Their Pretend Courtship, page 10
Just after the thought ran through her mind, she heard the door open. A few seconds later, Samuel crept into the living room. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tiptoe, honey,” she told him. “Mark is sound asleep now.”
But Samuel approached the rocking chair, then whispered, “I promised to be very quiet so no one would hear when I told you something.”
“You have a secret?”
“Neh. A message.” Even though they were the only two people in the house who were awake, Samuel cupped his hands around Eliza’s ear. “Jonas wants to know if you can talk to him on the porch.”
Eliza turned to face her little brother, their noses just inches apart. “He’s on the porch?”
“Not yet. He’s hitching his gaul.”
Eliza had been hoping for a verbal message or a note from Jonas, but she couldn’t imagine why he’d need to come talk to her on the porch, unless it was to express his annoyance that she’d canceled their plans. But he wouldn’t do that, knowing her family was sick, would he? Either way, she had to find out and then send him home. What if Uri woke up and managed to drag himself out of bed and saw or heard Jonas talking to her? He’d insist Eliza tell him what was going on.
So she whispered, “Denki for telling me Jonas’s message, Samuel. That was a big responsibility. Could you help me with something else that’s a very big responsibility?”
“Jah,” the child agreed.
“While I go speak to Jonas, could you please stay here and listen in case Mamm or your daed or breider wake up? And if they do, can you kumme get me as quick as a bunny so I can bring them whatever they need?”
“Jah. I’ll listen very carefully.”
“Denki. I’ll be right back.”
Eliza gingerly rose, set Mark on the sofa and tucked a quilt around him. Then she hurried out to the porch, where Jonas was pacing. As soon as she’d shut the door behind her, she assured him she didn’t have the flu, but suggested he might want to keep his distance as a precaution.
“It’s okay. I already had that flu earlier this summer. It was awful. I hope your familye isn’t suffering too much?”
He didn’t seem annoyed that she’d canceled the date. He just looked concerned about her familye’s well-being. “They’re having a rough time of it, especially my mamm. But they’ll be okay in a few days, Gott willing.”
“I’ll keep them in my prayers.” Jonas shifted his stance and rubbed his jaw, which Eliza noticed was clean-shaven. Suddenly, she felt very frumpy by comparison. She’d been in such a rush to check on Eli and Mark this morning that she’d donned yesterday’s apron instead of putting on a clean one. And she hadn’t even looked in the mirror when she was pinning her prayer kapp to her hair, so for all she knew, it was crooked and she probably had blueberry jam on her face, too.
“Denki,” she said. While she appreciated his concern and was glad he understood why she’d broken their date, Eliza didn’t have a lot of time for chitchat. She said, “I really should go back inside to make sure my little breider are still asleep, so...”
“Right. I figured you might need some help or a little rest yourself. So I was wondering if I could take Samuel, Isaiah and Peter fishing at the creek for a couple of hours?”
Eliza was so taken aback she could hardly reply. She never would have imagined a suitor proposing such a generous offer, especially after she’d just canceled a date with him. “I—I couldn’t ask you to do that,” she stammered.
“You didn’t ask. I offered. I promise I’ll keep a very close eye on the buwe. I won’t let them fall in the water or kumme into contact with any rattlesnakes,” he said, his lips twitching with an impish smile.
“In that case, jah. It would really be wunderbaar,” she said. “I know they’ll love it, especially Samuel. Uri was supposed to take him canoeing for the first time today and he was crushed he couldn’t go.”
“So I gathered,” Jonas said. “I’ll round up Peter and Isaiah from the backyard, if you send Samuel out.”
Eliza practically skipped into the house. Samuel was also beside himself with happiness when she told him that Jonas wanted to take him and his brothers fishing in the creek. He bounded out of the house and down the porch steps so quickly that his hat flew off. When he turned back to get it, Eliza waved at him from the doorway.
“If Daed wakes up, tell him I didn’t go canoeing without him,” he called, holding up six fingers. “I’m waiting ’til he gets better in this many days.”
