The Only Way (The Amish Millers Get Married Book 4) (2 page)

Rebecca raised her hands. “Please stop
teasing me about Elijah. I will
not
be marrying him, don’t
you understand? It’s not nice when you keep teasing me about him.”
One look at her
schweschders
was enough to tell her that
they
were
going to continue to tease her. Rebecca sighed
loudly.

“Well, you can’t
not
marry him just to
be different,” Martha said, “especially if he’s the love of your
life.”

Rebecca was growing exasperated. “He’s not
the love of my life. Anyway, stop trying your matchmaking; you’re
getting as bad as
Mamm
.” She stood up and went over to the
fire, and popped on another small log. “It’s awfully cold for late
November.
Daed
says it might snow tonight.” Rebecca hoped
her change of subject would be successful. Just to make sure, she
added yet another change of subject. “Perhaps Sarah likes
Elijah.”

Sarah laughed. “
Nee
, leave me out of
it, Rebecca. I don’t think I will ever get married; I’ll be an old
maid, and be surrounded by lots of cats.” As if on cue, Tom, a fat
ginger cat with a big white spot under his chin, walked over to her
from his comfortable spot near the fire and purred against her
legs. “Look at us, a couple of strays.”

Mrs. Miller had never allowed her
dochders
to have pets, saying that animals must earn their
keep, but when the stray cat had turned up on the Millers’ doorstep
just after Sarah had, Mrs. Miller had told Sarah she could keep
him. Mrs. Miller had even told Mr. Miller to take him to the
veterinarian to be neutered. That had very much surprised all her
dochders
, who figured collectively that Mrs. Miller must be
getting soft as she grew older. The cat was even allowed
inside.

“You’re part of our
familye
now,
Sarah,” Esther said. “Our growing
familye
,” she added.

Sarah smiled. “When I see
bopplis
as
cute as your
dochder
, Esther, and your twins, Hannah, I do
feel I’d like to get married.”

Esther rubbed her hands together nervously.
“That reminds me, I hope
Mamm
is doing okay with Isobel. I
haven’t been away from her for so long before.”

Hannah moved to reassure Esther. “
Mamm
will be fine with Isobel, and with Rose and Mason, too. Actually,
she’ll be better with Isobel than the twins, as they’re into
everything now that they’re walking.”

Rebecca yawned loudly, and everyone looked at
her. “Are you tired, Rebecca, or is it just the warmth of the fire
making you yawn?” Sarah asked.

Rebecca shrugged. “A bit of both. Working at
the B&B can be tiring at times. Anyway Sarah, you’re doing all
the chores with
Mamm
now that I’m at the B&B most days.
They’re probably equally tiring.”

Sarah smiled, and Rebecca studied her face.
Sarah was very pretty, with long, straight blonde hair and vivid
blue eyes. Her complexion was all peaches and cream.
It’s a
wonder that a young mann hasn’t asked her on a buggy ride yet
,
Rebecca thought, her stomach clenching at the thought that Elijah
might just be the young
mann
to do so.

“I’ll get used to it,” Rebecca continued, to
take her mind off her thoughts. “The Flickingers are a lovely
couple. I see a lot more of Ida than Samuel, though.”

“
Mamm’s
not happy that they bought a
haus
so close to ours,” Martha volunteered, “what with the
cars and
Englischer
traffic that now go past our
haus
on their way to the B&B.”

“They don’t exactly go right past our
haus
,” Rebecca said.

Martha rubbed her forehead. “True, but it’s
close enough to upset
Mamm
.”

Two miles away would be close enough to
upset Mamm
, Rebecca thought, but kept her opinion to herself.
The B&B was only a ten minute walk away from the Millers’
haus
, in the opposite direction to Noah and Hannah’s.

Rebecca was excited that a B&B had opened
just up the road, and was glad to see that the old Mennonite
building had been renovated. It was wonderful to have new people in
the community; that hadn’t happened for as long as she could
remember, apart from Sarah. That was the reason that she had
accepted the job working at the B&B, helping with the cooking
and cleaning. It got her out of the
haus
and into the
company of other people. Rebecca had no desire to start her own
business like Martha had, but she did want to be around other
people, and new people at that.

John 21:12.

