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) (20 page)

After Jacob ate what appeared to be a mountain of food, he said goodbye to Esther and made his way back to work.

“What are you doing, Martha?”

Martha swung around from the sink where she was washing the dishes, to see Esther standing there, and a little color was back in her face. Martha quickly pulled out a chair from the table for Esther. “Sit here. Do you feel any better?”

“
Jah
, I always feel better at this time of day and then I think that I’m never going to be sick again. Then it starts again in the mornings.” Esther pulled a face. “Sometimes cooking smells make me a little nauseous as well.”

Martha patted Esther on the shoulder. “I’ll make us a meadow tea.” She was grateful to have this quiet time with her
schweschder
. Since Esther had married Jacob they had hardly spent any time together at all and it was the same since their oldest
schweschder,
Hannah, had married. “Your
boppli
and Hannah’s
bopplis
will all be a
gut
age to play together when they get older.”

Esther patted her tummy, which was barely any bigger than normal. “
Jah
, Jakob and I want to have quite a few
kinner
.” Esther looked up at Martha. “What about you, Martha?”

“Do I want
kinner
?” Martha turned away from her to tend to the tea.

“
Jah
, or do you just want to sell your chocolates?” Esther chuckled.

“You must be feeling better if you’re able to laugh at me.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll be serious. I know you want
kinner
, but do you want to have many?”

“I’ll have to find a
mann
first, but I would like to have only two or three
kinner
, not a whole bunch.”

Esther nodded, and there was a twinkle in her eye. “I’ve hardly had any time to talk with you, but I remember you did mention that you’d met a nice
Englischer
. Is there anything happening with him?”

“We’ve been out a couple of times, so we’re just taking things slowly.” Martha found it hard to speak to any of her
schweschders
about dating an
Englischer
. They had never been on
rumspringa
so they would never be able to understand the things that she was going through or what it was like to date an
Englischer
.
Englisch
menner
were so different to Amish boys.

“I see. That’s probably best. But what about Amish boys? Surely there’s a nice Amish boy that you like?”

Martha set the cup of meadow tea in front of Esther and sat opposite her. “
Nee
, there are no Amish boys I like, not in that way.”

“Hmm. I thought you'd say that." Esther looked up at Martha and chuckled. "I didn’t even know that I liked Jacob; it was just something that seemed to happen all of a sudden, even though I'd known him nearly my whole life. Don’t let an opportunity pass you by, Martha."

1 Thessalonians 2:13.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Chapter 4
.

Martha sat opposite Gary Wright, her neighbor in the upstairs apartment, at a restaurant. She had taken Sheryl's advice, and told Gary she was having dinner with him "just as a friend." She didn't want to give Gary the wrong idea. He was a handsome
Englischer
and seemed nice, if not a little unusual, and she had always wanted an
Englischer
boyfriend, but she had never dated before and knew that the
Englisch
dated differently from the Amish.

Sheryl had advised her to allow Gary to pay for her, and although Martha had thought that was not a good idea, Sheryl said that was the way it was done. Sheryl had even insisted that Martha borrow her clothes. Martha felt a little uncomfortable in the sky blue, sleeveless, double belted dress which clung to her figure. It was a little above her knees but thankfully had a modest neckline. It showed off far more skin than Martha was comfortable with, but she was determined to look like an
Englischer
. Sheryl had informed her that it was a Calvin Klein dress, but Martha had no idea what that meant. Sheryl had even insisted that she borrow a pearl necklace and matching pearl earrings. Martha had tried to refuse on the basis that they were too expensive, but Sheryl had assured her that they were cheap and fake.

Sheryl had done Martha's hair with an instrument that Sheryl called a curling iron, and had done her make up. Martha was afraid she would look like a clown, but gasped with delight when Sheryl finally allowed her to look in the mirror. Her long, chestnut hair fell about her in waves, and the makeup was subtle. In fact, it didn't look so much like make up, more like an even skin tone and glowing skin. Martha allowed herself a small prideful moment; after all, she was living as an
Englischer
now.

Martha turned her attention back to Gary, who was studying the menu. He was more handsome when he wasn't speaking, as he loved to pull silly faces or make exaggerated expressions when he was talking.

Gary looked up and saw Martha watching him. "I'm paying for you, Martha, if that's okay?" When she nodded and thanked him, he added, "And you don’t have to pick the cheapest thing on the menu to be polite. That's what I did when I was a student and people paid for my dinner." Gary laughed loudly and slapped one hand on the table, causing other patrons to turn and look at him.

"So what do you do, Gary?" Martha asked. "Are you a musician, or do you do something else?"

Gary looked affronted. "No, I wouldn’t make money out of music; that wouldn't be right. I'm an accounts executive."

"Oh." Martha had no idea what an accounts executive was, but it did sound impressive. Gary was dressed better than usual tonight too, not in the same shabby clothes he wore around the apartment.
Well, why would he wear the same clothes all the time?
she scolded herself.
Moses wears farm clothes most times, but he wears good clothes to church meetings
. Still, Martha didn't care what someone wore; it was what was inside that counted.

If only Moses was an Englischer
, Martha thought. She'd had a crush on Moses for years, but was determined to make her way in the
Englisch
world. She knew that Moses would never leave the Amish. He wouldn't even go on
rumspringa
, despite the fact that his oldest
bruder
, Noah, had. Moses said he was just wasn't interested.

