Читать книгу An Amish Proposal - Jo Ann Brown - Страница 12

Chapter Two

Micah assured Katie Kay while they drove through the darkness that his friends would be willing to take her in for the night. As to what she’d do tomorrow night, she wasn’t sure. Maybe one of her Englisch friends would let her stay at her house. She must have one who wasn’t afraid of Austin.

But most of her Englisch friends had been Austin’s friends a lot longer than they’d been hers.

She’d never felt more alone. Her whole life, she’d been surrounded by friends, both female and male. As she grew up, the male friends became admirers, and she’d had fun flirting with them. Soon, if her suspicions that she was pregnant were true, none of them would be interested in her.

Though she’d glowered at Micah, he hadn’t backed away from his insistence she speak with her daed. He’d always been stubborn, but she’d usually persuaded him to change his mind. Not tonight. She recognized the set of his square jaw, identical to his twin brother’s, except Micah didn’t have a cleft in his chin. His black hair fell into his startlingly blue eyes that saw so much and revealed so little. His days spent in construction work had broadened his shoulders and knotted muscles in his arms beneath his work coat. She couldn’t believe some girl hadn’t snagged him as her husband in the past year.

And you should be glad for that. She hated listening to her conscience, but she couldn’t argue with it. If he hadn’t been out tonight, she wasn’t sure where she could have found shelter without resorting to knocking on doors.

But Micah couldn’t understand why she didn’t want to talk to her daed and she couldn’t tell him the truth. She needed to know if she was pregnant or not. And if she was... With a sigh, she admitted she didn’t know what she’d do.

The house where Sean and Gemma Donnelly lived was closer to Ronks than Paradise Springs. Katie Kay was relieved because the two districts her daed oversaw as a bishop didn’t reach that far west. The Donnellys’ single-story house was close to the road, and, unlike the plain houses they’d passed, bright lights glowed in the windows. Electric wires ran high over the driveway, where a pair of vans, one with lettering on the side, were parked. She couldn’t read what was painted on it, and she didn’t care.

All she wanted was to have a place to sleep and to wake in the morning to find tonight had been nothing but a nightmare. It had to be. Austin wouldn’t have treated her heartlessly, and her heroic knight in a gray buggy wouldn’t have been Micah. What a joke on her!

Drawing in his horse, Micah stopped the buggy next to one van. She saw a hitching post nearby and wondered why it was there. Maybe the people inside provided a service to the plain community. He lashed the reins around it while she stepped out with the towel over her head to hold off the rain.

“This way,” Micah said, walking along flagstones to the front door.

She followed without saying anything. When he knocked a couple of times and then opened the door, she knew he must be a regular visitor. Amish people walked in without knocking but not the Englischers she’d met. They’d been horrified the first time she entered without waiting for someone to open the door. She’d been mortified, not realizing then how many more mistakes she had ahead of her.

“Is something wrong, Micah?” asked an Englischer as he entered the narrow hallway on the other side of the door. He wasn’t as tall as Micah, but he wore similar work clothes. His hair was red and tightly curled both on his head and in his thick beard and mustache.

“We didn’t expect you back tonight.” A woman followed the man into the hallway. She was plump and wore her dark hair in a ponytail. Dressed in a flowery bathrobe and fluffy slippers, she looked ready for bed. “Are you okay? Is Rascal all right?”

“We’re fine. I left him tied out by the driveway,” Micah answered, and Katie Kay realized Rascal must be his horse. An odd name for a buggy horse, but maybe the beast wasn’t plodding and slow when the weather was gut. “Sean and Gemma Donnelly, this is my...friend. Katie Kay Lapp.”

Did the others hear his hesitation? It made her sad, though she wasn’t quite sure why. She’d treated him poorly, so she should be grateful he attached the word friend to her name. She needed a friend.

“Come inside,” Gemma said with a welcoming smile. “What a horrible night to be out! Can I get you something hot to drink? I think there’s cocoa left in the cupboard.”

“Perfect,” Katie Kay said at the same time Micah replied, “No, thanks, we don’t need anything.”

He frowned at her, and she wanted to ask why. Gemma had offered, and she’d accepted. She understood when Gemma turned, revealing the unmistakable outline of a very pregnant body. In a few months, she could look the same. Her fingers went to her belly. Was it as flat as it’d been a few weeks ago?

