Landchester Amish Love: Ruth (Amish Romance) (Landchester Amish Love Series Book 2) (2 page)

Week followed week, and life went on the way it usually did, with nothing Ruth could say or do to stop it. She kept working. She kept learning more about the crafts her
familye
did, although she didn’t much like doing them alone. But the rest of her
familye
, she found, mostly liked to work alone, and didn’t much like for her to bother them with her constant questions or pleas for conversation.

And so a load of crafts built up, and Ruth’s work was a large contribution to it, but she couldn’t feel proud about it.

Usually, either Sarah or Jacob would come and pick up the crafts. Ruth hoped it was Sarah, as she missed her
schweschder
. But they were too busy this week, and insisted that the Moores would need to deliver their goods to the store on their own.

Ruth was thrilled. It was good for Sarah to come home, but after having felt so stuck in all the time, the opportunity to go out and see her
schweschder
in the shop was even better. She volunteered to bring the crates out to the store. Her
daed
had raised his eyebrows, and asked if she was sure, as they were quite heavy. But she had insisted, and even pouted a little that he thought she wasn’t fit to do so.

When she loaded up the crates, she began to understand what he had meant. The crates felt heavier, somehow, than the combined weight of all the crafts that had gone in them. Still, Ruth was determined, and although her arms ached, she got everything up into the cart.

By the time she reached the shop, she knew she would not be able to unload the cart alone. So, after tending to the horse, and hitching it to the post, she went inside to fetch help.

There, she saw Jacob and a
mann
she didn’t know, arguing. They were arguing in that they were clearly in disagreement, but someone who did not know her
bruder
in law well might not know it. He had a way of disagreeing with others by making them think that he was only helping them to see things the right way around, and clearing their confusion.

Usually, from what Ruth had seen, this worked very well. But this new
mann
didn’t seem to be falling for it. He was of medium build, and had poofy black hair that stuck out in an amusing way. He seemed strong, and Ruth wondered for a moment if she might be able to convince him to help her with the crates. But he was a stranger, Ruth thought, and an attractive one at that. Asking him for help seemed entirely too much of a difficulty.

The subject of the disagreement between the two of them was a table, and what price it should rightfully fetch. Ruth had no opinion on the matter, nor way of knowing who was right. Her
familye
focused on the smaller crafts rather than the furniture, and always had. But she could tell by the way they tossed the conversation back and forth that Jacob was losing ground.

The price they finally came up with, Ruth observed with some surprise, was a good deal closer to the price that the stranger wanted than the price that Jacob wanted. This rarely happened, at least as far as what Ruth had ever seen, and she was impressed.

Jacob was annoyed, and left the room with the smile he often wore on his face slipping considerably, and Ruth found that she was now alone with the strange, attractive, skilled bargainer of a
mann
.

Open and positive
, Ruth thought, the words Katie had said out in the fields still central to her thoughts.
Be open, be positive.

“Did you say that your father had made that table?” She asked him, and she saw him jump, startled. So focused had he and Jacob been in their conversion that they must not have noticed her come in.

“
Jah,
” the
mann
said, after he had recovered. “My father made this table. He’s very skilled.”

He said this without a trace of pride.

“Are you sure?” Ruth asked, the words coming out more critically than she had meant them. “It’s only that I know work like that, and it looks like it has come out of the Plank workshop.”

The
mann
smiled, and Ruth found herself caught off guard by both the sweetness of the smile, and the dimples that appeared with it. “You have a
gut
eye,” he said. “It is from the Plank workshop. I’m Joseph Plank.”

And just like that, the positive start Ruth had had was plunged into confusion. “That can’t be right,” she said, mostly to herself. But the
mann
laughed.

“Do you think I would lie about my own name?” he asked.

“
Nee
, of course not.”

Joseph looked at her, expectantly, awaiting an answer.

“I’m friends with Katie,” Ruth continued. “She would have told me if she had a
bruder
. Or I would have met you, surely?”

The
mann
shrugged.

“I can’t say what my
schweschder
would or wouldn’t tell her friends. I make it my business not to assume what she would or wouldn’t do. If I try and guess, I usually guess wrong anyway. But I’ve been away for a while on my
Rumspringa,
so if you think you’d have met me lately, that would be why you hadn’t.”

Ruth made a note to herself that she would have to ask Katie about this later. But for the moment she was happy enough only to accept what he said and move on.

“And you’re back?” she asked him, curious. She hadn’t left the community entirely when she had gone on her own
Rumspringa
. She’d only accepted the freedom to experiment a bit more with
Englischer
things, and the choice to reject them had not been a difficult thing for her.

Joseph answered shortly that yes, he was back. But he didn’t seem very pleased about it. Ruth wanted to know more, but didn’t know how to ask without it seeming as though she were prying into what was obviously a very private matter. So she left the matter alone.

“And what are you doing here?” he asked her, and she told him.

