The Amish Marriage Bargain (Love Inspired) Read online

  When they came back downstairs, Elmer let out a loud sigh as he sat in the chair next to hers. Thad stomped toward the door, his toolbox clanging with tools shifting around as he gave her a nod. Her cheeks burned hot enough they could fry an egg.

  “Job is done,” Thad announced as he clomped out the door and down the porch steps.

  May turned to Elmer. “I’m sorry you got roped into helping him.”

  “Nein, I wanted to help. Your cupboards are all fixed. I wouldn’t want a loose door to swing open and bump your head when you weren’t looking.” He smiled like a bu who had just received a dollar to buy some candy.

  “My cheese factory is doing very well.” He glanced at May. “The artisanal cheese is a big seller. It’s fancy cheese for the Englisch, they liebe it with crackers. The cheddar with bacon bits is my most popular seller. My shop is even in the Iowa Cheese Club and on the Iowa Cheese Roundup.” He cleared his throat. “I’m building a haus and will be well established enough to marry soon.”

  The twinkle in his eye warned May he wasn’t here just as her friend. She dropped her gaze as his hand started inching closer to hers. She jumped up, twisting her foot but stifled the yelp. “I’ll make some coffee and we’ll have a cookie. I made them the other day. Snickerdoodles.”

  “That’s okay, May. Don’t go to any trouble. Please, sit and talk.”

  “Nein. You deserve a little refreshment after driving all the way here and then helping Thad.” She hurried to make a small pot of coffee, and in the meantime, set a plate of cookies on the table. When the coffee was ready, she poured two cups, set them on the table and collapsed on the chair.

  “You seem tired, May.”

  “Jah, I am.” When they finished their coffee, she stood and walked him to the porch. As she waved goodbye, a movement caught her eye and she turned toward the dawdi haus.

  Gretchen was watching them from her flower garden.

  It was for the best that he went home. She needed time to think of a way to tell Elmer she didn’t liebe him and didn’t want to marry him.

  And she needed time to think of an answer for Thad...and what was best for the rest of her life.

  Chapter Three

  Thad helped his youngies stack the vegetable boxes of tomatoes, carrots and bush beans onto the truck bound for Des Moines. This load would complete the contract he had with a local market chain. He heaved the last box up into the waiting hands of the Vickerson Transport Company man inside the truck, stacking and securing the boxes. Done.

  The truck driver handed Thad the clipboard with the receipt. He reviewed it, signed it, took his copy and handed it back. It was 6:30 a.m. when the truck pulled away.

  Thad pulled a hanky from his pocket and wiped his brow as he watched the truck pull out of the drive. “Ethan Lapp, you and Carl Ropp head to the barn and start milking, it’s getting late. The rest of you are on cleanup, follow me.”

  While Thad supervised, the buwe cleaned the packaging room of vegetable scraps, foam pieces and boxing debris, then he had them scrub the area and store the unused cartons back on the shelves. When they completed the task, he had them disinfect the milking room when Ethan and Carl had finished with the last cow. After lunch, they spent the rest of the day weeding the north forty acres. At four o’clock, he gathered the three summer hires for a short meeting. “Danki for all your help, you work hard and did a gut job today. You can come back on Friday morning for your pay. If you don’t make it, I’ll drop your check in the mail.”

  Daniel, the newest of his summer hires, stepped forward while the other two walked away. “Danki, Mr. Hochstetler. If you need help with anything else, give a shout.”

  Thad patted him on the back. “Danki. I’ll do that.”

  As the buwe stood by their buggies talking, Thad overheard a few discussions of what they were going to do with their money. He chuckled. Most planned to save it. However, a few sounded like they were going to fix up their buggies to attract a pretty mädel.

  Rumbling wheels on the drive pulled his attention from the buwe to his daed’s buggy heading straight toward him. Daed parked under the shade of the oak tree and stepped down. He walked toward Thad with an uneasy look on his face.

  “Something wrong, Daed?”

