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

There’s no point saying any more
,
Rebecca thought. She picked up a large tray of apple pies. “I’ll
just take these out the refrigerator in the mobile kitchen,” she
announced.

On her way to the mobile kitchen, Rebecca
walked past Elijah and Sarah, who stopped speaking as soon as she
approached. The three smiled at each other and Rebecca kept going.
Why did they stop talking as soon as they saw me?
she
wondered.
I hope they’re not dating
. Tears pricked at
Rebecca’s eyes. Despite her protestations, she did want to marry
Elijah, but not just yet. Everyone expected them to marry, and
Rebecca wanted to make very sure that Elijah really wanted to marry
her for the sole reason that he was truly in love with her, not
just because it was something that was expected by the whole
community. Rebecca loved Elijah with her whole heart; she had loved
him for as long as she could remember. The only trouble was, she
had no idea how Elijah felt about her. He was her best friend, and
they usually teased each other and joked with each other.

Rebecca had always felt that she would marry
Elijah one day, but had never felt any urgency about that matter—at
least, not until now.

Rebecca carefully placed the apple pies in
the walk in refrigerator, and then hurried back out the door,
straight into the hard chest of a young man.

“Sorry,” she said automatically, before she
looked and saw that the person was none other than Nash Grayson.
She recoiled, a fact which did not go unnoticed by Nash. “Sorry
Nash,
err
, Eli,
err
, Nash.” Rebecca had no idea how
to address the young
mann
, and fumbled with her apron in an
attempt to hide her awkwardness.

Nash was visibly annoyed. “It’s Nash,” he
said, with irritation in his voice.

“Nash,” Rebecca repeated. “What are you doing
here?”

“Helping, obviously.
Englischers
aren’t forbidden to help the day before a wedding, are they.”

“I don’t know,” Rebecca said, and then put
her hand to her mouth when she realized it was said as a statement
and not a question, and at that, with more than a little bit of
sarcasm. She wished she would learn to think before she spoke. “Of
course not.
Um
, it’s
gut
that you’re helping.”

Rebecca looked up to see that Elijah was
studying her carefully. Sarah was still speaking to him in an
animated fashion, but he was staring at Rebecca. A little thrill of
excitement ran through Rebecca as she wondered if Elijah was
jealous.

* * *

Nash Grayson was no fool; he had seen Elijah
watching him and Rebecca.
So, I have competition
, he
thought. Still, that blonde girl was talking to Elijah. If he could
help get those two together, that would leave the way clear for him
and Rebecca. It was simple: all he had to do was to drive a wedge
between Rebecca and Elijah and find a way to get the blonde girl
and Elijah together.

* * *

So that’s Nash Grayson
, Elijah
thought.
I suppose girls might find him handsome. He’s tall, and
looks mysterious. I believe girls like that sort of thing
.

Elijah was uncomfortable over the cozy
conversation that Nash and Rebecca appeared to be having. He had
come to ask Rebecca on a buggy ride, but had been waylaid by Sarah
asking him all sorts of questions about his
mudder’s
quilt
store. Hannah had been taking in sewing for his
mudder
and
doing it at her
haus
, but she was now overwhelmed with the
twins and had told Katie Hostetler that she could no longer
continue. It seemed that Sarah wanted to be her replacement.

Elijah had, however, been gratified that
Rebecca had flashed him what he hoped was a look of jealously when
she saw him speaking to Sarah. Perhaps Rebecca didn’t find Nash all
that attractive after all. Elijah certainly hoped that was the
case.

Luke 8:16.

No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a
jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those
who enter might see the light.

Chapter
6

By dawn on the morning of Martha’s wedding to
Moses, Rebecca was already exhausted, not only by the hard work of
the day before, for she was used to hard work, but by the constant
jokes that she would be the next to be married, and at that, to
Elijah. Sure, the jokes were well-meaning, but that did not in any
way lessen their impact. One or two jokes might have been funny,
but the constant barrage of them was tiring.