He seemed far more interested in the handicrafts than Ruth was herself, and in the end she didn’t even need to ask him to help her unload the crates and bring them in for Jacob to look at. He volunteered. And as he helped her, he looked at the objects inside and had kind things to say about them. Some of them were made by others in her
familye
, but he had nice things to say about what she had made as well.

Ruth felt herself blushing as she noticed that something she had made summoned the smile and its dimples that had first made her so interested in what Joseph had to say.

When they were done unloading the crates and stacking them inside on top of the table Joseph’s father made, Ruth found herself in the surprising situation of being unhappy they had completed her task. Now Joseph would have no reason to hang around the shop, his business completed and his assistance no longer required.

Be open
, Ruth thought.
Be positive.

But the mantra wasn’t enough to get up the courage to ask Joseph if she could see him again.

Happily, she didn’t have to.

“Do you know Leah and George Miller?” He asked her, quite out of nowhere. Ruth couldn’t help but give him an amused smile.

“I do. They’re related to me, in a roundabout way.”

“Right,” Joseph said. And then his courage, seemed to stall.

“They have a barn raising next week,” Ruth helped him.

“
Jah
,” he said, smiling with the dimples again. “Are you going?”

Ruth answered that she would be going a bit more quickly than she meant to, and the two smiled at each other. Then he said he hoped that he would see her there, and made his way out.

Ruth watched him go, almost absentmindedly tripping over the door threshold of the shop on his way out. He didn’t seem a clumsy
mann
, which made it all the more charming.

After he had gone, Ruth sat on the table his father had made, next to the crates of handicrafts.

Where had he been all this time? Had he really been so close? And, more to the point, why had Katie been hiding him away? She let a little bitterness in that Katie should have heard he be so distraught that there was no one she had met and never suggested that she meet her
bruder
. But even this couldn’t much bother Ruth at the moment. Probably nothing could.

The money in Joseph’s pocket was hard won. It was more than his father had told him to get for it, but it was certainly a fair price, and Joseph was glad he put in the effort to make sure that his father would be fairly paid for his work. Still, he worried his father wouldn’t be pleased, or would think he’d been too greedy.

It was the little things like this that made Joseph wonder if returning had been the right choice. Among the
Englischers
, this kind of thing would be praised. They’d call it initiative, and comment how he ought to get a raise. He hadn’t been very well prepared for the world he had encountered on his
Rumspringa
, not having the education most people expected, and feeling very out of place most of the time. But there towards the end he had been beginning to feel that his skills, and his desires might fit better with their world than his own.

Out there, there weren’t so many rules. He didn’t have to worry if the thing he was doing would be appropriate, or considered pleasing to
Gott
or the
Ordnung
; he only had to worry about whether it would work out well or badly. And he had let himself think, for a while, that maybe he could pursue cooking the way he’d always wanted to, but had always been discouraged from doing here because it was a woman’s job.

But it was people like that woman, Ruth, that made him question this urge. If she could be so peaceful here, and so content, then surely he must be missing something. She seemed bright, and as talented as anyone. But she didn’t feel the community and its rules chafing at her the way Joseph had since he’d been back. He wanted to know more about her. Maybe if he did he would understand how she was so happy here, and perhaps it would help him understand how he could be content here, too.

Of course, there was another reason he would be happy to see her, he thought to himself. Her eyes had been captivating to him. They were a little bit unusual. They were beautiful in their color, but they had also seemed so observant, as though they were always drinking in as much detail about the world around them as possible, all the time. He wanted to know more about what they saw, and he wanted, above all, for them to see him favorably.

Well, he would see her at the barn raising. The thought made him smile again, as he had like a food when he’d been talking to her. He suddenly felt as though the things he’d said had been woefully unprepared. If there was one thing that he’d learned thus far in his life, it was that taking the time to do the proper research about what you wanted or how you should do it was always worthwhile. Just stumbling in with no knowledge about the girl might have been all right if he weren’t so invested in her already, but as it was he wanted to be prepared.

How fortunate it was that she was Katie’s friend! And also how strange that Katie had never mentioned her. But whatever the reason for that, Joseph reasoned, Katie would be able to help him, and surely she wouldn’t hesitate.

But he found he was wrong. When he told Katie what had happened, and that he had met a very interesting girl who he thought he might like to get to know quite a bit better, Katie had nothing to say. Her answers were curt, and short, and barely told him anything.

“Is she a nice girl?” he had asked.

“
Jah,
” Katie had replied.

“Does she have any interests?” he had asked.

“Some,” Katie had replied.

When he called Katie out, and asked her why she was being uncooperative, she stopped answering him altogether. Instead, she left him abruptly, and went to her room. And she wouldn’t answer the door for him, however many times he knocked.

It was unfortunate, but there was only one thing for it: Joseph would have to wait. And he found the waiting was the hardest part of the entire thing.

“
Maemm
,” Ruth asked, “Do you think this dress suits me?”

Ruth’s mother gave her a long look, intrigued.

“As well as any other. Why do you ask?”