Sitting there, Martha could not help herself making comparisons between the two men. Gary was pale and slender, and had soft hands. By contrast, Moses was broad-shouldered, tall and thick set, with big muscles from all his farm work. Moses set her heart aflutter, whereas Gary had no effect on her whatsoever. Still, one of the television shows that Sheryl made her watch said that women take a while to be attracted to a man. Martha was determined to give Gary a chance.

Martha looked around the restaurant. There were as many
Englischers
here as there were Amish eating in a shift after a Singing, but here, men and women were eating together. Instead of gas lighting, there was electric lighting which was turned down to promote a cozy ambience, but it still felt harsh to Martha. There were heavy, gilt mirrors everywhere, and Martha felt herself looking at them constantly. She had barely seen a mirror in her entire life, and it seemed that the
Englisch
world was full of mirrors of every shape and description.

The wall behind Gary was glass and presumably designed to afford patrons a clear view of the wine cellar. Martha's community didn’t drink, although people on
rumspringa
were allowed to drink. Martha didn’t feel comfortable drinking so declined when Gary asked her if she'd like some wine.

"You don’t mind if I drink then, do you?" Gary asked.

"No, of course not." Martha was relieved that Gary didn’t ask her any questions about not drinking.

Martha looked down the menu. Everything looked so fancy. She'd never been to a restaurant before and had been looking forward to the experience, but now she was a little daunted.

"You can’t decide?"

Martha looked up at Gary. "No, it's a bit different from Amish food."

Gary scratched his head. "Well, do you like chicken?

Martha nodded.

"Well, there's the grilled chicken, and it has mozzarella cheese, olives, roasted red peppers, and pesto sauce. If you like chicken, that would be a good choice." He stabbed his finger at the menu. "Oh and you could try the marinated, grilled shrimp. It has some sort of sauce - I don’t know what the Italian word means so it’s anyone's guess what type of sauce - and roasted garlic and Edam cheese. It has roasted red peppers, too. What do you think?"

Martha wasn't sure. She had intended to be adventurous, but there were so many strange looking choices. "I'll have the chicken, I think."

Gary nodded his approval. "Wise choice."

When the meals arrived, Martha shut her eyes and bowed her head for a minute. When she looked up, she saw that Gary was staring at her. "I was giving thanks to
Gott
for the meal," she said by way of explanation.

"You could've said it aloud if you’d wanted. There's no one close."

Martha hurried to explain. "Oh, it’s not that. It's what we always do. We offer up a silent prayer before and after a meal."

Gary raised his eyebrows. "After too? That's cool. Go ahead then."

"Um, I've already prayed," Martha said. She found Gary a little strange. However, he appeared to be relaxed about everything, but she wasn't entirely comfortable with him like she was with Moses.
It's probably because he's an
Englischer
, she thought. Gary also often seemed to go off into his own world, staring into the distance with a dreamy expression on his face. Martha supposed it was because he was an artistic type.

Gary was in one of his moments now, so Martha took the opportunity to study the restaurant again. The walls were painted a golden yellow with some sort of paint effect which made them look like real gold in the reflected light. The tablecloths were white over an underneath dark blue tablecloth.
They must be doing laundry every day with these white tablecloths
, Martha thought.
They'd get awfully messy
. The opulent curtains looked expensive and were of shiny olive green, matching the tall, elegant water bottles on each table.

The chairs were upholstered and remarkably comfortable.
I wish the benches at church meetings were as comfortable as this
, Martha thought, wondering if she would ever attend an Amish church meeting again.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Martha looked up into Gary's inquisitive face. "I was just thinking how different this all is to my old world."

"Different bad or different good?"

Martha shrugged. "I don’t know. Neither, I suppose - just different." She expected Gary to pursue the subject but he just looked off into the distance again.
He's nothing like Moses
, Martha thought.
I can talk to Moses for hours and never run out things to say, but it’s tense and a bit awkward with Gary. Still, I've hardly known Gary long at all. I'll have to get over Moses if I'm going to live in the Englisch world; he'd never leave the Amish
. And with that, Martha resolved to give Gary a chance; he was a handsome and thoughtful
Englischer
, and if she pined after Moses, she'd just end up back with the Amish.

"Gary, do you believe in God?" she blurted.

Gary jumped a little. "Yes, I thought I told you."

"No?"

"Yes, I said I play in a worship band."

Martha couldn't see the connection; she had no idea what a worship band was. She didn’t know whether to ask outright or to pretend she knew what he meant, but finally asked, "What's a worship band?"

"I play at church every Sunday." Gary stared at Martha, and then continued. "At our church, we have a band, for the praise and worship songs."

"You sing to music? What sort of music?"

"All sorts. We have slow music, but we have fast and loud music too, with drums. We're happy clappers."

The waiter returned to take their dessert orders. Martha again decided not to be daring and selected a strawberry sponge cake soaked in sweetened condensed milk and topped with cream, while Gary chose Red Rose Chocolate Layer Cake.

"Happy clappers, is that what you said?" Martha had never heard the term; the
Englisch
churches sounded very different indeed and quite complicated.

Gary laughed. "That's what some other churches call us. We're Pentecostal; I go to an Assemblies of God church."

"Oh. So it’s not a Catholic or Baptist church?"

"No." Gary chuckled. "Would you like to come along one day and see for yourself?"

"Oh yes, I’d love to. Thanks."

Perhaps I will like Gary's church
, Martha thought.
I will have to find a church to attend if I'm going to be an Englischer
. Her thoughts turned to Gary.
It's gut that he believes in Gott and goes to church
, she thought,
but he's so different from Moses. I need to find an Englisch mann who is just like Moses
.