The Amish Buggy Horse BOXED SET Books 1-3 (Amish Romance Book Bundle: Faith, Hope, Charity) (Boxed Set: The Amish Buggy Horse) (15 page)

Philippians
1: 19 - 20.
For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance,
as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

Chapter 12
.

Melissa jumped out of the buggy. "
Daed
,
Mamm
, this is Victor Byler. He's the
mann
that Raymond works for." She hoped her parents would make the connection. "He works near the agency's office and he brought me home as I wasn't feeling well."

"Are you all right?" Her
mudder's
face was full of concern.

"
Jah
, I'll tell you all about it later." To Melissa's relief, her
mudder
nodded, seemingly realizing that there was more to the story, and that Melissa was not comfortable to discuss it with all present.

"Thank you for looking after Melissa," Mr. Glick said. "Did you manage to drive the horse okay?"

Melissa winced. Her
vadder
clearly had not put two and two together. "Mr. Byler used to be Amish," she said. "Remember that Raymond told us?"

Mr. Glick stroked his baard. "
Jah
,
jah
, I think so."

"Please call me Victor." With that, Victor got down from the buggy. "I'll just call a taxi."

Mr. Glick was still looking thoughtful. "Raymond said that our bishop arranged the job for him and for him to stay with our
familye
members in this community."

Victor nodded.

"So that means you are on familiar terms with our bishop?"

"Matthew!" Mrs. Glick was clearly horrified at her husband's probing remarks.

Victor smiled. "Ich hab nix dagege."
I don't object
. "
Jah
, at times I have talks with the bishop," he added.

Melissa's stomach did cartwheels. Could that mean that Victor was considering returning to the Amish? Why else would he talk to the bishop? Or was it simply as he was talking over his past bad deeds that caused him to leave his community?

"You must stay for dinner." Mrs. Glick's tone was firm.

"Yes, you must." Mr. Glick's tone was equally resolute.

Melissa held her breath. This was too good to be true; a whole dinner spent with Victor - what could be lovelier? Plus her parents might get more information from him over dinner. Would Victor refuse? She held her breath and waited for his reply.

"
Denki
, that would be
gut
."

Melissa let out the breath she had been holding.

Her
vadder
clamped his hand on Victor's shoulder. "Come; we will attend to the horse."

Melissa looked back at Victor and her
vadder
leading Blessing to the barn. She knew that her
vadder
would extract information from Victor, but she knew just as well that she would not be party to that particular information. Melissa wondered why her parents had invited Victor to dinner. She knew that the fact that their bishop knew him would have cleared away any doubts as to his character, but that did not explain why they had actually invited him. Was it because they suspected that he might be interested in courting her? Surely not. He was still an
Englischer
after all, and had not given any indication that he intended to return to the community.

Melissa could not simply ask her
mudder
; that would show a lack of respect, yet when they were alone in the kitchen, Melissa told her
mudder
all about the incident with Anthony Pollard.

Mrs. Glick gasped, and her hands flew to her cheeks. "Melissa, you must stop working there right now. You must give your notice,
jah
?"

Melissa had been worried that her
mudder
would react in that way. "
Mamm
, I can't let down my boss. She'll be back soon, but until then, I’ll make sure I'm never at the office alone."

Mrs. Glick turned back to mashing potatoes. "I'll think about it, but I'm not happy with you working there any more."

Melissa nodded; in fact, she no longer enjoyed her work there. The filing had been enjoyable, but dealing with the difficult clients who were
Englisch
menner
was something else. Even though she would be back to filing when Irene returned, the incident with Anthony Pollard had soured her time at the agency. Melissa thought that she might in fact hand in her notice when Irene returned.

Her
mudder's
voice interrupted her thoughts. "Melissa, we were going to have Pot Pie, but with the guest, would you get the plate of sliced, roast beef and the plate of roast chicken pieces from the refrigerator, please?"

Soon Melissa and her
mudder
had the table laid with a plate of roast chicken pieces, a heaped plate of roast beef slices, bread that her
mudder
had baked that day, two large bowls of salad and three types of salad dressing, noodles, and a huge bowl of creamy, mashed potatoes, as well as the big pot containing Pennsylvania Dutch Pot Pie, also known as
Bott Boi
.

Before long, Mr. Glick and Victor came in the door. Melissa was suddenly shy. After the silent prayer, everyone tucked in, and there was no conversation for the first few minutes.

Finally, Victor spoke. "It's so
gut
to have Pot Pie again after all these years. It doesn't have carrots in it, does it?"

"
Nee
," Mrs. Glick said. "Many people do add carrots to Pot Pie, but my
grossmammi
, and her
grossmammi
before her, never did. I use their recipe: parsley, celery, ham, chicken and beef, with potatoes and square-cut egg noodles. I'm always making those noodles. Oh, and onion."

"It reminds me of my childhood," Victor said. He looked so sad, and Melissa's heart went out to him.

There was another prolonged silence, and Melissa figured it was because her parents did not wish to ask Victor questions, and so that did not leave much room for conversation.

"Talking of my childhood," Victor said, breaking the silence, "that palomino buggy horse of Melissa's looks exactly like a horse I had when I was a child."

Mr. Glick stroked his
baard
. "I doubt it would be the same horse," he said. "Blessing is only about eight years old."

Victor nodded. "
Jah
, I know it’s not the same horse; it’s just that the likeness is amazing." Before anyone could speak, he pressed on. "I miss horses. In fact, I miss living on a farm."

"Do you live in an apartment?" Mr. Glick asked.

Victor screwed up his face and nodded. "I live in an apartment over my business. It doesn't suit me at all; I'm not a downtown type of person. I'd like to live on a farm again, with horses, and chickens. I also want a dog, but I can’t have a dog while living in an apartment and working long hours."

