Courting His Amish Wife

by Emma Miller

  Eve felt herself blush and glanced over the rowboat’s side to watch a water strider glide across the surface, barely creating a ripple. “Don’t look at me that way,” she told Levi bashfully.

  “What way?” He set his pole in the bottom of the boat and pushed up the brim of his straw hat in an exaggerated motion, as if to get a better look at her. “A man can’t look at his pretty wife?”

  She giggled, shaking her head as if he had said the silliest thing. No one had ever called her pretty before, not even her mother. She knew it wasn’t true, but it still made her feel good inside. “Are you thirsty? Would you like iced tea?”

  “I would.”

  She reached for the basket behind her. “I brought some fruit tarts, too.”

  “I was wondering what smelled so amazing in that basket.”

  Eve pulled out a pint jar of iced tea, the glass wet with condensation, and handed it to him.

  Levi unscrewed the Ball jar lid and took a sip. “What a clever way to bring drinks. Doesn’t spill a drop.” He took a big gulp and exhaled loudly. “Goot. Just the way I like it. Not too much sugar, but still sweet, and lemony.”

  “We bought a whole bag of lemons at Walmart the other day.” She lifted a square plastic dish from the basket, removed its lid and held the container out to him.

  He leaned over, and his eyes got wide. “Lemon tarts!” He lifted one out of the container and held it up. “That might be the prettiest tart I’ve ever seen. It looks like something you’d buy in an Englisher bakery.” He looked up at her. “What’s the decoration on top?”

  She took a tart for herself and leaned forward to set the container beside Levi on the bench. “Lemon zest,” she said, fighting a feeling of pride that tightened in her chest. She liked cooking for Levi. She liked making things for him that he enjoyed.

  “Zest?” he asked. Then he took a big bite of the tart, and the crust was so perfect that it flaked but didn’t crumble in his hand. “I don’t know that word.”

  “It’s the peel, but just the yellow part.” She nibbled on the crust of her tart. “The white is bitter.”

  Levi finished his tart in three more bites and reached for another, closing his eyes in pleasure. “So good,” he murmured. “I might have to have a third.”

  “You can have the rest.” She dared to meet his gaze. “I made them for you, Husband.”

  “I like hearing you call me that.”

  Not knowing what to say, she glanced away, reaching for her iced tea.

  “Wanna play a game?” Levi asked, taking another tart.

  “A game?”

  He shrugged one shoulder. He was wearing a blue shirt, and it made his eyes look even bluer. “Sort of a game,” he said. “Let’s take turns asking each other questions, then we both have to answer.”

  “Questions like what?”

  He chewed thoughtfully. “Like...what’s your favorite animal?”

  “My favorite animal?” She laughed. “Do you mean to eat?”

  He laughed with her. “Ne, like what animal did you always like as a child? It could be a barnyard animal, or something exotic.”

  “Like a tiger,” she suggested, wide-eyed. Of course, she had never seen a tiger, but she had seen pictures of them.

  “Exactly.” He wiped at some crumbs in the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and she pulled a cloth napkin from the basket and tossed it onto his lap. “I’ll go first,” he offered, using the napkin. “Easy. Mine is an alpaca.”

  “An alpaca?” She laughed, relieved she knew the animal. He was so much better educated than she was that she feared he’d name a creature she hadn’t known even existed.

  “Ya, alpacas. When I was learning to read, we had this book in school that had a letter and picture on every page, and the A page was my favorite because it had an alpaca on it. My teacher had to explain to me what it was. And then my dat took me to a farm to see some. Some Englisher he knew raised them for their wool.”

  Eve nodded, fascinated. She had never had anyone in her life who would have taken her to see an alpaca.

  “I’d love to have an alpaca of my own someday. I know someone here in Kent County who has them,” he told her excitedly. “An Amish guy. Have you ever seen one?”

  She shook her head.

  “Then I’m going to take you to see them,” he declared.

