“Wait,” Benjamin called after her.
She picked up her pace, but Benjamin’s long strides caught up to her.
“Let me explain,” he begged.
“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. You betrayed me!”
She tried to walk away from him, but slipped on the snowy path. He caught her in his arms, and he paused, looking into her eyes as she rested in his arms. He bent his head to kiss her, but she pushed him away.
“What makes you think I want you to kiss me after you betrayed me?”
“After we kissed yesterday I thought we were—well, courting.”
“Well you thought wrong,” Bethany shot back. “Why would I want to court a mann who would hurt me the way you have? You know how much mei mamm’s bakery means to me, and you came in and just took over. There is not room enough for the both of us. I should have expected as much from Miriam’s bruder.”
Benjamin stopped in the middle of the path and turned to her. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Your schweschder stole mei money and now you are trying to steal mei mamm’s bakery away from me.”
Benjamin clenched his jaw. “I’m not trying to steal your bakery. I’m only helping until you learn for yourself. And I thought you forgave Miriam?”
“I don’t believe you, even for a minute. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so quick to forgive her of that debt. Stealing is obviously a familye trait!”
Benjamin shook his head in defeat. “I’m sorry if you don’t like me being a part of your bakery, but it was the only way your vadder was going to let you open it. Without me you wouldn’t even have this opportunity.”
“Is this the part where I’m supposed to be grateful to you for stealing my dream and making it yours?”
He tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away.
“You have it all wrong. I did this for you.”
“Nee, you did it for yourself and your schweschder’s husband, and if you’re waiting for me to be grateful to you for stealing my dream, that is never going to happen.”
Bethany marched away from him as fast as she could in the slippery snow.
It was obvious to her she’d mistaken love for an opportunist.
CHAPTER 11
Bethany walked slowly into the wind, keeping her head down as much as possible. Sleet stung her cheeks, despite having her hand above her eyes to shield her face, her other hand tightly gripping her collar. It was too late to wish she’d brought her umbrella. It might have made the short walk to the widow’s house seem as if it wasn’t so far. She would be soaked and half frozen before she reached the farm that bordered her father’s property on the north side of Willow Creek.
Normally, whenever Bethany was upset about something, she would head down to the creek and do a little fishing, or she would run off with Libby. But Libby had left to visit with relatives in Nappanee two days after Levinia’s wedding, and she hadn’t yet gotten a letter from her stating how soon she would return to Willow Creek.
So, today, Bethany was on a mission to get someone--anyone to help her, and she thought no one was better suited for the job than the widow. In Bethany’s mind, the widow had the most to gain from any sort of arrangement that could be made—especially with her father’s affections at stake.
When she reached the widow’s house, she was so cold and her muscles so stiff, she could barely make her way up the porch steps.
Widow Yoder swung open the door and shook her head at Bethany. “You’re late!”
“I’m n-not here to w-work,” Bethany said, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
The widow moved aside to let her in. “Well, if you aren’t here to work, then, why are you here?”
Bethany crossed the room to the hearth and stood close to the blazing fire. Almost instantly, she warmed up enough to stop shivering as violently as she was. Soon, her teeth stopped chattering and she turned to the widow, who’d been standing behind her patiently waiting for an answer.
“Did you know that mei vadder hired Benjamin Schrock to run mei mamm’s bakery?”
“Would you like some hot tea, Dear?”
“Not right now. What do you know about all of this?”
“Jacob did tell me last night that he’d hired the young mann to run the bakery. But I also know it was what made your vadder decide to open it back up in the first place.”
Bethany peeled off her wet mittens and set them on the brick step in front of the fireplace, hoping they would dry before she would have to return home.
“You’re so informal with mei vadder that you call him by his given name now?”
The widow shook her head, a worried look in her eyes. “I would have thought your vadder would have told you by now.”
Bethany started to shake again, but not from the cold. “Told me what?”
The widow cast her eyes downward. “We are to be married at the end of the month.”
Bethany’s breath caught in her throat. “What?”
“I said…”
“I heard what you said,” Bethany interrupted. “But that is too soon. I only just got the two of you together a few days ago!”
“Nee, your vadder and I have been seeing each other for a few months in secret.”
“Why did you go along with my plan and act as if you had always wanted to marry mei vadder when you’ve been seeing him all this time?”
“Because I thought this would be an easy way for you to know about us.”
“So then having me clean your haus and all that shoveling was just a preview of how hard I will have to work when you’re mei step-mudder?”
“Nee, Jacob thought it was best to teach you a lesson to put an end to your scheming. I went along with it because he is to be mei husband, and as your vadder, I didn’t question his parenting method.”
Bethany cringed at the thought of the widow being her step mother. But as an adult, she would be pushed out of the home when they married. She was more desperate than ever. She had to get her hands back on her mamm’s bakery, or she would never be able to support herself.
