A Match For Addy (The Amish Matchmaker Book 1) (17 page)

Chapter Fourteen

T
he following morning, Addy hurried across the pasture toward Sara’s house before the dew had burned away in the midsummer sunshine. Breakfast with her parents had been tense, their only communication with her having been “Pass the butter” from her father, and “I suppose you’re still bent on this foolishness with that boy” from her mother. Remaining respectful to her parents, Addy had held her tongue. She cleared away and washed the breakfast dishes in record time, left them draining on the counter and headed out of the house.

Truthfully, Addy hadn’t even been all that worried about her parents that morning. All she could think about was Gideon. She’d left him so abruptly the previous day after he’d proposed to her. What if he’d changed his mind? Or if he’d asked her to marry him in the heady confusion of their first kiss?

Addy’s heart swelled as she thought of that kiss, gentle as the touch of a butterfly’s wing, and as stirring as sunrise over her father’s fields.
I love him,
she thought.
This is what love feels like.
She’d heard girls say that being in love made you weak and woozy, positively giddy, but this morning, she’d never felt more clearheaded and determined. Everything seemed brighter, the grass greener, the clouds whiter and the sweet smell of the earth richer and more intense. She’d never felt gladder to be alive. It was all she could do not to burst into a hymn of thanksgiving.

As Addy climbed over the new stile, her thoughts fell to Sara. She wondered how Sara would feel about not getting her matchmaking fee, at least not for a while. Surely, she’d understand. Addy and Gideon would pay her fee; it just might take a while.

Then she wondered if Gideon might want to return to Wisconsin to get a better job and earn more than the small wage he was being paid at Sara’s, due to the fact that she was providing room and board. After all, he no longer needed Sara’s matchmaking services. If Gideon did need to go to Wisconsin, how would she survive without seeing him...without seeing his broad grin or hearing his laughter? It was so strange to think that she’d only known him two months, yet it felt as though she’d been waiting for him all her life.

The sound of hammering broke through Addy’s thoughts. She stopped and looked around, gauging the direction of the sound. It was early. Had Gideon finished his breakfast and started on the new pasture fence already? Sara had just purchased an additional twelve acres from a neighbor and had mentioned that she wanted to run sheep in the meadow beyond the woodlot. It had to be Gideon at work; Sara and Ellie certainly wouldn’t be out beating nails with a hammer.

Addy turned away from the house, in the direction of the hammering. She hurried down the faint track that led past a row of four beehives. The rutted lane wound through the towering hardwoods where Gideon had recently cut down a lightning-struck maple, through a shaded tunnel of greenery, to a three-acre clearing on the far side. Immediately, she caught sight of one of Sara’s mules standing patiently beside a new line of fence posts. More posts and a roll of stock wire were stacked on the farm wagon, and just beyond, a bare-chested Gideon was heaving a heavy wooden post into the ground.

Addy stopped, clapped a hand over her mouth and stared in astonishment. She could never remember seeing a grown Amish man without his shirt. The English, certainly. She’d seen them flaunting their bodies at the beach and sometimes while mowing a lawn, but her father had certainly never shed his shirt in hot weather. Not only was Gideon shirtless, but his head was bare, too, his buttery-blond hair falling nearly to his shoulders and shiny in the sunlight.

Addy knew that she should turn away, that no decent, unmarried girl would ogle a man. But, as she had the first time she’d laid eyes on Gideon Esch, she was struck by his beauty. Surely, any God who could make a man thus couldn’t blame her for admiring His work.

For a few moments, Addy just stood there, unashamed, watching Gideon and dreaming of what might be. What had she done to deserve such happiness? And how was it possible that Gideon would come so far from his own home to find her here in Seven Poplars and ask her to be his wife? Surely, this was God’s hand at work.

She smiled.
I love this man,
she thought.
God willing, he and I will marry and create our own home.
She could see them working side by side in the garden, breaking bread and a simple meal together at the kitchen table, and kneeling for prayer together at the end of a long day.

Gideon turned back toward the wagon. A flush heated Addy’s cheeks, and her heartbeat quickened. Had he caught her watching him? She stepped back into the shadows of the trees, but not before Jasper raised his head and snorted in her direction.