  The older man took a couple of purposeful strides closer. “The bishop stopped to chat with me in town.” He kicked a stone with his foot as he stopped abruptly. “He said the elders didn’t like you and May living in sin together. Your year of mourning is over. What was allowed before, won’t be tolerated now.”

  Thad’s jaw dropped. “That’s not true.”

  Daed held up his hand. “Stop right there. Whether you are or not, it goes by appearance and what’s decent. You’re out here on the farm with May inside the haus. You wander in and out all day and spend the evenings together.”

  “Who said that?” Thad’s back bolted up straight.

  “Is it true or not?”

  “Jah, but it’s my haus and May lives here, too. It was her daed’s farm, but you know all that.”

  “You must marry May, or she must move out. I know what her papa said about her staying in the haus, but no doubt, he would thank me for looking out for her reputation. I worry that no nice bu will want to marry her.”

  Thad stepped back so fast he almost fell. His hands and face turned cold as his blood drained to his feet. His throat tightened so he could barely speak. “Who...is spreading rumors?”

  “The bishop said that several elders have mentioned it to him. Not just that, but he doesn’t want the Englisch neighbors to think that we condone living in sin. Not my words, his.” Daed’s voice turned sullen. “Did you tell May that the bishop paid you a visit?”

  “She knows he was here, but we never talked about what he said.” Thad’s gaze dropped to the grass. His mind whirled. He didn’t want to lose May when they were just starting to get along. This would humiliate her, and for sure and for certain she’d move the three hundred miles to Aent Edna’s.

  Thad rubbed a hand over his heart. It felt as though a hundred stampeding Holsteins had trampled on his chest. Gott, how do I make May understand? We need to get married—and fast. When I tell her, please ease her pain and confusion.

  He paced the ground, then faced his daed. “How much time did the bishop say we could have to think about this situation?”

  Daed hooked his thumbs under his suspenders and locked eyes with Thad. “She has to be told today. Either she moves out in the next couple of days, or you marry.” He gave Thad an easy pat on the shoulder. “She’s a fine woman and would make Leah a gut mamm. Do what’s right, Thad.” He nodded and headed back to his buggy.

  Thad wandered to the bench he’d made a year ago and sat in the front yard. He stared at his daed’s buggy kicking up dirt and sticks as it sped across the barnyard to the dawdi haus. The dust swirled in the wind, then disappeared like May would probably do when he told her about the gossip.

  He kicked at the grass underfoot. He could give May back the farm, and she could pay someone to run it. The outcome would no doubt be the same. Someone would gossip about her and that man. Then the bishop would make her marry him.

  They were getting along better. Maybe she’d consider a proposal. Nein, what was he thinking? She had told him once she hated her sister’s secondhand clothes. She’d never want her secondhand husband.

  He stood and walked around the haus toward the porch while a million reasons why their marriage was a bad idea bombarded his senses. Was it possible one of the buwe who worked for him was gossiping about him and May and his daed just didn’t tell him?

  He reached the porch steps and halted, one foot still in mid-air, then he slowly lowered it to the step. He tried to budge the other foot from the ground, but it felt as if glue clung to the sole of his shoe making the task difficult. Finally, one step after the other, he reached the top, knocked on the kitchen
door and entered.

  May glanced his way, then finished taking Mason jars from the processing kettle. She checked the Kerr lids and set the jars to cool. She pushed the previous cooled jars to the back of the counter out of the way. She wiped her hands on a towel and turned from the sink. “Why did you knock, Thad? Did you want me to come out and help with something?”

  “Nein, we need to talk.”

  “Let me dish up the food and we can talk during dinner. Leah’s napping so it gives us a few minutes.” May set the bowl of boiled potatoes next to the meatballs, sauerkraut, green beans and cinnamon bread already on the table. She pulled her chair from the table, letting the legs scrape against the wood flooring, then sat. They bowed their heads for silent prayer.

  Thad rubbed his hands across his trousers. “It was a warm one today.” His voice shook on the last word. Lord, please help me say what I must. After taking a bite, he took his napkin and blotted his mouth. “Mmm. This is delicious, but then your cooking is always gut.”

