The Only Way (The Amish Millers Get Married Book 4) (3 page)

* * *

Nash watched Rebecca shut the door to his
room, and turned to survey his surroundings. Boring, plain, and
dull, just like his childhood. He bet his mother had given him the
worst room at the B&B just to spite him. You would think a
mother would want to support her own son, but no, this was how she
treated him.

Oh well, at least I’m getting free room
and board
, he consoled himself.
It’s the least my parents
can do for me
. Besides, there was the potential for excitement
in the person of Rebecca Miller.

Nash thought Rebecca was the prettiest girl
he had seen in long time, and he liked the natural look on girls.
He had never gotten used to too much makeup, despite living as an
Englischer
for some time. Perhaps he could convince Rebecca
to leave the community for him. That would have the added benefit
of upsetting his parents; after all, they had refused to lend him
the money to pay off his gambling debts. What sort of parents were
they! Nash threw his largest suitcase down hard on the bed in
disgust.

Joshua 24:15.

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the
Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your
fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the
Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord.

Chapter
4

The four Hostetler
bruders
, Noah,
Jacob, Moses, and Elijah, were sitting around the table in the
Hostetler farm kitchen, enjoying a hearty lunch of meat, potatoes
and gravy, salad and vegetables, followed by thick chunks of apple
pie. They had finally finished a section of fencing that had taken
much of their time the past few weeks, and all were in good
spirits.

Elijah was staring absently at the table,
which he and his
bruders
had made for their
mudder
some years ago, with help from Mr. Miller. It was made from thick
planks of boards that they salvaged from a local, old tobacco barn,
and Mr. Miller had helped them attach breadboard ends using mortise
and tenon joints. The
bruders
had been concerned about the
nail holes and saw marks, but Mr. Miller had told them that the
distressed and weathered look was prized by
Englischers
. At
any rate, their
mudder
had liked it, and that was all that
mattered.

“What are you thinking about, Elijah?” Noah
asked, and Elijah looked up into the laughing faces of his
bruders
.

“Thinking about Rebecca again?” Moses
teased.

Jacob chimed in. “You know, soon your three
bruders
will be married to Rebecca’s three
schweschders
. It’s only natural that you and Rebecca are
next to be married.”

“Haa, haa, haa, that’s the first time I’ve
heard that joke before,” Elijah said with mock seriousness.

Noah stopped spooning food into his mouth for
a moment and lay down his fork. “Seriously, Elijah, all jokes
aside, when are you going to ask Rebecca to marry you?”

Elijah let out a long breath. “I don’t know
how she feels about me.”

“She loves you,” all three
bruders
said in unison.

Elijah held up his hand. “I don’t know that.
We’re the best of friends, and have been for as long as I can
remember, but what if she only sees me as a friend? I’m worried
that she’s just going to fall into marrying me, from the pressure
of everyone’s expectations.”

“Why don’t you just ask her to marry you and
see what she says?” Jacob asked.

Elijah’s stomach churned. He could not bear
the thought of Rebecca turning him down. On the other hand, what if
she accepted just because it was the thing to do? “My concern is,”
Elijah said aloud, “that Rebecca would marry me, but not out of any
deep love for me, but just because we’re
gut
friends and
everyone expects it of us.”

Noah cut himself a large piece of apple pie
before he asked, “Would that be so bad?”

“Of course it would be bad,” Elijah said, a
little frustrated.

Noah waved his hand at him. “You didn’t let
me finish. Love could come later, after marriage. You two are well
suited.”

Elijah groaned. “The three of you were all in
love before you were married.” The three
bruders
nodded. “So
why should it be different for me?” he asked.

Moses and Jacob just shrugged. “The thing
is,” Noah said, “that you should ask yourself how long you are
prepared to wait.”

Elijah had to admit that Noah had a valid
point. “I don’t really know,” he said. “I keep hoping I’ll have
some sign from Rebecca about how she feels about me, but she never
gives me any clues.”

“You do want
kinner
, don’t you?” Noah
asked.

