The Only Way (The Amish Millers Get Married Book 4) (6 page)

The
Eck Schissle
were filled with
brightly colored candy of every description, covered with clear
wrap, and tied with colored ribbons. To each one was attached a
card with a message from the giver as well as the giver’s name.

It was now time for the first shift of the
meal. The wedding party, Martha and Moses, Hannah and Noah, and
Esther and Jacob, walked into the barn. Martha took up her seat on
the left side of Moses. Mr. Miller, the
vadder
of the bride,
and Mr. Hostetler, the
vadder
of the groom, sat at the head
of the table, and the other male relatives sat on the same side of
the table. Opposite them sat Mrs. Miller, the
mudder
of the
bride, and Mr. Hostetler, the
mudder
of the groom, and the
other female relatives.

Next filed in the young people who were still
single. The females walked over to take up their place on Martha’s
side of the room, and the males went to sit on Moses’ side of the
room.

The
Ecktenders
at once served the
young people. Weddings were the only occasion where the
youngie
, the young people, were served first. Soon, everyone
was served a large meal, and most ate quickly so that the area
could be cleared for the next shift. Large platters of
mouth-watering roast chicken, roast turkey and baked ham, clouds of
creamy mashed potatoes, flavorsome gravy, and creamed celery made
with real cream were among the delicious items brought out, soon to
be followed by all manner of tasty desserts and copious amounts of
homemade ice cream. There were plenty of freshly baked bread rolls,
accompanied by freshly churned butter. There was an abundance of
kaffi
, water, and meadow tea. At the end of the meal, Martha
and Moses were each served a special tapioca pudding in a wine
glass.

The rest of the day went by in a blur for
Rebecca: the singing, the games, and the conversation, even the
second meal which was served at dusk.

By nightfall Rebecca found herself in the
haus
kitchen washing dishes with
Aenti
Irene. The
other women assigned to washing dishes were doing so in the mobile
kitchen. Rebecca usually enjoyed time spent with
Aenti
Irene; tonight, however, this was not the case.

“So, Rebecca, how long before you’ll be
married to Elijah Hostetler?”

Rebecca let out a long breath. “Oh please
don’t tease me,
Aenti
; I get upset when people keep teasing
me about Elijah.”

Aenti
Irene turned to Rebecca, and
held her sudsy hands out of the dishwater for a moment. “I’m not
teasing you,” she said, her tone perfectly serious. “You’re in love
with him, aren’t you?”

“Why, yes,” Rebecca said shyly, looking
around to make sure no one could overhear them. “It’s just that I
don’t know if he’s in love with me.”

Aenti
Irene looked puzzled. “What do
you mean?”

Rebecca felt at a loss how to explain her
innermost thoughts. “Well, I’m worried that Elijah would just fall
into marrying me, because everyone expects it, what with my three
schweschders
now married to his three
bruders
.”

“But you do want to marry him, don’t
you?”

Rebecca nodded. “
Jah
, of course I do.
But I don’t want to marry him if he’s only marrying me out of
expectation. I want him to be truly in love with me and to marry me
just for love.”

“Love,
pffft
!”
Aenti
Irene
exclaimed loudly, startling Rebecca. “My advice is to marry him as
soon as you can. He can fall in love with you
after
you’re
married. If you don’t marry him at the first opportunity, some
other
maidel
will. I’ve seen the new girl, Sarah, making
moon eyes at him. Would you rather Elijah marry her, or you?”

Rebecca stared at her
aenti
. She had
not thought it about like that before.

“You take it from me,”
Aenti
Irene
continued. “I once let a
mann
slip out of my grasp because I
didn’t know what his reasons for marrying me were. He married
someone else, and now I’m all alone. Do you want to be like me, all
alone with no
bopplis
?”

Rebecca continued to stare at
Aenti
Irene. She had always thought that
Aenti
Irene was a happy
person, yet she had known nothing of this part of her life. Was
Aenti
Irene right? Should she marry Elijah? Well, he had not
asked her to marry him yet, but if he did, should she at once
accept without hesitation? Was romantic love a childish concept
after all? Was Rebecca doing the wrong thing in wanting Elijah to
love her with all his heart and soul, or would being married to
Elijah, if he didn’t love her, be enough?

