The Amish Midwife's Hope Read online

  A tall, elderly man approached the table, peered at the place cards on it, and gestured at the short, plump woman walking behind him. “Here, Mabel, I found our table.” He pulled out a chair for her and waited until she was seated, then grinned at Samuel and thrust out his hand. “We’re Frank and Mabel Hammond. Haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you.”

  Samuel stood and shook his hand. “I’m Samuel Miller and this is Rebecca Zook.”

  “Amish, eh?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Are you friends of the bride or groom?”

  “The bride. That is, Rebecca is friends of the bride.”

  Frank nodded. “My wife, Mabel, here is her aunt.” He squeezed her hand. “We’re both just happy as clams that Cassie found such a nice young man. She deserves some happiness after being widowed.”

  A waiter appeared and at Frank’s nod poured them glasses of wine. Frank took a healthy gulp and turned to Mabel. “Well, should we get something to eat? I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving,” she said, smiling at him fondly as she rose. “Been married to this man for sixty years. Never misses a meal.”

  They walked over to the buffet holding hands.

  “Sixty years,” Rebecca murmured.

  Samuel turned to her. “Hmm?”

  “They got sixty years.” She sounded amazed, with a tinge of sadness.

  He nodded. “I spent a lot of time wondering why I had to lose Ruth so soon,” he said quietly. “I finally realized I might never know.”

  They both sat in silent contemplation until Frank and Mabel returned. He carried two plates heaped with food and set them down so that he could pull out Mabel’s chair again.

  “Quite a spread they had there,” he said with satisfaction. He dug into a mound of mashed potatoes and gravy.

  “So are you Cassie’s friend who’s a midwife?” Mabel asked as she buttered a roll. “She said you share an interest in knitting.”

  “I am.”

  “Such a nice occupation. I had a midwife when I delivered our two children.”

  Frank didn’t say much as he ate. Samuel tuned out of the conversation Mabel carried on with Rebecca about knitting.

  The bride and groom visited the table as they finished their food. “Aunt Mabel! Uncle Frank! So glad you could make it.” Cassie hugged them, then grinned at Frank. “Did you get enough to eat?”

  “More than,” Mabel said wryly. “He’s finished two plates already, and if I know him, he’ll be going back again.” She shook her head. “Man has the metabolism of a racehorse.”

  Cassie laughed as she turned to Rebecca and hugged her. “I’m glad you could come.”

  “It was a beautiful ceremony.”

  “Thank you.” Cassie turned to him. “You must be Samuel. I’m happy to meet you.” She beamed as she gestured to the man beside her. “Rebecca, Samuel, this is my husband, Steve.”

  Rebecca gave Steve a warm smile as Samuel stood to shake his hand. “Congratulations to both of you and thanks for inviting me to the wedding.”

  “Did you enjoy the meal? Steve and I felt a buffet was the best idea after meeting with our wedding planner. This way everyone gets to choose what they like.”

  “I found plenty to like,” he assured her. “Even tried something called couscous. I think I might try cooking it sometime for my daughter.”

  “Wait until you try our wedding cake. It’s made of a little bit of everything.” Cassie turned to Steve. “I think it’s time to cut it.”

  They walked over to the elaborate cake set on a nearby table and posed for the photographer before they made the first cut. Samuel had never seen a cake with seven layers—each a different type of cake and separated with different fruit fillings. When slices were served to the guests, Samuel saw that it was made of a little bit of everything, as Cassie had said.

  “It seems like the cake is your favorite thing today,” Rebecca said as she began eating.

  “Being here with you is my favorite thing.”

  She blushed. “What a nice thing to say.”

  They enjoyed the music of a local band and watched couples dancing—including Mabel and Frank, who headed for the dance floor when the band played one of their slower songs.

  Samuel was having such a gut time he was so sorry when it came time to leave. Rebecca was quiet as they climbed into the buggy and began the ride home.

