"Do I need to sign anything now?"
The lawyer shook his head slightly. "No. The will is currently in probate."
Nettie remembered that Mr. Koble had mentioned that word before. "Probate - what's that?"
"Probate is the process by which a will is proved to be valid or invalid in keeping with the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." Mr. Koble spoke slowly and said each word clearly.
"Oh, I see." Nettie's head was spinning.
"The Register of Wills will issue you with a Short Certificate."
Nettie simply nodded, not wanting to ask what a Short Certificate was. It made no difference; one thing was clear: she was to inherit the farm and haus, and stray cats were to inherit her mudder's money.
At any rate, Mr. Koble must have felt it necessary to explain. "A Short Certificate is a document that provides certified proof of the appointment of you as executor of the will, that is, of you as the Estate’s Personal Representative. You need it to gain access to the assets, that is, the house and the farm, and so on."
A sudden feeling of apprehension washed over Nettie. "Do you foresee any problems?"
Mr. Koble's bushy eyebrows rose. "No, not at all. It is all very straightforward."
Mr. Koble made a move to the door, and Nettie followed him out, after she set down his card on the table. It was a clear, spring day, but that did not help Nettie's mood, which had turned to despair and was on a rapid downward spiral.
After Mr. Koble drove away in his expensive looking car, Nettie walked onto the road and stood in the sunlight. Sunlight often lifted her mood, but today, so far, it was not helping. She had just turned back to the haus, when she heard the clip clop of hooves. I wonder who could be visiting now? Nettie thought.
Nettie turned around to see a beautiful, palomino horse trotting toward her. He did not seem frightened, but was simply trotting along. When he reached Nettie, he stopped and nuzzled her hand.
Nettie laughed. "Where have you escaped from, boy?" She stroked his golden neck and his long, white mane.
Harry, Nettie's retired buggy horse, called out to the palomino and he answered, whinnying softly. "I'll put you in with Harry and then I’ll have to walk all the way to the phone shanty," Nettie told the horse. "Although, who would I call? If I call the bishop, he will visit and ask me a lot more questions. Perhaps I should walk to the Glicks on the neighboring farm and tell them I've found you. Someone must be looking for you." Nettie did not want to visit the Glicks; after her secluded life, she was a little afraid of people, but she could see no other option. At least the Glicks would not ask her as many questions as the bishop had after her mudder had died. Sure, the bishop was well intentioned and kindly, but Nettie was not used to people.
Now another problem presented itself; how would she lead the horse to the field? She did not want to leave the horse standing on the road while she went to fetch a headstall, in case he ran away. Nettie suddenly had an idea. She unpinned her prayer kapp and wrapped it around the horse's neck. He did not seem to mind, and followed her willingly to the field, where Harry was delighted to see him.
Then, as the horse trotted away happily, Nettie noticed sweat marks on the horse where a harness had been. "He's a buggy horse!" Nettie said aloud. The horse looked in very good condition, but Nettie did not approve of the sweat marks on the horse. She thought it common sense, let alone good horse keeping skills, that the horse must be brushed thoroughly or washed after being driven in the buggy, to remove all dried sweat marks. What sort of owner did this horse have?
Isaiah 12:2.
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.
Chapter 4.
Nettie was glad of one thing; the horse was a buggy horse, so that would save her a long walk to the shanty to call the bishop, or a long walk to the nearby farm to speak to the Glicks. She would simply drive the horse to the Glicks' haus.
Nettie caught the horse, ignoring the complaints of Harry who did not want his new friend to leave, and took him to the barn. She tied him up, and gave him a thorough brushing. Nettie was a little worried that the horse might misbehave in the buggy, so after brushing him, she put the harness on rather carefully. He seemed fine about the harness, so she carefully hitched him to her buggy.
The horse was well behaved throughout, so Nettie led him outside, and walked him around in big circles. Again, he was well-mannered, so Nettie got in the buggy. She asked the horse to walk off slowly, and he did. She walked him around in circles, and made him stop a few times. He stopped very well and Nettie soon felt confident that he was a well trained buggy horse after all, so she set off at a walk in the direction of the Glicks' farm.
