The Amish Bride of Ice Mountain (7 page)

“All right, let’s go see about my vehicle.”

He’d housed his Expedition with an
Englischer
, Mr. Ellis, who lived down the road a short distance from the base of the mountain. He’d paid the man’s hefty price for the solid insurance that the vehicle would be kept in fine running condition until the end of his three-month stay.

He held Mr. Ellis’s gate for Mary and the monstrous dog, wondering how soon he could get the animal into a crate. Then he saw the blue Expedition, shining and sitting ready in the drive alongside the house, and forgot all about Bear. There was something to be said for the modernity of a fast vehicle and the prospect of driving again.

The front door of the old white home was opened, and Mr. Ellis, a short, older man with a bald head and a congenial attitude, appeared on the porch.

“So, you’ve come for your Beauty, have you? She’s doing fine.” There was pride in the man’s voice. “I’ve kept her well.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.” Jude nodded, anxious to load up and get moving.

“And what have you kept from your visit with the
Amisch
, Mr. Lyons?” Mr. Ellis gestured to Mary with a slight smile.

Jude spoke without thinking. “Someone worth keeping, Mr. Ellis.”

The older man laughed and tossed him the keys as Jude wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Mary’s gaze was distant and averted.

Chapter Nine

They had been driving for several hours when Mary clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m going to be ill,” she gasped.

In the fading light of the afternoon, Jude took in his wife’s situation at a glance. Her skin was an odd mixture of white and green, and it was obvious that she was beyond carsick.

He pulled off the grass-lined highway and came around to her side. Then he eased her with gentle hands out of the seat and knelt beside her until her stomach was purged. He offered her a clean handkerchief and brushed the loosened tendrils of her hair back from her face.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, sounding like a faint version of herself.

“Whatever for? You’ve never been in a vehicle before, right? We’ve been driving over four hours, and you know how sick I get when my blood sugar drops. Would you like to stop at a hotel or someplace and rest?”

“A hotel?” Mary’s pale lips quivered and Bear whined softly by her side.

Jude pulled her close for a quick hug. “No worries, sweetheart. I promise.”

 

 

Mary wished that she might have a shield of tree branches behind which she could hide—anything to keep out the stares of the men, women, and children in the hotel lobby. Instead, she clung with damp hands to Bear’s makeshift lead.

“Are you all right?” Jude asked low when she nearly stumbled against him.

“I feel like they might see through my clothes,” she admitted, glancing at the floor.

“Don’t put ideas in my head.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” He caught her close to him and marched them up to the large ornate desk with its marble counter.

Mary forced herself to keep her chin up as the man at the desk swept them with an appraising glance.

Do I appear so different? Or is it simply that I am with the professor—an
Englischer
? Surely the clerk has seen
Amisch
before, but then again, perhaps not, in such a place.

She sighed to herself and wriggled her toes in the uncomfortable shoes she’d donned, clutching her satchel closer to her, when another man from the hotel hovered, seeming to want to take it from her. Bear made a low sound and the man inched off.

“We’d like a nice room.” Her husband’s voice was level and confident as he addressed the clerk.

“We don’t take—um, dogs of that size normally, sir.”

Mary watched Jude casually slip a hundred-dollar bill from his wallet and pass it to the clerk. She was amazed at seeing such a large denomination of money and didn’t fully understand until she watched the man behind the desk pocket the bill with a swift, sidelong glance.

“Of course, sir, there are always exceptions. A suite or king-sized?”

“A suite, please.”

Mary’s head again whirled at the expense, but Jude seemed almost uninterested as he pulled a blue card from his wallet. She soon forgot everything, though, as her bag and Jude’s backpack were loaded on a gilded trolley of sorts, and they crossed the parquet floor together.

She couldn’t help but hear a little girl’s voice as they reached a set of sleek metal doors that made a strange binging sound periodically.

“Mama, what’s wrong with that lady? Why does she wear funny stuff? And look at that wolf!”

“Shhh,” her mother hissed. “She’s some sort of Amish or Mennonite. That’s the way they dress. And no, don’t ask to pet that thing.”

Mary wanted to speak to the child, but the metal doors slid open, leaving her to stare inside at a small, gaping box of a hole.

“Don’t be scared,” Jude whispered, pressing his mouth against her temple. “It’s an elevator.”

“Come on. I’ll hold your hand.”

She let herself be led inside, concentrating on his long fingers enveloping hers. Bear gave a gentle whine and Mary looked down at him in commiseration. But to her surprise, and despite her still-weak stomach, the ride wasn’t too bad as she felt them rise a few floors before the doors slid open once more.

Jude showed her the intricacies of sliding the key card in the lock, and then they were standing in the most ornate room she’d ever seen. She felt Jude watching her and turned to look at him with an arched brow.

“It’s amazing.”

