Amish Circle Letters (25 page)

“Can I tell you a secret?” Melvin asked as he hung on the side of the stall door, watching Katie grooming Butterscotch. He knew that she shouldn’t be grooming the pony on a Sunday but it didn’t bother him none. He was just glad that his daed had granted him permission to run over to the Miller’s farm to visit with her.

“A secret?” she asked, her eyes wide and bright.

“Ja!” He reached into his pocket. “I found something that you might want to see.” He took a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and opened it. “Here,” he said ,thrusting it at her.

Katie left the side of the pony and reached for the paper. It was a letter. The handwriting was neat and elegant. It was also familiar. “That’s Mary Ruth’s handwriting!” she exclaimed and looked up. “Where did you find this?”

He looked sheepish as if he suddenly regretted showing it to her. He hadn’t thought she’d react like that. “It was by the trash bin. But read what the note says.”

Katie frowned and tried to hand it back to him. “That’s private!”

Melvin pushed her hand away. “Read it!”

Reluctantly, she let her eyes skim over the letter. When she got to the second paragraph, her eyes grew wide and she looked up at Melvin. “Oh,” she whispered.

He smiled. “Ja!” He reached for the note. “Mary Ruth’s going to be my new mamm.”

“That would make us cousins!” Katie said, not certain if she was excited or not. Hadn’t her grossmammi just sent a letter telling Mary Ruth it was time to come home? Who else knew about this? “You feel gut about having a new mamm?”

Melvin shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the ground. “I know she won’t be my Mamm. No one can replace her. But it would sure be nice to see my daed happy again and Mary Ruth is right
gut
to all of us.”

“Do you sisters know?”

He nodded. “Suzanna does. I didn’t tell the little ones,” he admitted. “They’d talk.”

Katie pursed her lips, thinking for a moment. It hadn’t been that long since Mary Ruth was taking care of Melvin, Suzanna, Ruth Ann, and Emma. How long had Menno been courting her? Hadn’t his wife just died four or so months ago? “Are they in love?” Katie asked, staring at Melvin as if he had the answer.

He blushed and looked away. “I don’t know nothing about that!”

“I wonder what it feels like to be in love,” she said absentmindedly, gazing out the barn door. “I imagine it must be how I feel when I’m around Butterscotch.”

At that, Melvin looked at her. Butterscotch? The pony?

If only he could tell her that he knew exactly how it felt to be in love. It was a wonderful feeling, a feeling of warmth and joy from the moment he was standing close to her until the moment they had to part. Love overcame everything…every thought, every breath. He was happy when he was with her and, when they were apart, he could find happiness thinking about her. He lived in the memories of her teaching him to ride Butterscotch or showing him how she had taught the pony to jump over small logs. When she laughed, her face lit up and his heart would sing.

How could she compare love to what she felt for an animal?

“I reckon,” he mumbled. “I best get going. My daed will wonder where I am.” He didn’t wait for her reply before he hurried out the door.

She watched him leave and wondered what she had said. With a heavy heart, she put the grooming brush away and wandered outside to sit on a hay bale and wait for Steve to pick her up. Without Melvin to keep her company, it just wasn’t the same. After all, it was Melvin who made being around Butterscotch so special.

Chapter 10: Miriam’s Package

She sat on the church bench, her heart pounding inside of her chest and a lump forming in her throat. Several people were looking at her discreetly and whispering to each other. She didn’t blame them. It was all that she could do to keep staring straight ahead and not seek out Elias from where he sat across the room. She knew that if she had looked at him, Miriam would burst out in tears.

They had known about John David and Ella. That was a given. They had suspected about Steve and Mimi Hostetler, although Steve had been very private about his courtship and only informed them earlier that week that the deacon would be announcing their upcoming wedding.

But Mary Ruth?

When she had heard the deacon announce that her daughter was getting married, it took her a minute to comprehend his words. Mary Ruth? And then she heard the name Menno Yoder and she felt as if the bottom of her world had collapsed.
How could this have happened?

