by Anna Schmidt
“Tell your sister that I have the wagon ready, Greta Goodloe.”
The voice came out of the dark and startled her so much that she dropped the tray. When she bent to retrieve it, Luke was already there and their fingers brushed as he picked it up and handed it to her. “Sorry. I thought you saw me walking across the yard,” he said. As the two of them slowly stood upright, Greta was far too aware of how very close their faces were. In the dim lamplight that glowed inside the kitchen and spilled out onto the back porch, she saw that he was studying her and his lips were parted in a half smile.
“What?” she demanded, touching her bonnet that must surely have been knocked askew.
“Nothing. You were looking right at me just before and yet it’s as if you didn’t see me at all.” His voice softened as he added, “What had you so lost in thought that you didn’t know I was here?”
“I was just... It’s been a puzzling day.”
“How so?”
She shot him a look as she clutched the empty tray to her chest. “Now you’re making fun of me and that’s just cruel, Luke Starns.” She marched up the three porch steps but he was there ahead of her, holding open the screen door for her.
“Again I apologize. It’s that for a moment back there you looked so...”
“So what?”
“Lost,” he said.
The word mirrored her feelings and so overwhelmed her that she felt tears fill her eyes. “You should go and find my sister, Luke. I think I will stay the night here with Pleasant and her family.” The minute the words were out Greta knew that this was the best possible decision. She could help Pleasant with the children and her Monday chores and then walk back to town later tomorrow when everyone else would be occupied with their daily routines.
He frowned. “Don’t make the mistake of hiding from your fears, Greta,” he advised.
Greta laughed. “You are already beginning to sound like an older brother and you have not yet begun the first instance of courting my sister. Can you not see that I am doing you a favor? Now you will have my sister’s company all to yourself.”
Luke frowned and Greta sighed heavily. “Is this not what you want? My help in your courtship of my sister?”
“Your sister did not agree to be escorted home without you,” he replied.
“Well, she will understand that my mind is made up and that she has no other choice but to accept your offer to take her home. Now go.”
Greta did not think she had ever been as exhausted as she was in that moment. Honestly, was there no pleasing the male of the species?
* * *
Luke held the reins loosely in his right hand as the team plodded along the familiar road. The night was pitch black without moon or stars and Lydia sat stone still beside him. So still that she might have been a piece of the wagon rather than a living, breathing human being. The two of them had not exchanged two words from the moment they had left the Troyers’ farm. Even then her words had been for her sister, Greta, and for her half sister, Pleasant. Both of them had assured her that the idea of Greta staying the night was a blessing all around. But it was clear that Lydia remained unconvinced.
It was also evident that her concern was not about finding herself alone with him headed to a house where she would be alone for the night. In the Amish community courtship was a private matter—even among those as young as Caleb and Bettina. Routinely when a boy asked to see a girl home the parents would make it their business to be in bed, leaving the young couple the privacy of the porch where they could sit and talk and plan a future. In fact once a couple began seeing each other, it was assumed that both had already decided that the other had the necessary traits to make a good mate—patience, humility, frugality, hardworking and devoted to their faith. Love did not enter into the decision for many. It was a practical decision—a next step in the routine of their earthly life. Luke had no reason not to believe that this would be the case between Lydia and him.
No. There would be no gossip about Lydia riding home alone with Luke tonight. Now if he had driven her home after services in broad daylight, that would be a different matter altogether. Once he and Lydia had begun their courtship it would be all right for Greta to ride with him in daylight, but not Lydia. Not until the bishop had announced their intention to wed.
Luke realized that he had allowed his thoughts to wander, unable to come up with any topic that might interest Lydia and lead to a conversation between them. They were almost halfway back to town when she cleared her throat and shifted slightly away from him on the wagon seat.
“We must discuss this, Luke,” she announced as if they had been talking from the moment they left the farm.
“Bitte?”
“This business,” she gritted out, flicking her forefinger back and forth between them. “This...courtship.” The way she said the word it sounded as if it was something distasteful.
Luke bristled. He wasn’t the smartest man in the community—certainly his book learning was nowhere near hers, but that did not mean that...
“We are too long past our youth to deceive ourselves, you and I,” Lydia continued. “I admit that I do not fully know your reasons and I suppose that if we both set our minds to it we could have a satisfactory life together.”
“But?” he prompted.
She actually turned toward him. “But why would either of us want such a life?”
“It is what we do, Lydia,” he reminded her. “In our tradition we find a mate and if love comes then...”
“But why not marry for love in the first place?”
Luke was stunned. “That’s just...” He fumbled for words.
“Not done?” She knotted her hands together in her lap. “Oh, but it is. In Celery Fields there have been two such instances just in the recent past—Hannah and Levi Harnischer were a most unlikely match. And Pleasant and Jeremiah? It seemed impossible and yet look at them. Look at the way they are with each other. Think how their love has brought such life and happiness to those dear children.”