“Addy!” Gideon grabbed his shirt off the wagon bed, turned his back to her and hastily pulled it on. Seizing his straw hat, he clamped it over his bare head and strode toward her. “Addy, don’t you dare run.”

She wanted to. Because now she
did
feel light-headed. And scared. But when he got closer, she couldn’t stop from reaching her hands out to him.

Gideon took her slender hands in his large and powerful ones and looked into her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you. I didn’t sleep a wink last night, for thinking about you. Missing you.”

Instantly, the image of her standing in Sara’s yard in the moonlight, throwing stones at
his
window made her giggle. “Gideon, ” she managed. “Did you think I’d come here in the middle of the night?” His eyes were shining, his slightly crooked grin so endearing that it made her want to weep with joy.

“You scared me when you ran away at the fair yesterday. I was afraid you—”

“I had to think.” Was he going to kiss her again? Just the thought of the moment they’d shared in the tent made her blush. But she couldn’t allow such a thing. Not now, not until they... She swallowed. He mustn’t believe that she gave her kisses so easily.

“You had to think. Of course you did, Addy.”

Her name on his lips made goose bumps rise on the nape of her neck. She loved the sound of it, the way he pronounced it. Addy was who she was now, who she should be and she had him to thank for it all.

No, changing her name had been Gideon’s suggestion, but
she
had been the one to change who she was. And the woman she was now deserved to be happy, with a good man. She deserved a home, a husband and, if it was God’s plan, children to love and teach and care for.

She inhaled deeply and the clean, wholesome scent of a hardworking man filled her head. She glimpsed the sprinkling of golden hairs on Gideon’s broad chest where he’d not yet fastened all the buttons of his shirt. She was all too aware of the lines of sinewy muscle of his powerful shoulders and upper arms, and she could feel his strong hands holding hers. And she knew, perhaps for the first time, the intensity of a woman’s attraction to a man.

And with that realization, all the teachings of her faith came flooding back to her. Gently, she freed herself from Gideon’s grasp and stepped back. When he reached for her, she halted him with a gesture.

“
Ne
, Gideon,” she cautioned. She clasped her hands behind her back to hide her trembling. “No more of that. We have to do this right. I won’t bring shame to our parents or ourselves.”

He smiled at her. “So you’re saying yes? You’ll be my wife?”

“I’m sorry I ran away yesterday. I was just...a little overwhelmed.” She chuckled. “It was so sudden. I didn’t...”

“Sudden?” His gaze grew tender. “You knew how I felt about you.
You
were the one who told
me
.”

“Please don’t remind me.” She smiled shyly, then found the courage to meet his gaze again. “You told everyone you weren’t going to take a wife. Not for years.”

“You changed everything. Including me.”

She clenched her hands together tightly. “Maybe we both changed.”

They were both quiet for a moment and then he said, “I hope I didn’t frighten you yesterday, when I kissed you.”

“Did I seem frightened to you?
Ne
, I really did need to think. And I had to talk to my mother and father.” Her smile faded. “They aren’t pleased. They won’t give their blessing because they wanted me to choose a man who...”

“Was more than a hired hand?” he finished for her.

She nodded. “But you know I don’t care about that. It doesn’t matter to me. You’re all that matters. I’ll go with you back to Wisconsin if you want—maybe you can hire on at a farm there. If you’re willing to marry without my parents’ blessing, I am.”

“Willing?” His beautiful gray eyes glistened with emotion. “What have I been saying? I want you to be my wife. I want to provide for you, take care of you. I want us to be a family.”

“And you would promise to live according to the laws of our church and raise our children in the faith?”

“
Ya
, of course. What else would we do? If God grants us the blessing of children, it would be our duty and our joy.”

She reached for his hand. “My parents can’t afford to pay Sara’s fee. I’ll have to work and earn that myself. You understand that, don’t you? And it might take a long time.”

His eyes narrowed as he looked into her face. “And it really doesn’t matter to you if I’m as poor as Job’s turkey?”

“The wealth of a man isn’t to be counted in money. It’s what’s in his heart and character.”