“Actually,” Katie Kay hurried to add, “I’m fine. Being inside and warm is helping. I’ll skip the cocoa.” She hoped her stomach wouldn’t growl and betray the fact she hadn’t had anything to eat since noon, when she’d finally been able to hold down food. All morning, she’d been sick...as she had for the past week. She’d had to accept the possibility she was pregnant.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything?” the woman asked.

“Ja.” The Deitsch word slipped out as it hadn’t in months. She was exhausted. That had to be the reason. It couldn’t have anything to do with the brooding man beside her.

Such a description of Micah astonished her. Micah usually had been the one getting everyone to laugh. He and his brothers always teased each other, and if they could draw others into their sport, all the better. Yet, he stood like a disapproving Old Testament patriarch, not a hint of humor on his face.

The red-haired man asked, “What’s up, Micah?”

“Katie Kay needs a place to stay tonight. Can she stay here with you?”

Questions flickered across both Englischers’ faces, but she was relieved when, after a glance was exchanged, Gemma said, “Certainly. There’s an extra bed in Olivia’s room.” She smiled at Katie Kay. “Olivia is our four-year-old daughter. I don’t think she’d mind sharing her room as long as you’re okay with sleeping with a chatterbox. She talks all day, as well as half the night in her sleep.”

“That will be fine.” What else could she say? She’d rather sleep in the rain? No, she was glad for the chance to be under a roof and warm. It hadn’t been warm the past week in the apartment she shared with Austin and his friends. There hadn’t been money to pay for heat, so they’d used what blankets they had and hoped the winter wouldn’t be bad. “Is Olivia your only child?”

She ignored the look Micah fired at her when she didn’t use the common Deitsch word for child. Why would she say kind? The Donnellys weren’t Amish, and she had no idea how much of the language they understood. Probably some, because they were Micah’s friends.

“No,” Gemma replied with another warm smile. “We have two sons. DJ, which is short for Sean Donnelly Junior, is going to turn six in January, and Jayden is almost two.” She laced her hands together over her distended belly. “And this is son number three. Dylan. He’ll be here in a couple of months. His due date is Christmas, but he’ll come when he wants. As they all do.” She laughed, but a hint of fatigue slipped in. “Sean, why don’t you help Micah get her bags?”

“I don’t have any,” she said.

“Oh.” Gemma regained her composure. “Well, then we won’t have to worry about Sean clomping up the stairs and waking the kids. Come in and sit down. We just finished watching the news.”

As they walked into a comfortable living room with bright green-and-white wallpaper on one wall and a fireplace on another, Micah glanced at Katie Kay, this time with an expectant expression. What did he want? Ach, he wanted her to thank his friends, and he believed she’d left her manners behind in Lancaster. As she started to express her gratitude to Gemma, feeling the familiar ripples of rebellion rising at his silent chiding, her hostess waved aside her words.

“We’re more than happy to help any friend of Micah’s,” the woman said but glanced at him with an unsteady smile.

No doubt, Gemma wondered what Micah, so Amish with his broadfall pants and straw hat, was doing with a woman who wasn’t wearing plain clothes and who had no luggage other than a drenched purse.

“We appreciate that,” Micah said, saving her from having to explain. “When I come in the morning, we’ll figure out what she’ll do next. Okay, Katie Kay?”

Regarding her without a speck of emotion, he held her gaze. She might as well have been a plank of wood or a shingle. A shiver ran along her as she wondered if he despised her as much as he acted. Tears clogged her throat. She was more alone than she’d ever been.

She looked away first. She didn’t want him to see her eyes fill. She wasn’t going to cry as she had out on the road. Somehow she had to be strong. If not for herself, then for the boppli she might be carrying.

Though Katie Kay hadn’t replied to Micah’s question, everyone acted as if she had. Micah took his leave, and Gemma showed her to her daughter’s room. Her hostess explained that Micah and her husband owned a company together, so Micah came over every morning to catch a ride with Sean to work.

Trying to act as if she’d been in a house like this many times before, she knew the Englisch habits she’d tried to adopt still looked unnatural on her because Gemma asked if she was familiar with how to switch on electric lights in the nearby bathroom. Austin had teased her about being too “dumb-dumb Dutch”—his derogatory term for plain people—each time she made a mistake. She had tried to appear sophisticated and Englisch in the hope he’d notice her.