Ruth thought to herself now that it was foolish to imagine her mother would not catch on. She had, after all, intended to tell her mother. But now, that she was on the brink of thinking of speaking her mind, it was too difficult. She’d had to be better at this, if she was going to talk to Joseph at the party. It would be harder, Ruth expected, to come up and begin speaking to him that it would be to simply tell
Maemm
that there was someone she was looking forward to seeing.

Maemm
didn’t press her. She only helped her get reading, and gave Ruth her space. But she noticed a smile on her lips that perhaps she wasn’t meant to see.

When she reached the barn raising, she looked for him, but didn’t immediately see him. But that was ok, there would be time. She’d gotten there a little bit sooner than most in her excitement, and there were still many people who would be showing up as the party went on.

She stood off to the side of everyone, watching. Katie wasn’t here, either. They still hadn’t spoken since that day in the fields. It had been preying on Ruth’s mind, and she knew that they would need to make things right between them. But they had been friends for such a long time that it didn’t worry Ruth much. They would find a way around whatever silly quarrel they had found themselves into. They always did. And, besides, Ruth was too concerned with Joseph, and what she would do when he arrived, to worry about a problem that would sort itself out eventually.

Finally, Ruth saw him. He was as handsome as she remembered him being, and just that thought made her blush. He deep into the party, so she must have missed him coming in. He must have been there a while, because he already had gone and gotten food. How funny it was, Ruth thought, that she had been so busy thinking about him that she had missed his arrival!

Now was the moment. Ruth gathered up her courage. She did her best to remember how pleased he had seemed with her the last time they spoke. He had said he looked forward to seeing her here. He
wanted
to talk to her. Surely, that should be enough for Ruth to have the courage to walk up and speak to him.

So she strode towards him, as confidently as she could. And he saw her! She saw him scanning the room, and stop when he got to her. She was not far from him now. Just a few steps by each of them and they would be speaking to one another. They made eye contact.

And then he turned away.

Ruth was at a loss. What had changed? He’d been so amenable at the store. He’d fumbled, and smiled at her. He had seemed…

She realized she was standing there, staring at his back, dumbly. So she made herself turn around. She needed a mission— something to do so that she wouldn’t dwell and wouldn’t seem to be hanging off of his rejection.

The picnic had been laid out well before Ruth got here, but she had been so nervous she hadn’t had any of it. Truth be told, she wasn’t really hungry now. But it gave her something to do, and she knew she ought to eat, so she went in search of food.

While she was on her way, she felt someone take her arm and lead her away. Her mind was scattered, so for one bright moment she thought it might be Joseph, although his taking her arm this way would be quite a liberty. Then she thought it might be Katie, ready to make up for the fight they had had.

It turned out to be neither. Instead, it was Rebecca.

“Is it true?” she was asking, in a low, conspiratorial whisper.

Ruth was confused. She knew Rebecca, although not very well. She was a decent girl, not prone to making things up.

“What do you mean?” Ruth asked, and Rebecca nodded her head sadly.

“
Jah,
I thought so,” she said.

Ruth asked again what she meant, but Rebecca wouldn’t talk until they were off alone together, with enough privacy that they could speak and not be overheard.

“I’m afraid there’s a rumor that has been going around has been saying someone saw you and Joseph together in the field.”

“What?” Ruth asked, confused. “What does that mean?”

Rebecca looked at her sadly, and that was answer enough.

“But it isn’t true!” she insisted, and Rebecca nodded. “But then who would say such a thing?”

Rebecca looked around them, and then lowered her voice even further.

“I thought you should know. The rumor doesn’t say who it was. But from what I’ve heard, it sounds like no one had heard of it until Katie started talking about it.”

“She wouldn’t,” Ruth said, but even as she said the words, she knew it wasn’t true. She couldn’t understand why Katie would do such a thing, but she knew her best friend well enough to understand that to do such a thing wasn’t beyond her. She sometimes did rash things without thinking through the consequences it might have for others.

Rebecca left Ruth with her thoughts, and wandered off to go find food for herself.

Ruth felt trapped. Going back out into the crowd of people was impossible. If she knew such things were being said and heard, then she wouldn’t be able to have a single conversation without fearing what they were thinking of her, and trying to guess what they believed or didn’t believe. She had to get away from the Barn Raising, and quickly.

It was a far, far walk home, so Ruth took it at a jog so that she would be able to reach home before dark. She wanted to run anyway. It gave her a sense that if she ran fast enough, maybe she would be able to get away from the terrible thing that Katie had done to her.

Now that she was away from the immediate situation, the true consequences of the rumor began to fall on her. It wasn’t only Joseph’s respect, or the possibility that there may be anything between them that she was losing. If Katie was believed, then there were much greater problems. In the past, people had lost so much more. They could be shunned, or expelled. They could lose their
haus
. And because Katie was so much friendlier than Ruth, and had a tendency to make quick friends of others, Ruth couldn’t help feeling doomed, and that Katie would be believed and she herself would be lost entirely.

In her distress, she wished more than anything that she could speak to Joseph. She already felt that he was someone who could be counted on with her problems. And when she realized this, and saw how much she really liked him, it made the entire situation so much worse.