“Celery Fields is a small community, Lydia,” he reminded her gently. “It’s getting smaller each year as more people leave to return to homes and families up north. As you have already noted, you and I are no longer teenagers. If we are to have a marriage and children, then...”
“It sounds like a business arrangement,” she huffed. “And I will have no part of it. I have a good life. I have my teaching and my students. I have no need of a union that is made for the sole purpose that it’s the best we can manage.”
Luke’s hand tightened on the reins. He hardly knew what to say. Certainly he had misjudged this woman with her independent ideas and her sharp words that she seemed unaware could wound another person. “I may not be...” he began softly, then swallowed hard around the fury he was feeling and trying to control. “I would be a good provider, Lydia,” he amended.
“Oh, Luke, forgive my thoughtless words. You are much respected throughout the community. But I am not blind, Luke. I saw the way you watched Greta tonight.”
“Your sister...”
She interrupted his protest with a raised hand. “Actually I have observed you for some time now.”
Luke looked over at her, surprised at this admission.
“Oh, don’t look so shocked. It’s common knowledge that all of Celery Fields has been planning a match for us. I needed to know exactly what such a match might offer.”
“And I offer so little that you want to thrust me off onto your sister?”
“Now you are suffering from wounded pride. I love my sister, Luke. If I am saying that I see you as a good match for her then I am paying you the highest of praise. Rest assured that I never thought or said such a thing about Josef Bontrager.”
“Which brings us to the heart of the matter,” he argued. “Greta and Josef have been in love for...”
“My sister does not love that man—not in the way she needs to in order to spend the rest of her life under the same roof with him. Josef was a h
abit—a safe harbor in a community that offers women like my sister few choices. She has never loved him as more than a friend and surrogate brother.”
“And what if he comes back to her, apologizes and...”
Lydia actually snorted with laughter. “Open your eyes, Luke. Did you not see the way he was flirting openly with Esther Yoder tonight?”
“Yes, but he could have been doing that just to make Greta jealous.” Lydia’s lack of a quick comment told him that she was considering this.
“Then there’s no time to waste. Greta is most vulnerable at the moment.” She turned to him. “It is evident that you are attracted to her, perhaps only now recognizing those feelings because of her break with Josef that makes her available for you to consider seriously.”
“I have not once...”
“Please do not attempt to cover your feelings with excuses. I have long ago grown used to the fact that there is something about Greta that draws others to her—men and women and children alike. Why should you be any different?”
“I was going to say, your sister is someone who has a way about her, that’s for sure. However, it was not your sister that I set my sights on when I decided to take a wife.”
Lydia sighed heavily. “Will you listen to yourself? You speak of choosing a partner for life as if you were in the throes of choosing a horse. ‘You’ decided?” She practically spit the words at him.
“Well, of course, if you would rather I not...”
“I would rather we all be happy, Luke—you, me and yes, Greta.”
“I’m not sure she would appreciate your trying to replace Josef Bontrager in her affections almost before she’s had time to get used to the idea that this might indeed be final and not one of his little tantrums.”
To his surprise Lydia actually giggled. “He does have a tendency toward the childish behavior, doesn’t he?”
Luke smiled. “You know as well as anyone that there is still every possibility that he will come to his senses and beg for her forgiveness.”
“All the more reason for you to step in now.”
“I do not follow your reasoning and besides...”
Yet another sigh of pure exasperation. “Luke, are you or are you not attracted to my sister?”
“We have already...”
“The truth,” she demanded.
“Yah. Of course, but not in the way that you may think.”
“Or is it not in the way that you won’t allow yourself to think?”
Luke gritted his teeth. Lydia Goodloe with all her book learning was far too smart for him. She talked in riddles that made him uncomfortable. He fought hard to maintain his temper with her and then thought about years of enduring such probing conversations.
“I will say this only once more, Lydia Goodloe. If you do not wish to be out riding with me then say so and tonight will be the end of it.”
For a long moment the only sounds were the night-calling birds, the clop of the horses’ hooves on the hard-packed road and his own frustrated breathing. Then Lydia straightened on the wagon seat next to him and said softly, “I have taken care of Greta for most of her life, Luke. She is not only my sister—she is my responsibility. Our parents have died and we have no other siblings—other than Pleasant, our half sister. I only want what is best for Greta.”
“And what is that?”
“Greta’s attraction to Josef was never about her love for him but rather for the life he represented to her. A home that she could manage, children she could mother and raise—these are the things that my sister has dreamed of her entire life.”
“I can see that, but where do I fit into this picture?”
Lydia looked directly at him for the first time since they’d boarded the wagon for the ride to town. “You could give her all of that, Luke Starns. And more importantly, you could give her a great deal more.”
Luke met her gaze. “I’m listening.”
“I believe that given some time you and Greta could love one another and even if not, you would provide her with the safe haven she needs—the kind of security to be herself that she has known with me all these years. Josef has never been able to accept her for who she is.”
