Newbury Acres: An Amish Christian Romance Novel: An Amish Romance Adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (The Amish Classics)

by Sarah Price

  “It is,” Ellie admitted. “These people don’t have the means to buy their own farms in Newbury Acres. Daed is committed to keeping the people working among each other and away from the Englische.” She reached for her napkin and wiped her lips. “Tourists bring worldliness, and that, in turn, brings problems.”

  Catherine wasn’t certain how to respond to that. She knew that there were issues in Fullerton with some of the young adults experimenting with technology and even alcohol during their rumschpringe, the period of time before they joined the church. But problems were few and far between. Many times, she had overheard her parents talking about the much worldlier youth from Holmes County, Ohio, where many youth did not join the Amish church, opting to join the less conservative Mennonite churches instead. But the youth in her community tended to stay Amish.

  Ellie looked up at the sun. “Oh, help! It must be close to two o’clock. I promised to take some cheese over to our neighbor, Mary Fischer. She’s having family this week. Perhaps you would like to come along?”

  Catherine shook her head. “Nee, if you don’t mind, I’d like to read a little and perhaps write a letter to my parents.”

  Standing up, Ellie began packing up their things. “I probably won’t be home until suppertime. It’s a good twenty-minute walk, and she’ll certainly want me to stay to visit.”

  By the time they returned to the house and Ellie left, it was almost three o’clock. Catherine offered to clean up from their picnic so that Ellie would not be delayed. In the quiet of the house, Catherine hummed to herself as she washed their plates and utensils. As she shut off the faucet, her hand lingered on the knob and she raised her eyes to stare out the window.

  Without Gid, somehow the farm felt more alive. Catherine couldn’t help but wonder if his wife had felt the same oppressiveness from her husband or if she had made the home more cheerful. She imagined that it was the latter. She couldn’t imagine any woman being able to live under Gid Tilman’s strict rules.

  And that was the moment she realized that, with no one else home, she would be able to sneak over to the other side of the house at last. As much as she tried to chase that thought away, it quickly returned, every time in a more overwhelming way.

  For a few long moments, she argued with herself. She went back and forth, trying to decide whether or not she should take advantage of being alone to explore the forbidden rooms. On the one hand, she knew that Gid did not want her to see these rooms. Yet she countered that argument when she reminded herself that Ellie had been more than willing to take her there.

  Finally, she made up her mind and walked over to the cabinet where she had seen Ellie fetch the key. With a trembling hand, she opened the door and reached inside, taking the key from the cupboard and holding it in her hand. For a moment, she hesitated and reconsidered. Then she glanced at the clock. It was not even three-fifteen. Catherine knew that she would have enough time to go explore the forbidden side of the house undetected. But her conscience pricked at her. Did she dare do the one thing that Gid Tilman had so vehemently prohibited? Even if he didn’t know, she would know, and the guilt might be easily seen in her face when she saw him again, especially if she discovered the truth about his deceased wife. And what was the truth that she was looking for? What, exactly, did she think that she might discover?

  She held the key in her hand and shut her eyes. What was their mother like? Was she like Freddie and Gid, who focused on their own personal gain rather than the comfort of others? Or was she more like Ellie and Henry, compassionate and caring? And had Gid loved her, or had he only married her for her land?

  Determined to learn the truth, Catherine hurried to the door and fit the key in the lock. She was almost surprised when it opened easily.

  Pushing the door open, she stood there for a moment and contemplated turning back. But her curiosity got the best of her and she stepped through the doorway into the forbidden section of the house.

  To her amazement, she walked right into the large gathering room and kitchen. Someone had opened the shades and, unlike the previous day, today the room was now bright and airy, giving her a feeling as if she stood outdoors, not in a house. The sun shone through the windows, the rays exposing little specks of dust that floated through the air. Catherine walked toward the staircase, her footsteps sounding extra loud in the quiet of the empty house. She noticed the bookshelf along the back wall beneath the windows and peeked at the titles. Devotionals. Bibles. Martyr’s Mirror. Nothing out of the ordinary. It could have been a bookshelf in her own family’s house.

