Courting His Amish Wife

by Emma Miller

  Of course, had this whole mess unraveled differently and he was a candidate, and he did choose the hymnal with the slip of paper, he would not have turned down the position. It would have been his duty to his congregation and to God. Because when God called a man to be a preacher, the man responded with faith that his Lord would give him the words to speak.

  But all of that was a moot point now, Levi thought with a tired sigh. With time, the whole thing would blow over and few would even remember who could have been a preacher but wasn’t chosen. But Levi would remember. He would recall that members of his tight-knit community had deemed him unfit for the role. And his father could be counted among them.

  With resignation, Levi flipped over the board he was sanding and ran his finger along the edge, feeling for any burrs. At least the construction of his very first buggy was going well. That was something, wasn’t it?

  “Levi,” Bishop Simon called as he walked into the buggy shop. He was wearing black pants, a white shirt, black vest and his wide-brimmed black hat—this was an official call.

  Levi glanced up and acknowledged the older man with a nod.

  The bishop was a short, round man with perpetually rosy cheeks and frameless eyeglasses that he wore on the tip of his bulbous nose. When Levi had first met Bishop Simon, he had wondered how the glasses didn’t slip off his nose and fall on the ground.

  Levi liked the older man. He was kind and jovial, a good man who took the responsibility of looking after his flock seriously.

  His hands deep in his pockets, Bishop Simon studied the new buggy frame Levi had resting up off the floor on wood chocks. “Going to be a fine-looking carriage,” he mused. “I’ve been told you’re a gifted craftsman, Levi. And the telling was accurate.” He took a step closer to the shell and peered down over the top of his glasses. “Annie and I have been talking about getting a new buggy. I’m still driving the one my father drove before me. Body has been patched more times than I can tell you, front axle keeps bending, and the windshield is leaking again.”

  “I can have a look at the windshield. I might be able to pop it out and then put it back in with a new seal and caulk it. Axles can be replaced. If you just want to fix it,” Levi told him. “If it’s a new buggy you’re looking for, I’m taking orders. This one is for my brother-in-law Eli. He and Ginger are in need of a bigger buggy.”

  Bishop Simon nodded approvingly. “I’ll discuss it with Annie. I’m thinking a new one might be in order.” He slid his hands from his pockets as he turned to look at Levi. “Do you have time to talk to me for a few minutes, Levi?”

  Feeling his shoulders slump, Levi set down his sanding block. “Ya,” he said dejectedly. “I’ve time.” He wondered how he would tell Eve his name had been withdrawn because their congregation and their bishop thought him unfit. It wasn’t a thing a man wanted to have to admit to his wife. And in his case, it would lead to another discussion with her insisting he had to tell the bishop why he had married her.

  Bishop Simon faced Levi. “I’m going to come right out and say this.”

  Levi heard a strange buzzing in his head, and he glanced away, trying to emotionally steady himself.

  “I know everything,” Bishop Simon said.

  Levi blinked, looking back at the older man in confusion. “Everything about what?”

  “About Eve. About why you married her. Why there was no formal betrothal before the wedding.”

  It took a moment for Levi to process the bishop’s words. Surely he had misheard. But the way Simon was considering him, it didn’t seem that he had. Because Simon didn’t look disappointed, he looked...pleased.

  “I’m sorry?” Levi narrowed his gaze. “How do you know?”

  “Eve told me. Yesterday.”

  Levi’s eyes widened in shock. “She came to you?”

  “She did. She and Rosemary. Your wife came because of what some people in our congregation have been saying,” the bishop explained. “It was important to Eve that I know that you marrying her, without following our usual traditions, was for honorable reasons.”

  Levi stared at the bishop, still not quite believing what he was hearing. “Eve told you?” he repeated.

  Bishop Simon nodded, the slightest smile turning up one corner of his mouth. “She told me the whole story, start to finish. I was sorely sorry to hear how her father treated her.” The white cat, Snowball, curled around his leg and he leaned over to stroke her soft coat. “She made a mistake in not listening to her father when he warned her about such men, even among our own. But young folks make mistakes.” His smile broadened. “As do old folks. Which brings me to the apology I owe you.”

  Levi had no idea what to say. What reason could a bishop have to apologize to him?

  Simon cleared his throat, looking up at Levi through the smudged lenses of his glasses. “I have to admit that I kept expecting you to show up at my house to talk over whatever brought you and Eve to this place in your lives. I anticipated a confession and forgiveness for your and Eve’s sins. Only as time passed, and you didn’t come to me, did I begin to suspect there was more to the story than at first glance.”

  “I can’t believe she told you,” Levi murmured, a strange sensation in his chest. He pressed his hand to his beating heart. For him. Eve had done this for him. She had confessed her own missteps to the bishop for Levi’s sake.

  “She didn’t have to tell you,” Levi heard himself say. “I would never have asked her to do that for me.”

  “Ne, she did not have to tell me. She explained that. She said that you had promised her no one would ever have to know. And I believe that you would never have told, Levi. Which is why she came to me on her own. It was important to her that I know the truth about you. To know you did not act inappropriately. She wanted me to know that you should be eligible for the position of preacher.”

