Promised to Another (26 page)

Shanna followed her into the kitchen. “How long did they say you’d need to wear the splint? Six weeks?”

“The doctor at the hospital told me to see my primary care physician in two weeks. He probably didn’t realize that my physician is the local vet. You know he usually makes the haus calls around here and tells people when they need to see an actual doctor.”

Shanna chuckled. “Well, the vet should know how your hand is healing. He has plenty of experience treating sprains—but generally on horses.”

Annie forced a smile. “I think I’ll run my binder over to the schoolhaus so that Ruth will know what I’d planned for the Christmas program. Do you think they’ll miss me?”

“They shouldn’t. I’ll go with you. Where’s your binder?”

“In Joshua’s room.” She glanced toward the stairs. Her room.

Shanna grinned. “I’ll wait for you down here.”

Annie hesitated a moment, then turned and headed upstairs.

When she reached the door, she hesitated again. Should she knock? Maybe he was asleep already. He’d looked tired when he’d come to talk to her, with some wrinkles on his forehead and creases around his mouth, despite his smile, that had spoken of the pain he’d mentioned. She listened but didn’t hear anything. Not even snores. Though he might not be a snorer. After another moment, she twisted the knob and opened the door.

Joshua stood at the open window, shirtless, and holding his cell phone in his hand. He turned and looked at her, his eyes narrowing. He pressed a button on the phone, laid it on the dresser, and took a step toward her as she shut the door behind her. No one should see him like this. She wasn’t even sure she should. Still, she couldn’t help but notice the muscles, the sprinkling of hair…. She forced her gaze up to his eyes, her face heating. “I…I just came in for my binder. I put it in the bottom drawer.” She pointed at the dresser, trying to keep her eyes on his. “Shanna and I thought we’d slip away for a moment to run it up to the schoolhaus and leave it for the new teacher. They replaced me with Ruth King.” She was babbling like a nervous schoolgirl.

“Giggly Ruth,” Joshua said softly. He bent down and opened the bottom drawer, his arm muscles rippling, and retrieved the binder. Then, he straightened and adjusted the black notebook in his grip, his gaze lowering to her lips. “I don’t know what they were thinking when they hired her. She’s bu crazy.”

Annie was beginning to feel a bit “bu crazy,” too. A shiver worked its way up her spine, and she took a step back, but she found herself pressed up against the door. At least her craziness was directed toward one particular bu—man, rather. Her husband, no less.

“You drive me wild.” Joshua’s voice was low. Intimate. He took a few more steps toward her, closing the distance between them. “I’ve wanted to kiss you ever since I first saw you. Kissing you yesterday wasn’t nearly enough.” He stopped inches away from her.

Her stomach started doing funny flips. She stared up at him, afraid to look away, afraid to see something that wouldn’t be proper. She’d never even seen Daed without a shirt. Her face heated.

“It was a church Sunday, my first one in Seymour. After church, you were reading to a whole bunch of kinner under an oak tree. I thought you were the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. I asked about you right then, who you were, so I could try to court you.”

He remembered meeting her? He’d wanted to court her, even that long ago? She began to feel even funnier. The fluttering in her stomach made it hard to breathe.

He held the notebook to his chest, so close that she was afraid she might accidentally touch him if she tried to take it from him.

“I want to kiss you, Annie,” he whispered. “That’s all. Just a kiss. Then, you can take your binder and go.”

Just a kiss. Something told her it’d be more than that. The way she was feeling right now, aching to wrap her arms around his neck…. She shivered so violently, she was afraid her back would freeze in a cramp. He’d offered to let her reclaim the kiss she’d so foolishly passed up just a little while ago. One she desperately wanted, with every breath. Suddenly, she was glad Shanna had decided to wait downstairs.

At least the two of them had a measure of privacy. If she could find the words to say, to let him know she’d welcome his kiss. His kisses. But it seemed as if her tongue had decided to render her speechless. All she could do was stand there.

He lifted his gaze. Looked into her eyes. “Ach, Annie,” he groaned. He raised a hand, his fingers grazing her cheek.

Music blared, breaking the silence.

She jumped.

He pressed the binder into her hands and spun around. “I’m sorry. It’s…it’s my phone. My daed. I have to take this.”

Annie released a shuddering breath, opened the door, and fled.

The number displayed on the screen of Joshua’s cell phone was for the phone shanty back home, where Joshua had left his messages. The caller had to be Daed. Joshua stared down at his phone for a moment before pushing the button to answer the call. Had Isaac told Daed about the forced marriage? Or had he left that bit of news unsaid? Joshua dreaded hearing Daed’s reaction to this most recent escapade. He swallowed his fear. “Hello?”

“Joshua. Are you back at the Beilers’ farm, then? Or still in the hospital?”

“The hospital released me this morgen.” He watched out the window as Annie and Shanna walked side by side across the yard, headed in the direction of the schoolhaus. Annie carried the binder, and Shanna appeared to be talking. How had Annie managed to escape from the wedding festivities? Considering the nature of the ceremony, perhaps she felt she could come and go as she pleased. And maybe she felt that delivering the binder to the new schoolteacher was a higher priority than visiting with her guests.

In actuality, Joshua supposed he could be accused of being just as negligent of their guests. He had a splitting headache, to be sure, so severe that even his stomach felt a bit off. And he’d felt the need to contact Daed before the gossips had a chance to twist the incident into something unseemly. He’d thought taking a nap and making this phone call were both necessities. If he and Annie hadn’t been forced to marry—if this had been a long-anticipated wedding they’d both wanted—neither of them would have left the festivities.