  She tried to step lightly as she climbed the staircase. The handrail felt smooth beneath her fingers, as if someone had just cleaned it with a good wood polish. In fact, as she glanced back at the room, she realized that everything appeared neat and tidy, not a speck of dust gathered on the counters or table. If no one was permitted in this section of the house, who cleaned it? She couldn’t imagine Gid doing it, but clearly someone was taking care of the rooms.

  At the top of the stairs, she noticed that the door to one of the bedrooms was open. She approached that room first. To her amazement, it appeared as if someone had been staying there. The bed was made, a pretty quilt spread on the bed. She reached out her hand and touched it. The quilt had been made by hand and with perfect little stitches. She wondered if it had been a wedding quilt, made to celebrate their mother’s marriage to Gid Tilman. The pillow still had a dent in it as if someone had slept there just recently. And on the nightstand was a kerosene lantern with a smoky hurricane. Beside it was a Bible. She recognized it as Gid’s and caught her breath. Did Gid still sleep in the room that he had shared with his wife?

  “What are you doing in my daed’s bedroom?”

  Catherine spun around and gasped when she saw Henry standing in the doorway. “Henry! You are back so soon!”

  He studied her with a somber expression. “My visit was shorter than expected.” He took a step into the room and stood before her. There was an expression of curiosity on his face as he faced her. “And how did you manage to find your way here, if I might ask?”

  She glanced at the quilt. “I … well … I wanted to see her quilts.”

  “I see.” He arched his eyebrow. “Has Ellie spoken much about our maem?”

  “Ja,” she said and then shook her head. “Not so much, I suppose.”

  “Uh huh.” He considered her answer with a cool expression.

  “Ellie was going to show me the other day,” Catherine suddenly gushed.

  “And?”

  “Your daed stopped us.”

  He made a noise in his throat. “So, you thought you could come see them yourself since no one was home?”

  It sounded so much worse when he said those words. Embarrassed, she lowered her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

  He pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I’m surprised at you. Truly I am.”

  “I just wanted to see …” But she couldn’t finish the sentence. Her quest into the forbidden section of the house now seemed frivolous. All that she had learned was that Gid stayed in this section of the house and kept it pristine, perhaps in honor of his deceased wife. Had she truly thought that she might uncover some family secret? “I wanted to learn more about your mother. No one speaks of her, yet I know that Ellie misses her so. And your daed refused to let her come here and see her quilts and find her recipes and there was so much secrecy so I … I thought …”

  “You thought what?”

  Once again, she lowered her eyes. “I thought that he hadn’t been very fond of her,” she said in a soft voice.

  Henry seemed to contemplate this and nodded his head. “I see,” he said once again. There was a long, drawn-out moment of awkward silence between them. When Catherine finally looked up at him, she saw that he appeared to be observing her with a new eye. His expression, usually so tender and kind, was void of any emotion. So she was surprised when he reached out for her hand. “Come, Catherine. Let me introduce you to my mother. She
was much more than a pretty house.”

  Startled by his gesture, she accepted his hand.

  “She loved to quilt,” he said and pointed to the bed. “You already know that. This was her last quilt that she made the winter before she took ill.”

  “It’s … it’s lovely.”

  He gave a soft smile as if the memory of his mother quilting pleased him. “She always quilted in the winter. She’d sit by the windows downstairs and spend hours each evening quilting. She had patience, that was for sure and certain. Come into the other room and see some of her other quilts.” He led her out of the bedroom and toward a door that was shut. When he opened the door, he stepped aside so that Catherine could enter first.

  Inside the room, there was a quilting frame leaning against the wall. On a folding table, there were three quilts neatly folded. Catherine walked toward them and rested her hand on the top one. “What are these?”