The wedding service began at 8 a.m., and
there was still plenty to do. Mr. Miller had set up a tie-line for
the horses, and many horses were already tethered there, with a
long line of buggies parked in the nearby field. Their attendants,
young teenage boys, were hurrying around efficiently, making sure
that everything was in order.

Rebecca poked her head inside the mobile
kitchen, looking for her
mudder
. Four couples were in there,
preparing the
Roascht
, the traditional Amish wedding roast
of chickens and stuffing bread with spices and celery. A further
four couples were mashing copious amounts of potatoes while a
further two women were making sure that there would be an unending
supply of freshly brewed
kaffi
.

There was no sign of Mrs. Miller, so Rebecca
hurried back into the
haus
to consult the notes which had
been drawn up by Martha. She ran her finger down the list of cooks’
names on one side, and the items that each person was cooking on
the other. Everything appeared to be running smoothly.

Her
mudder
was there in the kitchen,
making gravy. “
Mamm
, what would you like me to do now?”
Rebecca asked. “The creamed celery’s all done and so is the
gravy.”

Mrs. Miller looked up briefly. “
Gut
.
You can go and start as a
Vorgeher
now.”

The Old German word
Vorgeher
meant a
leader, but in the context of Amish weddings it meant an usher.
Elijah and Rebecca had both agreed to be ushers, a job often given
to the siblings of both the bride and the groom. For the wedding
ceremony, Martha had two
newehockers
, “side-sitters” or
attendants, and so therefore did Moses. As Martha’s
schweschders
were married to Moses’
bruders
, it was
clear that the two couples would be the
newehockers
.

The traditional number of the
newehockers
was two for the bride and two for the groom,
although in some communities in Lancaster, three
newehockers
each were becoming more frequent. Rebecca, however, did not want to
be so closely thrown together with Elijah yet again, so had said
she would rather be a
Vorgeher
than a
newehocker
.
This had pleased her
mudder
, who had more of a traditional
mindset. Mrs. Miller always said that any break in tradition was of
the devil, not that she professed to believe in the existence of
the devil apart from his literal existence as a Biblical entity,
and of course, Mrs. Miller did firmly believe in hell. This paradox
of their
mudder’s
was one that the Miller girls had always
wondered about, although were never impolite enough to ask.

Rebecca hurried outside to the community’s
bench wagon which had delivered the benches as well as all the
folding chairs for the elderly guests. The folding chairs were also
used for elderly folk at the church services. At any rate, it would
be difficult for the elderly to sit through the three hours of the
wedding service on backless benches. The bench wagon also contained
the hymn books. It was Rebecca’s duty to meet with the other ushers
to confirm the layout of the tables and benches for the reception.
They had already had a rehearsal of turning the benches into tables
and seats for the reception the day before.

Rebecca’s heart fluttered when she saw
Elijah, who caught her eye and smiled. Rebecca walked over to speak
to Elijah, but to her dismay, Sarah appeared, and handed Elijah a
mug of
kaffi
. Rebecca’s heart sank; the two of them already
looked like a couple, and given the Amish fondness for secrecy when
dating, they could already be a couple for all she knew.

Elijah thanked Sarah and looked at Rebecca
expectantly, but she ducked into the large tent which stood against
the wide open doors of the barn. The large tent provided extra
seating, and was where the
Englischer
guests were to sit
during the ceremony. Mrs. Hostetler, the
mudder
of the
groom, as well as of Elijah, owned a quilt store and had made
several
Englisch
friends, as had Mr. Miller in the course of
his furniture making business.

Rebecca clutched at her stomach. Had she made
a grave mistake in waiting for Elijah to show he did indeed love
her with all his might? Or had the fact that she was waiting for
him to declare his affections left the way open for another
girl?

“Are you all right?”

Rebecca looked up at the owner of the voice
to see Nash Grayson looming over her, his face full of concern.

“Yes,
denki
,” she said.

“You’ve gone all white.”

