Romancing Nadine

by Amy Lillard

  And she was afraid that when she said the word B-A-B-Y that Charlotte would fall completely apart at the seams. Thankfully, she didn’t.

  “That might be fun.”

  “And we can talk to Priscilla about helping us sew the dresses.” Sewing was not big on Nadine’s list of things to do. She loved Jenna and would do anything for the child. If she had to. But rumor around the district was Priscilla was a fine seamstress and could always use the money.

  “Jah.” Charlotte stood. She pulled her robe together at the neck as if she had just now realized that she had come downstairs without getting properly dressed.

  Nadine watched as she made her way from the room. “Just give a few minutes and I’ll be ready.”

  Nadine stood and started clearing off the breakfast dishes.

  The other big rumor around the district was that Priscilla King had fallen into a deep depression after the death of her son. If that was true, maybe she could give Charlotte some ideas on how to fight those blue feelings.

  Heaven knew, she couldn’t go around like this much longer.

  * * *

  Pulling up to the Lambert-King farm was like pulling up to most Amish farms. There was a white clapboard, two-story house across from a large white-washed barn. There was a dawdihaus off the side of the main house, a friendly dog, a couple of cows, a horse, and of course a milking barn. The fences might have been a bit taller, and of course when people caught sight of the camels, most did a double take.

  Titus Lambert had built his herd to an impressive number. At least it impressed Nadine. She had never seen that many camels before in her life. And definitely not all in one place.

  They were funny animals, but she supposed that wherever they came from, cows and horses might look strange. Different, but beautiful in their own way. Coarse fur, loose lips, and long, long eyelashes were just a couple of their unique features. She had never even thought about animals having eyelashes, much less ones that looked like an Englisch makeup person had gotten ahold of them.

  “Aren’t they wonderful?” Jenna asked. Her words were closer to gushing than mere asking, but Nadine knew that she was happy on the farm and loved every part of it. She might be the live-in nanny, but she bought into the entire concept.

  “And camel’s milk sells for great prices. Buddy said that you only have a short time to milk them once you start. That’s why it takes two of them.”

  “At the same time?”

  Jenna nodded.

  Nadine couldn’t imagine two Amish farmers milking the same cow at the same time. It was downright rib-tickling.

  “See that one over there.” Jenna pointed to a camel that was resting. At least that’s what Nadine thought. She was lying on the ground with her feet tucked up underneath her. “That’s called cushing. Titus teaches them to do that. Wanna see one do it?”

  “Sure.” Nadine said the word, then wished she could take it back as Jenna tucked between the rails of the fence and into the camel pen.

  “That’s Baby.” Jenna pointed to the closest camel. She was a little darker in color more of a toasted coconut. Nadine wondered if that was one way that they could tell them apart, their color.

  “Jenna Gail, you get back here right now,” Charlotte called.

  “Shhh,” Jenna returned. “You don’t want to scare her.”

  No, she certainly didn’t.

  Charlotte pressed her lips closed, and Nadine suspected that she was biting her tongue to keep from saying more.

  She also had to admit that it was a little nerve-racking watching her granddaughter approach the beast. Baby was bigger than a Belgian, taller but not quite as broad.

  Jenna snapped her fingers and made some kind of clicking noise. It almost sounding like she was saying “chute,” which made no sense to Nadine. But apparently it did to Baby.

  She bent one front leg and placed her knee on the ground. The other front leg was next. Then she nearly tipped forward, her back legs lifting off the ground before Baby righted herself and folded her back legs under her.

  Jenna reached into the pouch she had tied around her waist and gave Baby a treat. The rest of the camels saw what was going on and started bending down as well.

  Titus laughed. “Looks like you started something.”

  Jenna joined in as she went around to all the camels and gave them a treat.

  “Hi.” Titus came closer, standing just on the other side of the fence from them.

  “We didn’t hear you come up,” Nadine said.

