The Amish Bride

by Mindy Starns Clark

  Penny leaned to the side a little, staring. “Isn’t that your beau?”

  “And his brother, plus my cousin,” I whispered.

  Penny’s eyes were full of concern. “Looks serious.”

  I ignored her comment and waved, doing my best to stay calm. Ada walked directly to me, taking my hand, her brown eyes tearing up.

  “How are the girls?” I asked.

  “Fine.”

  “They didn’t come with you?”

  “Christy’s in school.”

  “Of course,” I said.

  “And it would have taken us days to get here with the twins.” I was sure she was right about that.

  Ada continued, “We had to leave at four this morning as it was.” So they hadn’t come partway yesterday. I felt for their driver, who was probably parked somewhere near the restaurant, taking a nap.

  Will gave me a quick hug. Ezra didn’t make eye contact with me. Instead, he ducked into a booth.

  “Do you have a minute?” Will asked.

  I glanced around for Kendra but didn’t see her. “I’ll ask.”

  I headed into the kitchen. It was only a few minutes before my shift was finished. I asked Wes if it was okay if I clocked out early, and he gave me the go-ahead. I took off my apron, collected my purse and cape, and walked back to the dining room.

  As I passed Penny’s table, she gave me an encouraging smile.

  “Who is that?” Ada whispered as I slipped into the booth beside her. She still had her cape on and was hunched over a little, as if she was cold.

  Before I could answer her, Ezra said, “She’s the lady Ella’s staying with.”

  “What?” Ada had a confused look on her face. “I thought you were boarding with a Mennonite family.”

  I shook my head, hoping Penny couldn’t hear us, and whispered, “I rent a room from her.”

  Kendra approached, saving me from further questions, the coffeepot in her hand. Will said that was all we’d have, and she poured a cup for each of us. As she did, Penny approached and introduced herself. My face reddened, embarrassed that I hadn’t thought to introduce her first. After everyone greeted each other, she turned to me and mouthed, “Everything okay?”

  I nodded quickly, and then she said, “I’m going to Elkhart with a friend. Want to come with us when you’re done here?”

  I shook my head.

  “Okay. Well, I’ll be home late.”

  As she left, Ada reached for my hand that was lying flat on the table.

  “Come home with us,” she said. “We’ll stop and get your things. Your boss here will understand. So will—what’s the woman’s name you’re staying with?”

  “Penny.”

  “That’s right. She’ll understand too.”

  “Understand? I don’t even understand what’s going on.” I spoke directly to Ezra, who was across the table from me.

  “We’ve come to collect Ezra,” Will explained. “The Klines were concerned when he arrived on his motorcycle and then alarmed when they found out how the two of you deceived all of us back home. They told him to leave, and we agreed it was for the best.”

  “You’re going home?”

  Ezra crossed his arms and nodded.

  “What about your bike?”

  He jerked his thumb toward the window. There was a large white van parked on the side street, with a small flatbed trailer attached. Ezra’s motorcycle was on top of it, held in place by canvas straps.

  “Come with us,” Ada said again.

  I turned toward her. “Did my mother put you up to this?”

  “She asked me to talk with you.”

  “Did she ask you to come?”

  Ada shook her head. “Will asked me to.”

  I leaned back against the booth. “Did Mom consider coming?”

  Ada tilted her head. “I’m not sure.”

  I turned my attention to Ezra. “That’s it? You’re going home, just like that?”

  He met my gaze. “I don’t have a choice.” He wrapped his hands around his coffee cup. “I know you’re disappointed in me, Ella, but I don’t have a job or a place to live. And I really don’t want to cause more of a rift with my family.”

  Ada put her arm around me, and as much as I wanted to pull away, I didn’t. “Come home,” she pleaded.

  I didn’t answer.

  Will said they needed to get going. He pulled out his wallet and left a ten on the table. It registered then, that not once had Will asked me to come back. Neither had Ezra.

  Only Ada.