Jesus said to them, “Come and have
breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?”
They knew it was the Lord.

Chapter
3

Rebecca was pinning sheets to the line,
enjoying the late fall sunshine.
It’s a good drying day
, she
thought. Everyone was predicting an early winter, and a harsh
winter at that. Rebecca was already looking forward to spring; it
was not that she minded the cold; in fact she preferred winter for
the beautiful sights, but she missed the fragrance of all the
spring flowers. Spring was always a delight to Rebecca, with the
spicy scent of the dianthus, the sweet scent of the honeysuckle,
the delicate scent of the hyacinths, and the leathery, earthy
fragrance of the saffron. Rebecca had made a lavender spray to
spray on the linen for the B&B, but nothing could replace the
fragrance of fresh spring flowers.

The B&B had electricity thanks to
numerous solar panels, and had a large electric washing machine, a
far cry from the old wringer washer that Rebecca was used to. “I’m
going to have an electric washing machine and solar power when I
have my own
haus
,” Rebecca said aloud. “I can’t go back to
the old wringer washer after this.”

“That’s the first sign of madness, isn’t
it?”

Rebecca’s hands flew to her throat and she
looked around to find the source of the male voice. When she saw
him, her mouth fell open. Standing in front of her was a tall,
young
mann
with black hair and piercing brown eyes, and more
to the point, he was covered with tattoos, and wearing a large hoop
earring in each ear, and more disturbingly, a large nose ring.

“What is?” she stammered.

“Talking to yourself.” The young
mann
laughed and walked closer to her. Rebecca involuntarily took a step
backward. “Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness,” he
said.

“Sorry, no smoking allowed.” Rebecca pointed
to the cigarette hanging out of his mouth. She felt silly after she
said it, but it was an automatic response.

The man simply looked amused by her comment,
but continued to smoke. “And who might you be?”

“I’m Rebecca Miller,” she said, again without
thinking. Annoyed with herself, she added sternly, “Not that it’s
any of your business. Who are you?”

“Nash Grayson.” The man held out a hand.

Rebecca looked at the hand for a moment
before shaking it briefly. “I’ll find Mrs. Flickinger if you’d like
to check in.”

The man seemed amused by that comment too,
but merely said, “She knows I’m here; I’ve already checked in.”

Rebecca suddenly felt uneasy standing outside
the B&B, talking to a strange man. “I have to go speak to her
anyway,” she said, and hurried off. When Rebecca reached the
kitchen, Mr. Flickinger was standing behind Mrs. Flickinger,
patting her on the shoulder. Mrs. Flickinger had her head down on
the large kitchen table. When Mr. Flickinger saw Rebecca, he nodded
to her and left the room.

Rebecca hurried over to Mrs. Flickinger and
saw that her eyes were swollen. “Are you all right?”

When there was no reply, just an anguished
look accompanied by sniffing, Rebecca hurried to make a cup of tea,
which she set in front of Mrs. Flickinger.

“Thank you, dear,” Ida Flickinger managed to
say, and then she added, “Please sit down.” Rebecca sat next to
Ida, who put her hands over Rebecca’s. “There’s something I have to
tell you, dear.”

Rebecca nodded and waited patiently.

“My son has just moved back home with
us.”

Rebecca momentarily wondered why a son’s
return would make a
mudder
cry rather than be happy.

“I’ll have to introduce him to you. Now,
Rebecca, he’s not like you’d expect. Samuel and I are very upset
about Eli. Oh, he doesn’t call himself Eli anymore…” Ida dabbed at
her eyes and gulped. “He calls himself Nash Grayson now.”

Rebecca gasped. “What?” she said. “But I just
met him outside. Is he,
err
, is he your son?”

Ida burst into tears and Rebecca was at a
loss how to comfort her. She sat and waited until the sobs
subsided. The Amish usually bore their grief silently: Nash must
have really upset his
mudder
for her to make such an outward
show of emotion.

“He went on
rumspringa
,” Ida said,
“and then he never came back; he got wilder and wilder. He got a
job with
Englischers
, but then he lost all his money
gambling on race horses, and he has tattoos.”

