A Match For Addy (The Amish Matchmaker Book 1) (18 page)

Gideon laughed. “
Ya
, now. So you best hurry. Your father was hitching up his buggy when I left his farmyard. I made Jasper trot all the way home, but they won’t be far behind me.”

“You need to change into your white shirt and church trousers, as well,” Sara ordered Gideon. “When I hold a meeting with a girl’s parents, I expect the young man to be presentable.” She clapped her hands. “Now. Go. Off with you both!”

Completely bewildered, Addy hurried to do as Sara had asked. She couldn’t imagine what Sara could possibly say to her mother and father that would convince them to approve of the match. Would she guarantee Gideon’s employment? Promise that the two of them would have jobs until they’d raised the fees? Addy doubted that that would make a difference to her mother. Gideon would still be poor and landless. As much as she wanted her parents’ blessing for her marriage, she knew just how intractable her mother could be, especially when she believed she was in the right.

Heart in her throat, Addy rushed to wash up, pin her hair up under a fresh
kapp
and don a starched white apron. Neither Ellie’s shoes nor Sara’s would fit her, so she was forced to wash her bare feet and go into the parlor as she was.

Her mother and father were already there. Her mother had taken the time to put her cape on, and her black bonnet over her prayer
kapp
. Both were stern-faced and seemed nervous. Only Sara was at ease, dressed as Addy had last seen her in the kitchen. Her only compromise was that she had traded her blue scarf for a white
kapp
, starched and ironed to a standard that even Addy’s mother couldn’t criticize.

Sara waved Addy to a straight-backed chair and then turned her attention back to Addy’s mother and father. “Would you like hot tea? Coffee? Or would you prefer something cold to drink?” She asked as she passed them a plate of small, frosted cakes.

Addy’s mother refused the sweets and stated that she wasn’t thirsty. Addy noticed that her father reached for a cake, then drew his hand back quickly when her mother scowled at him. “This is a waste of time, cousin,” her mother said. “We do not approve of this Gideon, and nothing you or he could possibly say will change our minds.”

“But your daughter is of age,” Sara said calmly. “And she has stated that she is willing to have the young man to husband, for richer or poorer.”

Addy’s mother threw a black look at her father. When he didn’t speak, she said, “We can’t stop her from marrying, but we can refuse to approve of it. They have nothing, will have nothing and will struggle all their lives. It’s not what we would have for our daughter.” Her mouth tightened. “And I’m surprised that you, Sara, who have a reputation as something of a matchmaker, could sanction such a poor match.”

“Frankly,” her father said as he reached for a frosted cake, and this time took a piece, “we don’t have the money to pay your fee, so we couldn’t give it to you if we did approve.”

Addy felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to find Gideon standing behind her chair. “My father will pay Addy’s fee and mine,” he said.

Addy glanced up at him, hope making her giddy. “He will? He...would...could do that?” she stammered.

Gideon grinned. “Sara, maybe an explanation would come easier from you.”

“
Ya
, it might,” Sara said. “Perhaps you would like that tea now? I find that almost any situation is easier to explain over a cup of tea.”

“I’m listening,” Addy’s mother said. Addy’s father’s eyes were wide, his mouth full of cake.

Sara smiled. “Gideon’s financial situation is not quite what it seems. When his parents asked me to find a bride for him, they expressed concern that some families might wish to make an alliance with him because of the sausage.”

Addy’s father choked, and her mother patted him on the back. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Maybe I will have that tea,” he rasped.

“Of course, Preacher Reuben. Addy, would you mind fetching the tea tray? It’s already brewed.”

Addy rose hesitantly. She didn’t want to miss a word of this, but she could hardly refuse.

“I’ll help you,” Gideon offered. Together they walked to the kitchen.

“What’s this all about?” she whispered. “Sausage? What does that mean?”

“It means my father is well-off,” he said ruefully. “His business is...substantial.”

“But you said... I thought he sold sausage to his neighbors to get by.”

“Once, years ago, but then his business took off. Esch’s Sausage. I can’t believe you haven’t heard of it. They sell it in the
Englisher
supermarkets all over Wisconsin. And in his shops.”

“Shops. He has more than one?” She sank into a chair, unable to believe what she was hearing. Gideon wasn’t a penniless hired man? She had seen the ads for Esch’s Sausage in
The Budget
, but she’d never made the connection. What had the ad said? “Best-selling Amish sausage in three states”?

“He has three stores. Four, if I open one, as he has been asking me to. It’s what I was thinking. If you agree, of course. Not to go back to Wisconsin, but to open a store here in Kent County. I can see how close you are to your parents, and I wouldn’t wish to take you away from them and all your friends. And I thought maybe we might expand to sell some of that wonderful scrapple you make?”

