are discreet about their relationships.”
Kevin chuckled. “Jah, but you’re not. Or even if you are, most of the time your peers seem to know if and who you’re courting. If you show up separately from Lucy, her sisters are never going to believe you’re her suitor.”
Nick hadn’t really thought of the fact Mildred and Katura would be there scrutinizing his presence, but Kevin was probably right. “I don’t know. If Lucy’s there, maybe I’ll take her home afterward or something. That should put their suspicion to rest,” he said. As he said it, he smiled, realizing it gave him the perfect excuse to be alone with Lucy again.
He couldn’t describe how he felt about the past week except to admit it had been far more pleasant than he’d expected. He enjoyed being alone with Lucy. Talking to her. Picking her up and dropping her off. It had become a routine, and even though he saw her the previous night and had plans to pick her up on Monday evening, he found himself longing to see her again on Sunday, too.
But when he got to the Schrocks’ house, there was no sign of her. Nor of Hunter or Fletcher. There was, however, a tall, curvaceous blonde woman Melinda introduced as her closest childhood friend, Eve, from Ohio.
“Eve is staying with us until the Nei Yaahr, isn’t that right, Eve?” Melinda said.
Eve flashed her dimples, saying, “Unless Jesse gets tired of having two women gabbing in the haus all day and sends me home early.”
If Eve is as gossipy as Melinda, I wouldn’t blame him if he did, Nick thought, glancing at the door to see who just entered. The room was so crowded he couldn’t get a good look over the heads of the people standing closest to him.
“I was telling Eve about Penny,” Melinda continued. “Eve’s daed trains horses for the Englisch, so she knows a lot about them.”
“Not a lot. But I do like to help my daed break them in. The wilder the better, the bigger the challenge,” Eve said. “Although from what Melinda tells me, they’re probably not as fast as Penny.”
“Nick, why don’t you take Eve out for a ride?” Melinda suggested.
Ordinarily, Nick might have appreciated Melinda’s obvious attempt to pair him with a newcomer to Willow Creek. That was what he’d been praying for, to meet someone new. And someone new who liked fast horses—Nick had never thought to pray for that quality in a woman, so he should have been ecstatic. Yet there was nothing about Eve that drew him in. If anything, her association with Melinda worked against her.
“I’ll probably be leaving soon. I was only dropping in for your famous brownies,” he said, hoping his flattery would appease Melinda. It didn’t.
“Then take her now. We’ll start singing soon, and Eve’s voice is as wretched as yours is, so she doesn’t mind if she misses the carols,” Melinda countered.
Eve blinked rapidly, clearly mortified by Melinda’s put-down. Either that or Eve was as consternated by Melinda’s insistence Nick take Eve for a ride as he was. In an attempt to ease both of their discomfort, Nick joked, “Let’s go, Eve. We don’t have to put up with Melinda’s insults.”
He gestured toward the door, figuring the sooner he got the ride with Eve over, the sooner he could leave. He led the way, bypassing the other guests, who bunched together balancing cups of cider and paper plates of brownies and cookies in their hands.
“It’s a beautiful night for a ride,” Eve commented when they stepped out onto the porch.
Nick was about to reply when he noticed movement in the dark a few feet from the porch.
A moment later, Mildred and Katura came into view. Terrific, now what was he going to do?
“Uh, hello, Mildred. H-hi, Katura,” he stuttered as they climbed the stairs.
They froze, staring at him. Then a voice from behind them said, “Keep moving, please, I’m freezing.” Lucy was so short her stepsisters blocked her from view, but Nick recognized her voice the second she spoke and his pulse bounded through his veins.
* * *
Lucy was impatient. It was just like Mildred and Katura to dillydally on the porch in the wintry air instead of going into the house’s warm interior. When they didn’t move forward, she swerved around them, nearly bumping into a blonde woman she’d never seen before. Nick was standing next to her.
“Oh, hello, Nick,” she said awkwardly.
Nick cleared his throat. “Er, hi, Lucy. Have you met Melinda’s friend, Eve?” He gestured to the woman at his side. “She’s visiting until the Nei Yaahr.”
Lucy forced a smile. Her stepsisters were uncharacteristically silent, but she could feel their eyes on her. “Wilkom to Willow Creek, Eve,” she said nonchalantly.
“Denki. I’m glad to be here. Everyone in this district is so friendly,” she said. “Nick’s even agreed to take me out for a ride in his buggy, since neither of us has a gut singing voice.”
