by Faye Sonja
“Will you marry me?” he asked her with a smile.
The love that radiated from her was enough for him to know the answer before she whispered it.
“Yes,” she said. It was a soft brush against his cheeks and a flutter that went down to his soul. “Yes, a thousand times, yes.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her on the forehead. Who would have thought that all could have been this right in the world? He most certainly would not have thought it a few days before. His mother would be very happy. He kissed her forehead and rubbed his nose against hers before bending to his knees and resting his head on her lap. Her cool fingers ran through his thin wispy hair and he felt her touch to his core.
"Just be careful of Jackson please," he said. “I will respect your friendship, but I want you to stay away from any of the politics brewing in this place.”
She promised him she would and moments later bid him good night.
“Did I just hear what I think I did?” his mother said popping her head around the corner moments later.
He smiled and pulled her in. “We will get married as soon as we are settled here.”
She hugged him with a fierceness that was surprising for her fragile bones.
* * *
8
Chapter EIGHT
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“ I would never, ever
forget about you … ”
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News of their marriage to be was announced by none other than his mother the following day at the table and Jackson’s face was far less happy than all the others. When his eyes met John’s he simply inclined his head. John accepted that as a sign of acceptance and hoped that this would keep him away from his woman.
Minna sat at the other end of the table exchanging knowing glances with her uncle and watching Jackson try his best to contain his disappointment. Later he left the breakfast table earlier than he would have on a usual morning, but she let him go. All this was good if it got him to focus on the issue at hand which was claiming the position that Henry held.
“Congratulations,” Minna said to Clara minutes later as they stood in the kitchen cleaning up while the men went off to plow the freshly watered fields. “I hope your life here is prosperous and fulfilling.”
Clara smiled back at her and she saw nothing but sweet innocence in her face. Minna wanted to talk to her about the joys and sorrows of union, but she herself was in no place to do so. It was not her place.
That evening the dinner table was a mix of merriment and John felt more at ease than he had ever been to see Jackson’s attention held by some other woman. Henry was seated at their table looking around and he was not as pleased with his sister’s return as John thought he would be.
“This family is very confusing,” Clara chuckled, nudging his attention to Henry’s apparent scowl. They laughed together.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear and kissed her cheek, as their parents beamed at them with pride.
No matter what came next in their lives in Ohio, he was looking forward to spending the rest of it with her. His mother smiled at him happily and though it had only been less than a week, he could see the glow in her cheeks returning, a good sign that not only was love flourishing here, but so was his mother’s health. He gave Clara’s hand a promising squeeze and made silent promises to himself to be the best husband she could ask for. Whispering a thank you to God, he sealed his silent promises with an Amen.
* * *
Epilogue
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Three months later
The rest of the day passed by in a blur and Minna had all but set herself into the monotony of her routine when she saw a familiar face running towards her from down the road.
“Joshua” she called to the man, with joyful screams forgetting the linen she was hanging out and hopping across the growing blades of grass.
“Minna!” her friend screamed and they rushed into each other’s arms with a longing that was known only to them. Minna could feel the tears greasing the corners of her eyes as she hugged her very best friend.
“You came back!” Minna screamed in enthusiasm.
“I missed my home.”
Joshua’s return was significant in more ways than one and as she tried to control her joy she thought of what that would mean for the community. He was the son of the shamed deacon, and brother to Henry. Having decided to run off after his father died, here he was three years later and every bit as gorgeous a man as he was when he had left.
“Jackson will be happy to see you,” Minna said puling her friend back in for a hug as they made their way inside.
“Will he?” Joshua asked with fear remembering how he had abandoned his best friend when he had chosen to run off.
That question was soon to be answered as Jackson stood in her kitchen helping himself to the pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade she had made only a few minutes before. The look of anguish that crossed his face at the sight of Joshua was only softened by the warmth that spread in his eyes.
Minna had to laugh for a moment, today was really not his day. But when the smile creased his lips and he strode with purpose across the kitchen floor to pull his brother and best friend into his arms, she knew that he had found a bit of peace.
“You came back,” he said.
“I love you all,” Joshua said. Minna stood to the side as the man she had once loved stood in her kitchen. The only problem was she was happy to have him back, but the expectant gaze he gave her as if he expected her to be swooning over him was a problem. She had loved him and then he had left her to run off to the English world and she had moved on with her life.
Why was he back?
She refused to focus on that question as the church bells chimed, signaling that the festivity for the day would soon begin and she had to help Clara get ready for her wedding.