  “Buddy and I just got finished spreading out some brush for the girls.” He gestured back over his shoulder to the pasture. “People bring their green waste out here and the camels eat it. Usually.” He chuckled.

  Nadine listened intently, thinking to herself that he really was a handsome man. And smart too, if the rumors were correct and he really got the price for milk that they claimed. No one else in these parts had camels, at least not that she had heard. News that big in the Englisch world would have definitely been passed around the Amish one.

  Buddy had stopped to talk to Jenna, and now they were walking back over to the fence together.

  “See,” Nadine said when only Charlotte could hear. “She’s fine.”

  “For now.”

  “You can’t protect her from everything.”

  “Hasn’t that already been proven?”

  Nadine shook her head. There was no talking to Charlotte when she was in one of her moods. And today was definitely one of those days.

  Still, Nadine was glad that they had come out to the farm. It gave them more time to spend with Jenna. Hopefully, seeing Jenna actually at the farm and happy, among the camels and safe, Charlotte’s fears would be assuaged.

  A bell rang behind them and everyone turned. Abbie was standing at the door of the house, a twin on each side. And next to her ... Amos Fisher.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “What’s he doing here?” Charlotte asked. But it was the same thing Nadine had been thinking. It seemed that everywhere she turned, there was Amos Fisher.

  Titus waved. “He’s come to help me build a shed.”

  Amos waved in return.

  “I thought he just sold sheds,” Charlotte commented.

  “He’s a great guy. And he can do lots of carpentry things.”

  She had seen that firsthand.

  “Maybe we should go,” Nadine said.

  “No,” Charlotte, Jenna, and Buddy all answered at the same time.

  “It’s really not necessary,” Titus said. “We’re talking about the plans today and figuring out the best place for it. We’re not starting to build it yet.”

  “Oh,” was all Nadine could manage. After all the time she had spent with Amos, she knew that she needed a break from him before he became too important in her day-to-day routine. She still had hope. She had barely thought about him all morning, and now there he was, in her line of sight and in her mind.

  “Let’s go on to the house.” Titus motioned for them to go ahead, and they all filed across the yard and over to the main house.

  “How about a snack?” Abbie called when they were near enough they could hear her without her having to raise her voice. “Mamm’s in the kitchen whipping us up something.”

  “Sounds good,” Buddy said, rubbing his stomach in anticipation.

  “Stay calm, Buddy,” Abbie said. “It’s only cheese and crackers.”

  “I like cheese and crackers,” he said.

  Abbie laughed. “I know you do.”

  “Me too,” Jenna chimed in.

  “Why don’t the two of you go help Priscilla?” Abbie suggested.

  The pair had disappeared into the house almost before she finished saying the words.

  “Come on in,” Abbie invited. “We can have a snack and visit for a while.”

  “Okay,” Titus said. “But not for too long. I don’t want to keep Amos from whatever else he has to do today.”

  “I’m completely at your disposal. But I did wan
t to see those plans you were talking about.” Amos clapped Titus on the back, and the two men disappeared inside, but not before Nadine heard Titus say, “They’re back in the office.”

  Abbie smiled. “That just leaves us ladies, I suppose.”

  Nadine, Charlotte, and Abbie took the twins into the living room. Abbie set the little girls on the floor and gave them each a soft plastic book to “read.” Each page had a simple picture and the corresponding word. Cow, monkey, camel. Nadine was certain the last wasn’t a coincidence.

  “I’m so glad y’all decided to come out and visit today.” Abbie sat down in the rocking chair, leaving Nadine and Charlotte to sit on the couch. She looked back over her shoulder as if to see where her mother was. Or maybe she was looking for Buddy and Jenna. “She’s been so worried that you were mad at her.”

  “Mad?” Charlotte asked. “Why would we be mad?”

  “She knows that you wanted her to stay there, and she so badly wanted to come back here. She’s afraid that she had upset the two of you, and she has been trying to work through all her feelings. So your showing up today is just what she needed.”