Hopefully it won’t take that long, Eliza thought. As she watched Jonas’s buggy pull down the lane, she murmured a prayer for her family’s health, as well as for the boys to have an enjoyable time. Then she went into the house and lied down on the other end of the sofa where Mark was sleeping.
Just before she dozed off, she thought about how grateful she was for Jonas’s presence in her life. Because while she originally may not have wanted a suitor, today she was in dire need of a nap, and she never would have been able to take one if it hadn’t been for him.
* * *
When Jonas brought the boys back to their house shortly before five o’clock, Eliza was sitting on the porch swing reading to Eli and Mark. “You didn’t catch anything?” she asked her empty-handed brothers as she stood up.
“Jah. I caught a brook trout but it was too little so I couldn’t keep it,” Isaiah answered.
“I caught three but they were all too little, too,” Peter said.
“I caught a frog with my hands. It was almost bigger than Peter and Isaiah’s fishes,” Samuel boasted. “But I put it back because the creek is its home and I wouldn’t want someone to pick me up out of my home and put me down someplace else.”
“I see. Well, if you’ve been handling frogs and fishes, you’d all better go wash your hands before supper. Please help Eli and Mark wash theirs, too,” Eliza instructed the boys.
Jonas had noticed how frequently they’d quoted their older sister, and he could see clearly she was like a second mother to them. She probably wants to have kinner of her own soon, he thought as the boys obeyed her request and went indoors. She’d make a wunderbaar mamm.
“Jonas?” she asked, her voice interrupting his reverie.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I said it’s obvious the buwe had a lot of schpass. I hope they behaved themselves.”
“Jah. No problems at all,” he replied.
“Gut. I can’t thank you enough for taking them to the creek. It gave me the opportunity to take a nice long nap, which I desperately needed.”
“You look a lot more rested,” Jonas remarked, noting that her eyes were brighter now. In fact, they appeared to be sparkling.
“Jah, with my stained apron and uncombed hair, I must have looked like I was coming apart at the seams earlier,” she admitted, self-consciously smoothing down the skirt of her dress.
“I didn’t mean that. You could be wearing a gunnysack and you’d still look pretty.” The unbidden thought seemed to leap from his mind to his tongue, and once spoken, it made both of them blush.
“Denki,” Eliza murmured.
Jonas quickly attempted to cover up his embarrassment as he confessed, “By the way, if the buwe don’t have big appetites, I’m to blame. I gave them s’mores for a snack.”
“Wow. No wonder they’re so hallich. Fishing in the creek and roasting marshmallows is a wunderbaar way for young buwe to spend an afternoon,” she declared. “But how did you happen to have the makings for s’mores in your buggy?”
Chagrined that she considered the activities he’d planned for their date to be more suitable for young boys to enjoy, he stuttered. “I—I...”
“Oh, I see!” She giggled. “You had the treats on hand because you were planning to go fishing and roast marshmallows with me.”
“Jah,” he admitted. “I suppose that probably doesn’t seem like a very special activity for adults, though.”
“Are you kidding? S’mores are my favorite and going to the creek would have been so refreshing,” she insisted. Peering into his eyes, she lowered her voice and added, “But being able to take a nap when I desperately needed one was more special than any other activity you could have planned, Jonas.”
There was something about the sincerity of her tone and the way she was looking at him that made Jonas feel ten feet tall, and yet weak-kneed at the same time. His mouth was so dry he had to lick his lips before replying. “I’m hallich to hear that. But I hope I didn’t put you in an awkward position with your mamm and Uri. I mean, because if the buwe mention our outing, your eldre will probably figure out we’re courting.”
“I don’t mind if they know,” she said with a shrug. “As long as it doesn’t bother you.”
“Neh. Not at all. I’m proud to be your suitor.” Once again, the words flew from Jonas’s lips, but this time he didn’t feel embarrassed after he said them. He felt happy—although more than a little bit vulnerable—because they were more true than not.