The date had been set already. Ten days. One week from Tuesday. It was unheard of. At least, this was what Miriam thought. As far as her memory served her well, it was unheard of for a couple to announce the wedding and the date without talking to their parents first. However, since Menno was a widower, maybe the rules were different. She just didn’t know.

What she did know was that she had a headache and pain in her jaw from clenching her teeth so tightly.

Miriam tried to act natural, not wanting anyone to know that she had just been completely shocked at the news. In fact, from the expressions on other people’s faces, they were as shocked as she was. Still, she didn’t want them to think that she hadn’t known a thing. Nor did she want them to think that she didn’t approve. After all, the deacon had announced it and it was now official

“Well,” Lizzie Petersheim said after the service, “Three weddings in one season!” She was holding her three-month-old baby, smiling at Miriam. “Sure took me by surprise, though. It’s only been what? Four? Five months?”

Miriam caught her breath and, rather than answer, changed the conversation by cooing over the baby. “You sure must be pleased with this darling one,” she said. “How many is that now? Four?”

Lizzie smiled, pleased with the praise for her baby. “Five.”

“And one day, you too shall have weddings in your home for them, ja?” Miriam hoped that she sounded genuinely excited, that she was masking the piercing pain in her heart from her youngest daughter’s decision without any discussion with or consideration of, her parents.
Ten days,
she thought. Did Mary Ruth expect to marry in Miriam’s home? Or was she doing something else unconventional?

“Congratulations, Miriam,” someone else said at her elbow. “You let me know what I can do to help.”

“
Danke
, Ruth,” Miriam replied, glancing around the room for Elias. Her head was throbbing and she had to get out of the room. Despite the post-service fellowship hour, she knew that she couldn’t stay there for one more minute. “Have you seen Elias yet? I’m feeling a bit poorly. Want to leave,” she said.

Fifteen minutes later, she was seated in the buggy next to her husband. Alone and away from prying eyes, she let the tears fall down her cheeks. Elias stared straight ahead, the reins taunt in his hands. He let his wife pour out her emotions without consoling her. He knew better. She needed time to collect her thoughts and decide a course of action.

“We need to go to her,” Miriam finally said. “Now. Right now, Elias.”

Without saying a word, he nodded his head and steered the horse and buggy past the turn for their farm and headed across town toward Rachel and Leah’s.

Mary Ruth had left the building just after the deacon had announced the upcoming weddings. She avoided her sisters’ glares but could certainly feel the tension in the room. She had known that the reactions from people would be mixed. After all, Martha Yoder had been part of their community for many years. Now, Menno was taking a new bride. It was understandable that people would raise an eyebrow, especially since Mary Ruth had been helping with the
kinner
since Martha’s accident. Who knew what thoughts were crossing their minds!

“Mary Ruth!”

Mary Ruth stopped walking and turned around, surprised to see Menno jogging to catch up with her.

“You aren’t staying for the fellowship meal then?” he asked as he approached her. When he stood before her, he reached out and touched her arm. “People will want to wish you well, ja?”

“
Nee
,” she said, shaking her head. The other couples that had been announced hadn’t attended at all that day. At that moment, she wished that she hadn’t attended, either, but being that she was marrying a widower, the rules were different. “I feel most uncomfortable in there. I can hear their tongues wagging already.”

He laughed, his hand still resting on her arm. “No tongues are wagging.”

Mary Ruth made a face. “Rachel and Leah seemed none too pleased.”

“Come back,” he said gently. There was an understanding look in his eye, a sense of compassion that immediately put her at ease. “It will look odd if you disappear. Mayhaps that you are none too pleased yourself.”

At this, she smiled and felt the color creeping onto her cheeks. Menno sure had a way of making her blush.

The past two weeks had flown by. Each morning, it was all that she could do to not race through her chores at Leah’s in order to hurry to the Yoder farm. Since their conversation at the last church service, Mary Ruth had seen a remarkable difference in Menno. He spent more time in the house when she was there, even taking breaks with the barn chores to visit with her in the kitchen.