  “But I told her I didn’t want to be a preacher anyway.”

  “I don’t think Eve thought it mattered what you want. She believes it should be left to God. And I agree.” Bishop Simon stroked his beard. “That said, Eve told me, should you be chosen, you would make a fine preacher. She talked to me about what a man of faith you are. How your quiet faith has made hers stronger.”

  “Quiet faith?” Levi asked. He was completely overwhelmed by the sacrifice Eve had made for him. And her confidence in him. He was so astounded, in fact, that he was struggling to follow the conversation.

  “Eve says you live your faith every day in deed as much as word and that you set a good example for her. She said you were there for her, a stranger, when her own family wasn’t willing to stand up for her.”

  Levi smiled, not because his wife had praised him to the bishop, but because she thought those things of him. “She’s a good woman. Better than I deserve.”

  “I think you deserve each other. Talking to Eve, and knowing you as I do, I believe this was God’s plan. Bringing you together.” He tilted his head. “An unusual way to bring a man and woman together in matrimony, I’d admit. But as Paul said in his letter to the Romans, ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.’”

  Levi, actually feeling a little light-headed, sat down on a stool his father used when tackling a time-consuming task. His head was spinning. Suddenly, all he could think of was that he needed to talk to Eve.

  Simon stroked his long, gray beard. “I have to say, Levi, I was uneasy when others expressed concern over your eligibility to be a preacher. Not so much because I was worried about you, but because unrest of this sort is not good for our community. I didn’t know why you had married so swiftly, but as I said, I suspected you had good reason. I told your father that when he came to me.”

  Levi looked up. “Dat came to you about me?”

  “Ya, more than once. I counseled that he be patient, and we prayed together. We discussed
the idea that he needed to believe in you and have faith in God. I told him all would be revealed in time. If it was God’s will.” He raised his hands and let them fall. “And all has been revealed. So I will not be withdrawing your name. Should you, when the time comes, choose the hymnal with a slip of paper in it, you will be one of my preachers. And your wife is right, I think. A fine preacher you’ll make.”

  Feeling a little steadier, Levi got up from his father’s stool. “I don’t know. Maybe I should just let you withdraw my name, Bishop. I don’t want anyone in the congregation to know about Eve’s past. It’s not their business. I don’t mind that you know what happened to Eve because she told you, but I don’t want others to know and possibly judge her. I see no need.”

  The bishop chewed on that thought for a moment. “I agree, Levi. It’s not necessary that the other parishioners know the circumstances. I’ve prayed heavily on this matter and come to the conclusion that it’s not my place to interfere in God’s ways. I will not be withdrawing your name. Your name was offered up, so you must be one of the men to choose a hymnal.”

  Levi ran his hand over his short beard, still not used to feeling it. “But what will you say to anyone who questions my suitability? Some folks are going to want an explanation. Details.” Eunice Gruber immediately came to mind, but he didn’t say it.

  “They won’t be getting details from me. I’ll tell the congregation I know why you and Eve married and that I have deemed you a suitable candidate. That will be the end of the discussion.”

  A knock on the inner door that led deeper into the barn sounded and both men turned around to face it. “Ya?” Levi called, wondering who was knocking on the shop door from the inside. Any potential customers would be approaching from the outside entrance.

  The door swung open and his father filled the doorway. “Oll recht if I come in now?” he asked.

  “Now?” Levi asked, looking to Bishop Simon.

  “I told your father what happened to Eve,” the bishop admitted.

  “Don’t be angry with him,” Levi’s father said, crossing the shop to join them. “I went to Simon yesterday, not knowing Eve and Rosemary had been there. I was pretty upset about what happened. Even if you weren’t my son, I would have been upset by what some members of our congregation were saying,” he told Levi.

  Levi felt a weight fall from his shoulders. “So you know, Dat.”

  His father held his gaze and, in the older man’s eyes, Levi saw sorrow and happiness and an overwhelming sense of pride.

  “I know,” Levi’s dat murmured.

  “I’m going to leave you two,” Bishop Simon said, backing away. “I’ll speak with you both before we meet for services again.”

  Levi waited for the bishop to go before speaking. It actually gave him a moment to collect his thoughts and think on what he wanted to say because now that his father knew the truth, Levi’s anger had fallen away. And he was glad of the release of that heavy burden. He was still trying to form the words in his head when his father beat him to it.

  “I cannot tell you how sorry I am that I thought you had done something you had not, Sohn. I’m sorry I allowed doubt to overshadow what I knew of you, what I knew here.” He laid his hand on his chest over his heart.

  Emotion rose in Levi’s throat. “It’s oll recht, Dat.”

  “Ne,” he argued, emotion thick in his throat. “It’s not. When you called from the train station to say you had wed, I should have trusted you. When you arrived and I met Eve, I should have known there was more to your marriage than you were telling me.” He bowed his head. “I should have just asked you.”

  Levi shook his head. “I wouldn’t have told you. I had promised Eve.”