  “Good,” Nadine said. It was working out for everyone. Charlotte needed to see that Jenna was okay. Jenna needed to see that her mother wasn’t upset. But Nadine hadn’t needed to see Amos Fisher again. So maybe it had worked out for everyone but her. “Does he come out here often?”

  Abbie looked up from checking on the girls, her forehead wrinkled in a confused frown. “Who? Amos? He used to come out and help my dat when this was still a cow dairy farm. The two sheds off the barn were built by his company.”

  “And Titus is having another one built?”

  Abbie smiled. “He calls it a shed, but it’s really a playhouse. I want the girls to have a fun place to play.”

  “So Amos is building them a playhouse?” The man was practically a saint.

  “He had some designs that he drew up for his nieces back in Missouri, and he offered to share them with me and Titus. Of course, Titus has a few ideas of his own, so they’re comparing notes.”

  Amos could draw up building plans. Of course he could. As far as Nadine knew, there wasn’t one thing the man couldn’t do. More and more, he kept becoming a man she couldn’t ignore.

  “That’s very nice of him.” Charlotte elbowed Nadine in the ribs. At least Nadine thought she’d elbowed her on purpose. Maybe it was just a bump from sitting so close together.

  “He’s a really nice man.”

  One of the toddlers started fussing; then there was an all-out crying fest. Both girls wailed, neither one able to tell their mamm what it was about. Abbie scooped up one of the girls, but before she could get the other, Nadine picked her up and rocked her back and forth. She shushed the child in a soothing way, bouncing her in hopes it would all take her mind off what had happened. Whatever it was. Problems between sisters.

  “What happened?” Jenna picked that time to come back into the room. She carried a tray with small cups filled with cup cheese, a mound of crackers, and some grapes.

  “The mystery of twins,” Abbie answered, projecting her voice over the cries of the girls.

  “Here.” Jenna took the twin from Abbie and rocked her back and forth. Abbie, in turn, took the other twin from Nadine.

  “This is Nancy,” Jenna explained.

  “Nancy loves Jenna best,” Abbie said without a trace of wistfulness in her words. “Jenna is the only one who can get her to calm down without a five-step process.”

  “There’s not really a five-step process,” Jenna told them. “That’s just something Abbie says. I’m not really sure what it means, but I think she’s trying to say that it’s hard.”

  “Right.” Charlotte nodded.

  “She responds best to you.”

  Jenna beamed.

  Nadine understood. Jenna was truly needed here, and she thrived off it. Nadine couldn’t say she blamed her. Everyone needed to be needed.

  Within seconds, Jenna had Nancy laughing. It seemed she had completely forgotten about whatever ill her sister had bestowed upon her.

  “How do you tell them apart?” Charlotte asked, looking from one twin to the other.

  “Carrie has a cord,” Jenna explained. “C for cord and Carrie.”

  Abbie smiled. “But Jenna can tell them apart without it. She’s the only one.”

  “Not even you?” Nadine asked, eyes wide. Abbie was their mother, after all.

  “Not in an instant. Jenna knows immediately. That’s just the kind of bond she has with Nancy.” She placed Carrie on the floor and set her up with the book once again. Jenna did the same for Nancy. “I’m grateful for all her help. More than she will ever know.”

  Jenna glowed with the praise, but Nadine knew that it was for Charlotte’s benefit.

  “Come get a snack.” Abbie motioned everyone over to the table where Jenna had placed their food.

  Nadine grabbed a cup cheese and a handful of crackers and headed outside. The whole point of this trip was to show Charlotte how important it was that Jenna had her own life and how she was truly thriving and safe with the Lamberts. Nadine figured if she allowed them time alone, it might help.

  The soft breeze caressed her face as she stepped out onto the porch. She sat down on the steps, figuring it was as good a place as any to sit and eat.