“So all this time you’ve been deceiving everyone, making them think you were poor?” She knew she should be angry with him for not telling the truth, but all she could think was that his father would pay Sara’s fee, and they would be free to marry.

“I didn’t lie to you,” he said.

“But why?” She could hardly get the words out. “Why make everyone think that you were poor?”

“It’s like Sara said. In my hometown, some mothers wanted their daughters to marry with me because of my father’s success. Once, I almost asked a girl to be my wife, but I found out that it was only for the money. She didn’t love me. It was the thought of being the wife to the heir to Esch’s Sausage. I was badly hurt by that, and so were my parents. They didn’t want that to happen again, so my mother and Sara put their heads together. If I
did
fall in love and the young woman was willing to take me for richer or poorer, then it would prove that it was a good match, a match that would make us both happy.” He grinned at her. “Am I forgiven?”

“Did you love her? This Wisconsin girl who wanted to marry the son of the sausage king?”

“
Ne
. I thought I did, but it was more my pride that was injured than my heart. It wasn’t until I met you that I realized what real love is.”

She tried not to smile, not wanting to let him off the hook so easily. “And if I did say yes, when would we marry?”

“Sara said that usually weddings are held in November here, but I would be willing...
Ne
, I would like very much to marry you as soon as the banns could be read.”

“Three or four weeks, at least. Not before early October, surely,” she said. “If I agree.”

“You already agreed,” he argued.

“So ask me again.”

He took a step closer to her. “My beautiful Addy, will you be my wife?”

She sighed. “I suppose I must. Because without me, who would keep you on the straight and narrow? And who else would put up with you?”

“You will?” He stood and pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. “You will marry me, Addy? Truly?”

She circled his strong neck with her arms and stood on tiptoe to return his kiss.
“Ya,”
she murmured. “I will.”

“Addy!” Her mother’s shocked voice cut through her haze of happiness. She stood in the doorway. “
Vas
is this?”

“Oh, hush, woman,” her father admonished in his best preaching voice. “Don’t be foolish. It’s only natural that they share a little kiss. They’ve just become betrothed.” He crossed the kitchen and slapped Gideon on the back. “Welcome to the family, son.”

Sara rested her fists on her hips and looked from Addy and Gideon to Addy’s mother. “Well, cousin, what do you say now? Will you give your blessing to this match?”

Her mother’s mouth puckered and then her expression softened. “I suppose we’ll have to, considering what we’ve just witnessed. It’s either that, or risk losing our daughter’s reputation in the community altogether.”

Sara began to chuckle, and soon they were all laughing together. But Gideon never let go of Addy’s hand, and she never stopped smiling because somehow, against all odds, Sara had found the perfect match for her. And in the blink of an eye, all of Addy’s dreams had come true.

Epilogue

Cashton, Wisconsin, Autumn

A
ddy carried the duck-shaped tureen of potato soup to the small round table in front of the window. Already waiting was a covered plate of roast chicken, a loaf of still-warm rye bread, an assortment of cheese and a delicious Dutch slaw that Gideon’s mother had sent over. A Brown Betty pudding that Addy had made herself from his
grossmama
’s recipe bubbled in a kettle on the hearth.

It was Addy’s favorite time of the day. She put on a clean apron and opened the cabin door. “Gideon, supper.”

“Coming!” he shouted.

Just beyond where her husband stood, on the sturdy wooden dock, a pair of wild ducks circled overhead. Smiling as she pulled her sweater closer around her shoulders, Addy watched as the ducks dropped onto the smooth surface of the blue-green water. The hardwoods were turning red and gold, and sundown brought crisp air and a promise of winter.

Although she had to admit she was just a tiny bit homesick, Addy would miss Wisconsin when they returned to Kent County from their honeymoon. In the weeks they’d spent here, visiting Gideon’s parents, sisters, aunts and uncles and grandparents, she’d been welcomed into more homes than she could count on the fingers of both hands.

She’d always wanted a sister; now she had eight of them, all plump and blonde and merry. They looked so much alike that sometimes she had trouble telling them apart. Everyone wanted to meet her, and every sister had advice for dealing with Gideon and curbing his ways, but beneath the teasing, it was clear that they all dearly loved him. And her mother-in-law had turned out to be kind and sensible, much like her Aunt Hannah.

Addy would miss them all. Her thoughts were a tumble of new sights and sounds, new hymns, new friends and new recipes. And she would certainly miss this rustic two-hundred-year-old log house that was their first home together, the place where she and Gideon had truly become man and wife.

When they had first arrived in Wisconsin, Addy had expected that they’d stay at his parents’ home or at least with a relative. But no. Gideon had surprised her with this delightful two-room cabin on a lake, far enough from the home farmhouse to give the newlyweds privacy.

