The Amish Millers Get Married BOXED SET Books 1-3 (Amish Romance Book Bundle: The Way Home, The Way Forward, The Narrow Way) (Boxed Set: Amish Millers Get Married) (18 page)

Hebrews 4:12-13
.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Chapter 19
.

Esther passed in the shadows of the trees strung along the road. Unlike Jacob and Jessie Yoder, Esther had no partner to find comfort in, so she smoothed down her dress, held her head up, and tried to focus on her breathing on the long drive home, as tears welled up in her eyes. Hannah had tried to convince her that things between Jacob and Jessie were not as they seemed, and she remained convinced while Hannah was still with her in the buggy, but once she had left Hannah back at the quilt store, Esther was no longer so sure.

When she came around the last corner before arriving at her
haus
, her gaze fell upon a
mann
and his buggy silhouetted against the morning sun. As she approached, she saw that the
mann
was Jacob, and he was waving his arms urgently.

"Esther," he called, breathlessly. "Can we share a word? I really must insist."

Esther reined in her horse and got down from her buggy. She walked over to Jacob, where she stood and fidgeted under his handsome gaze. He had been waving to her frantically before she had stopped the buggy, and though Esther felt mighty silly for taking such a long time to realize her feelings for Jacob, she desperately wanted to know what was going on.

Jacob held out his arm. "Come on a walk with me, won't you?"

Esther said she would. There was a small creek nearby; the water as clear as a summer's day, and it bubbled pleasantly as it wound through the trees and the houses. Esther smoothed down her simple dress, watching as the sunlight through the trees dappled Jacob's golden skin. She had a million questions for him, but it was so nice to walk in silence for a time, especially after she had spent so much time in recent days thinking that Jacob was lost to her forever.

"I turned around as soon as I could," Jacob began. He reached up and plucked a leaf from the tree, rolling it through fingers hardened from years of farm work. "I don't think you understand, Esther. I really don't you think you understand at all."   

Esther looked at the ground. The earth was smooth, but occasionally she crossed the path of a stray rock or weed, and she did not want to take a tumble at this point in time. "Understand what?" she asked, stepping over a small branch.

"I am desperately and unashamedly in love with you."

Time seemed to freeze. Happiness was within her grasp, but one question remained unanswered. Esther's mind went back to this morning, when she saw Jessie Yoder in Jacob's buggy. Why was Jessie in his buggy, if they were not promised to each other? Why did John Graber think Jacob was buying engagement gifts for Jessie? What was going on?

"I don't understand," she said in a still, small voice.

"I know," Jacob's crooked smile lighted up his whole face. "I know. It is so confusing. Allow me to explain. This morning was not what you thought." He released the leaf and pulled a duck weed from the bank of the creek, peeling off its fraying ends as they continued their walk. "Jessie and I are not together. She fooled me, and I should have noticed sooner."

"She fooled you into dating her?"

"
Nee
, Jessie and I were never together. She only wanted you to think that she and I were together. I'm afraid she's been spinning lies to you the entire time. I told her to stop interfering with us. She promised she would, and then she asked me to take her this morning to pick up a chicken coop. I didn't see then that she had ulterior motives." 

"She had ulterior motives?" Esther parroted, trying to take in everything Jacob was saying. Could this be true? Could Jacob,
her
Jacob, truly be in love with her?

"Yes." Jacob's voice was grim now. "She wanted you to see her in the buggy with me, to fool you into thinking she and I were together. It was devious and cruel of her."

So Jessie Yoder had been playing them all this whole time? She was relieved that Jacob was available, but she was also disappointed in Jessie Yoder. It was never kind to play with people's hearts like that. She sent a silent prayer of forgiveness toward Jessie and released that into
Gott's
hands.

Esther turned to face Jacob. "But this morning, John Graber said he saw you buying engagement gifts for Jessie Yoder."