He had one night, the one she didn’t recall much about. The result of it was the reason he’d thrown her out of his car and his life.

Why didn’t she remember more of what had happened a couple of months ago? She’d been drinking, as she often did with the roommates, but she usually was careful, never having more than one drink because even that could make her head swim. The others would have can after can of beer until they passed out. She hadn’t. Having finally gained a little control over her life, she didn’t want to chance losing it again.

But one night she hadn’t been cautious because she wanted to forget the bad day she’d had at work waiting tables at a diner. Nothing she’d done had been right, and when she got back to the apartment, she’d given into Austin’s urging to keep drinking. Now she was paying the price for believing he wanted to comfort her. She couldn’t blame him for her stupidity, but she did for his callous expulsion of her from his life.

Taking the nightgown Gemma loaned her as well as a toothbrush, she skipped the hot shower she wanted desperately. The Donnellys were ready to call it a day, and she didn’t want to keep them up. She thanked Gemma, slipped into the little girl’s room and got ready for bed.

It was far softer than any bed she’d slept on since leaving her own comfortable bed at home. Instead of a handmade quilt, the blanket and freshly laundered sheets were covered by an afghan. Its extra warmth would be welcome.

From the other bed, Olivia mumbled something. Katie Kay moved to check the kind and bumped into the table between the beds. Something fell off it and bounced on the floor. She realized it was an inhaler. She looked from it to the kind. Olivia must have asthma.

She put the device on the table and moved to Olivia’s bed. In the faint light from a night-light shaped like a princess, the little girl’s curly hair looked dark, but Katie Kay guessed it was as red as her daed’s. Her cheeks were as full as a well-fed squirrel’s, and she clutched a well-worn, well-loved stuffed kitten to her pajamas that were decorated with more princesses.

Another flurry of tears threatened to fall as Katie Kay smoothed the covers over the sleeping kind. Olivia didn’t resemble Sarann, but Katie Kay remembered tucking in her youngest sister before getting into her own bed. Sarann hadn’t lived to be any older than this little girl; yet that had been far longer than any kind with her birth defects should have lived. Every day of her life, she’d had a smile in spite of the pain she must have suffered.

If Katie Kay had been half as courageous, maybe she wouldn’t have taken the easy way out and left Paradise Springs. Daed had been patient and loving with Sarann, seeing her as a special gift from God. No different from any of his kinder, as he’d said on many occasions.

Why was she remembering that now? She’d let her anger at him banish the memory. Well, it was too late to change anything, and she couldn’t return home. Not when she was unsure if she was pregnant. Not when she hadn’t made up her mind about being baptized and becoming a member of the Amish community. Not when she was confused about so many things.

Including Micah Stoltzfus. She’d changed a lot in the past four months, but she hadn’t expected him to be different, as well. How many times had she joked that nothing ever changed among the plain people?

Something else to add to the long list of things she’d been wrong about.

Going to the other bed, Katie Kay slipped under the covers. Her hair was damp and fell against her face as she turned her head on the pillow to stare out the window at the rain.

In the morning, Micah would be back. She needed to make a plan for what she was going to do.

She wished she knew what that might be.

* * *

Guarding every word he spoke the next morning was almost more than Micah could handle. He sat at the breakfast table with his married brother, Ezra, and Ezra’s wife, Leah, and her young niece, as well as Mamm and his other unmarried brothers. His twin, Daniel, and their older brother Isaiah both were getting married later in the fall. Daniel had built a house beyond the barn where his fiancée already lived, and Isaiah spent most of his time down the road with his late friend’s family that had become his own.

Nobody had spoken of anything connected to Katie Kay. Even so, he couldn’t think of anything other than the blonde who’d returned to Paradise Springs after living somewhere with the Englisch for almost four months.

Only four months? From the lines dug into Reuben’s face by his unrelenting worry, the bishop looked, when Micah had last seen him on Sunday, as if Katie Kay had left years ago. But it’d been June when she left, and now it was October.

He shouldn’t have told Katie Kay he’d say nothing to anyone about her return. That was wrong, and he intended to tell her so as soon as he saw her at the Donnellys’ house this morning. But what if she reneged on her side of the bargain, too, and left without ever seeing Reuben? How could Micah face his bishop knowing he could have taken Katie Kay—willing or not—to her daed last night?