Nettie secretly hoped the owner would not be found too soon, as this horse was an answer to prayer. Without a buggy horse, she was trapped at the farm. Perhaps the bishop could arrange for her to borrow a horse from someone, just until she could find work and buy a buggy horse of her own.
Nettie was so lost in thought that, for a while, she did not notice another buggy approaching. She looked up to see a young mann driving a buggy pulled by a high stepping, bay horse that snorted and tossed his head when the mann pulled him to a stop next to Nettie.
Nettie was taken aback at the black look on the mann's face. "What are you doing with my horse?" he yelled.
Nettie was too taken aback to speak, so just sat there with her mouth open, trying to bite back the tears. When the mann continued to glare at her, she found her voice. "He just turned up at my haus."
"Why are you driving him then? Just because you found him, doesn't mean you can keep him!"
Nettie winced at the accusatory tone in the mann's voice. She was fed up with being bullied and yelled at; she'd had years of it with her mudder, and now this stranger was accusing her of being a horse thief, when all she was trying to do was to do the right thing, to find the horse's owner.
A wave of indignation swept over her. "Now see here," she said in a commanding tone. "How dare you accuse me of wrongdoing! This horse turned up outside my haus, and as my only buggy horse is lame and has had to be retired, I had no way of contacting anyone to tell them I’d found him. I couldn't drive my own horse, so I harnessed up this horse and I was on my way to the Glicks to tell them that I’d found him."
The mann looked taken aback at Nettie's manner. "Why didn’t you call someone? Don’t you have a phone in your barn?" His tone was less accusatory and more enquiring.
"Nee, I do not," Nettie snapped. "And it's a long walk to the phone shanty, as I found out when my buggy horse went lame and I had to call the veterinarian to him. Besides, you should be thanking me for finding your horse." Nettie was fuming at the mann's manner; how dare he speak to her like that!
As the mann opened his mouth to speak, Nettie remembered the harness marks on the horse. "Besides, I also brushed your horse. You should be ashamed of yourself leaving a horse with sweat marks."
The mann gasped, and his face went from a fading red to a deep shade of purple. "For your information, I tied him up and was about to wash him, but when I came back outside the barn, I found him missing. I then harnessed up this horse and went in search of him."
"Oh." Nettie was glad to hear he had intended to wash the horse, but his manner with people left a lot to be desired. "Well," she said, "you can follow me back to my haus and then take your horse." Her voice shook when she said that, with the realization that she had no buggy horse after all.
"Where is your haus?" The mann looked less angry now.
Nettie waved her hand in the general direction of her farm. "I'm Nettie Swarey."
The mann once again looked shocked. "Oh. Well, I'm sorry to hear about your mudder."
"Denki."
The mann took a moment to settle his horse which was pawing the ground and snorting. "I'm Daniel Glick."
Nettie simply nodded.
"And your horse is lame?" he asked.
&nb
sp; "Jah, and the veterinarian said he must be retired."
"And he's your only horse?"
"Jah," Nettie said again, wondering where Daniel Glick was going with this line of questioning.
"Why don’t you borrow the horse, then? You're most welcome to. I have this horse as you see, and I don’t need two horses."
Nettie's response was automatic. "Denki, but nee, I couldn’t possibly do that." She silently rebuked herself for saying that; this would be an answer to prayer.
"It would make me feel better for the rude way I spoke to you, and you’d be doing me a favor," Daniel continued. "He's a very good buggy horse, but he likes to be in work and I don't have time to drive him. My own horse here is highly strung and needs a lot of work to keep him calm." As if on cue, Daniel's horse arched his neck and pawed the ground angrily. "You'd be doing me a favor, actually," he repeated.
Nettie thought for a moment. She had prayed to Gott to find her another buggy horse, and it seemed as if He had. She should accept the provision of Gott gracefully. "Denki, that is very kind of you," she said meekly. "It may be some time before I can get another buggy horse, though."
Daniel waved her concerns away. "Keep him as long as you like," he said. "By the way, his name is Blessing."