Jacob shook his head. "
Jah
, John saw me buying gifts, but they weren't for Jessie Yoder. I suppose he assumed that Jessie and I were courting as he saw the fuss that Jessie made over me at the barn-raising, and he jumped to the wrong conclusions. He was sitting next to me then, you know."

Esther nodded. "I remember." The two started walking again.

"I'm so glad you and Jessie aren't together," said Esther, quietly.

Jacob stopped walking. "You are?"

"Oh, Jacob of course I am! You've been honest with me, so now I'll have to be honest with you. I am sorry I didn't realize it sooner, Jacob, but I'm in love with you, too."

He dropped the weed and ran a hand through his hair, grinning down on Esther. "Are you sure?"

Esther smiled shyly up at him. "
Jah
, I am. I'm sorry it took me so long to know myself better." 

Jacob and Esther now threw themselves onto the ground by the side of the creek, sunlight pressing into their bare faces and hands. It was pleasant to sit here, to know that everything was working out for the best. Esther sighed. Only minutes ago she was sitting by Hannah in the
familye
buggy, crying at the thought of losing Jacob. Now she sat by his side, blissfully happy. Jacob talked away, and the sound reminded Esther of the bubbling creek, cool and pleasant to listen to. It did not matter what he said. It just mattered that he said it, and that Esther was the one who was there to listen. 

"Amos is in for a surprise," he was saying.

"My
mudder
too," replied Esther, quietly. She knew Amos wouldn't mind, and she already suspected he had eyes for her
schweschder
, Martha. A bird fluttered onto a nearby branch, hooting happily as the sun rose in the sky. "Noah and Hannah are in for a surprise too," Esther added, "although unlike my
mudder
, I'm sure they'll find this surprise a nice one."

The situation was coming to a close neatly. Amos would no longer be held as a suitable husband for Esther, her
mudder
would no longer bother her, and she may now marry a man who was kind and compassionate and hard working. She could not wait to tell Martha and Rebecca. She knew they would tease her endlessly, but now Esther would have Jacob by her side, to laugh with her at their friendly teasing from now until forever.

The End

Book 3. The Narrow Way
.

Matthew 7:13-14.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Chapter 1
.

After a morning of goodbyes, tears, and shuffling boxes, Martha Miller tossed her new house keys on her bed and searched through the apartment. The space was large and bright, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living area. There was plenty of room for all her treasures: even more when you considered that Martha had no treasures. With her footsteps echoing over the polished wooden floors, Martha moved to the refrigerator in search of a celebratory lunch. She found a block of moldy cheese and half a can of whipped cream, and though the meal was a far cry from the lemonade and meat pies of her childhood celebrations, Martha sat on the floor and nibbled the edges of the cheese, feeling the stir of adventure in her heart.    

Her housemate, Sheryl Garner, an
Englischer
who took the second and far larger bedroom, was working the whole afternoon. On the four occasions they had met, Sheryl struck Martha as a nice, although softly rebellious,
Englischer
girl. She had short hair that was pink on the ends, a nose ring, and lipstick so bright it would put the sun to shame. She had given Martha the keys that morning and told her to get comfortable. She also mentioned that tomorrow they would go shopping. Martha stopped nibbling on the cheese and looked down at her plain dress. She could wear the clothes of an
Englischer
now, the jeans and the shirts with the funny slogans, and although she felt a childlike glee at the very idea, she would miss the security of her simple dresses, her prayer
kapp
and bonnet, and her woolen cloak. She wondered what she might buy with the money stashed in the bottom of her purse.

Martha wanted to have a chocolate business, and she had started by selling her treats at the local farmers' markets. She had made enough from the venture to live in this strange new world for two months, although she really needed to find a job as soon as possible. Now she wondered who might take an Amish girl with little experience in jobs common with the
Englisch
. She was a very good cook, having taken after her talented mother in that department, although jobs like that were likely hard to find, and she was not qualified for anything else. Martha sighed. She was too busy thinking on the clothes, the chocolate business, and her job, that it was a second before she realized that someone was opening a window in the living room.