Once, he had even reached across the table and, after the slightest of hesitations, he had touched her hand. She had never had a man make such a gesture and the feel of his thumb gently caressing her skin sent a thrill through her veins. She had to pull her hand back and avert her eyes, but not before she saw the look of amusement on his face. That, too, had caused her to blush.

She could scarcely believe that this man, this wonderful man, was the same shell of a person she had met not so long ago. Gone were the fierce stares and harsh words. Instead, he was soft spoken and gentle, kind and attentive. With the commitment made for their union, he had slipped into a mode of pleased acceptance and pure contentment that she would never have thought possible. And with this, she knew that he loved her.

Of course, she also knew that his love for her was at the infancy stage. It wasn’t as deep as what he had felt for Martha. But she was hopeful that, given some more time, it would grow. If only, she thought, she could feel confident that he would never compare her to Martha, his first true love. She prayed that he would have enough room in his heart to love her just as much, even if in a different way.

“I’m pleased,” she finally said, aware that he was watching her intensely and with pleading eyes. “But I’m not ready for the questions from my sisters.”

He reached for her hand and held it tightly. “Then let me take you to them. We can face them together.”

She looked up in surprise.
Together?
Where had this man been for the past few months? His gentleness and soft tone stunned her. She had never heard another Amish man speak this way to his wife, although she knew that she had never heard private conversations between married couples.
Is this what it will be like?
For a moment, her knees felt weak. “Oh Menno,” she whispered, feeling her reluctance dissolve

He squeezed her hand briefly then, letting it go, he placed his hand on her shoulder and gently guided her back to the large room over the barn where the fellowship meal was about to take place.

“Do you believe this?” Leah hissed under her breath to Rachel. “I’m speechless! She didn’t even tell us.”

“I sure hope she knows what she is doing,” Rachel sighed. “She’s awful young to be a mamm to those
kinner
.”

“It’s so soon! Martha only died in the early summer!”

Rachel clicked her tongue, disapprovingly. Still, her mind wandered to her own husband and his demand that she’d consider marrying Menno when he passed. It wasn’t uncommon for a husband to suggest such a thing and Rachel knew that it would have been a potential solution to the farm situation. With Elijah refusing treatment, the inevitable was bound to happen. She would become a young widow with a large farm to tend to and no farmer to do so. Perhaps her unhappiness with Mary Ruth marrying Menno was because she was worried about her own future and had considered Elijah’s suggestion?

She shook her head.
He’s not dead
, she scolded herself.
There is still a chance.
“
Vell
, if this is what she wants and what God has planned for her, then we must support her,” Rachel forced the words from her lips. “And, she will be living in our district which is right nice, ja?”

Leah waved her hand at Rachel. “Mother of four, at that age? She’ll be needing us close by for advice, that’s for sure and certain!”

Rachel changed the subject. “What about the other one? That Steve!” This time, she smiled. Besides the shock of Mary Ruth and Menno’s upcoming marriage, the congregation was also buzzing about Mimi Hostetler getting married to their brother. “I had wondered why he bought that buggy but I never suspected Mimi to be the reason!”

Leah scoffed. “Seems our siblings are right
gut
about keeping secrets, ain‘t so!”

The voices in the large room seemed to shift and Rachel looked up in time to see Mary Ruth and Menno walk through the doorway. She hadn’t even noticed that her sister had left. Clenching her jaw, she lifted her chin and approached the couple to offer her congratulations. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of envy that her youngest sister had somehow won the heart of Menno Yoder, a man much older than her and already established with his own farm and family. It just didn’t seem fair when her own world was falling apart so quickly.

Instead of attending church service, Steve had picked up Mimi from her home. It was official. They were to be married in three weeks from Thursday. He knew that many members of the congregation were certainly surprised, both at his church and at hers, when the deacons had announced it. He was grateful that they did not have to attend the service on that day. Instead, the young couples were allowed to enjoy dinner alone at their mamm’s houses, a time to be alone and talk while the rest of the community learned about their engagement.