  “There is one for each of her children. For their weddings.” Henry leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. “She knew that she was dying, Catherine, and she made certain to have everything in order. She knew that she would not live to see her children get married, so she made these the winter before she died.”

  She lifted the top one and stared at the second quilt. “They are beautiful.”

  “I agree with you,” Henry said. “And so was she.”

  Catherine looked at him.

  “I’ve been told grief takes many forms, Catherine,” Henry continued slowly, his gaze on the quilts, but his thoughts elsewhere. “Perhaps once he lost my mother, my daed realized how he had neglected her when she was alive. Maybe caring for her things is his way of making it up to her. Perhaps he does not forbid us from being in this section of the house in order to forget her but because he wants to keep her memory alive for himself. Selfish? Perhaps. But it may be his strange way of making amends.”

  She followed his gaze toward the quilts, saddened at the thought of so much love being shut away, lost to the children who most needed it.

  “So your father … did he love her?”

  “In his own way, maybe he did. Just not in a way that you and I would recognize.” A spasm of grief and anger crossed his face before he said abruptly, “Now, if you have satisfied your curiosity, I think it is best that we leave the past alone.” He spoke in a terse tone as he moved from the doorway so that she could exit the room. “And return to the other side of the house where you belong.”

  In silence, she walked down the stairs and followed Henry through the kitchen and gathering room. When she passed through the door that she had unlocked, she kept her back to Henry, listening as he shut the door and locked it. He did not return the key to the cabinet but slid it into his pocket.

  He did not speak to her as he left the house. She watched through the window as he marched toward the dairy barn. Only when he disappeared did she sink onto the sofa and cover her face with her hands, allowing the tears to fall. She knew that she had disappointed him, and in doing so, she had disappointed herself as well.

  Chapter 23

  “There’s a letter for you,” Henry said as he walked into the kitchen.

  Both Ellie and Catherine looked up, presuming that he was addressing the other one. When Catherine realized that he was speaking to her, the first time since the previous day, she wiped her wet hands on her apron and hurried across the floor toward Henry. “Has the mailman come already?” she asked, glancing at the clock on the wall near the staircase. It was eleven-thirty. Henry would have dinner at noon and then depart for the Woods farm immediately afterward.

  He didn’t respond as he handed her the letter.

  “Danke,” Catherine said, hoping that he might meet her gaze and smile. Ever since he found her in his mother’s room yesterday, he had been quiet and reflective. Several times she had caught him observing her with an unreadable expression on his face. Despite his kind handling of her invasion into his mother’s part of the house, she knew that he had been disappointed with her behavior. And that disappointment had certainly washed away any hope on her part that he had grown fond of her in the same way she felt of him.

  Thankfully, Ellie seemed oblivious to the shadow that had fallen across her relationship with Henry. Catherine had thought long and hard about whether to confess her trespass to her friend, and decided not to. Why distress Ellie and spoil the remaining time they had together? Henry knew what she had done, and that was burden enough to bear. As for Gid: she knew confessing to him would be impossible, even if in some strange way it might be a relief to her conscience.

  Sighing, she sat down at the table and opened the envelope. “It’s from James,” she explained as she began to read. Her eyes scanned the words on the page, and as she realized their import, she covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, no!”

  “What is it?” Ellie asked. She joined Catherine at the table, taking the seat next to her.

  “I don’t even want to say! It’s so awful!” She continued reading and gasped. “Oh, I shall never want a letter again!”

  Henry approached the table. “Is everything alright?”

  “No. Not at all!” Catherine kept reading the letter and gasped. “Poor James!” She set down the letter and looked at Ellie first. “His engagement to Ida Mae is no more.” Then she looked at Henry. “It appears that she is engaged to another man.”

  “Another man?”

  Slowly she nodded. “I’m almost not believing it, but I know James would never lie.”

  Ellie and Henry remained quiet, and she knew they dared not ask for more information, realizing that the matter required the utmost tact.

