A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel (12 page)

“I told her I would ask Dat about it. I know he doesn’t want to sell Amish things,
but when he sees the paintings, I think he’ll change his mind.”

“Mmm.” Emma hoped her sister was right. Their shop, the Country Store, had once sold
novelty items, but Dat had taken all the crafts out of the store when the bishop told
him he couldn’t sell some plaques carved by an Amish artist. Bishop Samuel had said
that they violated the Ordnung because they showed Amish children.

“Rachel’s paintings really touch the heart,” Emma said. “I’m sure they’d sell quickly.
But I think you might be stepping into a marsh of trouble here.”

“The bishop?”

Emma nodded. “Do you think he’ll allow it?”

Elsie shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“My brave sister.” Emma took a plate from the rinse water and began drying.

“Brave or foolish, I’m not sure which one.” She added more hot water to the sink,
a lacy swirl of steam rising before her face. “Tell me about the singing last night.
Who was there?”

“It was a good turnout.” Elsie didn’t care to attend the youth events, but she always
enjoyed hearing details of the night from her sister. Emma gave her an overview, including
the story of Annie Stoltzfus colliding with Jonah King on the volleyball court and
Mary Fisher breaking off her courtship with Abe King.

“That’s too bad about Mary and Abe,” she said. “But I don’t think they were a very
good match. He’s going to need a wife who knows farming, and she grew up helping her
family run the bakery. I don’t think she’d be happy on a farm.”

Emma smiled at her sister’s gift for observation. “Listen to you, missy matchmaker.
You figured that out from just seeing them at church?”

Elsie shrugged. “I have good eyes. When I’m at the shop, I get to watch people all
day long. When you watch and listen, you learn their stories, and you know I love
a good story.”

“I know that.” Emma sighed, staring at the bowl she was drying.

It was time to tell her sister.

“I have a story of my own to tell you.” She went to the wide doorway and looked out
to be sure no one was in the living room. Empty. Dat was still in town, and Fanny
was upstairs supervising baths. She could hear the water running through pipes to
the bathroom.

“So much mystery!” Elsie’s mouth dropped open as she watched her sister creep close
again. “I’m all ears!”

“The truth is, I’ve got a fella that I’ve been seeing. But it’s a secret.”

“I knew it!” Suds splattered as Elsie clapped her gloved hands together. “I had a
feeling, ever since that terrible tragedy with the
Kings. You always reach out to your scholars when they’re hurting, but I knew there
was more to it when you kept stopping over at the Kings’ farm. This just warms my
heart! There’s a little flame of love in Gabe’s eyes when he looks at you, and he
looks at you an awful lot!”

“Elsie!” Emma gasped, clutching her sister’s arm. “How did you know it’s Gabe?”

“I just knew. All the signs have been there, but you never talked about it.”

“I can’t tell you how many times I almost slipped,” Emma admitted. “I’ve wanted to
tell you, especially when my heart feels like it’s going to burst. Gabe is a wonderful
fella. Funny and strong and smart, too. He knows everything there is to know about
cows. You should hear him talk about his herd. They’re like his children. It’s always
Daisy this and Maybelle that. He’s worse than me and my scholars.”

“Emma, I’m so happy for you.” Joy shone in Elsie’s eyes. “You know, you sound like
a girl in love.”

“It feels that way,” Emma said. Although she wanted to tell her sister more, some
things would have to wait for a later time. It would be hard to describe the warmth
that swept through her when Gabe pulled her close and kissed her. And how she felt
so loved and safe when Gabe held her in his arms.… When she found the words, these
were things she would share with Elsie and no one else. She knew Elsie would understand
and share her happiness. That was Elsie’s way—to experience things through another
person’s story.

“Is it wonderful good to be in love?” Elsie asked.

“Ya. But it’s hard to keep it a secret. I never thought there’d be so many ruts and
holes on the road to love.”

“Why is it a secret?”

“Because of …” Emma opened a cabinet and placed a stack of bowls inside. “I don’t
want to sound like I’m judging, but I’m worried about the direction his family is
going in. If people find out I’m
courting someone from a family that’s straying from the community, I could get in
trouble with the parents and the school board.”

“But Gabe didn’t do anything wrong,” Elsie said. “None of that is his fault.”

“I know. He’s not like Sadie or Adam. I don’t think he’d ever leave here. But Gabe
is no angel. He’s got a boom box now, and he’s talking about getting a job in town
to make money for lights and things in the buggy. And he’s not at all afraid of Bishop
Samuel.”

Elsie grinned. “Neither am I. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect him.”

“A healthy fear of authority is a good thing,” Emma said.

“Sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You’re not afraid of Fanny and Dat,
are you?” When Emma shook her head, Elsie nodded. “And I know you respect them.”

Emma wrapped the dish towel around one hand. “Gabe isn’t getting baptized this month.
He says he’s enjoying his rumspringa, and he’s okay with it for at least another year.
How am I going to keep courting a boy who wants to sow his wild oats? I don’t think
I can do it.”

“Don’t cut him off.” Elsie turned to her with round, serious eyes. “You’re a smart
girl, Emma. You can find a way to work it out with Gabe. I know you can.”

“It would break my heart in two to end our courtship.” Emma swallowed back the knot
of emotion in her throat. “Gabe and I are really good together. But I have to do the
right thing. Church leaders and parents are watching me.”

“And you can show them that you won’t give up on a person because a few bad things
have happened with his family.”

Emma pressed her fists to her chest. “Is that how you see it?”

Elsie nodded, her eyes stern. “Show your students that you support and love people
for who they are inside. The color of their hair, their size, their family business—those
things don’t really matter. You
know that Gabe has a good heart. That’s what people will see. The boom box will go
away soon enough. But don’t walk away from love because you’re afraid of the bishop.”