Yes
, Rebecca thought,
I noticed
that; they’re hard to miss, seeing that he’s covered with them
.
Rebecca wished she could think of something to say to comfort Mrs.
Flickinger. She thought of saying
He seems nice
, but that
sounded too lame, and besides, it wasn’t even true.

Ida Flickinger dabbed at her eyes with a
handkerchief. “We left our community and came here, as we hadn’t
heard from Eli for ages. I’m glad he’s all right, of course, but
he’s changed so much.”

“But he’s staying with you,” Rebecca said.
“Surely that means he’s pleased to see you, and perhaps he will
even join the community.”

“
Nee
,
nee
, Eli must have other
reasons for being here. By the way, my
mudder
knows about
him being back, so you don’t need to keep it from her. Anyway,
denki
Rebecca, but I must get back to work. Would you take a
cup of peppermint tea up to
Grossmammi
Deborah, and then
prepare the Broken Star Quilt room for Eli?”

“
Jah
, of course. I’ll do it right
now.”

The rooms were named after quilt patterns:
the Spinning Star Quilt room, the Flower Basket Quilt room, the Log
Cabin Quilt room, and the Medallion Quilt room, as well as the
Broken Star Quilt room. Each bed had the appropriate quilt, or
quilts in the case of multiple beds in the one room, in the room of
the same name.

First, Rebecca took up a cup of hot,
peppermint tea to the room of Mrs. Flickinger’s
mudder
, who
was known to Rebecca as
Grossmammi
Deborah.
Grossmammi
had been quite ill and was not doing any better,
although the
doktor
had her on medication which ensured she
was kept comfortable. He had warned the
familye
that she did
not have long for this world. Today,
Grossmammi
was fast
asleep. Rebecca whispered her name, and when she did not wake up,
Rebecca panicked for a moment, until she saw her steady but shallow
breathing. Rebecca tiptoed out of the room. She would see if she
was awake later.

There were already fresh sheets on the double
bed in the Broken Star Quilt room, so Rebecca set herself to
vacuuming the blue-gray carpet. This was the plainest room, and the
room least used, of all the rooms at the B&B, and Rebecca
figured that Ida had chosen it for this reason. Perhaps she wanted
her son to remember his early home life, or perhaps it was simply
that this room was the least likely to appeal to
Englisch
tourists. The only color in the room was provided by the deep blue
and burgundy of the quilt itself. The blinds were white, matching
the walls, and the curtains were a dull brown-beige.

Rebecca unplugged the vacuum cleaner and
dusted the plain oak dresser.

“No television?”

Rebecca spun around to see Nash Grayson, or
Eli Flickinger as she now knew him to be, standing in the doorway.
He placed his suitcases down and crossed the room to her. “No
television?” he repeated. “And what about WiFi?”

Rebecca’s mouth ran dry. She wished she could
lecture this ungrateful, young man about upsetting his
mudder
, but instead she simply said, “
Nee
. What do
you expect? This is an Amish
haus
.”

“
Nee
,” Nash said, exaggerating the
word, “it is not; it is an Amish
business
, and as you know,
electricity is usually permitted in Amish businesses, so why no
WiFi or television?’

Rebecca shrugged. “You would have to ask your
mudder
. I assume guests here know it’s an Amish business so
expect an Amish experience. Anyway, if you don’t like it, you can
always leave.” Rebecca thought perhaps she should not speak in this
manner to her employer’s son, but he rubbed her up the wrong
way.

“What, and miss out on the free food?”

Rebecca shot a sharp look at Nash to see if
he was joking, and he was smiling, although she had no idea how to
read him. He winked at her and left the room.
He’s a little
dangerous
, Rebecca thought, but the thought excited her. Like
her two oldest
schweschders
, Hannah and Rebecca, Rebecca had
no desire to go on
rumspringa
. Martha had, and look where it
had gotten her, falsely arrested and in jail, which is where she
had met Sarah Beachy, also on
rumspringa
. Noah Hostetler had
been on
rumspringa
when he was driving the car that had hit
their buggy. And look what
rumspringa
had done to Nash
Grayson!

Nee, I won’t be going on rumspringa
,
Rebecca thought, but at the same time she could not help but be
drawn to Nash. He seemed exciting, and that to her was
exhilarating, after what she considered was her dull and boring
life. She did want a little excitement in her life, just not too
much.