1 Corinthians 13:7-8.

Love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they
will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge,
it will pass away.

Chapter
9

Rebecca arrived at the B&B the day after
Martha’s wedding with bleary eyes from lack of sleep. Again, she
had risen earlier than usual to help with cleaning up after the
wedding. Her
mudder
had finally shooed her out of the
kitchen to get ready for work.

Mrs. Flickinger was tired too, having helped
at the wedding and the wedding preparations the day previously.
“Rebecca, would you please prepare the Spinning Star Quilt room for
a guest?”

“Sure, how long will he be staying?”

Mrs. Flickinger shrugged her shoulders and
rubbed her eyes. “Could be long term. He doesn’t know; he said
possibly a four week minimum, but likely much longer.”

Rebecca yawned.

“Have a mug of kaffi first, dear.” Mrs.
Flickinger said, nodding to the pot of coffee.

“
Denki
.” The aroma of the freshly
brewed
kaffi
had made Rebecca wake up somewhat, and drinking
a whole mug helped her feel wide awake indeed.

The Spinning Star Quilt room was Rebecca’s
favorite, and was usually reserved for guests who were staying more
than one night. It had a queen sized bed featuring a beautifully
made quilt in jewel colors of bright blue, red and green, along
with earthy brown, set against a background of cream. The plain oak
headboard only served to show off the quilt in all its beauty. The
rest of the room was plain, apart from a working fireplace. There
was an old, spindle back rocking chair which had been newly
upholstered in fall colors of russet brown, and a practical oak
desk in the corner. There was a large, mahogany, two door sectional
armoire closet which featured two large beveled mirrors.

Rebecca, who of course had no mirrors in her
haus
, would often stare at herself in the mirrors in the
armoire. At first she had felt guilty, but had soon told herself
that she was not looking for reasons of vanity, but rather, simply
out of curiosity. Today she took in the appearance of her puffy
eyes, and the dark circles under them. “I need more sleep,” she
said aloud to herself, and then immediately looked over her
shoulder. To her relief, there was no sign of Nash Grayson, so she
set herself to vacuuming the carpet.

When the room was vacuumed and thoroughly
dusted and otherwise thoroughly prepared, Rebecca went in search of
Mrs. Flickinger for further instruction. She found her at the desk,
checking in a tall Amish
mann
.

Mrs. Flickinger looked up at her approach.
“Oh,
gut
, Rebecca. Would you please show our guest to his
room? This is Benjamin Shetler. Benjamin, I’d like you to meet
Rebecca, Rebecca Miller.”

Rebecca quickly assessed Benjamin’s
appearance. He looked kind, and nice, and was tall, with sandy
colored hair, big brown eyes, and broad shoulders. Rebecca figured
him to be a farmer, used to hard physical work. “
Jah
,
certainly. Which room is that?”

Mrs. Flickinger raised her eyebrows as if
Rebecca had gone
ferhoodled
. “The Spinning Star Quilt room,
as we discussed.”

Rebecca nodded, feeling quite foolish. She
knew, of course, that a guest was expected that morning, but she
had no idea that the guest Mrs. Flickinger had mentioned would be a
young Amish
mann
. For some reason, she had expected the
guest to be
Englisch
.

Benjamin appeared to be friendly and chatty.
“Is it always this cold here for this time of year?” he asked on
the way to his room.

Rebecca shook her head. “
Nee
. It looks
like an early winter, for sure.”

“Was it your
schweschder
who was
married yesterday?”

“
Jah
.”

Rebecca wondered why Mrs. Flickinger had told
him that there had been a wedding the day before.
Perhaps it was
to explain why she was so tired
, she thought. As Benjamin was
so forthcoming, Rebecca thought it fine to ask him a question. “So
where are you from?”

They had reached the door to his room, and
both stood there for a moment, not speaking. Rebecca wondered if he
would answer her question.