Emma let her hands drop to her sides as she took a deep breath. Maybe her sister was
right.

She took a cup from the rinse water. “How did you get so wise?”

Lowering the skillet into the sink, Elsie smiled. “I have a very smart big sister.”

T
uesday morning, Jonah left Gabe and Adam in the milking barn. His brothers didn’t
need him right now, and he wanted to get a look at that broken baler before the day
wore on. He would have to be on top of his chores if he was going over to Annie’s,
and right now, he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than a few hours of backbreaking
work at the Stoltzfus farm.

Outside the barn, he circled the machine, checking the connections. It didn’t take
long to discover that a clamp had broken off. Jonah rubbed the back of his neck as
he mulled over the jagged steel clamp. It needed a good welding.

That was not a problem.

When he was a boy, Jonah had followed their dat around the farm, eager to learn a
man’s job. While Gabe had taken a liking to the cows in the milk barn and Adam could
always be found in the woodshop, Jonah was interested in the mechanics of things.
He wanted to know how everything worked, from birthing a calf to tilling the soil
to repairing harnesses and equipment.

Dat had rewarded his curiosity with explanations and plenty of hands-on work. By the
time he was eleven, Jonah couldn’t wait for school to end so that he could spend the
entire day working with Dat on the farm.

Jonah smiled, remembering his school days. Gabe had complained bitterly, telling Mamm
that school was a waste of time. Jonah had agreed, but he had kept silent. Grin and
bear it; that was his way.

Still, it had been torture sitting in class, reading and writing all day when he knew
that more important things awaited him outside the window. Math came easy to him,
but pencil work seemed silly when there were fields to be tilled, parts to be welded,
seed to be scattered, horses’ hooves to be picked, and so many animals to feed and
tend.

Life on the farm had fed his soul since he was a child. He was ever grateful to Gott
for giving him a chance to work the land and live by the seasons. It was a good life … but
a lonely one for a man his age, a man too old to be living with his family.

He had never imagined that a man in love could be so lonely.

“But that is about to change,” he said as he plunked the welding helmet over his face.

He worked methodically, tacking the far corner first, checking to make sure the joint
was square, then tacking the other four corners into place. Sparks sizzled like hope.

He would be spending more time at Annie’s house.

She had forgiven him for knocking her down in the volleyball game.

But more than that, she seemed to see him with new eyes yesterday.

Now that her eyes were open, he wanted to be there, in plain sight.

After lunch, Jonah hitched Jigsaw to a buggy and rode into Paradise. He needed to
pick up some winter feed for the sheep, and the Stoltzfus farm would be an easy stop
on his way back.

An hour later, gray clouds were rolling in from the west as he loaded his purchases
into the buggy. Another storm brewing, and with these warm temperatures there might
be thunder and lightning. He pulled a plastic tarp over his purchases in the back
of the buggy, just in case.

Although Jigsaw wasn’t usually spooked by thunder, Jonah knew he couldn’t outrun a
storm. If it blew in, it would be a miserable trip back. God willing, he’d be off
the open road for the worst of it.

Once he had traveled beyond the town limits, the landscape opened wide to Gott’s Lancaster
countryside. Misty blue hills surrounded the fields, most of them cut down to neat
rows of golden stubble. Here and there, trees flamed yellow, orange, and red—the changing
leaves of autumn. Although he’d farmed this country his whole life, it was a land
that could still take his breath away.

The rain held off until he was about to cross the river. He was approaching the covered
bridge when two fat drops tapped his hat. A moment later, rain was falling around
him, splattering on the road and casting a veil over his vision. At this rate, his
jacket would be soaked in two minutes.

He was grateful to duck under the roof of the covered bridge. Although raindrops rattled
overhead, it was dry and dark inside.

Built in the early 1800s, the covered bridge was a novelty. Tourists came to Halfway
to photograph it and cross over it, as if they were journeying to the Promised Land
instead of taking the road to Paradise. Jonah chuckled at the notion. You could say
that the road to Paradise was the way to the Promised Land. The towns in Amish country
did have unusual names, but he rarely gave it much thought.

When his buggy emerged into the fresh air and slapping rain,
Jonah knew it was only a mile or two to the Stoltzfus farm now—an easy stretch.

He adjusted his hat against the rain as he came to an old Jeep for sale. It sat on
a hill, its headlights facing out like two eyes watching the road. Jonah recognized
the vehicle he’d learned to drive in—Zed Miller’s Jeep. The very same one that had
gotten Ira and Rose shunned. Part of their penance was to put the auto up for sale
and never climb inside it again. The bishop had even warned them against hiring a
car service anytime soon. He had ruled that they needed to be broken of their attachment
to worldly things.

Jonah grunted as he passed the Jeep. There were some good old memories in that vehicle.
He would never do it now that he was baptized, but he was glad he had learned to drive
during his rumspringa.

About a mile ahead he spotted a solitary figure walking down the road—a woman in Amish
dress.

He watched her for a minute as Jigsaw trotted ahead. Her short height, her springy
gait—these were movements he knew like the back of his own hand.

It was Annie.

He clicked his tongue and Jigsaw picked up the pace, closing the distance between
them in no time.

Hearing the sound of hooves on pavement, Annie looked back, shielding her eyes from
the rain.

“It’s just me.” He reined in the horse as he approached her, and Jigsaw slowed the
buggy to a gentle stop.

He wondered what she was doing out here alone, but this was no time for small talk
with rain coming down like crazy.

“Come,” he said.

Her blue eyes flashed with surprise, but she didn’t hesitate. She hitched up her skirt
and climbed into the buggy beside him.