The Amish Nanny's Sweetheart

by Jan Drexler

His face grew red and he moved his gaze away from her. He picked up the fork again and chased a piece of a pear around in the juice. “I can’t go back there.”

  “Why not? You should see David and Verna. They’re worried sick about you.”

  Rubbing his forehead with one hand, he closed his eyes. “They’re only angry because I’m not there to do the work for them.”

  “That isn’t true. Matthew said—”

  “I don’t care what Matthew said. I don’t care what David thinks.” Guy pushed his chair back from the table. “I don’t care what anyone in this whole Amish community thinks.”

  “Shh.” Judith glanced toward the hallway and the bedroom door beyond. “Don’t wake Annie.” Her head throbbed. When she saw him at the door, she had assumed that everything would go back to normal, that he would make things right with David and Verna. But it was like he still faced Luke, ready for a fight.

  “I don’t even care if I wake up Annie.” Guy’s voice was gruff, but his words were quieter. He leaned his forearms on his knees and caught both of her hands in his. “I only care what you think, Judith. I feel like the whole world is against me right now, but I know you aren’t. You have to understand that I have to get away. Start a new life somewhere else.”

  Leave? Judith drew her hands out of his grasp and leaned back in her chair. He couldn’t mean what he was saying.

  “You can’t leave David and Verna...the church...” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as the thought of what he was giving up sunk in. “Guy, this is your home.”

  “I don’t have a home.”

  The memory of Verna’s face on Saturday when Judith had told her Guy was gone told a different story.

  “David and Verna love you. You’re part of their family. David is so sick—”

  Guy’s head shot up. “What? Is he worse?”

  Judith’s eyes blurred. “I thought you knew, but I guess you couldn’t. Verna asked Matthew to bring the doctor out on Saturday evening.”

  “It’s his cough, isn’t it?”

  She nodded. “The doctor says he’s getting weaker.” She took her handkerchief from the waistband of her apron and blew her nose. “They love you, and they need you. Now more than ever.”

  Guy didn’t speak, but glanced toward the door.

  “If you won’t go home for yourself, go home for them. They’ve given you a job when no one else can find one. Verna has fed you and mended your clothes. David has taught you everything he knows. You owe them.”

  “David was mad about my fight with Luke. How can I work for a man who doesn’t trust me?”

  “Haven’t you listened to what I’m telling you?” Judith rose and paced the length of the kitchen. “David doesn’t care about the fight. He cares about you. If you don’t think he trusts you, then you have to show him that he can.” She came to a stop in front of Guy and leaned over him, her fists at her waist. “All you’ve done by running away is prove that he can’t trust you. You’ve disappointed him.”

  Guy’s head hung lower. “How can I face him?”

  Judith knelt so she was looking into his eyes. “Just tell him you’re sorry. Ask for his forgiveness.”

  “It can’t be that easy.”

  She thought back to when her brother Samuel had changed last summer, after he met Mary. He had apologized to both her and Esther. “Asking for forgiveness is hard, but when you love someone, giving it is the easiest thing in the world.”

  Rubbing his hand across his face, Guy winced when he pressed too hard on his bruises.

  “Go,” Judith said. “If you don’t talk to David now, you may never do it.”

  Guy swallowed, then nodded. “The worst he can do is throw me out, right?”

  Judith stood when he did, and when he hesitated, she nudged him toward the door. “He won’t throw you out. Go over there and see.”

  * * *

  Guy stepped onto the porch and looked back at Judith. She gave him a nod and an encouraging smile. He hooked his thumbs in his suspenders and set his face toward the road.

  The girl didn’t know what she was talking about. She hadn’t seen David’s face on Saturday. Hadn’t seen the disappointment etched in the deep lines around his eyes.

  When had David gotten so old?

  Stopping at the edge of the road while a blue Studebaker rumbled by, Guy shifted his shoulders. He had everything planned out, but somehow, once Judith started talking, it had all gotten shifted around again.