“This never would have happened if you’d have just taught me to make that pie!” Bethany cried.
Widow Yoder put her arm around Bethany and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Pie alone won’t run a whole bakery.”
Bethany shrugged the widow away and bent to get her mittens. “It would have been a start! Besides, you could have stood up to mei daed and taken my side. You could have told him you were going to help me. But you didn’t. Instead, you lied to me and betrayed me just like Benjamin did.”
“I am on your side, Bethany,” the widow said gently. “I want to see you succeed with the bakery because I know how much it means to you.”
Bethany shook her head furiously, tears dripping down her face. “You really have no idea at all.”
Bethany walked toward the door, but the widow placed a hand on her arm.
“Let me drive you home in this weather.”
“Nee, you only want to impress mei vadder by being nice to me in front of him. I’d rather walk.”
“That’s not true. I care for you, Dear.”
Bethany chuckled, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “I had a mudder, and you’ll never replace her no matter how hard you try.”
“I would never try to replace her. I understand you are an adult now, and you don’t need a mamm, but I would like it if we could be friends.”
“Don’t count on it,” Bethany snapped. “I will do whatever I can to be out of mei vadder’s haus before the two of you get married. I’d rather go begging Jessup King for mei job back at the B&B than to live with the two of you.”
Bethany turned to walk out the door, when the widow picked up an umbrella out of a large piece of crockery and tried to hand it to her.
Bethany waved a hand at her and walked out.
“Keep it,” she said over her shoulder. “I don’t want anything from you!”
CHAPTER 12
Taking a shortc
ut through her father’s field, Bethany walked swiftly in the furrow between the frozen remains of cornstalks. The sharp tips stuck out from the snow about an inch—just enough to help her avoid them. Stepping on them wrong could mean a cut to her calves, and she hoped to prevent that, if possible. Cutting through the field could be dangerous in the winter, especially because there was so much mud and ice to slip on.
The only other alternative was walking on the main road and having to pass Benjamin and her father at the bakery at the end of the lane that led to the house.
For her, it was not even an option.
Bethany chose to cut through the field rather than dealing with her earlier humiliation all over again. She needed time to think of a new plan to get her bakery back, and to get Benjamin out of it.
Stomping her snow-covered feet on the kitchen floor, Bethany didn’t see Benjamin and her father until it was too late to run back out the door. It wasn’t as if the idea didn’t flash in her mind, but she would have surely made a bigger fool of herself than she had earlier when she’d run out of the bakery. Besides, she wasn’t about to let the two of them run her off a second time.
Now she was trapped and had to face both of them. The two sat at the table near the kitchen window, sipping coffee. Benjamin looked up and smiled, his hazel eyes kind and inviting. His sandy blonde hair formed a flattened rim around his head from where his hat rested, and Bethany found it almost appealing that he was such a mess.
She wanted to confront her father about the widow, but she didn’t dare say anything in front of Benjamin about it, fearing her father would threaten her with a trip out to the barn. She was much too old for a sound lashing, but it wouldn’t stop her father from threatening it and embarrassing her in front of Benjamin.
She tried not to care about Benjamin, but she already mourned the loss of him in her arms, and the softness of his lips against hers. If only she could look past his betrayal, but at the moment, all she could see was him sitting with her father plotting to take over her bakery.
“Kume,” her father said. “Join us for some kaffi. It will surely warm you up. Did you go down to the creek to do a little fishing?”
Her father knew her all too well, and right now that bothered her.
“Nee, I went for a walk.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t altogether true either. At the moment she didn’t really care. Her only concern was thinking of an excuse believable enough to bow out of sitting with the two of them. She could not sit through small talk, and she wasn’t ready to discuss the bakery and their betrayal.
“It’s too cold for a walk,” Benjamin said, jumping up from his chair. “Let’s get you in front of the fire to warm you up. You look frozen half to death.”
I would have gladly stayed outside and turned to an icicle if it meant I didn’t have to see you and mei vadder right now.
Bethany forced a smile and allowed Benjamin to steer her toward the living room where a fire crackled and whistled in the brick fireplace. Her father was always putting damp wood wedges on the fire because he was too stubborn to keep a supply in the house where it had time to dry out.
At six foot, two inches tall, the man feared having spiders in the house from storing a small wood pile like most people did. She had argued with him too many times, saying that at the rate they burned the wood in the winter, it would have enough time to dry out a little, but not enough time to collect spiders. It was an argument she’d never won.
Once in front of the fire, Benjamin wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her arms to warm them up faster. He dipped his head down into her neck and breathed, his lips grazing across her skin just enough to send shivers straight to her toes.
Why does he have to be so persistent? He’s trying to keep me from being angry with him, but it won’t work.
Shrugging off his affections filled her with instant regret, but she needed to keep her perspective, and she couldn’t do that if her mind was clouded with desire for him. She closed her eyes so she didn’t even have to look at him. If she didn’t get out what she wanted to say, it would be all over for her, and he would have the upper hand more than he already did.