  The hot food and warm kitchen teamed to coat his brow in perspiration. He swallowed hard, laid his fork down, took a deep breath, and told May about the bishop’s visit the other day and the bishop’s conversation with his daed today.

  Her face went blank and her smoky-gray eyes turned stormy black.

  “May, I adore you. I cared for you, nein, I loved you in a way when we courted, and I think you cared for me, too. We can get that back if we work at it. I’d like you to marry me. But if the answer is nein...then you’ll have to move out of the haus.”

  * * *

  His words speared May in the heart. “Who is gossiping about us?”

  “If the bishop told Daed, he never told me.” Thad lowered his gaze. “I must say, you’re not as surprised as I thought you’d be.” He raised his chin to face her again.

  “Your daed never indicated who complained, or maybe named a neighbor?” Her eyes locked with his.

  “Nein. It might be one of the buwe that work on the farm. Maybe they told the bishop, or their folks, that I walk in and out of the haus whenever I please without knocking or something like that. Did they ever stop to think, it is my haus, and you are only the...nanny?”

  May’s heart nearly stopped. Only the nanny?

  “Look, May, I care about you, and I owe it to April to take care of you. We can get married and all will be well. What do you say?”

  May stared at him in utter disbelief.

  Leah let out a cry from her crib in the other room. She hurried and picked her up, changed her and snuggled her close as a tear threatened but May batted it away. How was she going to survive without seeing this sweet little girl?

  She carried Leah to the kitchen, and set her down in the high chair. “I’ll get her food ready so we can talk.” She got her food and set her plate and cup on her tray.

  “Okay, where were we?”

  “May, you didn’t answer my question.”

  She swallowed hard and looked Thad in the eye. “Before April died, she asked me to take care of her boppli. I stayed here to do just that, instead of going to Indiana, where Mamm’s family lives. Now I’m repaid by my friends and neighbors gossiping about me?”

  “I—I’m sure it’s not like that...” Thad stuttered.

  “Nein, apparently it is.” A knot tightened in the pit of her stomach. “I appreciate your offer of marriage, Thad, but that would keep you from marrying someone you loved.”

  “Nein. I did not say it right before. I liebe you and want to marry you. We could make it work, May. If I hadn’t married April, we might have...” He stopped.

  Her cheek twitched and heat rushed up her neck and burned all the way to her ears. She was sure her eyes shot lightning bolts.

  In the silence, the ticking of the kitchen clock pulsed like the heartbeat of the haus.

  Her life had just changed in a few seconds. The haus, the farm, Leah... Thad had everything. She had nothing once again. At least he’d given her a place to stay, for a little while anyway. Now, Gott had taken that away, too, but He stretched out two roads before her and she must choose.

  “Thaddaeus Thomas Hochstetler. What’s going on? You should be in the field.”

  May jerked around at the same time Thad did to see Gretchen with her hands perched on her hips.

  “Mamm, people are gossiping about us living together, and we are discussing whether to marry or not.”

  “You want to marry May? Nein. She’s nothing like her sister.” Gretchen huffed and glanced at the dozen jars of canned string beans on the counter, then her gaze dropped to the bucket sitting on the floor still full of beans to be canned. “April worked twice as fast as her.”

  A flash of heat stormed through May’s body as she listened to Gretchen berate her. Ha, three votes against staying: Edna’s offer was one, her discomfort around Thad was two, and now Gretchen’s unkind words.

  Thad grabbed his mamm’s arm and escorted her out of the haus. When he stomped back into the kitchen, his face was as pale as a whitewashed fence.

  “I have a lot to think about, Thad. Can you look after Leah for a little while?”

  He nodded. “I’m sorry about all this, May.”

  Before she reached the stairs, Leah started to cry. She stopped and glanced at Thad. “You sure you’re okay with her?”

  “Jah, we’re gut.”

  Before May reached the stairs, Leah was crying. This was a gut test for Thad to see how he handled his tochter on his own.