Elijah was surprised at the question.
“
Jah
, of course I do.”

“Well, you’d better propose to Rebecca some
time within the next few decades,” Noah said, and the three
bruders
laughed.

Elijah shook his head. He was a little
irritated that everyone made remarks about him marrying Rebecca,
and his
bruders
were no help at all.

At that moment, his
mudder
, Katie
Hostetler, walked into the kitchen.
At least Mamm takes me
seriously and doesn’t tease me
, Elijah thought.

“What are you doing home at this time,
Mamm
?” Noah asked.

“I left a quilt I’ve been working on here and
a customer wants to see it,” she explained. “What are you boys all
talking about?”

The four
menner
exchanged glances, and
their
mudder
looked from one to the other. “Is it a
secret?”

Elijah sighed. “
Nee, Mamm
. My
bruders
have been encouraging me to ask Rebecca to marry
me.”

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Katie Hostetler
said, much to Elijah’s surprise, and Noah, Jacob, and Moses all
chuckled. “I didn’t want to be an interfering
mudder
, which
is why I haven’t said anything before,” she continued, “but Elijah,
how long are you going to wait? What if Rebecca is asked on a date
by another
mann
?”

“She doesn’t like any of the
menner
in
the community,
Mamm
,” Elijah said.

“Well, perhaps that is true, but there is a
new
mann
now. The Flickingers’ son has just returned to the
community and he’s on
rumspringa
. Some girls find
adventurous, young
menner
on
rumspringa
attractive.
How long are you going to wait to ask Rebecca to marry you,
Elijah?”

Elijah simply groaned and put his head in his
hands, while his three
bruders
all chuckled.

Mark 10:6-9.

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God
made them male and female.’

‘
Therefore a man shall leave his father
and mother and hold fast to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they
are no longer two but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let
not man separate.”

Chapter
5

On this particular Monday, the Miller
haus
was a hive of activity; not one person, even a child,
was standing still or not fully engaged in a chore. As an Amish
wedding was one of the rare occasions when the husbands helped
their
fraas
in the kitchen, there was standing room only, as
was usual the day before such an occasion. It was busy, but there
was order. Food was everywhere: all manner of puddings, cracker
pudding, caramel pudding, vanilla cornstarch pudding, date pudding,
bread pudding, rice pudding, banana pudding; every type of whoopie
pie imaginable, and mountains of potatoes were being peeled for the
mashed potatoes, all to be served the following day. Two women were
chopping tomatoes and cucumbers, while another two women were
shredding lettuce.

One person was making plates of haystacks to
hand out to the hungry masses who were helping: piles of rice and
crushed crackers, on a base of lettuce, and topped with cooked
hamburger and chopped vegetables, with cheese on top. There was no
time to stop to eat; people ate while they worked, and at all
different times.

Martha hurried out once more to the mobile
kitchen that the Millers had rented for the wedding. Renting a
mobile kitchen was a necessity for weddings in the community, for
while the people were used to hosting large numbers every second
Sunday for church meetings, more than double or even triple that
number would attend a wedding, as weddings invariably attracted
large numbers of relatives from out of town.

One end of the large, commercial kitchen held
both a walk-in refrigerator and a walk-in freezer. The rest of the
trailer was lined with stainless steel preparation areas on one
side, and on the other, a commercial oven, and all manner of deep
fryers, shallow fryers, grills, griddles, and sinks on the other
side. The sinks even had their own purposes: hand washing, pot
washing, and vegetable washing.

The mobile kitchen came with two 750 watt
generators for use if necessary, but as Mr. Miller had permission
from the bishop to use electricity in his barn, which was his place
of business for furniture making, the trailer simply connected to
that power supply. It did, however, have over two hundred pounds of
propane for the commercial oven. The mobile kitchen contained
cutlery, crockery, pans, and everything needed for wedding
preparation.