“Does Henry know you are back?” she asked Joshua.
He looked at her with guilt in his eyes. “Not yet.”
Everyone in the room knew what that meant. If Henry and the other elders did not approve of his return then he could not stay. Leaving the Amish life to the English world and then wanting to come back was not so easily done and he would have to convince them that he was worthy of being accepted again, and until then they could all get in trouble for even speaking to him.
“Go do that now,” Jackson directed him.
She watched him walk out the door as Clara came down the stairs all red in the face from the excitement of getting married. It would be a small ceremony, but it was a ceremony they all dreamed about as girls.
“Ready for your big day? Or do you want to run as far away as possible?”
“Minna!” Clara’s mother chided her.
She laughed. “I was only joking!”
Clara giggled like a teenager as she led her up the stairs and to the room. “Who was that young man?”
Minna knew exactly who she was asking about. “His name is Joshua.”
“He looked at you like he loved you,” Clara made the astute observation.
Minna had only known Clara for the time she had been in the community, but she had come to realize that the woman never rushed anything and she saw everything.
“He can’t,” she lamented softly.
Clara turned swiftly to her. “Why does it sound like his love is a bit of a heartache for you?”
Minna spun her back to the mirror and helped her into her dress. “He is a love from my past that left me brokenhearted and embarrassed. I cannot love him again that way.”
Clara sighed. “Trust me, real love is hard to find.”
“But you found it as a mail order bride searching for better. Who says I can’t do the same?”
Clara turned to her. “Nobody said you couldn’t, but be sure you know that such a thing comes with great sacrifice.”
Minna kept silent while she thought on
those words and what they meant. But even as she watched Clara walk down the aisle to an eager and waiting John an hour later, she was sure of one thing. She wanted a wedding of her own, but it could not be to Joshua, she didn’t love him like that anymore. And with that realization came the longing of one to share her heart with. It was a primal desire that she would soon fulfill, but for that she wanted an Amish man of substance, not just any of the ones who came knocking on a whim.
She would have the love she wanted, and she would not be denied.
* * *
The Plain & Runaway Amish Bride
Mail Order Amish Brides
Book 2
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b o o k 2
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Amish Minna knew she needed to leave her community to mend her broken heart. So she ran away one night. Amish Jack seeks love and when Minna shows up, he knows she is the perfect match. But there is a problem. He had turned down her mail order acceptance before.
Will she be able to forgive him and will they see eye to eye?
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Prologue
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Radish County,
Ohio,
1912
Minna waited until the last sounds of the midnight stirrings had settled before she peeped out of her room again. For her, being able to tell her Yusuf she was about to leave was not an option. There would be tears, weeping and mourning as if her soul had been lost, when all she wanted was a life outside of the place that restrained her individuality. Before her Daed had died, he had told her on his death bed, his body ravished by fever, that he knew she would not find it easy to stay in this world. He had begged her to anyway and she had tried. The only problem was that she just could not anymore.
“Now you go?” the small voice at the end of the hall whispered back to her and she turned to see Clara staring at her with her big brown eyes.
She raised her fingers to her lips to silence her and waved her down the hall. Clara’s feet did not make a single sound on the wood floor and she was grateful. There was no way she could explain to her family why she was fully dressed in English clothes at this hour. To even have English clothes in her small Amish community was pushing the boundaries that separated them a little too far.
Clara hugged her close. “Are you sure you have to go?”
The question was a sad one, but it was devoid of any real understanding of what it really meant at the time.
“I have to,” she whispered back.
“Why?” Clara asked again. She had come from an orthodox Amish community far west and when she had left she had never contemplated going into the English world. For Clara, being Amish was everything and she would never truly understand why she had to leave.
“I want more Clara” she said. “There is more out there for me and I most definitely cannot stay here and be expected to fall in line with Joshua again.”
“Do you have a husband waiting on you?” she asked.
That made her chuckle and for a moment her heart felt lighter. For the moment she forgot the gravity of the decision she was making. For a moment the tears she had wanted to cry went crawling back to their corners and her heart felt light.
“A husband? No,” she whispered. “But maybe someday I will meet a nice Amish man and marry him.”
“There are nice Amish men here for you. Maybe someday when you come back you will find you might actually still want to be with Joshua,” she whispered.
