Landchester Amish Love: Ruth (Amish Romance) (Landchester Amish Love Series Book 2) (4 page)

When Katie and Joseph came over, and stood side by side, it was easy for Ruth to see the
familye
resemblance. Ruth and Joseph smiled, without meaning to, when they saw each other. But there were things that needed to be said and done first, before they could speak.

“I’ll be out on the porch,” Joseph said, a little awkwardly, and went to leave the room, tripping on the threshold again just a little as he went.

Ruth smiled again, remembering how he had done the same thing when he had left the crafts store. Perhaps he was a clumsy
mann
, after all. That would be all right, Ruth thought. Or perhaps he wasn’t and she just gave him reason for distraction. Either way, she was happy to have the chance to find out.

She felt Katie’s arms suddenly around her neck as soon as they were alone. The hug was a surprise, but it was a welcome one, and Ruth hugged her back. Words would have been hard to find, and probably hard to hear before they’d settled on the most important fact of the matter: that Katie was sorry, and that Ruth forgave her. A hug did nicely for that.

When they drew apart again, they sat down. Ruth could see tears in Katie’s eyes, that she was quickly wiping away, and trying to hide.

“Why?” she asked her, and Katie shrugged at first.

“I didn’t want to miss you. I didn’t like that you were lonely. And it didn’t feel right for it to be you and him, together. I’m not sure why.”

Ruth put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. She looked so pitiful and shameful, it melted any residual resentment Ruth might have felt.

“And would you, maybe, be willing to think of it differently?” she asked her, and Katie laughed a little bit and nodded.

“
Jah,
of course.” The girls sat, and the incident was set on the shelf, not to be opened again.

Then they caught up, as quickly as possible. Ruth found that she had missed her friend, and hearing what she had to say about everything that happened in their own community. And she thought now that perhaps one of the best things about the
mann
she’d met being Katie’s
bruder
was that if all worked out the was Ruth was afraid to admit even to herself that she hoped it would, then she would have Katie for a
schweschder
as well.

They got through all of the things they had been holding inside, waiting to tell one another. And when they reached the end of it, and there was a lull in the conversation, Ruth found that she was looking towards the porch. The thin curtain was in the way, but she could see through it enough to see Joseph’s outline, still sitting outside, waiting for her to come out.

“You’d better go then,” Katie said. She had a reserved, slightly playfully-mocking tone to her voice. And Ruth felt then that it would always be this way between them, just a little bit. But she liked it. It was something new in their friendship that had been very much the same for so long.

Ruth stood, and hugged her friend again, and headed for the door.

Joseph stood when she walked through the door and she motioned him down.

“Sit, sit!” she said, playfully. And he did. And she sat next to him.

Evenings like this were a gift from
Gott
. The sun was setting, slowly but surely, but it wasn’t there yet. It was just preparing for the sunset, and the world was growing still to get ready. The world settles down for night the way dust settles in a room – in its own time, and delicately.

Joseph and Ruth let the silence sit between them for a good while. They were both excited, but the quiet didn’t frighten them. It was enough to them both to feel the joy together, of all obstacles being removed from their way.

In a way, Ruth thought, this was better. At the barn raising, she’d been so afraid to speak to him. She’d worried that he wouldn’t want to talk to her, or that she’d been mistaken about him. She’d worried that there weren’t real feelings there, or that something was going to go wrong.

But now that they’d already weathered a storm together, all that doubt and nervousness was gone. She knew he cared for her. And he knew that she cared for him. And they both knew that no small roadblock would lessen that for them, or they wouldn’t still be here.

“I’m sorry I wouldn’t answer the door for you,” Ruth said at last.

“I’m sorry you didn’t want to, to start with.”

“
Ach,
that wasn’t your fault!” Ruth said, half laughing, as though the whole thing was funny now that it’d been resolved.

“She was my
schweschder
!” he said. “I should have known.”

But she was my best friend,” she said. “So
I
should have known.”

There was no winning the argument, but then there was also no losing it.

They looked out together at the world. It didn’t care what they’d been through together but apart, over the last day. It only was. And along with it, Ruth and Joseph let themselves only be.

When they’d been there a while, Katie came through the door. She was making a great play of sneaking, so as not to disturb them, and waved goodbye to them with comedic exaggeration on her way home.

After she had gone, and as the sun began to sink further from the sky and towards the edge of the earth, Ruth and Joseph began to talk. They spoke about small things at first. Little preferences they had, and things they thought that others thought was odd.

Joseph spoke about his love of cooking, and Ruth told him she thought it was a wonderful dream. As soon as he said it, and told her about his dream of opening an Amish restaurant, Ruth could imagine no better life for herself than running it with him. She wanted to tell him so, and figured one day she would. He talked about his
Rumpringa
, and how conflicted it had made him, but also how much the sense of community he had felt at the barn raising yesterday kept him from thinking that he would be happier outside than he would be within the community.

Ruth talked about her very real and growing hatred of dolls, and it made Joseph laugh. She talked about how she wanted a
familye
, and she wanted to be around people all the days of her life. She talked about how much she loved listening to them, and all the ways they were the same and all the ways they were different.

And when the sun was only a memory left in the sky, and they had slipped together into a casual lull in the conversation, Joseph spoke the words that Ruth had waited such a very long time to hear.

“Ruth,” he said, “I think I would very much like to get to know you better.”

