Following Your Heart (20 page)

“So it is true then?” James asked again.

“Is what true?” James's
mamm
asked, coming up from the basement. “I thought I heard you two chattering up here.”

“Yost and the
Englisha
girl,” Deacon Ray replied, transferring another piece of popcorn to his mouth.

“Oh that.” Ruth sat on the couch. “It all sounds a little impossible to me. But the woman did seem nice enough today. She even helped with the boys' table in the basement. Susan seemed to be taking
gut
care of her.”

“I think they're both up to something,” James said.

“Oh?” Deacon Ray looked up from the newspaper.

“Surely not, James,” Ruth disagreed. “Susan seems right settled down since she's come back.”

“I don't know.” James shrugged. “It's all a little fishy to me. Susan disappears suddenly, supposedly over a little fight with Thomas. I mean, what's the big deal? Who doesn't fight with their girlfriend?”

“You just quit yours,” Ruth said. “Why do you do that? I thought Rose was a
gut
match for you.”

“Maybe she quit me,” James said with a smile.

“I suppose she could have,” Ruth allowed. “But I don't believe it. And you could still write the girl a nice letter and get things straightened out, couldn't you?”

“I don't think so,” James said. “Things didn't go too
gut
with Rose.”

“Well…” Deacon Ray rocked, his eyes on the magazine. “Things might not work out quite like Yost thinks either. I'd be surprised if the girl even makes it to the instruction classes that start right after communion. And mind you, we're not putting them off for her, nor are we waiting until she can speak German. She either learns fast or waits for the fall classes.”

“I wouldn't be too hard on her,” Ruth interjected. “And the articles of faith are written in English, so she'll be understanding those. It's only the ministers' questions that may be asked in German.”

Deacon Ray grunted his agreement.

“I think I'll get ready for the hymn singing,” James said, getting up. “There's supper served tonight for the young people.”

“Maybe we'll come afterward,” Deacon Ray said. “But I wouldn't worry about the
Englisha
girl. The ministers are aware of what problems might lie ahead.”

“I just hate to see Thomas involved with all that mess,” James said. “He ought to take Eunice up on her interest and forget about Susan.”

“Now, James,” Ruth said, “we all have to come to our own understanding of things. So don't go pushing Thomas away from Susan.”

“He's not listening to me anyway,” James said as he went up the stairs. Once in his bedroom he quickly changed his clothes. He walked back downstairs and out to the barn. After hitching his horse to the buggy, he drove out of the driveway, turning toward the hymn singing. He gave his horse its head. With a rattle of wheels, he didn't slow much at the next turn, sliding the buggy sideways on the gravel. With a smile he let the reins out again. Perhaps this was why he couldn't keep a girlfriend, although he never drove like this when he had a girl along. But perhaps she still picked up on his reckless ways or saw how tight the reins went out the storm front. Girls were like that.

Nee
, he decided. It wasn't that at all. Whatever kept him and girls from getting along, he simply wasn't going to worry about it. The right girl would come along when she was supposed to.
Mamm
was right though. Rose had been a nice girl. True, she came from another community, so there might have been some adjustments, but Rose would have made them. She had made that fact abundantly clear. Still, he had not asked to see her again on his last trip to Geauga County.

Ahead of him a buggy appeared, the horse plodding along. James slowed his horse and pulled out, staying well on the other side of the road. A brief sideways glance as he passed revealed the bearded face of Yost Byler. James pulled back to his side of the road.
Wow!
he thought. Things had to be serious between Yost and the
Englisha
girl if the man was coming to supper at the Sunday night hymn singing.

So the poor man must have fallen hard for the
Englisha
girl. Yet he had barely seen her or she him. That was the strange part about this whole thing. Yost was just desperate, but that didn't explain the girl's part. Who would agree to a marriage with so little information about the man? She couldn't have seen much of him. Unless Yost and she had had some secret meeting to talk things out, but that would have made matters worse. Talking with Yost would decrease, not increase, a girl's willingness to marry him. At least among the girls he knew.

Susan and the
Englisha
girl were hiding something. There was no doubt about it. But what? And strangely no one else seemed to care. Not even
Daett
. He usually was the first to care about such things. Bishop Henry placed great stock in
Daett
's opinions on serious matters, and this was serious if there ever was anything serious. An
Englisha
unwed girl was making her way into the heart of the community. Would there be trouble following after her?

Well, he decided after a long moment of hard thinking, it was none of his concern. Why darken his brow about this matter, when no one else cared? Pulling into Benny Zook's driveway, James stopped by the barn beside the other buggies. Thomas saw him arrive and ran over to help unhitch.

“Taking Susan home tonight?” James teased as he undid the tugs.

“You know I'm not,” Thomas said. “So quit it.”

“Yost Byler is coming to supper,” James announced. “How about that? I passed him a ways back.”

“Looks like the plan is working,” Thomas said, a pleased smile spreading across his face.

“Now what would an
Englisha
girl want with an old man like that?” James asked.

“Don't worry your head about it,” Thomas said. “I'm just glad it's working. After a while Susan won't have any reason to put me off.”

