Gabriel's Bride (5 page)

Rachel felt her heart drop a little more. Her precious goats. And Sugar was just about to give birth. Oh, she knew she could find someone to buy them, but they were her goats. She had bought them at auction, saved her own money for their purchase. Getting rid of them would be like selling the closest things she’d ever had to children.

She pushed the thought away lest her tears grow until she could no longer contain them. The bishop, the elders, most likely even most of the district would think her beyond foolish to give so much credit to critters such as goats, but she loved them with her entire heart.

She blinked hard and continued to read.

You are going to love it here in Ohio. We have the largest settlement in America. It’s so exciting to be a part of such a big community. (Well, we are on the fringes, but it is still exciting.) Of course some families here are large enough to be a church district within themselves.

Our bishop’s name is Andrew Stoltzfus. He is very young for a bishop, just twenty-eight years old. Isn’t it amazing what God’s will can do? All the elders were a bit concerned when he was chosen. I think they felt that he would be a little too liberal with cell phones and other Englisch luxuries. But to their surprise (and delight) Bishop Andrew has turned out to be one of the most conservative bishops we have ever had. He has us wearing the most demur colors—gray, brown, and the darkest plum. At first I thought it would be a trial, but it has turned out to be a greater blessing than I imagined. Wearing subdued colors makes me so appreciate the colors that God has displayed for us instead of trying to reproduce them on my person.

Oh, and did I tell you that Andrew is the brother of my intended, Matthew? They are both such gut men. I can hardly wait for you to meet them.

I must close this letter for now. Taking care of eleven little ones doesn’t leave a lot of time left over for things like letter writing. But you’ll find that out for yourself in a few weeks.

Be safe as you travel and go with our Lord.

Your cousin,

Amanda

Rachel crumpled the letter in one hand and dropped her head back against the wall of the post office. It was all so much to take in.

No goats. No colors. Eleven children.

Her mind swam with the changes that would be expected from her. How would she ever be able to leave her entire life behind and move hundreds of miles away? It was more than an adventure—it was an impossibility.

She closed her eyes against the negative thoughts. Her
aenti
would not approve of such an attitude, but she couldn’t help it. The prospect was overwhelming.

Yet what choice did she have?

None.

If she stayed in Clover Ridge, she would have almost no money and no place to live. She could sell her goats, but what good would it do to have money for a place to stay if she sold her means of a livelihood? Clover Ridge might not be as conservative as Ohio, but she felt certain the bishop would frown on her taking up living alone. She was too old to get married and too young to be an old maid.

With a sigh, she smoothed her cousin’s letter and folded it to rights, then slipped it back into its envelope. She had a few more days before she had to start collecting her belongings and head for Ohio. A few more days before she had to find a buyer for her precious goats. Maybe in those few days, God would show her His will. With any luck and lots of prayer maybe—just maybe—she would find a way to stay in Oklahoma.

“I’m looking for a housekeeper,” Gabriel told Coln Anderson the next day. He’d driven his buggy into town just after Joseph, Simon, and David had left for school. He needed to be in the fields. The back twenty still had to be plowed and planted. Thankfully the wheat was coming along nicely, but he needed to get his corn in the ground soon. Yet this chore took priority. He’d instructed Matthew to start cleaning out the stalls. At fifteen he could handle a plow on his own, but Gabriel hadn’t wanted to leave the
bu
alone in the fields. Instead he’d left him in the barn with Samuel, who begged to tag along.

Gabriel felt a twinge of guilt at leaving the child with his oldest brother. He had been through so many changes over the last couple of months. But Gabriel wasn’t accustomed to the child dogging his heels. He wasn’t sure how a housekeeper could help him with this problem, but at least he’d have warm meals when he came home each evening.

“A housekeeper, eh?” Coln Anderson, owner and operator of Anderson’s General, Store wiped his glasses on the tail of his white butcher’s apron. He inspected the lenses then gave them one last swipe before settling them back in their place.

He didn’t say the words, but Gabriel knew what he was thinking: Hiring a housekeeper instead of finding a wife was about as smart as wearing a metal hat in a lightning storm. But this solution . . . it would work just fine.

“You can hang a notice on the bulletin board.” Anderson nodded his head in the direction of the large corkboard the community used to post notices and such, like hogs for sale and lumber needs.

Gabriel held up the stack of white copy paper Joyce at the library had given him. She had smiled politely at him, suggested he draw a map to his house for applicants, and helped with the wording. Then she had showed him how to make copies on the fancy Xerox machine. He was certain the bishop would demand he not use the copies, but hopefully by the time Beachy found out, the matter would be resolved.

