The Amish Bachelor: Amish Romance (Seven Amish Bachelors Book 1)

by Samantha Price

  “I will.” He stepped a little closer. “How's everyone treating you here?”

  “Wonderfully well. Everybody has been polite and lovely.”

  “Good. If that changes at any time, just come and see me.”

  She gave a little giggle. “Denke, I will.”

  When lunchtime came, Hazel pulled her sandwich out of her bag and the letters that her mother had forced her to take fell on the floor. She'd forgotten that she had tucked them into the bag when she packed her things for the bus trip. Hazel picked them up and put them on her desk. She knew she wasn't going to send them, and Aunt Bee had wholeheartedly agreed that she shouldn't. She only hoped her mother would be in a better state next time she went back to Bee’s house. She didn't want to lie to her about sending the letters, but she also had no intention of trying to find Doug's address. She couldn't pretend to her mother that she'd sent them. It was a difficult situation to be in. Someday, she hoped, Mamm could be told the truth. Just when she was halfway through her sandwich and wondering how to tackle telling her mother about the letters, Isaac walked in the door.

  “Hi, Hazel. Have the Williamsons called this morning?”

  “Nee. The phones have been very quiet today.”

  “I'm just heading down to the café to get some lunch, and I just wanted to check first if there’d been any calls.” He glanced over at the letters and tried to read what was on the front of them. Hazel pulled them away from him.

  “Oh, I'm sorry, Hazel. I thought they were letters to do with work.”

  “Nee, they’re my private letters.”

  “Oh, I'm very sorry.”

  “There's no need to be sorry. I had them in my bag and they fell out when I pulled out my lunch.” She pushed them back into her bag. Now she was totally embarrassed about making a big fuss about the letters; it was a weird scene. “Your mudder has kindly invited me for dinner tomorrow night.”

  “All you need is to see all of us some more.” He chuckled. “Are you sure you want to?”

  “Jah. I do. Seeing all of you boys, I'd like to meet your mudder. Will you be there?”

  “I will.”

  His mother hadn’t mentioned she was going to invite Hazel to dinner. Isaac hadn't been invited, but he was going to make sure he was there. Mary Lou was right, Hazel was hiding something. What had brought her so far away from her family? He was curious to know more about her and then it occurred to him that with her unusual coloring, maybe that girl he met years ago was a relative of hers. If he got the chance, he’d ask her if she had any relatives living near Falls Creek.

  He’d seen the name ‘Douglas’ on one letter. Perhaps she had a boyfriend.

  Chapter 8

  As soon as Isaac walked into the house and saw Lucy at his parents' house for dinner, he knew he'd made a huge mistake. Huge! Lucy was Levi’s girlfriend and a close friend to Mary Lou. And she would tell Mary Lou, and Mary Lou would wonder why she hadn't been invited to the dinner. And that would give Mary Lou another reason to be displeased with him. He should have stayed at his haus.

  He couldn't see Hazel anywhere, but his brothers were all in the living room and so was his father. He stuck his head around the kitchen doorway and saw his mother and Hazel in deep conversation. After a moment, they both looked over at him.

  “Hello. I was just seeing where you were, Hazel. I didn't see you out with the others.”

  “Hazel and I were just talking. She offered to help me with the dinner, but I told her it was already done. There's nothing more to do and the tables are set. All we have to do now is make the gravy.”

  “I'll leave you to it then.” He walked into the living room and joined the others.

  His father looked over at him. “Where’s Mary Lou?”

  He wished his father hadn’t said that in front of everyone. “I only came at the last minute and I'm not sure why I didn't invite her.” He wasn't looking forward to having a very difficult conversation with Mary Lou the next time he saw her. As it was now, Lucy hadn't even looked at him. She was obviously disgusted with him and sorry for her good friend.

