A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel (8 page)

Maybe she would be an alt maedel.

“There must be someone you’ve got your eye on,” Hannah prodded.

Annie shook her head. “No. Honestly, there’s no one who sparks my heart.” None of
the young men even came close. “For me, the right man isn’t just looking for a wife.
He’s looking to fall in love.” That was the thing holding Annie back from young fellas
like Ruben Zook or David Fisher. She wouldn’t settle for just a man.

She was waiting to fall in love.

Hannah turned to face her sister, her round face pale as a moon. “Ach! I just got
goose bumps. You make it sound so wonderful good. I want to fall in love, too.” Hannah
looped an arm through Annie’s. “Help me find a beau, Annie. You know so much about
how to talk to a fella and I don’t know where to start. Won’t you help me?”

Annie smiled. “It’s not like learning to bake a pie.”

“But you’re a good teacher.” Hannah’s features still seemed childlike though she was
only two years younger than Annie. “You taught me how to make the best piecrust in
the world.”

Annie watched the road, moved by the sweet girl gripping her arm. How she would love
to help her sister. “It’s not like learning to bake a piecrust. But it wouldn’t hurt
for you to hone your kitchen skills. Dat always says that Mamm melted his heart with
her venison stew, and I almost won Adam with my flaky piecrust.”

“I’ll be having lots of chances to cook once Sarah is gone,”
Hannah said. “And I promise, I’ll do whatever you say. Will you help me, Annie?” Hannah’s
hopeful eyes made her shine like an angel in the darkness.

At that moment Annie decided to do everything she could to help Hannah find her way
to love. It would be an act of goodwill. Besides, it would help take her mind off
her own worries.

“If you want to find a beau, there are three things to remember. Good cooking. Good
humor. And enough conversation to make a young fella feel comfortable.”

“I never know what to say to a boy,” Hannah told her.

“That’s the thing. The small talk has to flow, smooth as cake batter.” Annie had no
problem talking to young men. She flitted from one group to another, chatting with
everyone. But Hannah was shy. She hung in the corner of a room, quiet as a moth.

“Then you’ll help me?” Hannah’s voice soared with hope.

“I’ll do my best. I can help smooth out your social skills. And I’ll even keep my
eyes open for a good match for you.” None of the young men in the district appealed
to Annie, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t find someone for Hannah.

“Oh, sister Annie! Denki!” Hannah gave her a quick hug, mindful of the horse’s reins.

Annie patted her sister’s arm, feeling a sense of satisfaction for the first time
in months. She was going to be a matchmaker. She was going to help two people find
love and happiness. And what was it Mamm always said?

Happiness was like jam. You couldn’t spread it without getting some on yourself.

E
mma pulled her sweater tight around her and jogged in place to ward off the cool night.
A coat would have served her better than a sweater, but who would think to bring out
a coat this early in September? Hers was tucked into a cedar chest in Dat and her
stepmother Fanny’s room.

Out here on the roadside, deep black night surrounded her. The croak of frogs rose
from the field behind her, a chorus of song to rival the singing her group had just
done in the Eichers’ barn. Emma had been careful to keep to the roadside and move
out of the way of passing buggies and any cars that might happen this way on a Sunday
night, but the ruts and lumps and thistles on the ground made for bumpy walking in
the dark.

Where was Gabe? She had seen him talking with his cousins when she headed out. He
couldn’t be far behind.

She pursed her lips, then smiled. No need to worry. Gabe was a strong, capable young
man, and she felt perfectly safe here in the inky darkness at the edge of the Eichers’
mowed fields. Emma liked the
soft quiet of night. Nothing could surround you with barely a whisper against your
skin the way that darkness did. Her sister Elsie couldn’t understand why Emma wasn’t
afraid of the dark.

“But don’t you know that Gott created the dark, too?” Emma told her. “I think He wanted
to remind us how wondrous warm and bright the day is, and He does that. Every night
and every day.”

Elsie had liked Emma’s answer so much that she had taken to asking the question over
and over again, and the story of Gott creating night and day had become a family tale
that brought them both comfort.

Emma rubbed her arms briskly as she imagined Elsie at home, snug as a bug under her
quilt in bed. The thought of Elsie with her pink lips and button nose, cozy under
the covers, warmed her. And as she hugged herself, there came the gentle clip-clop
of a horse’s hooves on the pavement.

Gabe? Oh, she hoped so. She held her spot on the shoulder of the road and waited.

“Emma? Emma, where are you?”

“I’m here!” She stepped out, her heart lifting at the approaching sound.

Gabe called to his horse, halting the buggy. “I heard a voice, but I don’t see the
pretty schoolteacher who likes to hide out in cornfields.”

Emma laughed as she stepped onto the paved road. “You make it sound like a game I
play.” She stopped to pat Mercury before she moved to the buggy.

“I figured one of us must like it, because I sure don’t.” Gabe sat still and tall
as she climbed in beside him. A tower of will, he was. She squinted through the darkness,
hoping to see the handsome planes of his face and the little smile that he reserved
just for her. No one
would ever call Gabe happy-go-lucky, but when he was with Emma she always found a
way to crack that aloof shell and get a peek at the emotions that glimmered inside.

“What do you mean?” she teased. “I think it’s exciting to have a secret that no one
else knows about.”

“I think you’re exciting.” He slid a hand around her waist and pulled her close. The
warmth of his body was welcome in the cool night, and the smell of wood smoke and
soap filled her senses. “The secret? I could do without that.”

When she looked up at him he moved closer and pressed his lips to hers. She closed
her eyes, enjoying the sensation of warm sparks flying in the night. His kiss took
her breath away. It always did.