Chapter Eight
On Monday, Eliza ended up doing the bookkeeping for Uri, anyway. She also used his cell phone—which the Ordnung permitted for business purposes, provided it was used more than five hundred feet away from their house—to call customers and inform them their orders might be delayed until Uri recovered.
Thankfully, his bout of the flu passed a lot quicker than Lior’s. On Tuesday morning, he startled Eliza by walking into the kitchen from the mudroom. “I didn’t realize you were outside. I thought you were still sleeping,” she said.
“Neh. I felt well enough to milk the kuh. Peter and Isaiah have been taking care of the livestock for the past few days, so I thought I’d let them sleep in.”
“I’m hallich you’re doing better, but I didn’t expect you to recover so quickly.” Eliza hesitated before telling him that she’d called a couple of his customers to explain their orders might be delayed. She had tried to speak to her parents about it first, but they were both either sleeping or too groggy throughout the day to hold a conversation. Uri was so territorial about his business that she expected him to be angry she’d made the decision to contact his customers on her own, but instead, he thanked her.
“I appreciate that you took the initiative to do that. Even though I feel okay now, I might run out of steam by lunchtime, so the orders might wind up being delayed, anyway.” He averted his eyes and contemplatively stroked his beard. Eliza had rarely seen him appear self-conscious, and she thought it was because he was embarrassed that he was going to be late fulfilling orders. But then he said softly, “I—I might need your help with the bookkeeping, too. Your mamm’s mind is too foggy to do it right now, but you’ve always been gut with numbers.”
Surprised to receive both an expression of gratitude and a compliment from her stepfather in one morning, Eliza beamed. “I already took care of the books, too.”
“You did? But I didn’t give you per—” Uri began, his tone gruff. But he stopped in midsentence and simply mumbled, “Denki.” Then he poured himself a large cup of coffee and said he would drink it on the porch until breakfast was ready.
Within minutes, everyone except Lior was seated at the table. Uri said grace, thanking the Lord for their food. When he’d finished praying, just as everyone else was lifting their heads, Samuel chimed in, “And denki for making Daed all better. Please help Mamm feel all better, too.”
Once again, Eliza expected a stern reaction from Uri, since it was considered inappropriate for an Amish child to interject a remark into an adult’s conversation, and especially into a conversation with the Lord. But something about Samuel’s prayer must have touched Uri, because he reached over and tousled his hair. Then he served himself three heaping spoonfuls of breakfast casserole, a sure sign he was on the mend.
The boys quietly devoured their meals and afterward Eliza excused them from the table to go brush their teeth. “Peter, you can help Mark with his toothbrush and Isaiah can help Eli, please. Afterward, you may quietly put together a puzzle or read in the living room so you don’t disturb Mamm’s rest.”
Only Samuel remained at the table, clearly dawdling on purpose so he could talk to his father. “Guess where we went on Sunndaag, Daed.” The boy didn’t wait for his father to reply as he told him, “Jonas took us fishing at Crooked Creek.”
Uri raised an eyebrow at Eliza. “Jonas?” he repeated.
She nodded and Samuel innocently elaborated, “He’s Eliza’s friend from the blohbier bauerei. And he’s our friend, too. We had s’mores, but only one each because he didn’t want Eliza or Mamm to be upset that they made supper and then we didn’t want to eat it. ’Cept he got to have two because he doesn’t have a mamm or wife to make him supper or appenditlich treats. He only has a bruder and his bruder can’t bake any desserts a person would ever eat. Not even if it was the only dessert on a dessert island.”
When Samuel stopped talking to take a drink of milk, Uri caught Eliza’s eye and then covered his mouth with his arm, coughing into the crook of his elbow. When she rose to bring him a glass of water, she realized he wasn’t coughing—he was laughing. Eliza didn’t know whether it was Samuel’s mangling of the phrase deserted island or the fact that he had clearly quoted Jonas verbatim that tickled her father’s funny bone, but suddenly she could hardly suppress her own laughter. She managed to dismiss Samuel from the table before dropping into her chair and cracking up into her hand so no one else would hear.