His chest hurt. He’d sent Annie the wrong message again. And, apparently, she’d received it loud and clear. She thought the wedding was unimportant to him. And she’d responded in kind.

He’d finish talking to Daed, take another pain pill, and then go find his bride.

Ach, Annie.
He still tingled from their too-brief encounter.

Daed had picked a bad time to return Joshua’s call. He could hear Daed’s voice speaking, with the occasional pause, but his mind didn’t register what was said. His thoughts were centered on Annie. He’d thought he’d seen a hint of desire in her eyes. Maybe, if he pressed hard enough, he would be rewarded with a kiss.

His stomach knotted when he turned away from the window and faced the bed. The bed where he and Annie would sleep that night. Together. For the first time. Without a chaperone.

He’d promised not to take advantage of her.

Ach, Lord. How much will I be expected to take?

“Joshua? Are you there? Hello? Hello?” Daed’s voice finally broke into his thoughts. “I think I lost the connection.”

“Ach, sorry, Daed. Jah, I’m here.”

“Isaac Beiler said you weren’t hurt bad?” It sounded like a question, as if Daed wanted to verify for himself that Joshua was fine. There was also a bit of annoyance in his voice. He must have repeated himself multiple times.

“I jumped out of the buggy when the horse bolted. I guess I hit my head on something, because I woke up in the hospital. But I’m fine. They say I’ve got a bad case of road rash.” Joshua laughed, hoping his daed wouldn’t realize it was forced. “Wasn’t real sure what that was, until they pointed to the raw skin on the palms of my hands and my wrists. My kneecaps are pretty scraped up, too. I’m not sure how I managed that. But I guess whatever I hit ripped holes right through the knees of my pants.”

“I’m just glad you’re alive. Your mamm and I want you to kum home. Are you well enough to travel? Isaac Beiler seemed a bit hesitant when I mentioned buying a bus ticket for you. I was afraid you might be worse than he said. I told him we’d kum down for Thanksgiving.” He hesitated. “But if it’s just…‘road rash,’ did you say? I think you can kum home, instead.”

So, Isaac hadn’t told Daed about Annie. About their marriage. Joshua swallowed again. “Daed—”

“About David. His parents are making preparations to go to Missouri. He’s bad off?”

“Jah, worse than I am. He broke a couple of bones…had to have some surgery. I’m not real sure about the details. He’s still in the hospital.”

“Isaac Beiler said something about a couple of girls?” There was a note in his daed’s tone that Joshua couldn’t decipher. Censure, maybe. As if the girls had been the cause of the accident. Or, as if he suspected that Joshua had been flirting with one of them and not looking out for traffic.

“Jah. David and I, we were going fishing. We had Isaac Beiler’s two daughters with us, Annie and Cathy. Cathy broke something…her arm, I think. I haven’t even seen her today. She was treated and released. And I shoved Annie out of the buggy, so she had only a sprained wrist.”

“Gut, gut. Well, I told this Isaac that I appreciate him taking you in when that other family kicked you out. We got your letter, just Saturday, with your change of address. I guess I’ll buy the bus ticket and send it along with your mamm’s reply.”

“Ach, Daed, there’s something else you need to know. I, uh, I married Annie this morgen. Today.” He hated saying it like that, but he couldn’t think of a better way to deliver the news. Even if this type of news wasn’t meant to be dumped without a warning.

The silence stretched on, and Joshua could only imagine the thoughts that were going through his daed’s head. A slight gasp was the only indication that he was still on the line.

Joshua sighed. “I didn’t mean to blurt it out like that, but—”

“Do I even want to know what you’ve gotten yourself into down there?” Daed’s voice was tight, fierce, and hard, as if he feared the answer. “You and this…this Anne—”

“Nein, it’s not what you think. The bishop here is just really strict, and he caught me kissing Annie. He forced us to marry. Annie and I, we haven’t…well, we’ve hardly even kissed. Yesterday was the first time, really.”

“That’s ludicrous. We’ll talk to him about this. If you and Annie haven’t been together, there’s…. Why didn’t you refuse? You could have declined getting the marriage license.”

“I couldn’t leave her in shame. And I would have been sent home in disgrace. Besides, I…I love her, Daed. I wanted to marry her, anyway.” There. He’d said it. Admitted his feelings to someone else, as well as to himself. Something he hadn’t dared do before.

“You haven’t been down there long enough to fall in love.” Daed exhaled shakily. “I wasn’t expecting this. You never mentioned her. I thought you’d marry a local girl. That you’d just gone to Missouri with your friends to see the different sights, like you said. And you wind up marrying some girl we’ve never even heard of? Your mamm and I will kum down, then, to meet our new daughter-in-law. I’ll call you again to let you know when to expect us. And to discuss when you’re returning home, son.”

“I’m sure you’ll love Annie. We look forward to seeing you.” Both lies. The idea of his parents coming and meeting Annie scared him more than he cared to measure. What if they didn’t like her? Joshua disconnected the call with a sigh. He didn’t know how to tell Annie that they’d be moving to Pennsylvania—that he’d intended to return home all along—when she and her daed believed he’d intended to stay. After all, he’d technically agreed to remain in Seymour to build a family and start a farm when he’d signed up for the swap.

But he couldn’t. His home was in Pennsylvania.

The lies were turning into a miry pit. He wasn’t sure how he’d dig his way out.

***

Annie climbed the porch steps and turned to stare at the barn. She could still hear the wedding guests singing inside. But she wasn’t ready to face anybody again just yet. Shanna had gone back into the barn, probably to find Matthew. Had anyone even missed the bride and groom? Maybe they had, and assumed they were together somewhere. Her face heated.