  He couldn’t face David and Verna, but he couldn’t leave them alone again. Judith was right. He owed them. He had to stay with them until David was well again...or until David decided to sell the farm. They had opened their home to him when he had nothing, and the least he could do was to pay them back by being the farm hand they needed.

  The Studebaker had pulled to a stop a few yards down the road, and now the gears ground as the driver shifted it into reverse. The dust rose around Guy as the car slid to a halt in front of him.

  “Well, well, well.” The man inside took off his hat and swiped his forearm across his dusty face. “You’ve grown up.”

  Guy swallowed, recognizing the man he had been longing to see. “Pa?”

  Pa opened the door and stepped across the road to him, grasping him by both arms. “You sure are a sight for sore eyes. When the Home told me where you had gone, I never hoped that you were still here.” He pulled on one of Guy’s suspenders. “Workin’ for the Bible thumpers, eh? And dressing just like them, too.” He grinned. “But now I’ve found you.”

  Pa had come for him? Guy felt his own grin answering his father’s. Finally, Pa had kept his promise.

  “I haven’t seen you for a while, Pa. Where have you been?”

  Pa looked up and down the empty road, then thumbed over his shoulder toward the car. “Get in and I’ll tell you all about it. We can’t stand here in the middle of the road.”

  Guy trotted around the car to the passenger side and slid into the front seat. The leather seats were worn, but comfortable. Guy ran a hand along the fine woodgrain of the dashboard. The car wasn’t new, but she had been taken care of.

  “She’s a nice-looking car, Pa.”

  The gears ground as Pa put the car into drive and started down the road, much faster than any horse and buggy ever traveled.

  “She’s something, isn’t she?” Pa patted the steering wheel. “A real looker. But she’s hot, and I have to get rid of her.”

  “Hot?”

  Pa glanced at him sideways. “You know. Hot. Stolen.”

  Guy’s insides went cold. “Why did you steal a car?”

  Pa shrugged, resting his right wrist on the top of the steering wheel. “Had to get outta town. It’d be unhealthy for me to stick around, ya know?” He looked in the rearview mirror and drummed the fingers of his left hand on the bottom curve of the wheel.

  Guy’s stomach turned as Pa popped over a bump, bottoming the chassis on the rough road. “What town was that?”

  “You’ve never heard of it. A little place west of here, just south of Chicago.” Pa snickered. “I was a guest of the kind citizens until yesterday morning.”

  Pa made a quick right into an overgrown lane through a patch of woods and eased the car along until they were out of sight of the road, then he cut the engine. He rolled down the window and leaned out, listening.

  “Sure is quiet here.” Pa pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and popped one out with an absent gesture. His face held no expression as he kept listening.

  “Pa—”

  “Shh!” Pa held out a warning hand, freezing in place. “Do you hear that?”

  Guy heard nothing but the sound of a car driving along the gravel road they had just left. “It’s just another car.”

  “It could be the Feds. That’s a V-8. I’d recognize the sound of one of their roadster
s anywhere.” As the car went on north past their hiding place, Pa relaxed and struck a match to light his cigarette. “They’ve been following me for two days, but it looks like I gave them the slip this time.”

  Guy shifted in his seat. They were in the woods that belonged to Old Man Ryber, David and Verna’s Englisch neighbor. Guy had learned early on not to trespass on his land.

  “Why are they following you?” Guy waved off the cigarette Pa offered him.

  Pa put the packet back in his coat pocket and regarded Guy with narrowed eyes as he blew out a stream of smoke. “You’ve spent too much time among these hicks, boy, or else you’re plain stupid.” He flicked some ash off the cigarette out the window. “Do I have to spell it out for you? I’m on the lam. On the run. One step ahead of the coppers. You get it?” He slumped back in his seat and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel again.