Finally he said, “Out of town,” before
averting his eyes.

Well, obviously
, Rebecca thought,
feeling a little bad that she had pressed him for information.
Nevertheless that did not stop her asking one final question. “So,
are you on
rumspringa
?”

“Sort of, something like that,” Benjamin
said, before smiling at her, and walking through the doorway.
“
Denki
for showing me to my room,” he said as he shut the
door.

Rebecca stood in the hallway, puzzled. Why
was Benjamin Shetler being so secretive? Perhaps his community was
not so
schnell
, as her
mudder
called the
not-so-conservative.
How can someone be ‘sort of’ on
rumspringa?
Rebecca silently asked herself.
You are either
on rumspringa or not on rumspringa. You can’t be on ‘something
like’ rumspringa
.

Ida Flickinger was in the kitchen, sitting at
the table and drinking
kaffi
. Her shoulders were slumped and
she looked awfully tired.

“Would you like me to do the laundry
now?”

“
Jah
,
denki
.”

Rebecca made to leave the kitchen, but then
turned back. “The new guest is ‘sort of’ on
rumspringa
.”

Rebecca expected Ida to ask her what she
meant, but Ida merely said, “He arrived here with the bishop in the
bishop’s buggy.”

“He did?”

Ida simply nodded and sipped more
kaffi
. Rebecca did not like to discuss the matter with her;
after all, Mrs. Flickinger had enough problems with her son, Nash
Grayson, and looked like she needed a
gut
sleep.

Rebecca walked to the laundry room, her
thoughts full of Benjamin Shetler. What a mystery he was turning
out to be!

After the laundry was done, Rebecca took a
pot of peppermint tea and a dish of pot pie up to
Grossmammi
Deborah’s room. Today
Grossmammi
was doing better than
usual, and was sitting up in bed, propped up by several pillows.
“Rebecca,” she said in a weak voice, “please sit down and tell me
all about the wedding.”

Rebecca enjoyed her chats with
grossmammi
, although they were always brief as
grossmammi
became tired so easily. After Rebecca gave
grossmammi
a brief run down of the wedding, she told her
what
Aenti
Irene had said about Elijah.

Grossmammi’s
eyes sparkled. “See,
child, that’s what I’ve been telling you all along.”

Rebecca sighed.
Grossmammi
Deborah had
indeed been telling Rebecca that she should marry Elijah, even if
he wasn’t in love with her.

“Love will come later,”
Grossmammi
said again.

“But what if it doesn’t,
Grossmammi
?”
Rebecca asked, looking down at her apron and twisting it between
her hands. “What if Elijah never does fall in love with me, and I
have to live in a loveless marriage forever?” When no answer was
forthcoming, Rebecca looked at
Grossmammi
only to see that
she had fallen asleep.

2 Titus 1:8-9.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony
about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for
the gospel by the power of God,

who saved us and called us to a holy
calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose
and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages
began.

Chapter
10

When Rebecca arrived back at the Miller
haus
after work that day, the cleaning up after the wedding
had all been done. The only person in sight was Sarah, who was
sitting at the big oak table in the kitchen, sipping a mug of hot
meadow tea. Rebecca knew her
daed
would still be at work in
the barn, but wondered where her
mudder
, Martha, and Moses
were.

She walked over to Sarah and stretched
widely, before yawning. “Where is everyone?’

Sarah looked up and smiled. “Your
mudder
is over at Mrs. Yoder’s and Martha and Moses are out
visiting.”

“Already? They didn’t waste any time.”

Sarah simply nodded so Rebecca went to make
herself a nice, hot cup of meadow tea. Having done so, she returned
to the table and sat down.

“So, tell me all about Nash Grayson,” Sarah
asked.

Rebecca was surprised. “How did you find out
about him?”

“Everyone knows about him.” Sarah shrugged.
“Everyone’s sorry for poor Mrs. Flickinger, what with her son gone
all wild and her
mudder
so ill. Everyone was talking about
it yesterday, at the wedding. So, what’s he like?”