He’d get to the Donnellys’ house early. Sean wasn’t a morning person, something Micah had learned since the two of them had become partners about three months ago. Daniel, Micah’s twin, had invited him to join Stoltzfus Brothers Construction, the company Daniel had started earlier in the year. However, for a couple of years, Micah and Sean had been talking about working together every time they were at the same construction site. They’d pooled their savings and started Plain and Simple Solutions, an alternative energy company.

“You’re plain, and I’m simple,” Sean had said with a laugh when he suggested the name.

“I’ve noticed that,” he’d replied with a chuckle of his own. Sean was anything but simple. He was a brilliant carpenter and a great salesman, finding client after client, so they never were idle. However, the name was perfect for what they did. Simple, green solutions to help Englischers cut their power bills and to enable plain households to get electricity that didn’t come from the grid.

One after another, his brothers prayed silently before they rose from the table and went to their various jobs. Leah and her niece disappeared down cellar, probably to get canned vegetables and meat for the evening meal.

Micah barely noticed them leaving as he wondered if Katie Kay would keep her side of the bargain, even if he’d kept his. He wished he could trust her, but he couldn’t.

For the past year, his brothers had teased him for not asking if he could take her home. They believed he was too shy to talk to her. None of them had any idea of the truth. He’d asked her, driven her home several times and then she’d told him to go bother some other girl and waved him away as if he were as annoying as a gnat.

He had collected the pieces of his broken heart and prayed God would help her see she’d made a mistake. If God had, she hadn’t listened to Him. Last weekend, he’d taken Isaiah’s late wife’s sister Tillie Mast, home from a youth event...to get his brothers off his back. She was sweet and well-known as a great cook. He’d learned, however, contrary to the old adage, that the way to his heart was not through his stomach. He doubted he was giving her a chance, but he’d promised himself he wouldn’t make a fool of himself over a woman again.

“Micah?”

He looked up from his scrambled eggs and fried potatoes when Mamm said his name in a tone that suggested she’d already repeated it more than once. “Ja?”

“Is there someone special you’d like to sit with at the wedding supper?”

The old tradition of pairing off the singles for the evening meal to give them a chance to get to know each other better was one he wished Mamm and Reuben would skip. Forcing a smile, he said, “No one in particular.”

“Not Tillie Mast?”

“You’d do her a big favor by matching her with someone else.” He wasn’t surprised his mamm knew about him taking Tillie home. Eager eyes at the end of an evening noted who left with whom. Because he and Katie Kay had been careful, at her insistence, nobody had noticed them together.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Micah.” She patted his cheek. “You’re a gut boy, and you deserve someone special in your life.”

“I trust God will send her along eventually.”

Mamm picked up her empty cup and carried it to the stove to refill it with kaffi. Holding the cup to let the fragrant steam rise into her face, she said, “Reuben had hoped you and Katie Kay might sit together.”

“What?” He sat straighter and berated himself for not leaving at the same time as his brothers had.

“I hear how Daniel teases you, and I’ve learned there’s a nugget of truth in the jests you two throw at each other.” She took a sip and lowered her cup. “Ach, it’s impossible anyhow, but I keep hoping that girl will come to her senses and return home. It would mean the world to Reuben.”

“I know.” Guilt stabbed him. As soon as he reached Sean’s house, he was going to get Katie Kay and drive her home, whether she agreed or not. He didn’t want to be caught in the middle of this mess any longer.

“Do you know where she might be, Micah?” His mamm went on as he tried not to choke out the truth. “Listen to me. Why would you know where she is? Though the two of you were gut friends when you were younger, things changed.” Sorrow dimmed her eyes. “If you know someone who might know where she is, pass the word along that she is missed.”

“I will.” He intended to tell Katie Kay himself. Bowing his head and saying words of gratitude for the meal while he hoped the Lord would forgive him for his haste, he got up, gave his mamm a hug and hurried out before she could say more.

By the time he had Rascal hitched to his buggy and was on his way to the Donnellys’ house, the sun was turning the eastern sky from black to layers of gray clouds. He practiced over and over what he’d say to Katie Kay. Last night, asking her to be sensible hadn’t worked. In fact, he’d probably insulted her by suggesting she wasn’t acting rationally.

“She isn’t,” he mumbled to himself as he turned onto the road leading toward Ronks. “Why would she return if she didn’t intend to mend the fences she’s jumped over?”