  May closed her bedroom door and collapsed on the bed. She didn’t want to marry Thad. She didn’t love him. She could barely talk to him.

  But she loved Leah and that little mädel loved her like a mama. She could sell her rag rugs to help Thad and she could bake bread, rolls, pies and cookies and sell them at her roadside stand.

  But the whole idea was just crazy. She and Thad didn’t liebe each other, not anymore, if they ever did.

  She could hear Leah crying downstairs, then the sniffling grew closer, and closer and stopped. A tap sounded on her door.

  She hesitated, then opened it. “Janie, what are you doing here?”

  “That’s a nice greeting for a friend. I hadn’t seen you for a while so thought I’d stop by on my way to town. Mamm keeps me busy canning, but I wanted to see you. Thad said you were up here doing some thinking. He couldn’t quiet this one’s crying.” Janie gave Leah a squeeze.

  Leah sniffled and held her arms out to May, sobs rocking her little shoulders while her nose ran. When Janie handed her over, Leah almost jumped into May’s arms.

  May enveloped her in a hug, then wiped the tears and her nose. Leah laid her head on May’s shoulder with her arm stretched around her neck. “Shh. Everything will be okay.”

  May pointed toward the bed and her friend sat. She confided her dilemma and watched Janie gasp with each new piece of information.

  “What are you going to do? If you ask me, I think you should give Thad a second chance,” Janie whispered. “I think he’s cute, and I’ve always liked him. Plus, he’s tall with a muscular back and strong arms. Now, what mädel could resist that?”

  “You’re guy crazy.” May lifted a brow. “I believe I have two choices—marry Thad or move to Shipshewana, where I would probably never see Leah again. And right now, she is the only joy in my life.”

  “The decision to marry is for life. Amish don’t get divorced. I know you realize that, but I just wanted to remind you. Oh, here’s another idea. If they have a lot of gut-looking guys in Indiana, send me a letter, and I’ll move out there with you.” Janie chuckled.

  May rolled her eyes at her sweet and funny friend. “Again, you’re guy crazy. The scary thing is, I’ve never been to Shipshewana, and I have no idea if I will like Indiana.”

  “You know you could always come back later, if you weren’t happy there. I’ll pray for you, May, but here is som
ething else to consider. Your sister, Sadie, is pregnant with twins. I heard she was looking for a mother’s helper, so you could go live with her. She’ll soon have five kinner all under the age of five. Oh, but you’ll have to share a room with Sadie’s oldest, your niece Isabelle. What do you say? Think about it. I’m sure Sadie would liebe to see you come and stay.”

  May laughed. “I’m glad you stopped by. You certainly cheered me up.” She gave Janie a one-armed hug.

  “If you move, can I have Thad?” Janie’s eyes widened almost as much as her smile.

  May ignored the question. “If I go to Aent Edna’s, I’ll be working in a bakery for the rest of my life. That is, unless I find someone in Indiana to marry. Or I could stay here with this little bundle of joy that I liebe like a heartbeat.” She gave Leah a jiggle up and down and listened to her musical giggle. “No more tears when you’re with aentie, huh? I’ve prayed, but Gott has been silent so far.”

  “Jah, He might want you to search your heart, May, or He might want to see if you’ll reason it out and make a practical decision. Here’s another offer—come and live with us. Mamm would liebe another pair of hands to help out around the haus.”

  Footsteps echoed in the hall followed by a knock on the door. “May? I need to talk to you for a second.” Thad’s voice cracked.

  Janie put a hand on May’s shoulder. “I need to go, but if you want to talk later, stop by the haus. I’ll see you on Church Sunday.”

  May opened the door and her friend slipped out, waving as she flew down the hallway. “Sorry, Thad, you’re probably starved since our lunch got spoiled with talking. I can warm lunch back up.”

  “Nein, that’s not why I’m here. The bishop is downstairs waiting to see you.”

  May’s heart dropped to her stomach. “What?”

  “Jah, I’ll just take Leah and walk over to the dawdi haus. Give you some privacy.”