  His father smiled and sighed. “Ah, Eve. Our Eve. When Bishop Simon told me about her visit, I was as proud of her as I am of you, Levi.” His voice caught in his throat and his eyes grew moist. “You married her for different reasons than we usually marry, but they were the right reasons.”

  Levi hesitated then, wondering if he should ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue. Or would it be better to let it go, because what did it matter now? It was over.

  The words fell from Levi’s mouth anyway. “If you suspected there was a reason why we married, why did you not support me Sunday when people were saying I shouldn’t be considered? Why did you say God wouldn’t choose me?”

  “What?” His father stared at him, his bushy eyebrows knitting. “I never said God would not choose you. When did you think I said that?”

  “I was standing nearby, Dat. You were all at John Fisher’s fence.”

  His father hesitated for a moment, thinking. “I know what conversation you speak of, but I did not say God wouldn’t choose you. I never said that because I’ve lived long enough not to assume I know God’s ways. What I said that day was that we had to trust the process. I said that if God didn’t want you to be a preacher, you wouldn’t be chosen.” He raised his hand and let it fall. “The reason I didn’t just come out and say you should be one of the candidates was because some of those men might have assumed I was taking up for you because you were my son. Because I wanted you to a preacher so I could walk around telling people you were.” He paused. “I never said you wouldn’t be chosen because that wouldn’t have been for me to say, Sohn. Only Gott could make that decision.”

  Levi exhaled, thinking back to that day. He had been so upset. Had his emotions clouded his senses? Had he heard wrong? He racked his brain and realized that now that his father had spoken those words, he couldn’t actually remember his father saying differently. He pressed his hand to his forehead, pushing his hat back. Now he felt foolish. He had gotten himself so worked up about something that had never been said.

  “You have a good woman there, you know,” his father said. “She loves you so much. She would do anything for you.”

  Levi’s head snapped up when he heard his father use the word love.

  Eve loved him?

  Where had his father gotten that idea? He was mistaken.

  Wasn’t he? She had certainly not said she loved him.

  But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true, did it?

  “I can’t believe I was so reckless in my thinking and my behavior.” Levi’s father was still talking. “I was shocked when you called to tell me you were married. And my first thought wasn’t to believe you had taken liberties with Eve, but that there was a Godlier explanation. But then by the time you arrived, I’d had time to get myself worked up. I... I think that secretly I was angry that you didn’t include me in your decision to marry. I was upset that you made the decision on your own. And I... I didn’t get to decide for you. Or at least help you decide.” He shook his head. “That makes no sense, does it? I raised you to be a good man, to make good decisions on your own, and then I was mad that you did?”

  Levi smiled, realizing that an amazing calm was settling over him. His father knew now why he had married Eve, and he’d not had to break his promise to his wife. He exhaled and took a deep, cleansing breath. His mind shifted to thoughts of Eve, even as his father continued to talk. Levi wondered where she was. Up at the house, he hoped. Because he needed to talk to her. And he needed to talk to her now.

  “Rosemary warned me I was getting myself worked up without knowing the full story,” his father went on, beginning to pace. “But I didn’t listen to her. I—”

  “Dat,” Levi interrupted, stepping in front of his father. “I’m so thankful for your words, but I have to go. I have to find Eve. I have to thank her for going to Bishop Simon.”

  Levi’s father smiled. “Ya, you should go. We can talk more later, Sohn.”

  Before Levi could turn away, his father wrapped his arms around Levi’s shoulders and hugged him tightly. Then, without another word, he released him, and Levi went in search of his wife.

  * * *

  Levi looked for Eve in
the kitchen, but no one was there and an illogical sense of panic flared in his chest. Where was his wife? Had she reached the limit of her patience with him and left him?

  But where would she go? And after breakfast, she’d told him she’d see him for dinner. She’d made no plans to leave him or go anywhere. So she had to be there somewhere.

  Levi found Tara feeding the chickens and she sent him to the garden. The short walk from the clothesline in the side yard to the garden in the back seemed to stretch for miles. Then, at last, he spotted Eve in a row of summer squash, filling her apron with the ripe yellow vegetables.

  Levi thanked God under his breath and called out, “Eve!”

  She glanced up, and seeing him, smiled hesitantly. As he approached, she looked uneasy, which he completely understood. Things had been going so well between them the last few weeks. They had been getting to know each other, and the better he knew his wife, the more he found he liked her. And she liked him. At least he thought she did. But then the business with choosing preachers had happened and Levi had become brooding the way he had been when they arrived, separating himself emotionally from her. Instead of cleaving to his wife as God wanted married couples to do, in the face of hardship, he had abandoned her.

  And her response to his emotional abandonment had been to go to their bishop and confess to him the mistakes she had made. To protect Levi’s reputation, she had sacrificed herself and possibly her own reputation. Why would she do that after the way he had treated her?

  Levi’s father’s words pushed their way into his head: She loves you so much.

  Did she love him? And if she did, would she forgive him for all the mistakes he had made since they wed?

  Levi hurried down the path between a row of summer squash and zucchini. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  “You have?” She dropped the squash, one by one, from her dusty, oversize apron into a basket. “Why? Is everything all right?”