  There was a peace about the farm that Nadine enjoyed. She could see why Buddy and Jenna liked it there. Lumbering camels that appeared lazy but had intelligent eyes. They moseyed around in the pasture, grazing on whatever was in their path, most likely looking for any dates that Jenna might have dropped.

  Nadine couldn’t help the surge of pride she felt remembering how Jenna had handled the camels. She might be the live-in nanny, but she had grown to be much more.

  “Penny for them.”

  She turned toward the sound of the voice, only then realizing that she had paused, cracker loaded with cheese halfway to her mouth.

  “Hi, friend.” She scooted over to one side to allow Amos the room to sit beside her.

  He eased down next to her with only a small groan. What was he always saying? They weren’t as young as they used to be.

  “So,” he said as he took a cracker and scooped up a bit of cheese from her cup. “You really going to make me pay a penny?”

  Nadine smiled, then finished her bite before answering. “I was just thinking about how pretty the farm is.”

  Amos looked out at the scene before him. “It is. This used to be a dairy farm, you know.”

  Nadine frowned. “Isn’t it still? I thought they milked the camels.”

  “They do.” Amos chuckled, then grabbed another cracker. “I meant cows. Emmanuel had a nice-sized herd before Alvin died.”

  “Alvin was Abbie’s twin?”

  “That’s right. It was a sad time.”

  “Priscilla told us a little about it.”

  “She probably didn’t tell you half of it, but some doesn’t bear repeating. See, after he died, they sent Abbie away, and when she returned, the farm was in shambles. Titus brought it all back.”

  “Only with camels.”

  Amos shrugged. “It worked.”

  “So is it true?” Nadine asked. “Did Titus really spend five years in prison?”

  “He did.”

  “But I’ve heard that he wasn’t completely to blame.”

  “Is anyone? But the Englisch court system needed someone to punish for it, and Titus was the one who took that blame.”

  “I’m sure his parents are glad to have him back.”

  “I know it’s been an adjustment for everyone. But I guess most folks see that if Abbie can forgive his place in the tragedy, then everyone else can too.”

  Nadine popped a cracker into her mouth and thoughtfully chewed. The Amish were all about forgiveness. It was taught to them from an early age, but they were only human. Something like five years in prison and coming back to such a close and small community like Wells Landing ... sometimes it mad
e forgiveness easier, but sometimes it only made it more difficult.

  “He’s done a lot for the district and brought the Kings back from the edge of self-destruction. He’s a good man.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “You know, I’ve been out here a couple of times since I got back, and I have to say, it might be a unique situation they have here, but it’s working for them. Every one of them.”

  * * *

  “So what do you think?” Nadine asked after they had parked the tractor and made their way back into the house. She was having a hard time reading Charlotte’s mood, but she was fairly certain it had improved, even if just a little.

  Charlotte sat down on the sofa and leaned back into the cushions. “She’s happy there, isn’t she?”

  Nadine nodded. “Happy and needed. You should feel good about that.”

  “I do,” she said, but Nadine could tell that she was not telling the truth. “She loves taking care of the babies.”

  “And her with those camels.” Nadine chuckled and settled down into the rocker.

  “That was a little scary,” Charlotte admitted.

  “But she has so much confidence now.”

  “Maybe a little too much,” Charlotte murmured.

  “You can’t save her from everything.” And you don’t get a do-over.

  “I know, but—” She sighed.

  “But what?”

  “Never mind.”

  At first, she’d thought the trip to the farm was a good idea. Now, she had to wonder if that was really true.

  “What about you and Amos?” Charlotte asked.

  Nadine smiled a little and shook her head even less. It seemed as if wherever she went, Amos was there too. As if God was leading them to one another. If that was true, then what Amos had said about his instructions from God had to be true as wel—

  “We’re just friends,” she said, doing her best to interrupt her own thoughts. They had agreed to be friends, and that was enough for the both of them. Why was she now having all these crazy thoughts about them being more than that?

  “Looked a little more like friendship to me. Sharing cup cheese . . .”