  “Are you coming?” Ada asked as we spilled out onto the sidewalk.

  I shook my head. “Maybe in a couple of weeks. I’ll probably take the bus home.”

  Ezra’s head dropped, and Ada’s eyes filled with tears.

  “Ella, Ella,” she whispered. “Please come home.”

  A year ago she would have insisted I obey her. Being a wife, or maybe it was being a mom, had changed her. Either that, or this was more about me, about the fact that she was finally realizing I was an adult and not a child.

  I shook my head slowly. Ada’s face was drawn, but she didn’t say any more as she stepped beside Will, who tipped his hat to me. They crossed the street together, not touching but clearly joined.

  That left Ezra and me on the sidewalk, not looking at each other.

  “So,” he said, speaking quickly. “I know I was mad a couple of days ago, but I’ve gotten over it, even though what you did really hurt.” He sighed. “It was horrible staying with the Klines. Luke’s great, but his daed is a real tyrant. I’ve never been so miserable.” He exhaled. “Come home, okay? Join the church with me.”

  My voice was barely a whisper. “Are you proposing?”

  His face was as red as his hair. “Kind of,” he stammered. “Just come home. Then we can figure out what’s next.”

  I closed my eyes. That’s what I wanted—to marry Ezra. That’s what I’d always wanted.

  “Stay,” I said, thinking of Freddy back home. I couldn’t face my family, not yet. “You can find another job. I’ll help you find a place to live. Penny probably has a friend…”

  He was shaking his head. “Come back, Ella.”

  “I need to give notice here. I can’t just walk out on Kendra and Wes.”

  And I hadn’t seen the Home Place yet or found my answers to Sarah’s book. I hadn’t even started on that part of my plan.

  “Then you’ll come home?”

  I took a deep breath. Going home meant dealing with Mom, Zed, and Freddy. Staying meant losing Ezra.

  “I’m so sorry for making a mess of all of this,” I said.

  “Just come home.”

  “Give me a couple of weeks.”

  “Write to me and tell me when. I won’t have my phone much longer.”

  “Your family will want you to marry someone else, Ez. Not me.”

  “Ella, I’m not going to marry anyone else.”

  Touched, I stepped forward to hug him, but as I did he leaned down and kissed me, even though Will and Ada were right there. The kiss took my breath away, and long before I was ready for it to end he pulled back, turned, and headed straight for the van.

  I took a step to follow him.

  “Ezra!” someone called out from behind me. I looked to see Luke speeding toward us on his bike.

  “I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.” He whizzed past me, toward the van. “Daed said you would be here.” Luke brought the bike to a skidding stop and then climbed off. He seemed so much more assured and confident than he had when he’d come into the café. After they shook hands, they hugged and patted each other on the back. I hadn’t realized they had forged a friendship in such a short time.

  “Thanks for everything,” Ezra said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

  After they let go of each other, Luke continued on his bike without looking back toward me. Ezra turned before he climbed into the van and waved.

  I waved back and then winced as h
e slammed the door behind him. In the distance, Luke sped on down the street and then turned the corner, heading north.

  I’d made a disaster out of things so far, but I still had hope—and with good reason, considering Ezra’s goodbye. Maybe I could quickly resolve things here and then get home. I’d told him to give me a couple of weeks. That should give me enough time. I still needed to visit the Home Place—and to meet Mammi’s niece Rosalee.

  TWELVE

  When I arrived at Penny’s, I texted Zed, asking what he was doing. Homework, he texted back.

  Mom around?

  No. She’s out.

  I didn’t bother texting again. I called and then choked back my tears when he said, “Hello, Ella Pilla.”

  I stood quickly, doing my best not to cry. “Pilla?” He’d never called me that before. We’d never been big on nicknames in my family.

  “Yeah. You’re the biggest pill there is. You’ve really done it this time.”

  “Not you too…” I practically choked on the words. Was I that horrible? Probably…

  “Mom’s been on the phone with various Gundys, not to mention Lexie, nonstop. She even drove over to Aunt Klara’s today. I think the two of them and Mammi had a big ol’ discussion about you.”