These moments with him were rare, but she cherished being close to him.

When the kiss ended, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes to drink in the sight
of him. Such a handsome boy! Gott had truly blessed her to find him.

“We’d best get off the main road before a car comes along and blinds poor Mercury
with its lights.” Despite his words, he was holding tight to her, and she didn’t want
him to let go.

She ran her hand over his shoulder and held tight to the muscles of his arm. “Denki
for waiting. I thought maybe you gave up on me and rode off in the other direction.”

“Mmm.” He grunted, turning away. “I would never do that. But I saw you talking with
David and Ruben.”

“We were talking, that’s all.” She watched as he unwrapped the reins and urged Mercury
forward. Was he jealous? “You know I only have eyes for you.”

“But you won’t let anyone else know about it,” he said. “When will you leave a singing
with me, Emma? I’m tired of leaving in an empty buggy and meeting you down the road.”

“Gabe … we’ve talked about this before.”

“And we need to talk again. I started going to singings just to see you, but you spend
most of the night talking with other fellas. It’s not right, Emma.”

“But I can’t be rude to them.”

“They wouldn’t be coming up to you if they knew about us. That’s the unspoken rule:
You leave a fella’s girl alone. But since this is all a
secret
—you and me—half the young men in Halfway think they have a chance with you.”

“But they don’t.” She looked over at him. In the darkness she was barely able to see
the bold features that she always studied by the light of lanterns at each singing
or youth event. “And you know how careful I have to be.”

She had explained her position a dozen times.

“It’s so very important for me to set a good example for my scholars,” she said. “An
Amish teacher must teach with her whole life, and I have to take care to stay on the
right path.” A proper teacher had to be well-grounded in her faith and in her community.

“Oh, you’re a straight arrow,” Gabe said. “No one could argue with that. You’re about
as straight as they come.”

She folded her arms. “And how did I end up with a crooked arrow like you?”

“I’m not so crooked,” he said. “Just a touch wild.”

“That’s for sure,” Emma teased, though in truth she thought Gabe was probably just
an average teenaged boy. Wild, but most people didn’t know what he was up to because
they were looking the other way during rumspringa.

But she had known Gabe a long time, and he’d always had a wild streak. Stubborn, too.
Once, when they were very little, Emma had cried when they were playing market and
Gabe refused to sell her his corn because his cows needed it.

Then there was that raft he and his cousin Ben built to fish down the river. That
became quite an adventure when the raft started to fall apart and slipped under the
covered bridge.

A few summers ago when Emma had been visiting Sadie on a hot summer day, all the King
boys stripped down to their underwear before her eyes and jumped into the pond. Gabe’s
mamm had corralled the girls into the side porch for cookies and lemonade—but mostly
to get them out of sight of the boys. The girls had giggled and whispered, but the
boys—they hadn’t even cared!

After school Gabe had always tried to organize baseball games in the spring or hockey
games in the winter. He played hard, but he worked hard, too. Sadie said that no one
knew their milk cows quite as well as Gabe.

That wildness made her heart catch.

She didn’t want to admit it, but it was a part of Gabe that made her pulse race. If
only he could strike a balance between wild excitement and obedient Amish—then he’d
be the perfect beau.

He called out to Mercury to head down the lane, then turned to catch her staring up
at him. “What’s on your mind, Miss Straight Arrow?”

“I’m just wondering how a straight arrow like me and a wild one like you ever got
together.”

“Mmm. But we are together. And I say if we’re courting, we should be able to spend
some time together.” Gabe steered the buggy onto the side of the road by her house.
“You’re a schoolteacher, Emma. Not an angel.”

“I’d like to be both,” she said defiantly.

He reached for her, his hands circling her waist as he pulled her close. “A tiny waist.
A back with a spine and muscles and shoulders under a dark sweater.”

She smiled as he recited her features, as if taking inventory.

“No, Emma, you’re no angel. Just a flesh-and-blood girl.”

“You’re right about that.” Her blood was warmed by the closeness of him. She held
her breath as he moved close to kiss her. Such a wondrous thing, Gabe’s kiss! Like
a starburst on her lips.

She ended the kiss and pressed her cheek to his chest, the broadcloth of his jacket,
his Sunday clothes, so familiar now. They’d been courting for so long now. Like Gabe,
she longed to share the news that they were a couple with all their friends and families.

Whenever they were close like this, she wondered why she worried so much about what
others would think about their courtship. They were a wonderful good match.

But when they were apart, the truth bothered her like a hangnail. Gabe’s family had
been through so much, and now with his older brother marrying an Englisher and his
sister off on rumspringa …

Oh, why did she have to fall for a boy from a family that was causing the ministers
so much worry?

She didn’t like to think about it; she had been friends with Sadie, and it was not
her place to judge another. But she knew Bishop Samuel was talking about taking measures
against Sadie for leaving the community a second time to live among the Englishers.

And then there was Adam King about to marry the Englisher girl. Adam and Remy had
gotten approval from the church leaders. From what Emma had heard, if Remy was truly
committed to becoming a baptized member and living the Amish life, the church would
let Adam marry her.

Church approval was a very good thing. But the situation was unusual. Most Seekers,
English who wanted to try living Amish, didn’t last more than a few weeks, and very
few took the time to learn the language and the laws of the community.

Remy McCallister was a special girl. But the fact that an Englisher
was marrying into the King family was an odd thing that would make them stand out
for generations to come.

A three-horned sheep.

As much as people pretended that the three-horned sheep was no different, when you
looked out to the pasture, there it was with three horns. And as Emma often told her
young students, three did not equal two.