When Melissa lay in bed that night, she could scarcely remember details of the dinner, except that Victor was reminiscing about his Amish childhood. Her
mudder
had not asked any probing questions at all, but Melissa knew that her
mudder
would get all those details out of Mr. Glick that night. After all, her
vadder
and Victor had been away outside for a long time, far longer than it would take to unharness Blessing and see to him.

Melissa let out a long sigh, and then turned over again. Sleep was eluding her.

Ephesians
1: 17 - 18.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

Chapter 13
.

Melissa adjusted her bonnet and smoothed down her apron, thinking with a smile that any other woman who would be going to dinner with Brian Adams would be putting on make up, an elegant outfit, and no doubt six inch, black stiletto heels. Melissa chuckled to herself at the thought. In contrast, her sturdy, black boots made a heavy, knocking sound as she walked down the steps of her
haus
. Outside, the cool evening air made wisps of her dark hair escape from her bonnet and flutter in the wind as she waited for the taxi.

Seated in the taxi, Melissa sent up a silent prayer to
Gott
to ask Him to help calm her bubbling nerves as she made her way to her destination. It was now four weeks since her boss, Irene Blackwell, had left in a hurry for Barcelona, and she still had not gotten a grip on her new workload.

Dealing with the agency's most difficult, and, needless to say, most demanding, clients was not something for which Melissa was cut out. It made her appreciate her hard working boss more than ever. Now, as she was driven downtown to meet Brian Adams, one of the agency's most difficult clients,
Gott
was the only One who could put her mind at ease.

Melissa knew exactly what she had to do; go in and find out exactly why Brian had not found a single, suitable match after two years as a client with the company. Melissa remembered that Milly had told her that Brian was a typical 'ageist.' Melissa had said, "I know his type to the T. There are a few clients just like him in the company. You know them: the older guy looking for a younger woman to show off as a new trophy to his work buddies."

Melissa did not, in fact,
know them
, but one thing she did know, was that she was not impressed by Brian’s type. She knew that she was in for a long night as she turned into the restaurant to meet him.

Despite her time working and training with Irene, Melissa was far from an expert on match making. Filing? That was another matter. She considered herself competent at that, but as for dealing with people face to face - that was indeed another matter entirely. Irene, on the other hand, always said that she absolutely loved her job and was thrilled when her clients found true love. Irene knew exactly how to figure out what her clients wanted and what to look for in potential matches.

Irene always said that some clients made it easy: they weren’t too fussy, but simply just wanted to find love, while others wanted an unrealistic combination of a
Victoria’s Secret
model, Martha Stewart, and a stripper named
Honey
, all sealed and delivered with a Masters Degree. Those were the clients for whom Irene said that she prayed for at church every Sunday. If only they realized that true love was a
Gott
-ordained, spiritual connection between two people, and not something that could be manufactured.

As Melissa made her way toward the entrance of the restaurant, she was crystal clear about her mission, and that was to find out why Brian was stuck with so many unsuccessful matches. She was also there to lay out all his issues on the table. The task itself seemed simple enough, but the latter she found somewhat difficult. While Irene found it easy to be bold, outspoken, and upfront with her most difficult clients, Melissa was somewhat uncomfortable dealing with
Englischers
, especially ones to whom she should be speaking about issues. Telling
Englischer
menner
that they had issues was a daunting prospect. How could she possibly be brutally honest?

“Good evening, Miss Glick, table for two tonight?” Melissa was at first taken aback that the restaurant hostess knew her by name. After all, she had only been there once, but it was the same restaurant that the agency had all their business dinners. Irene always took her clients there and now it was the “go to” restaurant for client dining. The staff and chefs knew the
Marriage Minded Agency
team by name and even had a special
Marriage Minded Agency
discount for staff when they dined with their clients.

Despite feeling like a fish out of water in such glamorous surroundings, Melissa had felt comfortable here throughout her dinner with Victor Byler, so hoped the same would be the case that night. The staff had been friendly and the familiar black and red modern décor, the very same colors as the
Marriage Minded Agency's
offices, helped to put her nervous energy somewhat at ease.

“Yes, thank you,” Melissa said, as she followed the waitress to her reserved seat in the corner. She fidgeted nervously with her bonnet and adjusted her apron before she sat down to read the menu.

After a while, she looked at the fancy, gold clock on the wall. Brian was already ten minutes late. No surprise there. Milly had told her that as the Chairman and CEO of a successful electronic company, Brian was used to having people wait on him. From his company staff, housekeepers, and drivers, Brian had been the man in charge ever since he inherited the multi-million dollar company from his father several years earlier. Milly had warned her that Brian Adams rarely apologized for his tardiness, and ran his company like a drill sergeant.

So far Melissa was highly unimpressed by Brian Adams. Their one meeting had not left her with a
gut
impression of the
mann
. The very thought of him made her edgy and uncomfortable. It was the exact opposite of how she had felt at her last business dinner with Victor Byler. It had been two weeks since her meeting with Victor, and she had not been able to get him out of her head. Her time with him was the most relaxed she had ever been with any of her clients, not that she'd had many clients. He was charming, respectable, and had a good sense of humor. Their conversation had been easy and pleasant.
If only Victor was Amish
, Melissa thought with a sigh. He had all the qualities she looked for in a
mann
, not to mention his chiseled, boyish good looks, wavy brown hair, golden flecked, hazel eyes, and that dazzling smile. It left a sting in her heart to know that she was there to help him find love with someone else.

But tonight was not about reminiscing over Victor. Tonight was about Brian Adams, and as he finally made his way toward her, she braced herself.