  I shuddered at the thought. “I was surprised Mom didn’t come out with Ada and Will.”

  “Nah,” Zed responded. “The last thing she was going to do was beg you.”

  That sounded like Mom. “Is she out on a birth?”

  “Nope.”

  I expected Zed to elaborate, but he didn’t. “Where is she?”

  “Out with Dad.”

  “Dad?” I barely recognized my own voice, it was so full of alarm.

  “Back off, Ella. I mean Pilla.”

  “Since when did you start calling him ‘Dad’?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Is Mom, like, dating him or something?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Zed?”

  “Maybe you should talk to Mom about this, not me.”

  “No, maybe you should give me some straight answers. What is going on?”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have taken off like you did at a critical juncture in the life of our family.”

  “Zed!” I used my firmest tone with him, the one that used to make him jump.

  “That doesn’t work anymore.” His voice was as calm as could be. “You can’t intimidate me the way you used to.”

  “Wow, that was harsh.” I wasn’t accustomed to him talking back. I began pacing around the room.

  There was a long pause, and then he said, “I need to get back to my homework. Bye.”

  “Wait!”

  But the connection ended.

  I collapsed back on the bed. So much for my loving brother. I had no one, absolutely no one, left. No Mom. No Zed.

  And now, no Ezra either. I was absolutely, utterly alone. Thanks to no one but myself. Another wave of loneliness overcame me. Who was I fooling? I was as homesick as could be. I’d give my notice to Kendra and be on a bus home in no time. I’d have Penny drive by the bakery and the address for the Home Place, but there was no reason for me to try to get a job at Plain Treats. Or to check out the cooking school in South Bend. I didn’t have the money to pay for it, anyway. When I got back home, I’d convince Mammi into letting me ask Zed to help crack the code. He would be our best bet.

  I needed to get back to Lancaster County as soon as possible. So be it if I had to give up baking school.

  I had Saturday off and dragged around the house. Penny was gone all day, shopping with a friend. By the time she arrived home, it was dark. She said she was going to church the next morning and then out for lunch with another friend. I didn’t bother to ask when she could take me by the Home Place. Once again, I found myself wishing I had a license and a car.

  The next morning I sat on my bed and watched the rain bounce off the leaves of the maple outside my window. Mom and Zed would be going to church and then maybe over to Aunt Klara’s later. Or maybe they would spend the afternoon with Freddy. Maybe he would come to our house for Sunday dinner even. Our house. It wasn’t mine anymore, not at all. I pulled one of the three pillows on the bed against my chest and hugged it tightly.

  My mind jumped from one memory of Ezra to another. Then I started speculating what the talk about us was back home, who was saying what, how his mamm and daed would have reacted, what Ada would have said to other people about me, what Ezra was telling people about his short time in Indiana.

  I didn’t want to head out to the Mennonite church, the one Penny had pointed out when she drove me to the grocery store the week before. Though it was within walking distance, I had no desire to go out in the rain.

  I stayed in bed.

  A half hour later, my head still in an Ezra fog, I shuffled downstairs to make myself a couple of eggs. By the time I finished eating it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. I stepped out onto the patio. It was relatively warm. Penny had offered me the use of her bike anytime. I contemplated going for a ride.

  I knew the Home Place was toward Goshen. It wouldn’t hurt to ride the bike in that direction, looking for Willow Lane.

  A few minutes later, I turned right on Nappanee Avenue, away from downtown and toward Goshen. The tires of the bike made a hissing sound over the wet pavement. I passed house after house, then a church, a school, and more houses. I pedaled harder. Even though the day was cool, I began to sweat under my cape. I missed Ezra. I missed his motorcycle. I missed the security of being with him.