* * *
Daniel watched the girl drive away at a trot, admiring the fact that she had harnessed up a strange buggy horse and driven him. Why, for all the girl knew, the horse could have had any manner of behavioral problems and even been dangerous. She had courage to harness a strange horse and drive him on the road.
Yet Daniel was surprised at Nettie Swarey herself. He had imagined her much older, and far less attractive, what with some of the local Englischer schoolchildren referring to her as "an old witch." When he had gotten over the initial shock of seeing someone driving his lost horse, he had been surprised to see that the driver was a pretty, round-faced, blonde girl, with a creamy complexion and deep, blue eyes. Wary eyes, he said to himself, and then chuckled when he remembered how she had stood up to him.
He was embarrassed over his implication that she had stolen the horse, but the shy, retiring, secretive Nettie Swarey he had heard about was not the same girl who had dressed him down for falsely accusing her and for leaving harness marks on his horse.
Daniel laughed aloud, and then smiled to himself all the way back to the Glicks' farm.
Matthew 17:20.
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Chapter 5.
Nettie had spent a pleasant week. She had scrubbed the haus from top to bottom and had added lavender to the washing water, so the haus was well on its way to losing its musty smell. She was happy that she now had means of transport. She would just have to have faith that Gott would help her to find work. For now, she had a supply of food in the haus; there was plenty of grazing for her two horses, and there was ample grain stored in the barn. Her financial situation would have to be addressed, but it was not urgent.
Nettie was out in the garden, gathering the tiny, purple-dotted, white flowers as well as the stems of chickweed to make a salve. Her mudder had found that it provided relief for her arthritis, but Nettie liked to have the salve on hand for insect stings as well as burns.
The clip clop of horse's shoes signaled a visitor, and Nettie looked up, hoping it would be Daniel Glick. She had found him strangely attractive, despite his rude ways, and he had made her heart flutter. Yet this was no handsome bay, high-stepping horse approaching, but a rather tired looking, shaggy, gray horse, and even at the distance, Nettie could see that the mann had dark hair, unlike the fair hair of Daniel Glick.
Nettie wiped her hands on her apron and stepped outside the herb garden to meet the mann. The mann drove straight up to her, and got out of the buggy, taking the horse by the bridle. He nodded to Nettie. "Gude mariye."
Nettie said a polite good morning back, and wondered what the mann wanted.
The mann smiled at her, a thin, tight-lipped smile. "Nettie, don't you recognize me?"
Nettie gasped and clutched at her throat. "Jebediah Sprinkler!" she exclaimed. How long has it been? she wondered. Five, six years?
"What are you doing here? Why have you come back?" Nettie had a horrible feeling of apprehension which formed a hard knot in the pit of her stomach.
"I'm sorry to hear about your mudder," Jebediah said.
"Denki." Nettie studied him. His face had hard lines. He would not have been much older than she, yet he looked many years older.
"Nettie, can we talk?"
"Jah, go on."
Jebediah looked annoyed. "Nee, I mean in the haus."
Nettie suddenly felt afraid. "Nee, Jebediah, I'm here alone and that wouldn't be right."
Jebediah appeared to consider her words for a moment. "If you wish. Nettie, there's no way to break the news to you gently, but I have to tell you that your mudder left the haus and farm to me."
Nettie stared blankly at him. Firstly, there was the shock of Jebediah Sprinkler turning up without warning after all these years, and now he was saying he owned her property. "But, but," she stammered, "the lawyer said it was all left to me."
Jebediah did not appear concerned by her words. "You're speaking of an old will, of course."
Nettie scratched her head. "What do you mean?"
"The will," Jebediah said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "The lawyer had an old will."
"Well, jah, he did." Nettie wondered how Jebediah knew.
Jebediah looked smug and smirked a little. "Your mudder made a new one after that."
"Why didn’t the lawyer know about it, then?"
Jebediah shrugged. "How should I know? Look, Nettie, your mudder made a new will leaving everything to me. I'm surprised she didn’t tell you. Are you sure she didn’t mention the will to you? She didn’t say anything at all about it?"