  Guy looked out his window so Pa wouldn’t see the disappointment that had to show on his face. This wasn’t what he’d expected of his reunion with Pa. The man hadn’t changed at all, with one wild story following the next. He’d tell Guy he was the lost prince of Russia if he thought it would get him something.

  Pa finished his cigarette and ground out the burning stub in the ashtray between them. “This is the way it is, boy.” His tone softened, and Guy braced himself. “I need your help. I have to ditch this car and find a place to hole up for a while. If you’re still working at that Amish farm the Home told me about, it’d be the perfect place. The Feds would never think of looking there.”

  Drumming his fingers on his knee, Guy looked at Pa. “What do you mean?”

  “I figure you’ve got it pretty good, right? I mean, those Amish are pushovers. You can just tell them your Pa has come to stay for a while and that they need to keep quiet. If they get out of line, I can handle them.” Pa thumbed his hat back on his head. “You’ll do this for me, won’t you boy?”

  It wasn’t a question. It was an order. Pa had always been the one in charge.

  Guy knew what would happen if he took Pa to David and Verna’s. He would take over the house, blustering about until he got his way. As frail as David was, this could be the end of him. And what would David and Verna think of the boy they had taken in? After they’d...loved him and taken care of him. He owed them, just like Judith had said. He couldn’t let a liar like Pa into the house and into their lives.

  He shook his head. “I can’t, Pa. It wouldn’t work.”

  Pa’s face grew hard. “Make it work.”

  Guy’s pulse raced as he tried to think of a reason not to do what Pa wanted. “They have folks over. All the time. Someone would say they saw you.”

  “Just tell them not to let anyone into the house. That’s easy enough.”

  Shaking his head, Guy slid his hands between the leather seat and his thighs to keep them from trembling.

  “Then folks would know something was wrong. And David is sick. The doctor comes to see him almost every day.”

  Pa’s hand fell on Guy’s shoulder. “Then think of somewhere else. Maybe that house you were coming from when I spotted you.”

  “They’re Amish, too. The same thing—” His voice squeaked when Pa’s heavy hand closed on his shoulder.

  “Then think. There has to be somewhere I can hide.”

  Guy scanned his memory for something. Anything to solve Pa’s problem.

  “The mint still.” Relief washed over him when the little building along the river flashed into his mind. “It’s at the back of the Masts’ farm, and it isn’t used anymore. No one would know you were there.”

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  As they got out of the car, Guy hesitated. The blue car with the black top gleamed under the trees that were barely leafed out. “You’re just going to leave this here?”

  Pa ground another cigarette under the toe of his shoes. “You’re right. Someone will find it and report it. You’ll have to get rid of it.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah. Just take it somewhere north or east. Anywhere out of the county, or even up into Michigan.”

  “How would I get back?”

  Pa glared at him. “Use your head, boy. Or your thumb. You’ll find your way back.” He slung his jacket over his shoulder where it dangled from his finger. “Now, show me that still.”

  * * *

  “Guy has shown up back at the Masts’,” Matthew said as he came in the house for supper that night.

  Judith poured the boiled potatoes into the strainer and dropped a dollop of butter into the pot to let it melt. “I know. He was over here this afternoon and talked to me about it.”

  “I thought I heard voices while the babies were sleeping,” Annie said. She was sitting at the table holding Rose and supervising Eli as he put a spoon at each place. Viola was still napping.

  “We didn’t want to wake you, but I’m afraid we got a little loud.”

  Annie shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I was just resting, not sleeping.” She reached out a hand to guide Eli to the next plate. “How did you find out, Matthew?”

  Matthew finished washing his hands at the sink and dried them with the towel Annie kept hanging next to it. “I stopped by to milk the cows on my way home from the folks’ and he was in the dairy, running the cream separator.”

  “Did he say where he had been?” Annie asked.

  “Not a word.” Matthew glanced at Judith. “Did he tell you anything this afternoon?”