  “The roses smell wunderbaar,” he said as the scent filled the interior of the buggy.

  She buried her nose in the bouquet. “I think Cassie tossed it to me deliberately.” She placed it in her lap.

  Samuel knew the tradition of Englisch brides and the significance of a woman catching the bouquet.

  He discovered he didn’t know what to say, so he stayed silent. But he thought about the wedding and how he’d sat at weddings this season and recalled the day he’d married Ruth. He’d wondered if Rebecca had been reminded about her own wedding day, but right now he didn’t want to think about another man.

  All he wanted was to be with this woman who sat so close and yet felt so far from him right now. All he wanted was for her to think about him.

  A covered bridge loomed ahead. The Englisch had their traditions and customs but so did the Amish. He remembered how Rebecca had told him Amish couples sometimes stopped their buggies to kiss in the relative privacy of a covered bridge. He pulled back on the reins to stop Tom in the middle of the bridge.

  He turned to Rebecca, who sat facing him, her eyes wide, her lips parted. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rebecca heard a car horn honk.

  Startled, she jerked back and stared at Samuel. He looked as stunned as she felt. The car horn honked again.

  Samuel looked embarrassed as he called, “Giddyap!” and Tom began moving again. They rolled out of the covered bridge and Rebecca saw that it had begun snowing, a soft, gentle swirl of flakes falling from the sky.

  She heard Samuel clear his throat. “Are you warm enough? I have a buggy blanket in the back seat.”

  “Nee, I’m warm enough.” She didn’t need to touch her cheeks with her hands to know they were pink. He’d kissed her! And she’d kissed him.

  “Do you usually get snow this early?”

  “You never know in Pennsylvania. We’ve had snow at Halloween a few times.” She stared straight ahead. Why were they talking about the weather instead of the kiss?

  They traveled several miles in silence.

  Men, she thought. She took a deep breath and decided to plunge in. “Are we not going to talk about the kiss?”

  “Do I need to apologize?”

  “Of course not. It was obvious I wanted you to kiss me.”

  He grinned. “Yeah. I noticed.”

  She laughed and punched his arm.

  “I remembered what you said about covered bridges,” he told her. “It seemed like the right time.”

  “It was.” She sighed. “Today was such a nice day.” She stared down at the bouquet in her lap. “Danki for going with me. I had a gut time.”

  “Me, too. The wedding was quite different from Amish ones.”

  “Schur, in some ways. Cassie’s dress, the flowers—so much was fancy, but underneath it all, it was about two people making a promise to love and cherish each other.” She bit her lip. “‘Until death do us part.’”

  She shook her head. “I sat there listening to that part. And then, afterward, the Hammonds sat with us and talked about being married for sixty years.” She stroked the petals of a rose and felt her mood shift. “It just made me think about how some people are widowed and some stay married so long. I find myself going back to that same thought sometimes still.”

  He reached for her hand. “I’m sorry the wedding made you sad.”

  Rebecca shrugged. “Weddings, funerals. They stir up emotions in us. Not all sad. I didn’t mean that.”

  “It did make me remember that day with Ruth.” He glanced to his left as a car
passed them on the road. “I was nervous just before the ceremony. It was a big step. But then my dat reminded me that this was Ruth I was marrying.” He frowned.

  “What?”

  “I just remembered something he said.” He sighed. “He said now I’d get to spend the rest of my life with my best freund.” He shook his head. “How little we knew, eh?” He lapsed into silence.

  Well, she’d schur killed the mood, she thought.

  She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

  “Life’s not all happy moments. We’re not as young and inexperienced as we were back then but that’s not a bad thing. I’m grateful for the years that I did get with Ruth. They made me a better man. And I have Lizzie.”

  He frowned again and glanced at her. “I’m sorry. That was tactless.”

  “Nee, it wasn’t. It’s not your fault that I lost my boppli. And I’m glad you had Lizzie. She’s a very special kind.”