“It’s a hotel room.” He laughed. “But I forget that all of this is new to you. What are you thinking?”

She shrugged, then spread her hands. “May I take my shoes off?”

 

 

Jude stared at the expensive array of vegetables on his plate. He and Mary were seated in the hotel’s elegant restaurant, and he knew he should be delighted with his wife’s interest in everything concerning their surroundings. But he couldn’t get past the heated flood of images that played through his mind from that afternoon when Mary had attempted to take a shower . . .

The strangled scream had been high-pitched and quick, and he’d flung open the bathroom door without knocking or thinking.

“Mary! What is it?”

The luxurious room was filled with steam and he bumped into his wife without being able to see her clearly.

“I got the water too hot for the shower and didn’t realize.”

He grabbed for her damp arm and hauled her back into the bedroom. He had been so frantic looking for scald marks that he didn’t even notice that she was naked until his heartbeat slowed and he jerked his hand from her thigh as if he’d been the one burned.

He’d bit out a curse and grabbed the end of the comforter from the bed behind him. Then, wordlessly, he’d bundled her in it, swaddling her from head to toe.

“Mary, I . . .” He hadn’t been able to think of what to say, and when she’d raised innocent eyes to him, he’d set her from him with a groan.

“Jude?”

“Next time, take a bath.”

“Jude?”

He shook his head and realized Mary had been speaking to him from across the dinner table.

“Is everything all right?” she asked in soft tones.

He shifted in his chair. “It’s fine. I’m thinking. How do you like the food?”

She smiled. “Well, it’s not like home, but I love it. I never thought of slicing yellow squash so that it looks like a pretty fan.”

“That’s because the
Amisch
know the value of good food served simply. This place treats vegetables like they’re paints on a palette.”

“But I like that—not that I’ve ever painted, of course.”

He considered her wistful expression. “Would you like to sometime? I think I can arrange that. My grandfather once loved to paint.”

She blinked her beautiful eyes. “Your
grossdaedi
? You’ve not spoken much of him before.”

“No, I guess I haven’t. He’s wonderful, really—the only one in the family who supported my going to Ice Mountain, in fact. He’ll think you’re great, I know.”

“And—the rest of your family? What will they think?”

He stared at her, wondering where to begin, then opted for silence instead.

Chapter Ten

After dinner, Mary followed him into the hotel lobby, which housed more shops than she’d ever seen in her life. She felt like she was walking in a dream of color and shine and staring faces. Jude’s obvious reluctance to talk about his family had left her drained and anxious, but she did her best to smile as he pulled her into a store with bright windows and women’s short dresses displayed on figures without heads.

“Let’s find you some comfortable shoes, sweetheart.”

She gave a rueful glance at the old-fashioned black shoes she wore and knew her toes were as pinched as they appeared.
“Jah, ”
she sighed. “I would like that, but—but I don’t think I want to change my
Amisch
way of dressing.”

He came to a dead stop and stared down at her. “I’d never ask you to do that, Mary. I know how important your plain dress is to your culture and who you are. Besides, I like the
kapp
strings.” He gave the white string closest to her heart a gentle tug, and she felt comforted by his understanding.

“You respect people—me—I mean.” She spoke the thought aloud and watched a look of tenderness cross his face.

“Thank you, Mary. I try, and I wish I could tell you more about my family, but—”

Mary glanced over his shoulder and he broke off as a tall woman in impossibly high heels and a very short dress approached them.

“Is there something I could help you with?”

Her words were polite sounding but Mary couldn’t help but notice the veiled look of speculation in her eyes as she watched them. Yet Jude was entirely at ease with the situation. Mary longed for the private and quiet shopping of Kauffman’s back on the mountain. Then she reminded herself that these very new experiences were why she was here and she decided to make the best of it.

“Shoes,” Jude said. “She needs a comfortable pair of black shoes, and nothing with a heel.”

The woman nodded. “She’s—I’m sorry, I mean you’re Amish, right?”

Mary decided the woman’s eyes weren’t cold but rather genuinely interested. “I am.”

The woman nodded as she half turned from them to lead the way toward a beautiful circular display of various shoes. “I’ve watched some TV shows about the Amish. It doesn’t seem like a fun life for a girl.”

Mary shook her head. “
Ach
, but I had great fun growing up
Amisch
.”

“How could you, though? I guess I could never see myself dressing like that and being happy.” There was a hollowness in her laugh, and something tugged at Mary’s spirit. She looked into the woman’s green eyes and found them sad in a way.

“But life is not about clothes and such . . . Of course, all of the things here are beautiful. And you are beautiful, but we have to find reasons to live beyond what we wear or how we look.” She trailed off, realizing she was attracting the attentions of other customers. She sought Jude’s eyes with an apology forming on her lips. But he simply watched her with a smile, one that entered her heart and made her feel glad.