  “Who has alpacas?” She sipped her tea. The ice had all melted, but it was still nice and cool.

  “Our veterinarian. Albert Hartman.”

  She pointed at Levi. “Recht. He became Amish to marry...” She couldn’t remember the woman’s name.

  “Hannah,” Levi said. “That’s right. Let’s plan to go see Albert’s alpacas soon. For one of our dates, maybe. Would you like that?”

  “I would,” she told him.

  “Okay, so what’s yours?” he asked.

  “Chipmunks. They’re so small and cute, and I love how they race around,” she told him. “I just love chipmunks. But not to eat, mind you.”

  He drew back, laughing. “I would hope not.” They laughed together, and he said, “Okay, your turn. Ask me a question. Anything.”

  She thought for a moment, then asked, “Favorite cookie?”

  He grimaced. “A hard one. Let’s see...oatmeal cookies, made with chocolate chips, not raisins. Not that I don’t like raisins in my cookies, but I love chocolate.”

  “I love chocolate in my oatmeal cookies, too!” she told him excitedly, thinking that would be easy to remember.

  They bounced four or five more questions between them, and then Levi said, “Favorite color?” Before she could answer, he put up his hand. “Wait, wait. Let me guess.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them. “Blue?”

  She smiled with a nod. “How did you know?”

  Their laughter died away. “A guess. You said it was your mother’s favorite color. And you told me you ruined your dress...that night.”

  Surprisingly, his mention of the night Jemuel had tried to attack her didn’t upset her. Instead, she was touched that he remembered the dress and why it had been distressing to lose it.

  “And your favorite color?” she asked, studying his handsome face.

  He pressed his hands to his knees and leaned closer to her. “Blue.”

  “That’s always been your favorite color, too?” she asked suspiciously.

  His gaze never left hers as he shook his head slowly. “Not always. But it is now.” He smiled and she felt a flutter in her chest. “Because it’s yours, wife.”

  * * *

  Eve was so excited to meet the matchmaker Sara Yoder on their next date that the buggy had barely rolled to a stop, and she was climbing down. This was her and Levi’s first invitation as a married couple to serve as chaperones and she was thrilled to be asked. She’d never served as a chaperone, so she didn’t know exactly what it entailed, but how hard could it be? she wondered. A chaperone’s responsibility was to make sure single men and women behaved according to the ordung, rules established by the church.

  It seemed to her that it would be especially simple to keep their eye on folks in a place like Seven Poplars, where Old Order Amish didn’t practice rumspringa, and there were plenty of organized activities to keep them from exploring dangerous temptations like drugs, alcohol and premarital relations. Not that she was so naive as to think those failings didn’t exist among the Amish in any community, but like Hickory Grove, Tara had told her that “everyone in Seven Poplars mostly behaved.”

  Levi got down from the buggy on the other side to tie up the bay to a hitching post as Eve looked around. Though they had arrived early, there were already several wagons and buggies parked. There was no activity around the house and no sounds in the barnyard, except for the lowing of a cow in the pasture in the distance and the bleat of goats she couldn’t see.


  Everyone was already at the hospitality barn, she supposed.

  “Excited?” Levi asked, flashing her a smile.

  “Ya.” Eve beamed, looking down at the new canvas sneakers she’d bought at Spence’s Bazaar for the event. Levi had generously given her fifty dollars to spend when she went with Tara and Nettie the day before. It had been more than enough to buy a nice pair of summer shoes, but when she’d tried to return the change, he’d told her to keep it. “Every woman needs a little pin money, don’t they?” he’d asked her.

  “I’ve never seen a hospitality barn,” Eve told Levi. “That’s what Tara said Sara called it.”

  Levi checked a strap on the horse’s harness and then came around the hitching post to her. “I’ve never heard of it before, either. But if there’s one thing I know about Sara Yoder, it’s to expect the unexpected.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked, smiling because he was smiling.

  “You’ll see,” he answered.