“And what about you?”
“I have a good life, Luke. I do not need more. Truly. But I worry about Greta and when she told me about what Josef had done, I realized that perhaps this time I could help her find another way. So I prayed last night and all through the day today for God to show me His will. And it seemed that every time I looked up from my prayers, you were there. I know that you protected her yesterday. I know how inquisitive Roger Hadwell can be. Before you know it, you are telling him things you hadn’t planned to reveal. And yet I knew the minute I saw the Hadwells this morning that they had no idea anything had changed until the marriage announcements. They were as stunned as anyone else.”
“Your sister suffered a terrible blow yesterday when Bontrager just quit her there in the middle of town, Lydia. It was not my business—much less Roger Hadwell’s—to pry into that. I did only what anyone would have done given her state of distress when she entered my shop.”
“And you have kept on doing such things. Tonight at the singing? Twice you intervened. Your instinct to protect her is apparent.”
Luke sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. “If you and I were to marry, Lydia, Greta would become my sister, as well. Of course, it would be my...”
“But if we married, Luke,” she reminded him gently, “where would your heart be?”
From the day that he’d stepped off the train and settled in Celery Fields, the women in town had been planning a match for him and it was hardly a secret that their choice was Lydia. “You realize that in rejecting me you are going to disappoint all of Celery Fields?”
“They’ll recover, especially if you will follow my advice and pursue my sister instead.”
In that moment the front wheel of the wagon hit a deep rut and swayed. Lydia instinctively put out her hand to steady herself, clutching Luke’s hand in the process. He spoke gently to the team of horses to reassure them but it was not the brush of Lydia’s hand—quickly withdrawn—that he found himself recalling. It was the memory of Greta’s fingers on his when they both reached for the tray.
Nonsense, he thought, shaking off the memory as he gathered his thoughts.
“Well,” Lydia prompted. “What do you think?”
“I have stated this as plainly as I can, Lydia. If you prefer that I not call on you, just say so and we’ll have no more of it. I do not need your assistance in seeking a wife.”
“No, you don’t. But Greta needs precisely such assistance in her quest to find a husband.”
They had finally reached the Goodloe house and Luke called for the horses to halt. Lydia was down from the seat before he could make his way around the team to offer help. She stood on the first step that led up to the front door.
“Come and sit,” she invited. “We need to work out a plan as soon as possible if you would be interested in a match with Greta,” she said. Clearly in Lydia’s mind they had both agreed to this incredible plan of hers to secure a groom for her sister.
“Lydia, I barely know your sister.” But he followed her onto the porch and took his place next to her in the weathered wooden swing.
“You know me no better, Luke, and yet you evidently felt you knew me well enough to escort me home this evening. Greta would be a good match for you. Far better than I could ever be. You and I are both of a more serious nature. I thank God every day for the blessing of having Greta in my life. She brings a certain joy to the lives of others that would certainly be missing if it weren’t for her. It seems to me that you would be a man in need of her...lightness.”
He smiled in the darkness. “Now who is the one speaking as if she were selling a horse?” he teased.
“There is a way that we could manage this so that no one would be the wiser. All of Celery Fields would assume you were courting me, and in the meantime yo
u and Greta...”
Luke stood. “It’s clear you want what’s best for your sister, Lydia, but give her time to find her own way—her own heart.”
“Very well. I will not pursue this any further this evening but I will ask that you think over what I have proposed. Should you decide against the idea, then I would accept that. Either way I want to thank you for the kindness and caring you have shown Greta. It is evident to me that you are a good man, Luke. A man that my sister—and I—can trust to do the right thing. Good night.”
Luke waited until Lydia had entered the dark house. After a moment she lit a lamp. And he saw her in silhouette as she took a seat near the window and opened a book. Behind him one of the horses shuddered, setting the harness to jingling in the still heat of the night. Without climbing back onto the wagon, Luke led the team down the lane to his shop, and all the while he found himself thinking about the impossible idea that Lydia had suggested. Him with the vibrant and fickle Greta?
If ever he’d needed proof that God had a sense of humor, surely this was it. But he admired Lydia for her intense loyalty and love for her sister. And the truth was that he could not stop thinking about Lydia’s plan—and how it might just work.
Chapter Six
“What do you mean you rejected Luke Starns?” Greta demanded the following day when the sisters sat down for their evening meal after Lydia had come home from the schoolhouse. “You might at least give the man a chance.”
“We are not right for each other, Greta. We are too much the same. There would be no...no...”
Greta had rarely seen her sister at a loss for words. “No what?”
Lydia shrugged and turned her attention to her soup. “No surprise, I suppose.”
“You do not like surprises,” Greta reminded her. “When I tried to surprise you on your birthday last year you were very cross with me as I recall.”
“Greta, shocking someone out of their wits by springing at them from the dark with a cake lit by candles is hardly the same thing as getting to know another person and revealing hidden traits that are not at first evident.”