Katura made a coughing sound and Lucy’s eyes smarted. So that was it? Nick was courting Eve now and Lucy’s arrangement with him h
ad ended, just like that? He could have at least had the decency to tell her before tonight. Now she looked like a fool in front of her stepsisters. I should have known anyone who would court a second woman before he’d broken up with Bridget wouldn’t think twice about courting a second woman before he ended a fake relationship with me.
“Eve’s daed trains horses for the Englisch,” Nick explained. “So she’s an expert. She wanted to see Penny.”
Lucy’s tone was as cool as glass. “Well, don’t let us keep you.” She began moving around Nick, but he reached out and grabbed her arm near the elbow.
“Do you want to kumme with us?” he asked.
Baffled, Lucy didn’t know what to think. If Nick was interested in Eve, why would he want Lucy to ride with them? But if he wasn’t interested in Eve, why was he taking her riding alone? Either way, there was one thing she knew for certain: she didn’t want to be within five miles of Nick Burkholder at the moment.
“I most certainly don’t,” Lucy retorted. Then, realizing how snobbish she must have sounded to Eve, she said, “I’m so chilled I can hardly feel my toes. But you two have schpass.”
Without waiting for Nick’s response, she entered the house with her stepsisters close on her heels. The mudroom was empty, but she could hear the clamor of guests in the kitchen. Her mind and stomach were spinning as she bent to unlace her boots.
“I knew you had an argument!” Mildred exclaimed, sounding far too happy for Lucy’s liking. “He’s trying to make you jealous, isn’t he?”
As humiliated as she was by Nick’s behavior, Lucy wasn’t going to further embarrass herself by telling Mildred and Katura about their fake courtship. Covertly wiping her cheeks before she stood upright, Lucy replied, “Neh. He’s showing hospitality to a visitor to Willow Creek, that’s all.”
“That’s baloney,” Katura stated emphatically. “Whatever you argued with him about, Lucy, you should just forget it or you’re going to lose him.”
“Lose him?” Lucy repeated incredulously. “He’s not a coin! He’s not a prize!”
“You know what I mean. He could court anyone he chooses,” Katura said as she pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into the hood of her cloak before hanging it over someone else’s coat on the crowded wall of pegs. “Although I don’t see why he’d court a visitor like Eve when he hasn’t even asked to be my suitor yet. But then, I didn’t understand why he was pursuing you, either.”
Lucy was so outraged she could hardly see straight to open the door to the kitchen. Blindly she picked her way past the people milling about the snack table and clustered in the parlor. If there was one advantage to being so short it was that she could go unnoticed in times like these. Finally, securing the door of the vacant washroom, Lucy removed her glasses and leaned to splash water over her burning cheeks.
Straightening, she put her spectacles back on and peered into the mirror. She had to stand on her tiptoes to see the entirety of her facial reflection. Observing her mousy hair and unremarkable features, she knew she was no match for someone like Eve. The Amish didn’t place an undue importance on physical appearances, but that didn’t mean they had no sense of what was aesthetically pleasing. Lucy recognized there was nothing about her physical appearance or her personality that would have captured Nick’s attention.
Why should I care? she asked herself. Their relationship wasn’t real, so what did it matter if he was interested in Eve? There is no if. He’s definitely interested in her, she thought. Or at least it appeared he was laying the groundwork for courting Eve. Nick no longer had a need for Lucy now that she had served her purpose. Here she thought she was one up on all the gullible young women—including her own cousin Bridget—who fawned over Nick and then were devastated when their courtships abruptly ended. Instead, Lucy was the most pathetic one of all, because their courtship was only pretend. But her hurt was very deep and very real.
She could hear singing in the next room. Lucy didn’t want to join the others, but she couldn’t ask Katura and Mildred to take her home already. She wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction of knowing how much Nick had upset her. So, she contorted her mouth into a smile and joined the carolers, even though she didn’t feel the least bit festive.
* * *
It took more time for Nick to untie Penny from the post and back the buggy out of the lane than it did for him to take Eve on a quick spin down the road and back. She chattered about the kinds of horses the Englisch brought to her father and some of the problems they encountered. Ordinarily, he would have been engrossed in the conversation, but his mind was preoccupied with Lucy. Nick was acutely aware of how bad it looked for him to take Eve for a ride while he was supposedly courting Lucy, and he hoped Lucy hadn’t ended up telling her stepsisters their courtship was a sham. He couldn’t wait to get back to speak to her alone.