  Throughout dinner, Isaac noticed that whenever anyone asked Hazel a personal question, either his mother or his father found a way to deflect it. They were protecting her secret. He was certain she was running away from something. Whatever it was, he was sure it was something where she wasn’t to blame, otherwise she wouldn’t have been staying at the bishop’s house.

  It was hard to get to know Hazel better because she revealed nothing about her life other than the fact that she was an only child and had been raised in a small community near Allentown.

  After dinner, everyone gathered in the living room for coffee. Just when there was a lull in the conversation, their overly-fat tabby cat, Tibbles, walked into the living room.

  “Oh, what a beautiful cat!”

  “This is Tibbles,” Mrs. Fuller said.

  Tibbles looked directly at Hazel as if he knew what she had said. His tail lifted straight into the air and he held his head high as he set his green eyes onto Hazel's green eyes. As much as a fat cat can slink, he slunk toward Hazel and smoothed himself against her legs.

  Everyone laughed.

  “You’ve found a friend,” Benjamin said.

  “He likes you,” Joshua added.

  Hazel stroked his back. “I love cats.”

  “Do you have any pets at home?” Isaac asked.

  “Nee, my vadder would never allow me to have a pet. He said they were a waste of time and money.”

  “That’s awful,” Lucy said. “Childhood years should be filled with animals, with puppies and kittens and baby chickens. I had a pet piglet.”

  “I’ve always wanted a cat,” Hazel said, still smoothing the fat cat’s fur.

  “You can have Tibbles,” Mr. Fuller said jokingly.

  “I would love to take him, but I don’t know what Bishop John and Ruth would say about that.”

  Everyone laughed again and then Tibbles jumped up on her lap unexpectedly and started rubbing himself on her neck.

  “Get down, Tibbles,” Isaac said.

  “Nee, he’s fine.”

  “He knows you like him,” Mrs. Fuller said.

  Hazel giggled. “He’s just lovely, although a little heavy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat as large.”

  “Push him off if he’s bothering you,” Joshua said.

  “Nee, he’s fine. He’s lovely.”

  That night, Isaac had seen a different side of Hazel. Even though he knew no history of her, he guessed that she’d been raised by a strict man, just going by what she’d said. What father could deny an only child a pet? It wasn’t as though they would’ve lived in a small apartment. They’d lived in an Amish community and that meant with plenty of land.

  It had melted Isaac’s heart when he’d seen how gentle and loving Hazel had been with Tibbles. He knew he was thinking about Hazel far too much lately, and that it was way more than he’d been thinking about Mary Lou.

  Another week came and went, and now Hazel was back at Aunt Bee’s house.

  “The real reason I wanted you to move away and take that job is I think you need a normal life for a while. For the next two weekends, I want you to stay there, make some friends. You’ve spent your whole life living in your mother's shadow and being her helper, and it’s been that way for far too long. You need to get a life for yourself. That's what your mudder wants for you more than anything.”

  Hazel gulped. She knew that her mother wanted her by her side. “Did Mamm say that?”

  “We both know that your mudder isn’t in her right mind at the moment. But if she was in her right mind, that's what she’d want.”

  “If I don't come back next weekend, she'll think I've abandoned her just like Doug kept doing. She’s only got me.”

  “Nee, she won't. You leave her to me. We’ll both talk to her tonight.”

  “I can't see how she’ll agree to it. I feel bad enough being gone through the week.”

&
nbsp; “At some point, you have to think about yourself and your life. You can’t let what your vadder did ruin your life.”

  “But I'm not.”

  “You've got to realize that your mudder might not recover from this for a few years, Hazel, and how old will you be then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How old are you now?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “You might be a lot older when she finally gets her head together. And who knows? She might never come right. You’re so young, and you deserve to live a good life.”

  Hazel shook her head. “I've got to be there for her. I've always been there for her and nothing will change that. I don’t care what happens to me. Mamm and I are a team, we’ve always been like that.”

  “I understand what you're saying, but I'm worried about you. You should be off doing fun things with people your own age.”

