A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel (39 page)

“What are you doing sneaking back in the middle of the night?”

“I left as soon as my choir practice finished.” She clapped him on the back, then
stepped away for a long look. “I’ve missed you! You seem taller.”

“Maybe I’ve grown since the last time you were here.” He turned to nod to Mike. “Will
you come in for some hot chocolate?”

“No, thanks, Jonah. I’ve got to get back to Philadelphia.”

“We thought it would be better for Mike to drop me off tonight than in the morning.”

“You’re not staying in Halfway?” Jonah asked Mike. “Aren’t you coming to the wedding?”

“I’ve got classes in the morning. Besides, the church leaders are already upset with
Sadie about leaving. We figured it would only make things worse for her to have an
English friend at an Amish event.” He handed Sadie a duffel bag from the trunk. “But
my father will be here.”

Jonah nodded. “Adam and Mary will be glad to have the doc at the wedding.” All the
Kings were grateful for the help Mike’s father had given them over the years.

“I’d better go.” Mike smiled at Sadie. “Give my best to Adam and Mary. I guess things
will be changing around here.”

They already have
, Jonah thought. Change had swept through the farm like an autumn wind, shifting things
around while they were all sleeping. Sadie was now a visitor. Mary had moved her things
to the carriage house at the Bielers’, and Remy would be living here after today.
Remy would be the one in charge of the baking and the washing. Katie and Sam would
go to her with their bumps and bruises.

Ya, the winds of change were blowing through, and Jonah thanked Gott that he’d been
touched by changes, too.

Gott had brought him the love of a good woman.

Inside, Jonah added wood to the fire as Sadie took off her coat and settled into a
rocking chair. Jonah was curious about the way she’d changed. Not just her Englisher
blue jeans and sweater, but her hair, loose and obviously cut. No Amish girl would
take scissors to her hair.

“What are you staring at? Do I have food in my teeth?”

“I think you forgot your kapp,” he teased.

“Oh, my hair.” She scraped it back and began to braid it behind her head. “I still
have my prayer kapp. I was thinking of wearing it tomorrow, out of respect, but I’m
not going to dress Plain. I’ve made my decision, and I’m sticking to it. What do you
think?”

“I think the bishop is going to want to give you a scolding whether you wear a kapp
or not,” he said. Even though Sadie hadn’t been baptized, Bishop Samuel had made it
clear that she was not welcome to drop in and out of the community at will. One of
the conditions of her attending the wedding was that she would not be in the bridal
party or sit at the dinner table with a baptized member. “Bishop Samuel will be putting
the squeeze on for you to come back. He wants you back for good. We all do.”

“I might have to spend most of the reception hiding from Bishop Samuel.” With her
hair braided behind her, she looked more like her old self. She scooted her rocker
closer to the fire and reached out to squeeze Jonah’s arm. “It’s good to be home,
even if it’s just for two days. I have to get back Thursday for afternoon classes.”

“It sounds like you’re very busy in the city.”

“You know me.… I’m not so good at sitting around. But I get a lot of joy out of everything
I’m doing. My school hours, and singing with the choir, and being Katherine’s caretaker …”

He listened as she shared some stories of her life in the city. Now
that he saw Sadie with her new haircut and clothes, it wasn’t hard to imagine her
living among the English.

“The strangest thing is the way people have to plan to get their exercise,” Sadie
said. “They pay money to go to these little gyms and use machines. If they would just
walk instead of riding in their cars, they would save a lot of money.”

He smiled. “How’s Mike’s grandmother?”

“Good. Katherine and Mike are teaching me about good nutrition. I do miss cooking
for eleven people. Sometimes, when I go to make mashed potatoes for Mike and Gram,
they have to stop me from peeling the whole five-pound bag.”

“Old habits die hard.”

She nodded. “But I reckon I’ll get my chance to do plenty of cooking in a few hours.
Mary said the girls are getting up at four in the morning to get the fryers going.
Three hundred pounds of chicken takes a while.”

He glanced at the clock. Almost nine-thirty. “You’d better get to bed if you’re going
to be up for the cooking.”

“I don’t mind missing sleep for the chance to talk with you. I do miss times like
this.”

He caught a glimmer of sadness in her amber eyes. “The little ones still think you
might come back.”

She bit her lower lip and looked down at the floor. “I hate to disappoint them, but
I’m not coming back. I’m not an Amish girl anymore.”

When she looked up, tears glistened in her round eyes. “I’ve moved on, Jonah, but
I’ll always love the family I’ve left behind.”

“And we’ll always love our sister Sadie, no matter what the bishop says.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hands. “Look at me, a regular
crybaby.”

He looked back toward the fire. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

“It’s good to be home, but it’s difficult, too.”

He nodded. “I know the good and bad. You followed your dream, but you miss your home.
And we miss you, too. No one mucks out the stables as well as you did.”

She laughed through her tears. “I miss you, but I don’t miss
that
.”

His mouth twisted sideways at the memory of Sadie shoveling away in the stables, singing
her songs to the cows and horses in that beautiful voice Gott gave her. It seemed
like yesterday.

“I’m glad you’re happy, but I don’t want to think of you so far from home.”

“When you have a car, Philly isn’t so far. And I’ll always visit. At least, as long
as the bishop allows it.”

Jonah nodded. Whatever Sadie decided, he would always love his younger sister. In
his heart, she would always be welcome.

“And I’ve got news.” She put her hands on her hips. “Don’t say anything, but Mike
asked me to marry him.”

She looked so pleased, her eyes shining bright, that Jonah couldn’t help but grin.
“And I take it you said yes,” he teased.

“Of course I did. I can’t imagine living without him. We’re going to wait a year or
so until he finishes school. And that’ll give me a chance to get further along with
my school and music lessons. I’m making the most of the gift that Gott gave me, and
it feels right for me.”