Mrs. Flickinger was sitting in the kitchen at
the large, oak table with Rebecca making pastry. There was so much
need for pastry: apple pies, sugar cream pies, butterscotch pies,
pumpkin pies, shoestring apple pies, as well as pastry for fry pies
containing apples, cherries, blueberries, and peaches.

The bishop’s wife, Fannie Graber, who was
known far and wide for her unusual food combinations, was making
chocolate flake pastry for her potato and tuna pies.

Martha was making layered desserts with
pineapple and peaches alternating with green and red Jell-O.

Mrs. Flickinger nodded to Martha. “You and
Moses must come and see our
haus
.”

“I’d love to,
denki
. I haven’t seen
inside it since I was little. Rebecca tells me you’ve done wonders
with it, converting it to a B&B.”

Mrs. Flickinger beamed. “We were blessed to
find such a
haus
when we moved here. The early Mennonite
architecture suits a B&B and the guests are fascinated by the
built-in German Bible closets and the deep window sills. The whole
dining and kitchen area has the early corner cupboards with the
bubble glass and the keystone hinges.”

Rebecca looked up from her pastry.
“
Jah
, it’s
wunderbaar
.”

Martha smiled and said, “Sounds it!” and then
placed the layered desserts on a tray somewhat precariously. “I’ll
take these out to the refrigerator.”

Sarah rushed over to Rebecca carrying a pot
of melted chocolate. “Rebecca, hurry; bring the graham
crackers.”

Rebecca looked at Sarah. “Why the hurry?”

Sarah’s face was anxious. “Martha won’t
approve of us making these cookies with plain, old, coating
chocolate. We have to get them all done before she gets back.”

Rebecca chuckled. “I know Martha has her
chocolate business and is very particular about the chocolates she
makes, but I’m sure that she won’t mind us serving up these
cookies.” Rebecca took one look at Sarah’s worried face and decided
to humor her. After all, Martha and Sarah had become close friends.
“Okay, I’ll help you.”

Sarah hurried over to Rebecca with peanut
butter and a large quantity of melted chocolate. The girls soon had
made many cookies by sandwiching peanut butter between two graham
crackers, and then dipping it in melted chocolate. By the time
Martha returned, there were numerous cookies drying and hardening
on wax paper. “Why are you looking at me?” she asked as she walked
back through the door.

“No reason.” Rebecca walked over to
Martha.

Martha simply shrugged. “Elijah’s just
arrived if you want to speak to him.”

Sarah spoke before Rebecca could respond to
Martha. “I just have to finish up here.”

Rebecca stared at Sarah.
Why would Martha
be speaking to Sarah about Elijah?
she wondered. Her uneasiness
grew as Sarah soon hurried outside, presumably to speak to
Elijah.

“Martha, were you speaking to Sarah or to me
about Elijah?”

Martha looked up, puzzled. “Why to you, of
course.” When Rebecca didn’t answer, Martha continued, “You’ll be
next, Rebecca.”

“Next for what?” Rebecca’s reply brought
laughter from everyone present.

“To marry of course.”

“Oh.” Rebecca didn’t know what to say, and
was suddenly perturbed as everyone in the kitchen was looking at
her.

Mrs. Weaver, a kindly, elderly widow, took
her arm. “Isn’t that lovely, dear. Your three
schweschders
are married to the three Hostetler
bruders
, and when you
marry Elijah Hostetler, that will make it complete.”

“But I’m not marrying Elijah,” Rebecca
protested.

“That’s right, dear,” the hard-of-hearing
Mrs. Weaver said. “Your wedding will be next. I hope your
mudder
has many chickens being fattened in readiness for
your wedding. Oh how happy your
mudder
must be, and Elijah’s
mudder
too. Soon you and Elijah will have plenty of
bopplis
.”

The people in the room chuckled at some
length, most likely driven on by Rebecca’s horrified expression.
“I’m not marrying Elijah,” Rebecca insisted as loudly as she
could.

Mrs. Weaver looked upset. “Don’t worry, dear.
Go and speak to the bishop and he’ll be able to help you two with
your problems.”