  “I don't care about any of that. I just want my mudder to be okay. She is the most important person in my life. We’ve only got each other.” Then Hazel thought through her words. “And we’ve got you and Onkel Luke. If it weren’t for you two, we’d be in a mess.”

  “Jah, you would.” Aunt Bee sighed. “As you said, you’ve both got me and Onkel Luke. Don't forget that.”

  “I won't. We would probably be living on the street if it weren't for the both of you.”

  “That's a bit of an exaggeration. You’d never be on the street.”

  “You know what I mean. We would've been living with someone else in the community, I guess, and I know Mamm wouldn't like that.”

  “I am going to have a talk with her about you not coming home next weekend.”

  Hazel opened her mouth to speak and then Aunt Bee said, “Just let me talk to her. She's getting stronger every day. You can’t make friends if you’re not there on the weekends.”

  “You can talk to her and see what she says, but I want to be here every weekend.”

  “You've got to think what's best for your life.”

  Hazel shrugged. “To keep you happy, if Mamm says she doesn't mind, and if I believe she truly doesn't mind, I will stay in Lancaster County next weekend.”

  “Good girl. Let's see how it goes, shall we?”

  Hazel nodded. “Okay.”

  Later, when they brought up the subject of next weekend to Hazel’s mother, Hazel could see the worry in her mother’s face.

  “I've been troubled about that and I'm glad you brought it up with me, Bee. Hazel, you should settle somewhere and make a life for yourself without me. You probably should’ve done that a long time ago. We’ve been too close.”

  “I'm working so we can have a life together, Mamm.”

  “Forget about me. It's you I’m concerned about.”

  “Me?”

  “Jah, you. It doesn't matter what happens to me. I don't care about myself anymore. I just care about you, and you deserve a good life.”

  “We'll both have a good life. You’re still young, Mamm. You’re speaking as though your life is over.”

  “I'm nearly fifty.”

  “Fifty is considered young these days. Haven't you heard that life begins at fifty?”

  Her mother shook her head. “Nee, but I suppose you're right. Maybe we can both have a new life.”

  “That's right, we can have a new life.”

  Bee said, “I think it's important for Hazel to make some friends where she is.”

  “I have made some friends. The bishop and his wife have been lovely and the people I work with are very nice. They’re the Fullers and they had me over for dinner the other night. It was so nice. They have a large fat cat, and I wanted to take him home.”

  “But aren't they all boys, Hazel?” Bee asked.

  “Jah, the Fullers have all boys, but the two older ones have girlfriends and I’ve gotten to know them.”

  “That sounds very sociable,” her mother said.

  “I'm mixing with a lot of people for being there just a short amount of time.”

  “You need to be meeting women your age, and of course—”

  Hazel interrupted her aunt. “Don't say a man. I'm not ready to be married yet.”

  “Nee, I’m not saying you have to get married right away, but it wouldn't hurt you to meet a nice young man and then just see what happens.”

  “Are any of the men at work or any of the Fuller boys suitable?” her mother asked, sounding half rational for the first time.

  “Nee, none of them. Like I said, the oldest two have girlfriends and the rest are too young.”

  “Your aunt is right. Stay there just this weekend and I'll see you the weekend after.”

  “Are you sure, Mamm? I don't even want to stay there for the weekend. I want to come back and see you.”

  Her mother smiled and nodded. “Just this weekend and see what friends you can make.”

  “Okay, if that's what you both want.”

  “That would make me happy,” her mother said.

  Hazel was convinced it was too early for her mother to go so long without seeing her. She had to trust that Bee knew what she was doing. Bee had also been through the dreadful ups and downs of their life with Doug, watching from the sidelines.

  Chapter 9

  Isaac had just collected Mary Lou for their usual Monday night meal at the diner.

  “I've been upset,” she said with a pout.