"Nee, she didn’t tell me, and why would she leave anything to you?" Nettie felt she was becoming hysterical, but it was all too much to process. What was Jebediah up to?
"We were engaged at the time," Jebediah said sternly, "and your mudder obviously thought we would be married."
Nettie shuddered at the memory. Her mudder had all but arranged a marriage between Jebediah and Nettie, when Nettie was sixteen. Jebediah's mudder was an old friend of Nettie's mudder, and the two of them had decided that their kinner should be married. Jebediah had also been keen for them to marry, but Nettie had refused outright. It was the only time she had disobeyed her mudder, and her mudder had been furious with her. Nettie had thought her mudder had made her life a misery before that time, but it was nothing to the way she was treated afterwards.
Nettie had always found Jebediah to be a cold person, perhaps even cruel, and there was no way she would subject herself to marrying him. She had somehow managed to find the backbone at the time to stand up to her mudder.
Nettie thought it would not have been out of character for her mudder to leave the haus and farm to Jebediah in the will. In fact, her mudder had often brought up Jebediah's name, saying he was not yet married and Nettie should reconsider. That was, at least, until Jebediah's mudder passed away and Nettie's mudder of course stopped receiving letters from her.
Perhaps her mudder had in fact left a will leaving everything to Jebediah. It would have been her way of trying to force Nettie to marry him after all. Yet why wouldn’t her mudder mention that to Nettie, and why did she not sign the will with her lawyer? That part made no sense.
Nettie looked up to see Jebediah looking at her through narrowed eyes. "My mudder never mentioned any such will to me," she said.
"That doesn't change the fact that she made one."
"Do you have a copy?" Nettie held her breath.
"Nee. I assume it’s somewhere in the haus."
"Why didn’t she lodge it
with her lawyer, the one who she made the, err, other will with?" Nettie winced as she said "other" will.
"I'm not your mudder's keeper," Jebediah said in a hostile voice. "How should I know? All I know is that she told me she had made a will in favor of me, leaving me the haus and the farm. Perhaps she lodged it with another lawyer."
Nettie was growing more and more anxious. "Even if she did, Jebediah, that was because she thought we were getting married. We didn’t get married."
Jebediah took a step toward Nettie, and she took a step back. "Listen to me," he said, his voice hard. "Your mudder made a will naming me as the sole beneficiary. That's a fact, and nothing you say can change that. I want my inheritance, so I'm going to start to call all the lawyers in the district. There is no need for you to search the haus for the will, but do let me know if you happen to find it. I'm staying with the Glock familye; you can reach me there if you wish to speak to me."
Nettie stomped her foot. "I will destroy it," she said in a raised voice.
Jebediah narrowed his eyes, and his face and neck turned went a horrid shade of beet red. "Nee, you will not," he said, in an obvious temper. He moved toward Nettie and she was afraid what he would do, but just then, the buggy horse Blessing trotted over to them, startling Jebediah.
Jebediah flung up his arm as the horse made to nip him. He jumped back aboard his buggy and took up the reins, while muttering about dangerous horses. "Nettie, you know you have to do the right thing by Gott," he said patiently, as if speaking to a child. "Your mudder left the inheritance to me, and you must abide by her wishes. Otherwise, you are working against the will of Gott." With that, he hit his horse hard with the reins and the horse trotted off.
Nettie stood there, watching after him. She was quite shaken up. Thank goodness Blessing had come along when he did, as that had made Jebediah leave. Nettie now turned her attention to Blessing. "How did you get out?" she asked him, and then looked over to see the gate was open. Nettie would never leave the gate to a field open, so she wondered if Blessing was one of those horses that could open gates. She took hold of a piece of Blessing's long mane, and he followed her meekly back to the field. Nettie shut the gate, and then went into the barn looking for something to secure the gate in case the horse was indeed able to lift the latch.
The Amish Buggy Horse BOXED SET Books 1-3 (Amish Romance Book Bundle: Faith, Hope, Charity) (Boxed Set: The Amish Buggy Horse) Page 2