  Judith shook her head. “Only that he thought he might leave our area, but I convinced him he needed to stay.”

  “I’m glad you did,” Matthew said. “David and Verna need him now more than they ever have before.”

  “That’s what I told him. I’m glad he has come home.” Judith set the potatoes on the table with the rest of the food and sat down. “I think I’ll go over to see how Verna is doing after supper and take a pie.”

  “How Verna is doing?” Annie smiled at her. “Are you sure you aren’t going over there to see someone else?”

  Judith shrugged, ignoring the heat rising in her cheeks. “If I happen to see Guy, that would be all right, too.”

  Once supper was over and the dishes washed, Judith left Eli playing happily with his daed and walked across to the Masts’ farm, carrying one of the dried-apple pies she had made during the afternoon. The quarter moon rode high in the twilight sky and the first star was shining at the horizon. The barn was dark and quiet, but light shone from the kitchen windows and the front room. Verna answered the door as Judith knocked.

  “Judith, dear,” the older woman said as she ushered her into the kitchen. “What a surprise.”

  Handing her the pie, Judith hung her shawl on the peg next to the door. “I thought David might like a treat.”

  “If he’ll eat anything, it will be pie.” Verna sighed as she put the pie on the cupboard shelf. “The doctor says to give him anything he wants to eat, but he just doesn’t have an appetite.”

  “Did it make him feel better to see Guy again?”

  “Guy came home, but he won’t talk to David or me. He even ate his supper in the barn. He said he had too many chores to do.”

  Judith chewed on her lower lip. “When I saw Guy this afternoon, I thought he was on his way over to talk to David and straighten things out.”

  “I wish he had done that. I don’t know what the boy is thinking.”

  “Where is he now? I can take him a piece of pie.”

  “He said he was going out to the barn to take care of something.” Verna cut a slice and slid it onto a plate as Judith put her shawl back on. Verna covered the plate with a towel and handed it to Judith, then held her back with a hand on her arm. “You’ll find out what is bothering him, won’t you? We don’t want to lose our boy.”

  Judith tried to smile. “I’ll try my hardest. But if he doesn’t want to talk,
I’m not sure what more I can do.”

  Verna nudged her toward the door. “If he talks to anyone, it will be you.”

  The barn was still dark as Judith started across the yard. The sky had gone completely dark while she had been in the house, and there was still no sign that anyone was in the barn. No light shone through the windows or filtered through the spaces around the doors. Judith stopped, unsure. Spring peepers sang their evening song, and in the distance, an owl hooted.

  “Guy?” Her voice sounded thin in the evening air.

  “Ja, I’m here.” He came from the river, walking along the lane that skirted the pasture. By the time he reached her, he was out of breath. “What are you doing here?”

  “I brought some pie for Verna and David and thought I’d bring a piece out to you. Verna said you were working in the barn.”

  He took the plate from her and walked with her to the porch where they sat on the steps.

  Guy held the plate up and took a deep breath. “Apple pie?”

  “Schnitz pie. Made from dried apples.”

  He took a bite. “Didn’t you want a piece?”

  “I had some with my supper.” Judith could see his face clearly in the moonlight and the lamplight from the kitchen window, now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark. “What were you doing down by the river?”

  He didn’t answer, but took another bite.

  “Was one of the cows loose or something?”

  Laying the empty plate next to him on the step, he laced his fingers around one knee as he chewed. “Ne. I was just down there,” he finally said.

  “Doing what?”

  He glanced at her, then stared into the dark shadow of the barn. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

  As soon as he said that, worry crept in.

  “Verna said you didn’t talk to David.”

  Guy picked up a stone and rolled it between his fingers. “By the time I got here, I had to do the chores.”

  Judith left that alone, too. He’d had plenty of time after he left her to talk to David before chore time.

  “How is David feeling today?”

  After another glance her way, he threw the stone across the barnyard. “Why all these questions? Can’t we just talk?”