Mornings, they would rise from their snug bedroom and walk across the fields to breakfast with one of his sisters and her family. Then she and Gideon would go their separate ways, he to consult with his father and brothers-in-law, to form plans for the Kent County sausage shop or to help out in the plant, and she to work in the nearest family store. There, Gideon’s sisters had shown her how to run the register and wait on customers. Gideon explained that when they returned to Delaware, the front of the store would be her responsibility. They would hire a counter girl to help her, but Addy would be a real partner in the business.

Midday dinners were always with the extended family and most afternoons for visiting, or sightseeing, or simply taking their ease fishing or boating on the broad, tree-lined lake. But evenings were for her and Gideon alone. Every day at about five o’clock, a sister or a nephew or brother-in-law would pull up in a horse-drawn cart with already-prepared food for their supper.

After their supper, Gideon would light a fire in the fireplace, and the two of them would spend the evening sitting in front of the hearth, playing hearts or Dutch Blitz at the table in front of the window overlooking the lake. There they would watch loons, otters and waterfowl. Sometimes, Gideon would drape one of his jackets around her shoulders and they would walk hand in hand around the shore of the lake.

Other nights, they would put on their sleeping clothes and sit in front of the hearth popping corn in a long-handled popper over the open fire. Then Gideon would heat cider in a copper pan that had been handed down in the Esch family for generations, a pan that some said had come across the ocean from the Old Country long ago. There was no modern cooking stove in the cabin, but they needed none, because this was the
braut haus
, the bride house, where it was customary for Esch couples to spend time alone getting to know each other, rather than cooking and cleaning.

Addy saw Gideon walking down the path toward the cabin, and she couldn’t wait to be with him. She crossed the log porch and hurried down the rough stone steps. “Your supper’s going to get cold if you don’t hurry along,” she called in an attempt to hide her eagerness. “No fish?”

“None tonight.” He propped his fishing pole against a porch post, caught her around the waist and swung her around.

“Gideon!” she squealed. “What if someone comes?”

“Then they might see this.” He lowered her to the porch and kissed her. “Or this.” And he swept her up in his arms and carried her into the house.

“Gideon, put me down,” she protested. Secretly, she was thrilled when he acted so outrageously. Her heart thumped so loud against her ribs that it was a wonder they couldn’t hear it all the way in his mother’s kitchen. “Our supper... The soup will get cold.”

“Woman, you’re getting as bad as my sisters.”

He released her, and she tucked her hands behind her back to keep them from straying to his face. She loved to stroke his cheek or the swell of his shoulder. How strange that such a short time ago, to touch him was wrong, but now it was right. So long as they were alone, they could hug or kiss. It was a benefit of marriage that had never occurred to her.

“I was thinking that if the
braut haus
is just for brides and grooms, that means that we can never stay here again,” she said with a sigh. The idea made her sad because she realized that perhaps never again would she have Gideon all to herself.

“Ne.”
He grinned. “It’s tradition, but not a rule. If you like, whenever we visit, we’ll stay here, us and our ten children.”

“Ten?” She giggled. She hoped she would have boys and girls with butter-yellow hair and Gideon’s beautiful gray eyes, but secretly, she didn’t want them just yet. In God’s time, of course. What He sent and when He sent them, she would open her arms and heart to them. But there was so much for her and Gideon to do...a new house to build...the sausage to make...the shop to be opened.

“Well, we can start with one or two girls,” Gideon declared, taking her hand to lead her inside. “Girls are better help when there’s a lot of children. Boys just want to sneak off and go fishing.”

“You would know better than me,” she teased.

He grinned. “Whether there are two of us or twelve, we’ll come back to visit our Esch family together. We can bring your parents with us, if you like.”

Addy’s eyes narrowed. Was he serious? Bring her mother here to this lake cabin? Put her mother and his mother together in the same kitchen? “Maybe sometime,” she hedged.

“Maybe a long, long time from now, we’ll bring them,” he said. “If it pleases you.” His voice deepened. “But for now I like having you all to myself.” He drew her into his arms again and kissed her tenderly. “I think I like having a wife very much.”

“And I like having a husband,” she admitted, looking up at him.

“So if you like me so much, can I have kissing before soup?”

“Wash the lake off your hands,” she instructed, trying to sound stern. “And sit down. I’ll not have a nice meal wasted with your silliness.”

And they did eat the supper his sisters had brought, but not the pudding, because when Addy remembered it later, it had burned to the bottom of the kettle, and it was far too late for anything but kissing and sweet, shared laughter.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from DADDY WANTED by Renee Andrews.