  “She—”

  Her cellphone rang, interrupting him. She pulled it out and read the display. “One of my patients,” she told him. “Gut-n-owed, Rose Anna. How are you doing?” She listened and then recited the instructions she’d given dozens and dozens of times. “I’ll be there just as soon as I can,” she finished. She disconnected the call and turned to Samuel. “Can you drop me off at Rose Anna and Luke’s house?”

  “Schur.”

  “What were you saying? Just as the phone rang?”

  “It can wait.”

  “You schur?” She had the feeling it had been important.

  “I’m schur. Let’s get you to the Troyers’. Sounds like you’ll be delivering a new boppli today. That makes two happy events, right?”

  “It does. Sorry if I got a little sad for a moment there.”

  “I like knowing what you’re thinking.”

  She didn’t know what to say to that. When he pulled into the Troyers’ driveway, she leaned over and surprised him with a quick kiss on the cheek before she slid out.

  Luke was surprised as well when he opened the door and saw her standing there with the bridal bouquet.

  “I caught it at the wedding I just came from,” she explained. “An Englisch freund got married today.” She handed it to him. “Take this in and show it to Rose Anna while I wash my hands. I’ll leave her a few of the roses when I go home.” She shed her coat and hung it on a peg by the door, then washed her hands before going in to see Rose Anna.

  She found her patient with her nose buried in the lush blooms. “These smell so wunderbaar. So, this means you’ll be the next bride,” she said with a grin. “That’s what the Englisch say, isn’t it?”

  “I think that’s just a superstition. My Englisch freund tossed it to me to tease me, I’m schur. People in love always want to see others married. I was on my way home from her wedding when you called. I thought you might enjoy looking at them until I go home.”

  “I’ve never seen a bouquet like this. You have to tell me all about the wedding. What was her dress like?” She grimaced as a contraction swept over her. “They’re six minutes apart.”

  She waited until the pain passed before continuing. “Was the bride’s gown as beautiful as her flowers? I’ve never been to an Englisch wedding. I’ve just seen pictures of them in magazines.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “Excuse me, ladies, I think I’ll go see if the kinner have done their chores.”

  Rebecca performed a quick exam and found Rose Anna almost fully dilated. “It won’t be long now.”

  So Rebecca entertained her with all the details of the wedding. She was nearly finished when Rose Anna grasped her hand. “Wait, I think you left out one important detail. Who did you go with? Don’t tell me you went alone.”

  “I asked Samuel Miller.”

  Rose Anna smiled. “I like him.”

  “I do, too. He and his dochder have become gut freunds of mine.”

  “Maybe more than gut freunds.”

  Rebecca just smiled.

  * * *

  Samuel drove home and thought about how he’d watched Rebecca climb out of the buggy, a bouquet in one hand, her medical bag in the other. He couldn’t help feeling disappointed that their afternoon had ended.

  He’d been on the verge of proposing when her cellphone had gone off. He shook his head. What timing.

  The decision to propose had come as a surprise but it felt so right. Well, if he truly believed God had a plan for him—and he did—then he had to believe today had not been the day he was supposed to ask Rebecca to marry him.

  So he went by Hannah’s and picked up Lizzie and did his chores. The routine of bath and a bedtime story was always a favorite part of his day, but tonight he found special comfort in it.

  Lizzie looked up at him and touched his cheek. “What’s the matter, Daedi?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re sad.”

  “I’m not sad,” he denied. “Just tired.” He yawned to prove his point, but she shook her head.

  “Didn’t you have fun at the wedding?”

  “I did.”

  “Did Rebecca?”

  He nodded but decided not to tell her about Rebecca catching the bouquet. He doubted she knew about the Englisch tradition that the woman who caught the bouquet would be the next to be married. But if he mentioned it, he’d have to explain and he didn’t want to get her hopes up.

  Suddenly it occurred to him that Rebecca could turn him down.