  Eve walked beside her husband, and side by side, they followed a path that ran between the barn where Sara housed her animals and a long shed that looked to have been enclosed recently. A sign with writing burned into a large piece of wood hung over a door and read Bunkhouse.

  “Tara said Sara was widowed.” Eve hurried along eagerly. “She said Sara makes her living from matchmaking. Did she build this hospitality barn for her business?”

  “Sort of. She had it rebuilt. When Sara first moved here from somewhere out west, she purchased it for practically nothing because it was about to be torn down at its original location to make room for a subdivision. With the help of friends and neighbors, a construction crew dismantled the barn and then rebuilt it here.”

  As they walked beyond the barnyard, the path opened into a grassy field blooming with black-eyed Susans. There, what had to be the hospitality barn came into view. Eve halted to admire it, planting her hands on her hips. It was a picture-perfect gambrel-roofed building with a metal roof, red siding and jaunty rooster weather vane perched high on a white cupola. Double white doors were thrown open, and the sound of voices drifted from inside to mingle with insect song and the peepers.

  “Tara said single men and women stay here with Sara?” Eve asked.

  They began walking again. “Ya. A few at a time, mostly those folks coming from far away. Girls sleep in the house, and while Sara did have boys sleeping in the barn for a while, she just had that shed renovated.”

  “The one that said ‘bunkhouse’?”

  He nodded. “And here we are.” They walked through the open doors. “I imagine we’ll eat inside and wander outside. I saw what looks to be the makings of a bonfire along the side of the barn.” Levi looked at her. “Maybe we can roast some marshmallows and make s’mores.” His gray eyes twinkled. “I love s’mores. You?”

  She laughed. “I know what they are, but I’ve never had one.”

  “Never had one?” he gasped, bringing his hand to his chest. He was wearing the new short-sleeve shirt she had made him. It was grass green and she had to admit, he looked rather handsome in it. “Well, we’ll right that wrong tonight for sure, wife.”

  Inside the hospitality barn, Eve gazed around at the interior, taking in the high ceiling, the massive wooden beams and the spotless whitewashed walls. Not only had the inside of the building been insulated, but the old wood floor had been sanded and refinished. Two enormous woodstoves stood in opposite corners, cold now, but she imagined they would make the barn cozy and warm in the winter. Tara had said that Sara used it year-round and was now holding weddings there, as well.

  The space was a beehive of activity. Men and boys set up long tables and arranged chairs while women in Amish kapps and starched white aprons carried in large stainless steel containers and placed them on counters along one wall.

  “Levi!” A short, sturdy, middle-aged woman waved them toward the food area.

  “And that is Sara,” Levi told Eve.

  Sara Yoder was tidy in a blue dress, black stockings and shoes, and a white apron. Her dark textured hair was pinned up into a bun and covered with a starched white prayer kapp. And her skin was the color of caramel, still warm in the pan.

  Eve had never seen a black Amish woman before.

  Levi and Eve walked toward her.

  “So this is your bride?” Sara announced with open arms, her dark eyes sparkling.

  “Eve,” Levi introduced. “And Sara,” he told Eve.

  “Congratulations on your marriage!” Sara sang, taking Eve’s hand between hers. “You married a good man.”

  Eve felt her cheeks grow warm and she smiled. “That I have,” she said, glancing at her husband.

  “And I was thrilled when Levi sent word that you could chaperone tonight. I’m bursting at the seams with men and women staying with me, and half the singles in the county are coming tonight. It seems as if love is in the air. I’ve made two matches this week,” she added under her breath.

  “Have you?” Eve couldn’t imagine what it would be like to hire a matchmaker to find a husband. How could a stranger choose a spouse for a man or a woman? The idea was certainly unconventional. But then it wasn’t any more unconventional than how she and Levi ended up married, was it?

  Sara opened her arms wide again. “What do you think of my hospitality barn?”

  Eve laughed. “You can hardly call it a barn. It’s beautiful.”