“
Jah
,” she replied, “I think I would very much like that, too.”

(To be continued in
Rebecca
)

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“I wonder how
Maemm
is now,” Rebecca Rediger thought to herself. She could hear her mother coughing and wheezing, and had checked in on her numerous times, so much so that Rebecca was still tired. She decided there was no point in waking her mother as she seemed comfortable now. Rebecca got on with her morning routine. She'd had to make some big changes since her mother’s diagnosis of COPD as her breathing capacity was now limited. The major change was in the food that they ate. It had taken some adjustment. Her mother, at her age, had difficulty in trying new food but Rebecca had to coax her that it was for her own good.

Every chore Rebecca carried out was a reminder of the difficulties of her mother’s illness. As Rosalie, her mother, now had to carry an oxygen tank, she couldn’t go to the kitchen or basement when the fires were lit. It wore Rebecca down, although she would never say it out loud. It was her place to care for her mother and the one thing Rebecca could never be was disrespectful to her dear mother.

But Rebecca’s worry was how much longer she could manage her mother. It seemed that no matter what Rebecca did to help stabilize her mother’s health, Rosalie was getting worse and the most concerning aspect was that she wasn’t always coherent. Rebecca never went far from the house in case her mother would try to light the fire or roam off and get injured. Rebecca was in knots about what would become of her mother. It was so unusual for an Amish person to suffer this way but the doctors couldn’t explain how it happened and Rebecca had to adjust her and her mother’s lifestyle.

This was not the plan Rebecca had envisioned for herself. She wanted to be like her friends and be married by now with a
menner
and
kinder
of her own but caring for Rosalie was a full-time job in itself. And Rebecca couldn’t think of any man who would knowingly take on such an ill mother-in-law. Rebecca couldn’t see any future for herself. It seemed like she was condemned to being single. Rebecca scolded herself whenever she found her mind drifting off to what would never be for her. After all, it wasn’t her mother’s fault. This was the path that
Gott
had chosen for her and she must accept it.

As she started the stove to prepare the oats for breakfast, Rebecca’s mind turned to her mother and their fears of something happening to her. When her mother was coherent she felt sorry for Rebecca having to cope with her but there wasn’t any way to change it. Rosalie’s condition was progressive and all she and Rebecca could do was to adapt their eating and living arrangements. 

Rebecca made sure Rosalie was always warm. She would love to have her in the kitchen but she was too afraid in case the oxygen tank would explode. Rosalie’s mind would drift from time to time and Rebecca couldn’t trust that something bad would not happen. Rosalie was always on Rebecca’s mind.

As she prepared the fruit to have with the oats, Rebecca’s mind drifted to their old breakfasts of
scrapple
, how she’d love to eat that now. Oats and fruit, while nutritious, became monotonous day after day. But her mother’s health couldn’t handle any greasy or fried food. Rosalie had to eat small meals over the day rather than three bigger meals and while Rebecca loved to cook, she felt very limited in what she could make for her mother. Her day was punctuated by meals. Her mother needed a lot of energy to keep her muscles strong.

Rebecca’s mind drifted, imagining what it would be like to have
kinder
of her own and to see them playing outside. She thought about the meals she could cook and how she longed to experiment with recipes. Then she felt sad and guilty. It was her private torment. It seemed easier for her to cope when her mother actually needed her because then her focus was on what she had to do to give her mother some relief.

As an only child, there was no back-up for Rebecca. So when her mother was resting, Rebecca would stress eat. It seemed her only way to dull her senses for a brief time. What did it matter if she became fat, it wasn’t as if she was getting married in any case? Rebecca had no-one to confide in. She bottled up her feelings inside. She couldn’t ever tell her mother as Rosalie was prone to worry and any stress exacerbated her condition. Anyway, thought Rebecca, what would it solve to talk to Rosalie? Rosalie would be upset as would Rebecca. It didn’t matter what Rebecca wanted, she had her mother to look after.

Rebecca’s thoughts were broken by Rosalie coughing and needing help. Her walking ability had deteriorated, she became so out of breath easily that Rebecca was concerned about even taking her around the house for exercise, but the doctor said it needed to be done to keep the muscles strong.

When Rebecca’s kneaded her mother’s back, she thought about how the community had rallied around at the time of Rosalie’s diagnosis. The Bishop had given his permission for Rosalie to use the oxygen tank and neighbors had offered their assistance but Rebecca didn’t want to shirk her responsibility and had politely declined all offers of help. The offers soon dwindled and now no one offered their help. Rebecca was worn out. She didn’t sleep well at night-time, as she always listened out for a change in her mother’s breathing and then there were nights when her mother’s chest was very bad, like last night. She would love to lie down but Rosalie could get up and hurt herself.

Poor Rebecca was at her wits’ end. After tending to her mother and back in the kitchen to get breakfast ready, she sat down, she began to cry. She needed a moment to herself. This was her life.

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A note from the author…

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Again, thank you very much for downloading this book, and I hope to see you again in my other stories!

Esther

Esther Weaver is a writer of Amish Romance books. Ever since she’d been exposed to the Amish culture during her childhood, the simple and devout lifestyle has captivated her. Now that she’s retired and have some time to spare, Esther chose to combine her passion for stories and the Amish way of living for her new vocation. When she’s not in front of the computer typing, she likes to occupy herself with relaxing with her husband Chuck or walking her Rottweiler Chip.

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Email: [email protected]

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