The thought alone was more motivation for her to leave, but she didn’t say so. She had never quite understood why her parents had ever thought that her marrying him was ever a good idea, but then again she had loved him. He was a good boy, but he did not appeal to her in even the slightest of senses now. Not after he had run off and left her to nurse a broken heart without any explanation. Now he was back and it was as if he just expected her to pick up where he had left off. That was not going to happen.
Clara hugged her tight. “I will miss you Minna. I will miss you so much.”
Her heart felt heavy, but she would write to her every week for as long as she was able to. Her family would never have to wonder if she had forgotten about them, and she hoped that she would make a life outside the confines of the Amish world, so that should any of them so desire later on they would have a place to go to.
“Give Jackson my letter,” she reminded her. “Tell him I will write you both and I will send money to help with things around here.”
A tear slipped down Clara’s face, glistening in the moonlight peeking through the windows as it snaked down to where her lips waited to catch it with a whisper.
“I love you my Clara,” she whispered in her hair. “Don’t you ever forget that.”
Those were the last words she spoke to the new sister she had gotten before urging her back to bed and quietly making her way out the door. She looked back just once to see her face pressed against her window and the hand waving her goodbye.
Keep walking, she told herself, because the look of sadness was enough to make her change her mind and turn right back. She kept going, and when she walked through the cornfields and to the edge of the road that would take her into town she took a deep breath of the air of newness around her. This was a new pilgrimage in her life, and as it was the first time she had ever left the Amish community since she had been born, she knew it would not be easy.
She patted her pockets as she walked to double check that she still had the money she had saved for two years. It was there, but that would only get her so far, so the first thing she needed to was to find work that paid. Rumor had it that two towns away, there was an Amish woman who had run away from her community years before. Her name was Sierra and she ran a diner that provided work to the Amish who sought life in the English world. It would be a good place to start, but first she had to make her way there.
The clopping of horse hooves on the newly paved road drew her out of her thoughts and she looked up the road to see a rather large carriage making its way in her direction with purpose.
“Whoa!” the driver cried after making his way past her. It was almost as if she had been a second thought. “Howdy ma’am,” he said tipping his hat to her.
“H-Howdy,” she responded, feeling like she was out of place.
“What’s a woman like you doing out and about this late and on foot?” His eye narrowed suspiciously at her but she did not give any hint that she was someplace she shouldn’t be.
“I am heading into town.”
Suddenly the back window to the carriage slid open and the kindest eyes she had ever seen were staring back at her, set deep in the roundest face she had ever seen. “Can we offer you a ride?”
She looked between the two men and then back down the road. She knew exactly what direction the town was, but how far away she was she had no clue. She did the math and decided that maybe her first night out she should at least try and trust the Englishers.
“I would appreciate that,” she said with a nervous smile.
The kind eyes smiled back at her. “Come on in.”
She was helped into the carriage by the driver and the plush velvet interior made her want to curl right up and go to sleep. It was not your usual carriage; this was the carriage of a man who had more than enough in his pocket to spend.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she took a seat beside his great girth.
“Not a problem at all. I am Simon,” he smiled.
“Nice to meet you sir. I am Minna.”
She didn’t know what it was, but being around him calmed her. She was grateful that her nerves quieted and as he rested his head back on the headrest she looked him up and down. He was a simple man despite the fact that he oozed the kind of aristocracy she had only heard of.”
He opened one eye to see her looking at him and laughed when she quickly averted her gaze. “You are Amish?”
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nbsp; She nodded.
“First time away from home?” he asked.
She nodded again.
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “I know just the place where you will be given room and board until you can fend for yourself.”
“Where?” she asked.
He tapped the partition that separated them from the driver and when the man looked back toward him he laid out a new plan. “Forget our stop for the night. Just change horses when you get to town and move on to Sierra’s.”
She smiled, well at least the information she had gotten was not wrong. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “Get some rest. We will not be there before daybreak.”
* * *
With daybreak Joshua heard the commotion and the saddest scream he had ever heard coming from Minna’s house. He rushed over to the house thinking something must have gone terribly wrong.
“What’s happening?” he asked Jackson who sat at the table glaring at a crumpled letter in his hand.
“You happened!” Jackson screamed at him angrily.
Joshua could not believe his ears “What are you talking about?”
Clara came to stand by his side protectively as Jackson ranted, nothing but anger flashing in his eyes. “She fell in love with you and then you ran off leaving her all alone with no explanation. Actually, you left us all without so much as the decency to say you were leaving. Then you come back and after trying to avoid you for three months she has just decided to leave. You are what is happening here. You should have just stayed in the English world!”