He took the pushpins that Coln Anderson offered him and tacked the notices to the bulletin board, one on top of the other, five thick. He’d come back tomorrow or the next day and check it again, add more from the stack in his hands if need be.

“
Danki
, Coln Anderson.” He raised his hand in farewell, then walked out the door and straight into someone. Someone small and soft and sweet smelling like fresh-baked cookies. Or honey.

“Dunnerwetter,”
she exclaimed as his papers flew in all different directions. The wind caught a few and sent them tumbling into the street and out of reach. She clamped a hand over her mouth, her big brown eyes even wider at her slip.

“
Ach
, Rachel Yoder. Thunder weather is right. Look at the mess we have now.”

“I-I’m sorry,” she said, crawling on the planks of the porch leading to the general store as she gathered the papers, pushing them under her knees in order to keep them from flying away again.

Gabriel stooped to help and soon almost all were rescued from the Oklahoma wind. He could only hope that the ones that got away would find themselves in the hands of people willing to help him.

“I—uh, here.” She thrust the papers toward him, and for a heartbeat she looked almost frightened.

But what was there to be scared of?

“Danki,”
he said, not realizing until that moment how gruff his voice sounded. Or did it seem so coarse because it followed her softer tones?

He cleared his throat, and she stopped brushing the dirt from the skirt of her dress and turned those bottomless eyes to him once again.
“Jah?”

He shrugged. “
Danki
,” he repeated, though softer this time.

“Gern gschehne.”
She dipped her chin before brushing past him and into the general store.

Gabriel clutched the flyers in one hand and watched as she disappeared though the glass doors.

She was such a
dabbich
. Rachel dropped her chin to her chest, then cut her gaze back outside through the large glass window at the front of the store. There he stood, looking back toward her like he wasn’t sure if he should paddle her or tell the bishop that she was
ab im kopp
. But it seemed she was a little off in the head where he was concerned. Big, frowning Gabriel Fisher brought out the worst in her. Not that she was going to have to let it worry her much longer.

She directed her gaze toward the letters she held in her hands. Or rather, letter. She turned the official-looking envelope over, but her cousin’s letter was missing. Perhaps she dropped it outside when she crashed into the solid wall that was Gabriel Fisher. If so, it was long gone by now, tossed about by the wild spring winds of Oklahoma’s Green Country.

In her hands she still held the registered letter from her
aenti’s
attorney and a piece of paper that wasn’t there before their collision—a flyer stating that Gabriel Fisher was looking for a housekeeper.

Rachel gave an uncharitable snort. She’d just bet he was. The man was too stern and ornery to marry. She remembered the hard look in his green eyes. They were the color of the moss that grew down by the creek, lush and deep, but there was a hardness to them that warned anyone within distance to keep to themselves. She shuddered. What made a man so hard and unfeeling? Or maybe the word was guarded. What caused a man of God to be so protective of his emotions that he put up a barrier between himself and the world?

Rachel Yoder,
she admonished herself. Who said that something had happened to him? His stern demeanor could be just another part of his makeup as much as his coffee dark hair and broad, broad shoulders.

Her eyes scanned the notice once again, and she looked back to where he had been standing only to find him gone. Good luck and Godspeed to whoever accepted his position.

They were going to need it.

It was after lunch by the time Gabriel pulled his buggy to a stop in front of the barn. Matthew came out with a wave, Samuel hot on his heels.

“Time to eat?” Samuel asked, his lispy voice hopeful.

“Jah,”
Gabriel said, handing the reins to his eldest son. “Matthew, take the horses into the barn while I get us something together to eat.”

“Jah, Dat.”
Matthew gave a nod of his head and unhitched the horses.

Gabriel watched him for a moment, saying a little prayer that Matthew would keep his wits about him when he entered his
rumspringa
. For the most part the children in their district strayed little from their Amish upbringing. Very few of them lost their heads and even fewer still left and never returned. Of the ones that did head out on their own, most returned only to leave again and again, breaking their parents’ hearts in their desire to live in the outside world but unable to stray too far from their strict upbringing.

He could only pray and hope against all that Mary Elizabeth would find her way back home. Once she returned, he’d do everything in his power to keep her at his side.

“Dat.”
Samuel tugged at his pant leg, bringing Gabriel back to the here and now. He couldn’t dwell on past mistakes and all the sorrow that her leaving left behind; just like when his Rebecca passed, he had to go on. Others depended on him.

“
Jah
, Samuel.” He patted the boy’s shoulder and steered him toward the house. “Let’s see what we can find to fill our bellies this fine day.”

Samuel tilted his head back to look up at his father. Most of his face was hidden by the brim of his straw hat, but his smile was evident and warm. It filled Gabriel’s heart with hope. In that moment, hope was just what he needed most.