“I think you mean that.”

“I do,” she said.

Gideon bent his head as if to kiss her, and she laid two fingers on his lips. “No more of that,” she said. “We still have much to settle before we get to any more kissing.”

“Which is important,” he said, chuckling. “For you are a woman with lips made to be kissed.”

“By a
husband
,” she answered. “Not by a cut-up charmer with a reputation for chasing every pretty girl in the county.”

Gideon groaned. “Why do I think that being married to you will not be easy?”

She laughed. “You can still change your mind.”

“It’s taken me thirty years to find the right woman.” He took her other hand. “I’m not going to let you get away so easily.” He laid his cheek against her forehead. “But I want your parents’ blessing, Addy. I already have mine.”

She looked up at him in astonishment. “You do?”

“
Ya
.
Dat
starts his sausage-making early. I walked to the chair shop and called him on the telephone this morning.” He shrugged. “My mother was there helping him, so I spoke to her, too. They were happy to hear the news. My mother was so happy, she cried.” He shrugged again. “
Mam
always cries when she is most happy.”

Addy wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or put out. “You were so sure that I would agree to marry you?” she asked. Then she said, “Wait. I don’t understand. Your father has a telephone?”

“Not in our house, of course. In the place where he does his work.”

“Ah, like the chair shop.” She nodded. Telephones were a necessary evil in a place of business. Amish shop owners got dispensations from the church elders to have phones there.

“So I’ve spoken to my father, and now I have to go and speak to yours,” Gideon pronounced. “The sooner, the better.”

“It’s no use,” she said. “He won’t change his mind. My mother won’t let him.”

Gideon arched a blond eyebrow quizzically. “Your mother is the head of the house?”

“I’m afraid so,” Addy admitted.

“Mine, too. But I don’t think my father knows that yet.” He kissed her hand and let go before she could snatch it from him. “Go back to Sara’s and wait for me.”

“You don’t want me to come with you?”

Gideon shook his head. “
Ne
, best I do this alone.” He gave her a mischievous look. “Another kiss before I go? A real kiss?”

She shook her head firmly. “I believe you’ve had enough kissing.”

“Even for a newly betrothed couple?”

“
Especially
for a newly betrothed couple.”

* * *

Addy was cleaning the windows in Sara’s parlor when Gideon returned from her parents’. She wanted to run to him, to ask what had happened. She was dying to know what he’d said to her father and if he had said anything hopeful to Gideon. But Gideon had gone straight to Sara, and the two had retreated to the back porch.

Addy dropped her sponge into the bucket and went to the kitchen. She’d not said anything to Sara about the betrothal because she’d thought it better for the two of them to approach her together with the news. Ellie wasn’t there; she’d gone to the schoolhouse to check on some work being done on the cloakroom. Addy wished she was, though. Having her friend there would have made things easier.

Addy dumped the bucket into the sink and washed out the sponge. From the porch, she could hear the murmur of voices: Sara’s higher one and Gideon’s deeper, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. She wasn’t normally a busybody, but she strained to hear. A few more words passed between them, then, to her surprise, Sara laughed.

A minute later, Gideon came into the kitchen. “Addy.” He smiled at her.

“Did my father agree to give us his blessing?” she asked.

Gideon grimaced. “Those were not
exactly
the words he used.”

She looked to Sara. “I’ll pay every penny of your fee. You have my word on it. I can understand if you wouldn’t want me to go on working here for you, but—”

“Did I say that?” Sara asked, cutting her off. “Don’t put words in my mouth. Are you dissatisfied with your wages or what I’ve asked you to do?”

“
Ne
, but...”

Sara folded her arms. “Have I asked you for money?” She seemed more formidable than ever this morning in her sturdy black shoes and stockings, her dark purple dress and spotless white apron.

“
Ne
, but—”

“Have a little faith, girl, that I know what I’m doing.” She looked Addy up and down. “You have dirt on your nose, and your
kapp
...” She sighed. “Get a clean
kapp
and apron from my room. Your parents are on their way here, and I need you to look presentable, not like some hired girl.”

“My mother and father are coming here?” She looked to Gideon. “Now?”