The saleswoman sniffed. “I suppose you could be right, but fashion is my business. Now, what kind of a shoe are you allowed to wear? Only black?”

Mary realized the moment had passed for trying to speak of earnest things and concentrated on slipping her feet into the soft black “flats,” as the saleswoman called them. She lifted her skirt an inch to show Jude and wriggled her toes in the surprising comfort.

“I like them. We’ll take two pairs.” He lifted a finger when she would have protested at the excess. “This is my shopping trip too, Mrs. Lyons, and one pair of those dainty things will wear out a lot faster than Ben Kauffman’s shoe leather. So please accept them.”

Mary giggled and felt young and carefree as he paid, then took the bag, leading her from the store. They were back in the elevator when she remembered the saleswoman.

“I don’t think she was really happy.”

Jude looked at her. “Hmm? Who? Oh, the saleswoman. No, sweetheart, probably not, for one reason or another. But you’d better get used to it—in my world, feelings rule.”

“But what about the will and the spirit?” Mary asked.

He shook his head as the elevator doors slid open and they both heard what sounded like the loud howls of a wolf at bay.

“Let’s worry about your dog for now, Mary. I think he may be scaring away guests.”

She accepted the change in conversation somewhat gratefully, knowing his opinions on the matter of spirit were not much more favorable than his opinion of Bear.

She followed him down the hall to their room as the dog’s cries echoed with ghostly intensity and she felt she could understand the sound.

 

 

Jude fingered his cell phone, really looking at it for the first time in months, and thought what an odd piece of connection it was. He’d retrieved it from the Expedition glove box after Mary had gone to bed with a satisfied Bear in attendance. He’d recharged the phone, deleting month-old messages without listening, and wondered if he should call his family to tell them of their impending arrival the next day.

He could imagine how that call would go. His mother would need a therapy session, his father would make sure not to be home when they got there, and his grandfather would congratulate him. And Carol . . . well, Carol would kill him, plain and simple.

He put the phone down, deciding against any forewarning. For the hundredth time, he wished he hadn’t given up his apartment when he’d left, but the lease had been up. He’d rationalized at the time that he could stay briefly with his parents upon his return from Ice Mountain, then get a place to live near the university. Now he had a wife and a wolf and absolutely no idea what he was doing . . .

He glanced up as the adjoining door of the suite slid open and Mary appeared in one of her neck-to-toe nightdresses. Even completely covered, with her hair braided atop her head, she still managed to send his pulse racing.

“Can’t you
shlofa
?” she asked in a whisper, coming toward him. Jude recognized the golden shine of Bear’s eyes following her and sighed.

“No, I guess I can’t. To tell you the truth, I—I mean—we—are going to have to see my parents and—everyone at some point. I have books and things at their house. I’ll get us an apartment as soon as I can, but I was thinking that maybe we should stay at another hotel until we . . .”

“Nee.”
She laid a small hand on his arm and he breathed in the comforting scent of her closeness—lavender and the mountain all drifting together. “No, Jude. I want us to stay wherever you see fit, of course, but I’d love to get to know your family.”

“No, you really won’t love it once you know them.”

She laughed. “You got to know my
dat
.”

He had to smile and pulled her idly closer. “Your father is a good man—a loud man, but a good one.”

“And—your
dat
?”

He swallowed, staring into the shadows behind her head. “My dad is—who he is.”

“I’m sorry. I won’t press.” She moved to step out of his arms but he pulled her back.

“You’re very astute, little girl. I like that about you. I like what you said tonight to that saleswoman. You were right.” He bent his head to brush his mouth across her forehead. “Oh, Mary King, what have I done? Bringing you here?”

“We are wed.” Her voice was solemn and he realized how aroused he was becoming by her nearness.

“That’s right.” He spoke with abrupt haste, putting her from him and ignoring the quizzical growl from Bear. “You’d better go back to bed now. We’re in for quite a day tomorrow.”

He looked down, not wanting to see the confusion and concern in her pale face, and waited until the sound of the door closing let him know she had gone.

 

 

Mary burrowed her hand in Bear’s neck and tried to stifle the tears that swelled at the back of her throat. A wedding into a marriage? But how? How could she reach a man who seemed so distant at times? Then she began to do what came naturally and started to pray.

Dearest
Gott
, I need Your wisdom and guidance now. I’m going places and doing things I’ve never done and I get scared. But You know this . . . Ach,
Derr Herr
, let me become a wife to Jude, let me help him with his family, give him comfort . . . and
kinner
one day . . .

She opened her eyes wide in the dark. Where had the thought of children come from? And how could that girlhood dream ever become a reality when he had yet to even share his heart and life with her?
I must go carefully . . .
She allowed herself to be lulled by the thought and finally found the peace of dreamless sleep.