  He must have stiffened because Lizzie stopped reading and looked at him. “Daedi?”

  “Sorry, I just remembered I forgot to do something downstairs. Go on, finish reading.”

  He forced himself to concentrate on her reading and was relieved when she read, “The end.”

  “Can we read another story?”

  “We do three, remember? That was three.”

  With a sigh she handed him the book and slid down into bed. He put the book on her bedside table, then tucked her in and kissed her cheek.

  “See you in the morning.”

  “Night-night, Daedi. Leave the door open.”

  He walked downstairs, put his jacket on, and went out to the barn. Time to do his final check on the horses. As he moved around making schur they were settled for the night, he thought about Rebecca and wondered if they would be as blessed as Cassie and Steve.

  Closing the barn door, he headed back inside. He debated having a last cup of coffee and decided it might keep him awake.

  He wondered if Rebecca had delivered the Troyer boppli or if she was home. It was tempting to call her, but if he did, he might interrupt her at a bad time with the delivery. Or if she’d gone home, she might even be in bed. He wandered around the downstairs and finally pulled out his cellphone and texted her.

  Danki for inviting me to go to the wedding. I had a gut time. See you tomorrow?

  She texted back almost immediately. I’m glad you could go with me. I’m having supper with some of my familye tomorrow. Would love for you and Lizzie to join me.

  Familye. Hmm. He wasn’t schur if he was ready to have supper with a tableful of her family. Then he reminded himself that he’d met all of them at church. They were part of her life and if he wanted to be married to her, it was time for him to be comfortable with them and them with him.

  He took a deep breath and texted back that he and Lizzie would love that.

  And so the next day he found himself sitting at the big kitchen table sharing supper in Miriam’s house, surrounded by Rebecca’s boisterous familye.

  Lizzie barely ate, too fascinated by all the people and conversations swirling around her. She’d begged to sit near one of the boppli seated in a high chair and helped the kind’s mudder to feed her.

  No need to worry about Lizzie being happy if he asked Rebecca to marry him. She adored Rebecca and would undoubtedly be delighted to be part of this familye.

  But he still wasn’t schur if Rebecca’s familye was comfortable with him. Miriam and Katie Ann seemed
to like him, but as bowls and platters of food were passed around, he found her bruders eyeing him, and he didn’t blame them. He was still a newcomer to them.

  Eli, one of Rebecca’s younger bruders, asked what crops he planned to plant come spring and questioned whether he’d had success with them at his Indiana farm. That led to more interrogation from her other bruder Daniel until Miriam gently but firmly steered the conversation to Lizzie and how she liked schul.

  “I’m sorry my bruders were a little nosy with you at supper,” Rebecca said as they took the long way home after supper. “You won’t be exposed to that sort of thing often. I’m afraid I don’t get to see as much of my familye as I’d like since I work so much. That’s why my mudder tries to gather them up at a supper for me like this evening. I wish my other schweschder could have been there, but she moved to Indiana last year with her mann.”

  “I think your familye figured out I want to be more than freunds with you.”

  Rebecca glanced at Lizzie in the back seat. “I think she’s falling asleep.”

  “Not sleepy,” Lizzie said, her voice thick with tiredness.

  “She had a gut time running after all the kinner. They wore her out.”

  After a few minutes, Samuel looked back and saw that Lizzie had indeed fallen asleep. Maybe now was the time.

  “Lizzie has a big heart. A sweet heart,” Rebecca said before he could speak. She leaned back in her seat. “I forgot to tell you about the Troyer boppli. I was there for just a couple of hours and all went well. They have another sohn. Their third.”

  “That’s nice,” he said, trying to sound interested when he was doing his best to get up the nerve to ask her to marry him.

  “Oh look, someone’s having some trouble there,” she said as they drew near a car pulled over to the side of the road.

  An older man was getting a spare tire from the trunk. Samuel hesitated, then turned to Rebecca. “I should see if he needs help.”