He was missing something important, but what?

The Donnellys’ house was dark except for a light in the kitchen. Micah parked his buggy behind the lime-green antique Volkswagen van that Gemma drove. He stepped out and around the more modern van Sean had painted with their company’s name and phone number, which Gemma answered in the house. Having her help had been a big step toward getting the company going, but Micah wondered if they should hire an answering service. Gemma would be overwhelmed with three young kinder, a boppli and handling the calls. He’d have to talk to Sean about it. His friend was hesitant to make changes that didn’t have an impact on Micah, too. For once, Sean needed to be a bit selfish and think of himself and his family.

Especially after Micah had selfishly left his problem with Sean and Gemma last night. While Gemma had settled Katie Kay, Micah had given his partner an overview of the situation and realized how little he knew about what had brought Katie Kay to Paradise Springs. He planned to get answers today.

“Come in, Micah,” said Gemma, meeting him at the door.

She didn’t usually do that, so he asked, “Is everything okay? Has Katie Kay been—?”

“Sit down, Micah.”

“What’s wrong?” He couldn’t miss the underlying tension in her voice. He’d been about to ask what Katie Kay had done to upset the household, but he restrained himself. Bringing her to the Donnellys’ house had been wrong. He’d transferred his problem to his best friends.

“You should sit down, Micah.”

“Just tell me.” How much trouble had Katie Kay caused?

Gemma took a deep breath and then let it out with a sigh. “I think your friend is pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” He groped for a chair and sat as he stared at her. “That can’t be true!”

“Because her father is a bishop?” She shook her head with a grimace. “Don’t fool yourself, Micah. Her running away was already aimed at hurting him and tossing aside everything she’d been taught. Getting involved with some man wasn’t much of a step further.”

He couldn’t help thinking of Katie Kay saying someone had taken her money along with her cell phone. Was it the man who was the daed of her boppli? He felt his temper rise but pushed it down. Getting angry wouldn’t solve anything. In fact, it might make things worse.

“Where is she?” he asked, relieved his voice sounded close to normal.

“Throwing up.” She looked behind her as Sean came into the kitchen.

For once, his friend wasn’t complaining about the early hour and how work should begin at noon. Instead, he looked from his wife to Micah and sighed. “I guess it’s obvious why she didn’t want to go home. What do you want to do?”

“I want you two to go to work,” Gemma said before he could answer. “I’ve got an unused pregnancy test kit. I’ll take care of her today. You take time to think about what you want to say, Micah.” She gave him a sad smile. “I know you two used to date.”

“I took her home a few times.”

“Which is dating among the Amish.” She wagged a finger at him as if he were as young as her kinder. “Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes.”

“You sound like Mamm.”

“And you sound like you’re trying to change the subject.” Her gut humor fell away as she added, “Katie Kay needs to confirm if she’s pregnant or not before she has to face anyone, including you.” She sighed. “Maybe especially you. I can see she respects you a great deal.”

He snorted his disagreement.

Gemma frowned. “Stop acting like a sulking teenager and listen to me. She’s a young woman in a bad situation. She doesn’t have anyone she can turn to.”

“The boppli’s daed can—”

“I don’t think he’s in the picture any longer. She hasn’t said, though she opened up to me a bit more this morning. Or maybe she slipped up and spoke without thinking. She mentioned something about him chucking her out of his car last night like litter.”

The curses the other construction workers used raced through Micah’s head. He pushed them away and sent an apology to God, but the gut Lord surely understood.

How could a man get a woman with kind and then abandon her in an icy rain?

Gemma put comforting fingers on his arm, but it wasn’t any solace when he recalled how Katie Kay’s same motion had sent ripples of sensation coursing through him. Why did he have feelings for her? He didn’t want to get enmeshed in her charms again. His heart didn’t need to be broken once more.

“I know what you’re thinking, Micah,” she said, “because I feel the same way. Any good Christian would. However, we must deal with what is, not what we would like it to be.”

The sound of kinder came from upstairs. Gemma motioned for him and Sean to go and kissed her husband before hurrying to collect the youngsters.

Sean opened the door so Micah could lead the way out. When his friend didn’t ask any questions, Micah was grateful. Everything was changing. Gemma was right. He needed to take time to think because he was less sure now about what he should do than he had been the night before.