  “I must ask a favor of you,” she said at last, knowing that what she would say would hint at the news. “If, during my stay, your bruder is to return to Newbury Acres, please let me know ahead of time so that I might return to my family early.”

  Ellie raised an eyebrow and Henry frowned. “Freddie?”

  Catherine hesitated. “Something dreadful has happened that would make it very uncomfortable for me to be in the same haus as him.”

  The muscles in Henry’s jaw tightened. “I suspect Ida Mae has left your bruder for ours,” he said in a firm, angry voice.

  Catherine hadn’t wanted to tell them, but she knew that they must learn the entire story. “And it’s even worse, because it appears she is engaged to Freddie.”

  Henry winced and Ellie caught her breath.

  “It’s highly unlikely that Freddie would become engaged,” Henry said at last. “I’m sure you have been misinformed.”

  She glanced down at the letter and scanned the back of the first page. “He says it quite clearly right here. While James was back in Fullerton, Ida Mae was seen courting Freddie on a daily basis. James returned to Banthe and learned of …” She paused, looking for the right word to use. “… An indiscretion of some type, although he doesn’t say how he learned of it.”

  “Indiscretion?” Henry repeated the word as if it tasted foul.

  Ellie leaned forward as if to read the letter herself. “Are you certain of that?”

  Catherine gave her the letter and pointed to the line that mentioned the engagement. “Such inconstancy!” she said more to herself than to Ellie or Henry. “And how is this possible? They barely know each other.”

  Ellie read the letter, and when she came to the end, she sighed and handed it back to Catherine. “I still find it hard to believe.”

  “Our daed will never permit our bruder to marry such a senseless woman!”

  Startled at his harsh words, Catherine returned her attention to Henry. “But it’s already been announced!”

  Henry shook his head. “Prepare yourself, Ellie, for your new sister-in-law! Inconstant, indiscreet, and foolish!”

  Stunned, Catherine stared at him. She had never heard him speak poorly about anyone, even John Troyer. She wondered if his anger stemmed from his own feelings about her.

  “Perhaps she is simply young, naïve, and im
petuous. I would welcome a sister-in-law with those traits.” Ellie glanced at Catherine. “But I agree that the circumstances do not reflect well upon her character.”

  The severity of the situation hit Catherine, and she suddenly found herself blinking back tears. “How could she do something like that to James? He loved her. Of that I’m sure.” She couldn’t imagine how James felt. He had only been gone two weeks! How could Ida Mae replace him so quickly?

  “Freddie has a way of charming the young ladies,” Ellie said in a soft voice.

  But Catherine found it hard to believe that anyone would be attracted to Freddie Tilman. While he might be considered handsome, she had seen through him right away. In her opinion, his character was far too flawed and marred any external appeal he might have. “He’s … he’s done this before?” she asked naively.

  Ellie nodded slowly but deliberately. “I’m just surprised that he would settle for such an easy target.”

  “Oh,” she said under her breath.

  Henry stepped forward and knelt before Catherine. He covered her folded hands with his and stared up at her. “I’m sure this is shocking to you.” He spoke in a gentle voice. “While it appears that Ida Mae has mistreated your bruder, Catherine, I can assure you that she will pay a high price for her choice. I know for a fact that my bruder is not capable of being the kind and attentive husband that I’m sure your brother would have been.”

  Catherine swallowed. While she was angry with Ida Mae for hurting her brother, she also felt sorry for her. No woman went into marriage expecting to be mistreated, and Ida Mae was likely due for a rude awakening.

  “What’s done is done, I’m sure.” Henry gave Catherine’s hands a soft squeeze before standing up, but she was so miserable she could hardly take in the sympathetic gesture.

  “Poor, poor James,” Catherine whispered, still dismayed at how her brother might be feeling. In the letter he had said nothing more than the bare facts of the situation, but she could read between the lines. She knew he was hurting.

  “Better to find out now than later though,” Ellie said. “What man would want such an unfaithful woman?”