In all the time she’d known Uri, she’d rarely seen him laugh like that, and she’d certainly never laughed that long with him. Their shared amusement made her feel closer to him, and some of her previous resentment seemed to melt away. When their laughter subsided, he pushed back his chair and stood up. “That was thoughtful of your suitor to take the buwe to the creek. Maybe this time you’ve chosen someone who’d make a gut match for you after all.”
Normally, Eliza would have bristled at Uri’s comment because she would have considered it to be intrusive. But today she took it in stride, preferring to think of it as a compliment instead of as her stepfather’s attempt to pressure her into getting married. “We’ll see,” she replied lightly.
After Uri left for the workshop and Eliza began doing the dishes, she found she couldn’t stop thinking about Jonas’s positive attributes. As Uri mentioned, he was very thoughtful. He was also funny, kind and hardworking, not to mention he had an affable, easygoing way with her brothers. She could almost picture him cradling a baby of his own in his strong, muscular arms someday...
“Are you okay?” Lior touched her shoulder, startling Eliza from her daydream.
“Oh, guder mariye, Mamm. I’m fine,” she responded. Although she was glad to see her mother out of bed and dressed in her regular clothing, Lior still had dark circles beneath her eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. I even have a bit of an appetite this morning.”
“Then sit down and I’ll fix you oier and kaffi. I need a second cup myself.”
“Gut. You can fill me in on what’s been going on around here. I feel as if I’ve been away on a long trip. It even seems as if the buwe have gotten taller in my absence.”
Eliza chuckled. “Considering how many blohbiere they’ve been eating lately, they probably have grown.”
She spent the next ten minutes telling her mother about Eli and Mark’s recovery from the flu, how she’d taken over the bookkeeping and customer calls for Uri and what the other three boys had been doing the last few days, including their fishing trip to the creek with Jonas. Finally, she confided, “Now I understand better why it was so meaningful to you when Uri took you shopping so you could get the ingredients for my birthday kuche. That kind of thoughtfulness really endears a mann to you, doesn’t it?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Lior murmured, partially obscuring her smile behind the rim of her mug.
“What are you laughing at?” Eliza asked.
“I’m not laughing. I’m smiling because I’ve never heard you speak so fondly about one of your suitors.”
Embarrassed, Eliza poured another splash of milk into her coffee and stirred it so she wouldn’t have to meet her mother’s eyes. “You’ve hardly ever heard me talk about my suitors at all.”
“Exactly. You must really like Jonas.”
“I like him for as much as I know him, jah. But I still don’t know him all that well.” She was trying to remind herself of that fact as much as she was her mother. “I don’t want to get carried away with my emotions just because he did one very thoughtful thing for me.”
“I agree. It’s gut to take time to get to know him better. Maybe by next Muundaag, I’ll be feeling well enough that you can return to the blohbier bauerei and spend time with him again.”
“Muundaag?” Eliza exclaimed. “That’s almost a full week away!”
Lior burst out laughing. “I was only teasing so I could determine how eager you really are to see him.”
Eliza could feel her cheeks and ears burning. She was going to insist that she’d only meant she hoped her mother would feel better long before Monday, but she couldn’t deny she was also eager to see Jonas again, too. Especially since he’d left her house the other day without arranging to take her out after church this coming Sunday. It was possible he hadn’t asked her out because he was going to be out of town or had other plans, but she suspected he’d simply been counting on seeing her again and asking her then. So she wanted to be sure they had another opportunity to chat before Sunday rolled around.
“You’re right, Mamm,” Eliza admitted. “I would like to see him again once you’re well enough to manage the buwe on your own.”
Lior leaned forward and took her daughter’s hand. In a serious voice, she said, “I appreciate everything you do around here for me. For all of us. But there will kumme a day when we’ll have to manage without you. It will be an adjustment, but we’ll be fine. So when you’re ready to get married and have a familye—”