  He’d known there was something wrong with her the moment she’d stepped up into the buggy. He gripped the reins and glanced over at her. “What about?”

  “You didn't invite me to dinner with Hazel. You want me to be friends with Hazel, so why didn't you include me in dinner at your parents’ house? You always take me there for dinner, so why didn’t you the other night? I could tell Lucy was acting funny and then she told me she was there the other night and I wasn’t.”

  He knew she must’ve just heard about the dinner from Lucy that morning, as she’d mentioned nothing about it over the weekend. He could see in the dim moonlight that she was pouting and had her arms folded over her chest.

  There was no right answer. The truth was he'd forgotten, but he didn't think it would go over well for Mary Lou to know that. He took a deep breath. “Forgive me, Mary Lou. I've had a lot on my mind lately. I meant to invite you, but I only found out about the dinner shortly before it was on. It was no big deal. Just a dinner with Hazel to make her feel more at home.”

  “What have you had going on? There doesn't seem to be anything more than usual. I can’t see how you could just forget to invite me. You could’ve come and gotten me.”

  “You know my job has certain stresses.”

  “I don't see why. You don’t even run the business. Your vadder does. How stressed will you be when you take over? You need to learn to live with the stress.”

  “My vadder and I don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. When I’m running things, I won’t have that issue.”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about. It seems you completely forgot that I was in your life and it makes me wonder why. And you not getting along with your vadder has got nothing to do with why I wasn't invited the other night.”

  “All I can say is that I'm sorry.”

  “I will accept your apology. I'm not happy about it, though. It makes me wonder how important I am to you.”

  “You're very important to me; it’s just that I'm stupid sometimes.”

  “You said it, not me.”

  She was starting to relax, he noticed. “It wasn't a big deal. My mudder just wanted to make Hazel feel more comfortable.”

  “Did you find out anything about Hazel’s secret from your vadder?”

  “Nee, I didn't, but I think you're right that she's keeping something from people. Whatever it is, it's none of our business.”

  “I was right. I knew there was something wrong with her.”

  “I don't think there's anything wrong with her. She just seems to have something going on in her life that she wants to keep to herself. Anyway
, am I forgiven?”

  “As long as you don’t do anything like that again.”

  “I won’t.”

  She gave a little giggle. “I forgive you, then.”

  “Phew.” He wiped imaginary sweat from his brow, which made her giggle again.

  “I’m going to have Hazel over to my haus one time for dinner with my friends.”

  “She’d appreciate that, I’m sure. She seemed to enjoy the other night.”

  After a busy week at work, the next weekend came and went. Hazel had called her mother and she seemed to be doing fine. Hazel was able to relax and get to know some of Ruth and the bishop’s visitors.

  Chapter 10

  The next Monday night, Isaac was driving Mary Lou home from their dinner.

  “It’s been a couple of weeks, so don’t you think it’s time we talked about the wedding?”

  “I’m sure I said we’d talk about it in a few weeks time.”

  “Weeks, months, what’s the difference?”

  He chuckled, “There’s a lot of difference between weeks and months. I told you I need time and I did say months.” He emphasized the word ‘months.’ He didn’t want to hurt her, but he needed time to prepare himself mentally to spend the rest of his life with another person.

  “There’s a lot of preparation that goes into a wedding, so I think I need to talk about it sooner rather than later.”

  “I hear what you’re saying. We just need to have this conversation in a few weeks. Besides, I haven’t asked you to marry me yet, so we shouldn’t be discussing the subject at all.”

  She turned to him and her eyes grew wide. He knew he had made a mistake as soon as the words had carelessly tumbled out of his mouth.

  “What exactly are you saying? Haven’t we decided on each other?”

  He had to be truthful. Otherwise, the woman would soon be running every aspect of his life. He had enough of having no power at work; surely in his personal life he was allowed some freedom of choice. “I don’t want the future moment to be ruined by you forcing things on me when I’m not ready.”