“I still don't think Susan's telling you everything about her time out there with the
Englisha
,” James said. “Anything could have happened, Thomas. And you know it. I think they're covering something up. Something bad enough to marry an old Amish man over.”

Thomas laughed. “Are you trying to get me out of the way so you can make your move on Susan?”

James snorted and shook his head.

“Come on now, be honest,” Thomas said. “You'd leap at a chance for Susan Hostetler's affections. I've known that since our school days. It's just that you've never had a chance, and you're not getting one now.”

James chuckled. “I'm not getting in your way, believe me. This has to be a two-way street, you know. And Susan's never paid me much attention.”

“That's how I want it to stay.” Thomas held the buggy shafts as James led the horse forward. Behind them Yost Byler's buggy banged into the driveway. Thomas smiled and turned to walk toward him. James shook his head and led his horse to the barn.

When he returned to the yard, Yost had just finished unhitching with Thomas's help.

“
Gut
evening,” James greeted him.

Yost grunted, “
Gut
evening,” hauling on his horse's halter as he pulled the beast toward the barn.

James looked Yost over as he passed. His beard had rough scissors marks over the entire surface. At least the result was a shorter beard, which would have helped his looks except for the chop marks. His pants looked washed for a change, but his feet were bootless and his shoes muddy. Didn't the man know that muddy shoes wore out quicker, costing more in the long run than the money spent on boots? Perhaps the man was past caring about such things.

“Should we wait for him?” James asked Thomas as he looked over his shoulder at the barn.

Thomas laughed. “I think he can find his way to the house.”

James shrugged and followed Thomas through the front door. Inside, they tossed their hats on the pile. A group of boys already sat around the bench table, laughing and talking.

“Do you think Susan brought the
Englisha
girl?” James asked, motioning toward the kitchen.

“I'd expect so,” Thomas said. “All I care about is if she comes herself.”

“Come on now. Sit down. Don't be shy,” one of the boys hollered at them, making room at the bench table. “The girls will be coming out soon enough for supper.”

They both laughed and walked toward the table. Behind them the front door opened and Yost entered. He took his hat off, fiddling with the rim. A hush settled on the room as the boys turned to look at him. He nodded, the edges of freshly trimmed beard even more pronounced in the shadowy light of the gas lantern.

“Evening, Yost,” someone said, and Yost tossed his hat sideways. The edge of the rim stayed on the floor, the hat bouncing against the others. It wobbled out across the living room falling over against a chair. James stood and retrieved the runaway hat. Yost stood unmoving by the front door.

“Hey, there's room over here,” someone called, and Yost moved in that direction.

James waited until Yost was seated before he took a seat at the end of the table. The conversation resumed, rising and falling in the living room. James listened to their opinions on horses, on spring, and on the coming summer's hay crop, but he watched Yost's face. It soon lost its tense look as he joined in the talk. Only when a girl's name was mentioned, accompanied by laughter and good-hearted humor, did Yost look away.

James kept quiet, thinking things over. Was this what the
Englisha
girl was after by joining the Amish? This common everyday living they all experienced? But was not the
Englisha
world so much more exciting? Was it not a place with movies to watch, with television in the house, with an automobile outside to drive when one wished to? Something wasn't right here. No one would willingly leave that world for this. And no one would marry Yost Byler over nothing. The girl was running from something, and Susan knew what it was.

The thought hit him like a bolt of lightning out of a dark summer's thunderstorm. This was why Susan had returned. She was helping the girl run away from her past. It was the only thing that made any sense. Lost in his thoughts, James jerked his head up at the sudden quieting of the room around him. Boys were standing to their feet, and he jumped up himself.

From the kitchen doorway, the girls were streaming out into the living room. Their white coverings were outlined against the pale blue wall, framing their cheerful faces. James searched the line, finding Susan toward the end with the
Englisha
girl beside her. Both of them looked happy, as if they had finished sharing something funny in the kitchen. What could the two be hiding?

“We're glad all of you could come,” Benny was saying as he stood at the kitchen doorway with his wife, Naomi, beside him. “It's always a privilege to have the young folks over for supper on a Sunday night. The chance doesn't come around but once a year, and it's not often enough for me. Thank all of you for coming. So let's pray and then we can eat.”

Silence settled across the room as they all bowed their heads.

When the prayer was over, James looked in Susan and the
Englisha
girl's direction. Both had their heads turned in his direction. James glanced away. It would not do to be caught staring at them. And if he was not mistaken, the
Englisha
girl had just caught sight of Yost Byler, and she looked quite pale. Indeed, something very strange was going on.

S
usan watched from the upstairs window, pushing the dark-blue curtains aside as her
daett
drove the team of Belgians around the corner of the barn. He looked tired and weary, his face drawn after the day of spring plowing in the fields. Susan's hand trembled on the drapes between her fingers. How could she even be thinking about leaving?

Of course they wouldn't be running away. They would inform
Mamm
and
Daett
of where they were going, but they definitely needed to leave. Things were simply getting out of hand, and Teresa was not coming to her senses. Across the hallway, the cry of baby Samuel startled her.