“Are you staying for the wedding?” Rebecca
said by way of reply, mentally assessing where Nash should be
seated. He would have to be seated with the
Englischers
, of
course.

“No,” he said. “I’ve just brought my mother
here. Disappointed?”

Rebecca was puzzled. “What, disappointed that
your
mudder
is here? What do you mean?”

Nash laughed so hard that he clutched his
sides. “No, silly. Are you disappointed that I won’t be here for
the wedding?”

Rebecca was about to say something cutting,
but saw that Moses had stuck his head inside the tent and was
watching them. She felt it only proper to introduce the two
menner
. “Nash, this is Elijah Hostetler, the
bruder
of the groom. Elijah, this is…”

Nash cut her off. “Hi, I’m Nash Grayson.” He
put out his hand and Elijah shook it. “I’m staying at the B&B
for some time. I just gave Mrs. Flickinger, the owner of the
B&B, a ride here in my car. I’m leaving now.”

Aha, so he doesn’t want anyone to know
that he’s really Eli Flickinger
, Rebecca thought.

Nash nodded to Elijah, winked at Rebecca, and
then left. By the look on Elijah’s face, it was clear that he had
seen the wink. Rebecca struggled with her loyalties: should she
tell Elijah the truth about Nash, when it was clear that Nash had
tried to keep the truth from him? If she didn’t, the truth would
soon get out, and Elijah would wonder why Rebecca hadn’t told him.
That secret was not one which would last for any length of time in
the community. Nash had put Rebecca in a difficult position, a
difficult position indeed.

* * *

Why didn’t Rebecca tell me that Nash
Grayson was the Flickingers’ son?
Elijah wondered.
She would
have no idea that I already know, so it’s not gut that she’s
keeping secrets from me
.
It’s obvious that Nash didn’t want
me to know his true identity. Besides, that Nash has a nerve,
winking at Rebecca like that
.

Had Elijah being so slow to ask Rebecca to
marry him, left the way open for her to have feelings for another
mann
? He had been looking for an opportunity to speak to
Rebecca, but Sarah had stuck to him like glue, asking all sorts of
questions about his
mudder’s
store. He had finally told her
that she needed to speak to his
mudder
.

He had enjoyed the proximity to Rebecca that
day, despite all the jokes that came his way about him being the
last Hostetler
bruder
to marry the last Miller
schweschder
. If he’d heard that joke once, he’d heard it a
thousand times. It became wearying after a while.

His heart belonged to Rebecca; of that he was
certain. Yet he had no idea how she felt about him. Did she too
feel the pressure to marry him? If he proposed to her, would she
marry him only because it was expected of her? Elijah wanted true
love, the sort that his
bruders
had. Was he silly to want
that? Or should he propose to Rebecca and be grateful if she agreed
to marry him, even if she didn’t love him and thought of him only
as a
gut
friend?

Daniel 2:47.

The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly,
your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of
mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.”

Chapter
7

As would be expected with every Amish wedding
preparation, the morning had run smoothly and to plan. Rebecca and
Elijah had shown the guests to their seats, and everyone was now
seated in the correct, traditional order.

Rebecca finally sat down, relieved and
excited that Martha was about to be married. Just on 8 a.m.,
everyone started singing the first traditional wedding hymn in
German. The ministers walked out the barn, followed by Martha and
Moses. While Rebecca was singing the hymn which was about the
church as Christ’s bride, she stole a look at Martha. Martha and
her two
newehockers
, Hannah and Esther, were all wearing the
same purple dresses, along with their aprons and prayer
kapps
. Martha was wearing black, high-topped boots. Moses
and his two
newehockers
, Noah and Jacob, were wearing black
suits, black brimmed hats, white shirts, and black high-topped
boots. Moses was wearing a black hat with a wide brim. Rebecca
thought that Martha looked nervous, and even the ever-cheerful
Moses looked solemn. This was Martha and Moses’ time of
Abroth
, the questions that the bishop would ask them, and
then the advice he would give them.