An Amish Proposal. Jo Ann Brown
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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,