  The trip out on Ezra’s motorcycle had made me more aware of the countryside, but being on the bicycle was that times ten. I noticed everything. A man was working on his truck in the driveway of his house while children played around him. A little girl holding a doll waved. A family piled out of a van in front of a house, looking as if they had just returned from church. A couple on the other side of the street strolled along, hand in hand. Everyone seemed to be with someone today, except for me.

  I turned right, following the sign to Goshen. A horse and buggy came toward me on the other side of the street. I could make out the young family inside as they passed by. And then two bicyclists.

  Finally I reached the outskirts of the town and the fifty-five mile-per-hour speed limit. I was now on Highway 119, and I winced as the cars and trucks picked up speed and whizzed by. I tensed up again, bracing myself against the force of it, gripping the handlebars to keep the bike steady, trying to stay on the edge of the shoulder but out of the gravel.

  The other bicyclists I’d seen since I arrived in Nappanee made it look so easy. I kept glancing from one side of the road to the other, hoping Willow Lane would appear. As I rode, I studied each house. At first all of them seemed to be Englisch farms, but after a while I passed a decidedly Plain farm with no electrical wires in sight and a buggy with a horse hitched to it out front. After that, there were plenty of Amish-looking places. Lots of them had “No Sunday Business” signs up under placards advertising farm-fresh eggs.

  After a while I stopped and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. I’d only been riding for half an hour. I decided to ride for fifteen more minutes and then turn around if I hadn’t found Willow Lane. That would make it an hour and half total, a good long ride considering I’d hardly ever been on a bike before.

  Not long after, however, I bumped over a sharp rock. As the air rushed out of the tire, I hobbled the bike to a stop. My stomach knotted. I had no idea how to fix a flat and even if I did, I had nothing with me to do so. I took out my cell and called Penny’s home number. She didn’t answer. I left her a message but decided not to call her cell in case she was still in church. Turning the bike around, I started pushing it, knowing I had a long walk ahead of me.

  It was just after noon and the traffic had increased, creating a wind of pungent exhaust against my face and an occasional smattering of pebbles against my legs. I turned down the next county road I came to and cut back toward town on a le
ss busy route.

  I walked along, pushing the bike awkwardly. The road was narrow with hardly any shoulder, and I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake. A couple of times, when a car seemed too close, I stepped down into the slope of the ditch, holding the bike up as best I could. I called Penny’s home phone again, leaving a message that I’d gotten off the highway, hoping she would come looking for me. As I slipped my phone back into my pocket, I heard the clopping of a horse behind me and turned my head.

  Two young women were approaching in a buggy. The driver looked to be about twenty, but the passenger was a few years younger, probably right around my age. They both had dark hair and creamy complexions and were obviously sisters.

  “Need some help?” the driver called out.

  “Yes,” I called out gratefully. “Where are you headed?” I hoped they were going into town.

  “Home,” the oldest girl said, reciting the county road number they lived on.

  It was two over from the one the dairy was located on. “Do you know the Darryl Kline family? I think they are close by.”

  “Sure,” the driver said.

  “Could you take me there?” If he was home, maybe Luke could patch the tire for me.

  “No problem,” the younger girl said. “I’ll help you with the bike. I’m Naomi, by the way. And that’s Anna.”

  “Thanks so much. I’m Ella.”

  After we wrestled the bike into the back, I hopped up front, settling onto the bench.

  Naomi asked if I was related to the Klines. I said I wasn’t, but that I’d met Luke and hoped he could help me.

  “Have you met Thomas?” Anna asked.

  I shook my head.

  “Anna thinks he’s cute,” Naomi said.

  “You hush!” Anna was blushing.

  “And he is,” Naomi added, and then she laughed.

  “As cute as Luke?” I asked.

  Anna was laughing now.

  “Oh, well, they don’t look a thing alike,” Naomi said. “Tom is bigger, more muscular. And taller, even though they’re only a year apart.”

  Luke had appeared pretty tall to me.

  “But she prefers Luke,” Anna said, nudging her sister.

  “He’s definitely handsome,” I said, but I felt uncomfortable in the middle of the girls’ teasing.