“Good.” That would make three of his siblings married. He hoped to make it four once
wedding time came around next fall. “Mike’s a lucky fella.”

Sadie stopped rocking. “And what about you? Why do you look so different to me?”

“Because you’ve been away too long?” he asked. “Or maybe because I have a secret of
my own.” He hadn’t planned on telling
her about Annie, but then he didn’t know when he would see her again.

She gasped. “What’s your secret? Now you have to tell me for sure.”

Jonah got up to tend the fire. It was a little awkward talking to a sister about these
things. “I’m hoping to get married next year, too.”

“Praise be to Gott! You’ve found someone.”

He nodded. “Annie Stoltzfus.”

Sadie clapped her hands together. “I always thought you had your eye on Annie. Does
Mary know? She’ll be so glad to have her best friend in the family.”

“Mary and Gabe know. No one else … unless they’re all guessing, the way you did.”
He looked up from the fire. “Am I that easy to read?”

“To your sisters? Ya. But don’t you worry. I’ll keep your secret as long as you want.”

“Maybe it won’t be so long. Mary has me paired off with Annie for the wedding.”

“So people will start to notice tomorrow.” Sadie grinned. “I’m so very happy for you.
Where do you think you and Annie will live?”

He laughed. “Well, first we’ve got to get married, of course, and I haven’t asked
her yet. But I reckon we would live with Annie’s parents. I’ve been helping out with
the sheep and the harvest ever since Aaron had that heart attack. There’s plenty of
work to be done there.” He hadn’t really thought about it, but he would be very comfortable
living on Stoltzfus land and continuing to run the farm. He and Aaron had developed
a good rapport. He felt needed there.

“Mike was right,” Sadie said. “So many changes going on here.”

“Ya, but good changes.” He gave the fire one last jab as he thought of the months
ahead. This time next year, Gott willing, he would be getting married himself. “ ‘To
everything there is a season,’ ” he said, thinking aloud.

“ ‘And a time for every purpose under heaven,’ ” Sadie answered.

“I used to worry that I’d grow old alone,” he confessed. “Old man Jonah, too old to
go to the singings anymore.”

“See how you worried for nothing? Gott has a plan for us. Just as He brings every
new season, He’s brought a season of love for us.”

Jonah would always think of autumn as Gott’s season of love.

R
ain beat against the windshield of the King carriage the morning of the wedding, as
Jonah drove Annie and her parents there. The ceremony would be in the Beilers’ barn,
then everyone would move down the road to the Kings’ place, as no single farm could
accommodate both events for five hundred people.

“Another gray day,” Annie said brightly. She didn’t mind the bad weather one bit when
Jonah was beside her. “Good thing we’ll all be snug inside at the wedding.”

“Only you can make a rainy day sound cozy,” Jonah said, one brow lifting in a wry
expression.

“How you doing back there, Dat?” Annie asked.

“I’m good, Annie girl. Grateful to Gott that I can go along today.” Dat was allowed
to attend the festivities as long as he took it easy, stayed off his feet for most
of the time. Although the doctor had warned Aaron to get medical attention at the
slightest twinge of pain, the slow improvement Annie had seen in the past weeks had
reassured everyone in the family.

Still, driving was out of the question, so Jonah had offered to take care of that,
and Lovina had agreed that the family would be better off in two carriages so that
Aaron could rest in quiet if he needed to. Annie was glad her dat could attend, and
ever so grateful to Jonah for driving them. Since they were both attendants and Jonah’s
family was hosting the reception, Annie knew that he had many extra chores to see
to—including clearing out all the furniture downstairs so that dining tables could
be set up in the bedroom, kitchen, and living room.

Humming, Annie looked past the droplets of rain wiggling down the window to the river
that ran parallel to this section of the road. “Look at that,” she said. “I’ve never
seen the river so swollen.”

“Good thing we don’t have to go across the covered bridge,” Mamm said from the back.
“People have been talking about it at the tea shop. They say the water level is almost
up to the bottom of the bridge.”

“It’s no surprise, with all the rain we’ve been having,” Dat said.

“I was crossing the bridge last week on the way back from Paradise, and I saw some
inspectors from the county checking it over.” Jonah’s voice was soothing, but Annie
noted the undercurrent of concern. “They said they were worried about the stability
of the structure when the river crests.”

“I pray it doesn’t get damaged,” Mamm said. “It’s such an old bridge.”

Jonah nodded. “But all this rain, it’s got to go somewhere. Our pond at home has grown
so high that it’s taken over the marshes. Have you ever seen such a rainy season,
Aaron?”

“Not that I can remember. But it’s not just the rain. Remember how the wind took part
of our roof at the end of the summer?”

“That crazy storm!” Annie smiled; that was the storm that had brought Jonah to their
house to lend a hand on repairs. “I thought I was going to take off like a kite in
the sky!”

Her parents chuckled behind her. “And no wonder,” Lovina said. “You’re such a wisp
of a girl.”

“Wisp or not, no wind should be strong enough to send a girl flying through the air,”
Annie insisted.

“Let’s hope not,” Jonah said. He lowered his voice, adding, “I had a hard enough time
catching you on the ground.”

Annie giggled.

“What was that?” Dat called from the back.

“Jonah’s just trying to make me laugh again,” Annie answered.

“He does a good job of that,” Aaron said.

“Ya, he does.” Annie turned to Jonah, thinking how blessed she was to have found a
man who loved to make her laugh. Mamm always said that laughter was the closest distance
between two people. Now, at last, she understood what Mamm meant.

It was customary for the bridal couple and their attendants to be seated a full two
hours before the ceremony because everyone wanted to come by and shake hands with
the wedding party before sitting down.