Martha froze as she listened to the person climb through the window, land on the floor, and start to move through the living room, only to collide with the sofa and fill the room with a string of curses. From her spot on the floor near the fridge, she could not see if it was her new housemate, although Martha suspected that Sheryl would use the front door. Panic set into her heart and sweat started to dapple her forehead.

"Anyone home?" The stranger's voice, a
mann's
, and very deep, echoed through the apartment. "I'm just grabbing the cups I left here last weekend, and then I'll get out of your hair."

Martha furrowed her brow. Did she have time to scuttle back to her bedroom, lock the door, and hide until the
mann
left? Before she had time to consider the idea properly, the
mann
stepped into the kitchen. He was young, with dark hair and large brown eyes, ripped jeans, and a shirt emblazoned with a guitar. Martha swallowed.

"You're not Sheryl." The
mann
stared down at the strange girl eating moldy cheese on the kitchen floor. "Unless you are Sheryl and I'm still extremely drunk."

"
Nee
. No, I'm Martha."

"Hello, Martha the mouse," he replied, holding out a hand. Although she hesitated for a moment, unsure about touching the hand of a strange
Englischer
boy, she relented and allowed him to help her off the floor. "I'm Gary. Sorry if I gave you a fright. I just live upstairs. Sheryl and I are friends. How long have you known her?"

"Not long." Martha quickly placed the cheese back in the fridge. The thought of anyone, let alone a young man with tousled hair and sleepy eyes, catching her sitting on the floor and eating made her shiver. "I'm renting the second room. This is actually my first day here. I only just now moved in."

"I know," said Gary, a lopsided grin spreading over his handsome face. "I'd have remembered you. Do you want me to grab some food from my apartment, or do mice only eat cheese?"

An hour later Martha sat across from Gary. On the table between them sat bowls of colorful Fruit Loops, toast, jam, scrambled eggs, and cups of orange juice. Martha had never eaten Fruit Loops before, and she felt her heart beating out a rhythm as the sugar roared through her system, although that might have been caused by the disheveled boy sitting across from her.  

"So what's the go, Martha? What do you do?" asked Gary, buttering his toast.

"I want to start a chocolate business. What about you?"

"Right on," he said, looking up from his toast and grinning. "Myself? I'm in a band. I play the drums. We've got a real different sound you know. It's authentic. Nobody's in it for the fame or glory, man. It's all about the music."

Martha was struck by how different
Englisch
and Amish boys were. Sun filtered through the windows, throwing a halo of yellow light around the pale Gary. The boys she had grown up with, like the Hostetler
bruders
, worked on the farm with their father as soon as they were grown, their bodies browning in the sun. Martha's good friend, Moses Hostetler, the third oldest of the brothers, would make Gary look like a ghost. Martha's mind drifted to wonder what Moses was doing at this exact moment.

"What are you doing?" she asked suddenly, watching Gary cut his slices of toast into triangles.

"Cutting toast?"

"But why don't you cut it straight down the center?"  

"Because I'm a rebel. You should check me out," Gary added, his mouth full of toast. "My band, I mean. You might like what you see." Then he glanced at his watch, slammed his fist on the table, and said, "Damn it. I'm late."

As he moved toward the window, Martha picked up the glass that Gary had toppled over and cried, "But what about all this food?" 

"You keep it, little mouse." Gary flung one leg over the windowsill and pulled himself onto the fire escape. Then he ducked his head back into the apartment. "I wouldn't want you to disappear before we've had a chance to get to know each other," he said with a wink, vanishing into the golden sunshine. 

Martha sat once more, wondering if all
Englisch
boys climbed through windows and lived on Fruit Loops, or if Gary was just as unique among them as he would be among the bronzed bodies of the Hostetler brothers. For the first time in her life, the world was not full of chores and dusty, but fresh and full of curiosities. Martha picked up a new slice of bread, and cut it into triangles.