He offered to drop Eve off at the door, but she said she’d keep him company while he hitched his horse to the post farther down the lane, closer to the stable. As they walked toward the house, she asked him something, but he was so antsy he didn’t hear.
“What was that?” he asked when he realized she was waiting for a response.
“Melinda wasn’t wrong. Sometimes I’m really off-key when I sing. But I didn’t realize it was so noticeable to anyone else.” Stalling on the porch, she added, “I really wish we didn’t have to go back inside just yet.”
“Well, if you want to stay outside, suit yourself, but I’m not going to hang out here,” Nick said. The light from a nearby window illuminated Eve’s crestfallen expression. He’d seen that look a dozen times. He hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings, but he felt it was important to be up-front about where he stood; he had no romantic interest in Eve whatsoever. Still, he shouldn’t have been so boorish. So she wouldn’t feel personally rejected, in a softer tone Nick apologized, “I’m sorry, but I think Melinda may have given you the wrong idea about me. I’m...I’m kind of courting someone else.”
“You are?” Eve’s eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t know. Melinda didn’t know and she knows everything that goes on in Willow Creek... So, who is it you’re courting?”
Nick feared she was doubting him, so he confessed, “It’s Lucy Knepp, the woman I introduced you to. But listen, please don’t mention it to anyone. Especially not to Melinda.” If Lucy had already told her stepsisters the courtship was just an act after she saw Nick with Eve, Nick didn’t want Melinda adding to the confusion by spreading rumors to the contrary.
“I won’t,” Eve promised. Nick wasn’t sure whether he could trust her or not, but he was heartened by the fact she seemed to demonstrate more tact than her friend Melinda. She added, “Lucy must be pretty steamed with you right now. I know I would be if my suitor took another maedel for a ride.”
“Hey, it wasn’t my idea to go for a ride!” Nick protested.
“Neh, it wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean you’re not to blame,” Eve chastised him as they entered the mudroom. “You should have refused to go. That way you would have saved both me and Lucy from being upset about a misunderstanding.”
Nick realized she was right and he promptly offered an apology for upsetting her, which Eve readily accepted. “I only hope Lucy is as forgiving as you are,” he said.
But when he sidled up to Lucy on the periphery of the parlor, she pretended not to see him. She kept on singing even though he was so close he could have counted her individual eyelashes if they hadn’t been so numerous.
“Lucy,” he whispered during the chorus of a popular carol. “Can I talk to you in private?”
She stopped singing long enough to shush him from the corner of her mouth.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
This time she turned toward him, scowling. In a hushed tone, she reprimanded, “Be quiet. We’re trying to practice.”
“But you’re not even going to go caroling with them,” he insiste
d.
Still glaring, she shook her head like a schoolteacher disappointed in a student, but she finally relented. The two of them backed out of the room and passed through the kitchen into the mudroom.
“Okay, so what is it you want to discuss?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her chest. It was cold enough for them to see their breath as they talked, and Nick shivered.
“Did you tell Katura and Mildred our courtship isn’t real?”
* * *
“You dragged me out here to ask me that?” Lucy’s voice was rising. Nick had some nerve. “If you were so worried about them finding out you’re not really my suitor, you should have been a little more discreet about taking Eve for a ride in your buggy. That’s not the behavior of a man who is genuinely courting a woman.”
“But I asked you to kumme with us.”
“Only because I caught you!” Lucy heard the screech in her own voice.
“You didn’t catch me. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Lucy inhaled deeply. Nick was right; technically, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. What was the matter with her, acting as if he’d actually betrayed her by courting—or at least flirting with—another woman? Rationally, so as to diminish the intensity of her outburst, Lucy reasoned, “You know that and I know that, but Katura and Mildred don’t know that. To them, it appeared you were seeing Eve behind my back or you were trying to make me jealous. Either way, I looked like a fool.”
Nick’s face was etched with lines. “I’m sorry I put you in an awkward position like that.”
Since he really did look repentant, Lucy sighed and said, “It’s okay, Nick. I denied there was any conflict between us, but I’ll just tell Katura and Mildred you broke up with me and I didn’t want to admit it.”
Nick’s big eyes drooped. “You’re putting an end to our arrangement?”
Her Amish Holiday Suitor (Amish Country Courtships Book 5) Page 6