“I need you to understand that the bakery is mine, and I feel you betrayed me by going behind mei back and talking mei daed into hiring you. Because you did that, I will not trust you again. You took what I told you in confidence and used it for your benefit. Now that we will be working together, we need to maintain a business relationship only.
Just because I’m now required to learn from you doesn’t mean we have to be anything other than coworkers. You may be my teacher—for now—but you will never be my boss.”
She took a deep breath and waited for him to object but he didn’t. Though her eyes were still closed, she sensed his nearness. He closed the space between them and pressed his face into her neck.
She shivered from the excitement.
“I’ll do whatever you ask me to,” he said.
He kissed her neck lightly and walked away, leaving her more confused than ever.
CHAPTER 13
“Doesn’t your aenti need you at her bakery?”
Bethany knew her tone showed irritation, but it was way too early in the morning to start her day off with being bossed around in her own bakery.
“I’ve sent her a letter to let her know I would not be there this season. I’m certain she has employed one of mei cousins by now.”
Inwardly, Bethany grumbled, but she knew the only way she would be able to take over her bakery was to learn from Benjamin, and patience would be needed. Patience had never been one of her strongest virtues, and Levinia had often warned her that her short temper would someday get the better of her. She hated to admit to such a thing, but it seemed her sister had been correct about that. She could feel the anger and resentment rising up in her for Benjamin, and it had begun to mask the love she knew she had for him.
She looked into his hazel eyes, wondering if she could ever trust him enough to let the love she felt take over. Perhaps if she didn’t feel so threatened by his presence in her bakery, she would be able to look past it. Levinia would surely scold her for being prideful, but she couldn’t change how she felt, and no amount of prayer had changed it either.
It would seem that she would simply have to work this out for herself.
Benjamin handed her one of the two brooms in his hand. “Let’s get started. The sooner we get this place cleaned up, the sooner we can get the doors opened for customers.”
Irritated, Bethany let the broom handle drop to the tiled floor. “Please do not boss me around like you own this place. This is my bakery, and I am perfectly capable of deciding for myself what needs to be done.”
Benjamin leaned on his broom, intending to humor her. “Alright, you are in charge. From here on out I will do what you tell me to do. You are right. It’s your bakery and you’re the boss.”
His reaction caught her off guard, but she relished his submission to her authority. She looked around the dirty kitchen feeling a bit overwhelmed at the layers of years’ worth of dust and grime, wondering just where they should begin such an undertaking. Outside, she could hear Ray and his men hammering the new floorboards of the porch. The windows they ordered should be in tomorrow, and her father had taken the sign back to the barn to repaint it.
“Perhaps you could get the ladder and start wiping down those shelves while I sweep up some of this debris on the floor.”
Benjamin merely nodded and crossed the room for the ladder. She stood there and watched him for a minute as he filled a bucket with soapy water. He seemed content to do her bidding, but she wondered how long that would last before he tried to take over again. Surely, once they began to bake, he would overpower her again and use his experience to rule over her again. For now, she was happy with the arrangement, as long as she had some control over how things came together.
Deep down, she felt bad, and knew that, as a woman, she should not be ruling over a man she desired to
marry. But it was probably too late for all of that anyway. Too many feelings had been hurt and too many things had been said that could not be taken back. At this point, she determined that the relationship with Benjamin was over and so she would have to settle for his instruction so she could run her bakery once he was out of her life.
A lump formed in her throat at the thought of Benjamin leaving, but she pushed it down, reminding herself of his betrayal. It would be the only driving force behind her getting what she needed from him. His instruction would provide segue to her future with the bakery, and she would do well to keep reminding herself of that. She wished it didn’t have to be this way, but it was too late to turn back the hands of time and undo all the hurt and betrayal that now festered in her heart as resentment.
After a while, Bethany grew tired of sweeping the large kitchen and went out to the lobby area, intending to sit at one of the tables to have a break. She wasn’t used to all the physical work she’d been doing the past week between the widow’s place and now the bakery.
She pushed her way through the swinging door from the kitchen to the dining room, but quickly retracted when she spotted Miriam sitting with Ray at the corner table.
“It was really kind of Jacob Miller to let you do this job to pay off my debt to Bethany,” she heard Miriam tell Ray.
What?
Bethany fumed from behind the door, where she continued to listen to their conversation that had turned to talk of the unusual winter they had begun to have. She couldn’t believe her father had agreed to let Miriam out of the debt to her without even consulting her first. She could use that money now to rent a place in town.
What was she to do now?
She couldn’t live with her father and the Widow Yoder once they were married. There just wasn’t enough room for her at Levinia’s house, and she wasn’t about to move back to the B&B. Not only could she not afford to stay there, but she was also not about to humble herself to Jessup King and beg for her old job back.
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