  This building was nothing like the barns Eve had ever been inside; some had smelled of hay and animal feed, but others were not so pleasant. She shuddered involuntarily, remembering her father’s dank and forbidding stable, all shadows, cobwebs and sagging doors and windows. The place had always smelled of rodents. Eve had spent many mornings and evenings there milking the cows in the semidarkness, and it wasn’t a memory that she cared to linger over.

  Levi pushed his straw hat back off his head a bit. “I know you have plenty to do, Sara, so we won’t keep you. How can we help?”

  “Well, once everyone gets here, I just need you, Levi, to keep an eye on the young men. If you see a group of them wandering off, you can pretty much assume they’re up to no good. Obviously, no drinking of alcohol is allowed, and the same goes for cigarette smoking. I won’t have it. And no fighting,” she added. “A couple of weeks ago, I had two get into a fight over who was going to carry a cup of lemonade to a new girl who’d just arrived from Michigan.”

  “And what can I do?” Eve asked, clasping her hands together.

  “Keep an eye on my girls. I can’t be everywhere at once. Young women can be naive. They don’t understand how easily they can put themselves at risk with a boy they don’t know. I thoroughly vet anyone coming to stay with me, but any single in the county is welcome to my events and I can’t speak for the character of everyone’s cousin’s friend.”

  Eve lowered her gaze. She knew Sara had no knowledge of the details of her marriage to Levi, but the matchmaker’s warning about the innocence of young women struck home. If she’d had a woman like Sara in her life, would she have known better than to have gotten into a buggy with Jemuel?

  “I think we can handle the chaperoning. What can we do now?” Levi asked.

  Sara glanced around. Everyone there seemed to have a task and was getting to it. “Let’s see... Would you mind going outside to check to see if we have enough wood for the bonfire? I asked Lem, a nice, shy boy just arrived from Kentucky. He said he would see to it, but he appears to have found something more important to do.” She indicated with her chin and Eve followed Sara’s line of sight.

  A nice-looking young man with a head of white-blond hair and a big grin was taking an armful of paper plates from a short, round woman who looked like she could have been Eve’s twin. Seeing the good-looking boy fawning over the plain, chubby girl made her heart sing. Her mother had always said that there was someone for everyone in God’s world. Eve guessed she had been
right.

  “I can take care of that,” Levi told Sara.

  “What can I do?” Eve piped up.

  “No doubt, there’s still work to be had in the kitchen. We’re having burritos tonight, so there’s a lot of prep work.”

  “There’s a kitchen in your barn?” Eve asked.

  “Right through that doorway.” She pointed. “Every hospitality barn needs a kitchen, don’t you think? You can go help if you like. I know there are still tomatoes and cilantro from my garden to be chopped up for the salsa.”

  Levi turned to Eve. “You okay in here while I see to the firewood?”

  She smiled up at him. “Of course.”

  She watched him go and then turned back to Sara. “So, what exactly is a hospitality barn?” More Amish were coming into the building now, and two teenage girls in black prayer kapps were spreading the tables with white tablecloths. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “That’s because I made it up myself. I wanted someplace larger than my home where I could get young people together,” Sara explained. “For my matchmaking, so that men and women of courting age could meet. Also, our church community needed a safe place to hold youth meetings, singings and frolics. This barn was an answer to our prayers, and it practically fell into my lap. It’s more than a hundred years old and is in wonderful shape.”

  “But the expense of moving the structure.” Eve looked around, still in awe.

  “A bargain at any price. A lot of Amish communities have problems with their teenagers and young adults being lured into bad habits by the free ways of the English. Even Amish kids need somewhere away from adults to let down their hair, so to speak.”

  Eve nodded in agreement.

  “On Wednesday evenings, Seven Poplars’ youth group, the Gleaners, meets here. They do game nights, birthday parties and work frolics here, as well. It’s good that Amish children learn the value of work and responsibility, but boys have a lot of energy. If we can positively channel that energy, the entire community benefits.”