Finding the Way (The Amish Millers Get Married Book 5) (2 page)

“
Nee
, I understand,” Benjamin said.
“Your
daed
and your
mudder
had you, and then your
daed
passed away, and your
mudder
remarried Samuel
Beachy, the
mann
who you’ve always thought was your
daed
.”

Sarah nodded and twirled the pretty, blue
flower around between her fingers. “It was such a shock to me,
right after
Mamm
dying, and then finding out that he was not
my biological father. Such a shock,” she repeated.

Benjamin shrugged. “Is that why you left, so
suddenly?”

Sarah stomped her foot. “
Jah
! They
both lied to me all these years. Why wouldn’t they tell me the
truth? I don’t even know the name of my real
vadder
.”

Galatians 2:20.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me.

Chapter
3

Nash Grayson, or Eli Flickinger as his
parents still called him as it was his birth name, was fascinated
by the person of Jessie Yoder. At first he thought she was a humble
Amish girl, but that idea was rudely squashed when she first opened
her mouth and ordered him in no uncertain terms to get out of the
way when she was vacuuming.

Most afternoons, Nash made his way down to
the ruins of an old, stone cottage which sat on the slope below the
B&B. He liked to sit and ponder his next money making scheme.
He still owed a considerable sum to book makers from gambling on
racehorses, and his ungrateful, selfish parents still refused to
pay his gambling debts; he had no idea why.

Every day, Nash smelled the lingering smell
of smoke, and occasionally found cigarette butts. At first he
thought it was the
Englischer
guests, but there had not been
any
Englischer
guests for two days and he had found a fresh
cigarette butt only that day. He doubted it was the do-gooder
Benjamin Shetler, so the one suspect who remained was Jessie
Yoder.

Nash decided to catch her in the act the
following day, and all he had to do was change his routine and get
up early. And so, that lovely spring morning, he hid behind the
stone walls and waited for the cigarette smoker to come.

He did not have to wait long. Nash’s stomach
tensed with excitement as he heard stones crunch underneath boots.
He waited until the sound stopped, and then leaped out to confront
the cigarette smoker.

“Gotcha!” he yelled, waving his arms in the
air.
Jessie Yoder, just as I thought
.

She looked startled, but then took the
cigarette from her lips and blew a long stream of smoke in his
direction. “What are you going to do about it?” she said
slowly.

Nash was shocked. He expected her to look
guilty, or at least worried, but she did not, and what’s more, her
tone was bordering on rude. He had to admire the way she brazened
it out. “I’ll tell someone,” he said.

Jessie laughed. “Who are they going to
believe, you, or me?” She waved her hand up and down in his
direction, gesturing to his clothes and tattoos.

Nash had not expected that reaction. “Well,
um
, smoking is the wrong thing to do.”

Jessie took another drag. “What’s it to you?”
she said rudely. “It’s none of your business.”

Nash was quite put out. He had been expecting
the culprit would be guilty when caught. For the first time in his
life, he was speechless.

Jessie had not finished with him. “You’re an
Englischer
now, right?”

Nash nodded, wondering where she was going
with this.

“So you have mirrors, right?”

Nash nodded again.

“Go have a look in the mirror. If you don’t
see the bishop looking back at you, that means you’re not the
bishop. So if you’re not the bishop, and you’re not my
vadder
, you can’t tell me what to do. Mind your own
business.” With that, Jessie flicked her cigarette butt at his
feet, and then walked off.

Nash was crestfallen. He had been bested by a
girl, and an Amish girl at that.
She’s attractive for an Amish
girl, though
, he thought.

After a time of contemplation over how
everyone was mean to him for no good reason, Nash made his way back
to the B&B for some coffee and whoopie pies. Getting up so
early this morning had made him hungry. If he sneaked into the
kitchen, he should be able to score some food, if that greedy
Benjamin Shetler hadn’t eaten it all. Jessie was pinning washing on
the line, so he wouldn’t run into her again.

Nash crept along the corridor, inhaling the
scent of freshly brewed
kaffi
, but the sound of his parents
whispering in the kitchen pulled him up in his tracks. He tiptoed
to the closed door and put his ear against it.

“It was the bishop’s wife, Fannie Graber, who
let it slip,” his
mudder
said. “It made me wonder if Sarah
Beachy is, in fact, the adopted
dochder
of Samuel Beachy,
who left our community to marry a widow with a
boppli
.”

“That would be a bit of a coincidence
though,” his
daed
said, “for Sarah Beachy to meet Martha
Miller in jail of all places, and then even end up staying with the
Millers.”

“Perhaps it was
Gott’s
plan,” his
mudder
said. “Not a coincidence at all.”

Nash was unable to hear anything else as his
parents lowered their voices even more, so he decided on the bold
approach. He opened the door and marched straight in. “No need to
stop talking when I come in,” he said, noting that his parents
exchanged guilty looks. “What were you talking about?”

“Nothing,” they both said, and both left the
room in a hurry.

Nash shrugged.
Thank goodness they’ve
gone
, he thought.
I won’t get into trouble for eating all
the food
. He decided to make coffee and eat some sandwiches.
If only I were in the city, I could go to a café and get a
proper coffee, not this strong, bitter stuff. Still, it’s free
,
he thought, spooning several spoons of sugar into his mug. His
stoneware coffee mug was white, with a black horse and buggy and a
black windmill. “How quaint,” he said aloud, with as much sarcasm
as he could muster. “I’ve got to get out of this dump of a place as
soon as I can.”

Yet, a small, niggling thought ate away at
Nash.
If I leave here, I’ll be leaving Jessie
. Nash shook
his head to try to dismiss the thought from his mind.

After Nash ate all the sandwiches in the
refrigerator plus a copious amount of soft pretzels with homemade
mustard, he poured himself some more coffee and took it to his
room. He sat on the edge of his bed, pulled out his cell phone and
looked at it.
I must get to the bottom of this
, he thought.
What has Sarah Beachy got to do with the Millers?

Nash could not remember anyone named Samuel
Beachy from his community, but if Samuel Beachy had left when Sarah
was a
boppli
, then Nash would have been a
boppli
too.

Nash stroked his chin. One of his old friends
was still on
rumspringa
. He would call him and ask him to
find out everything about Samuel Beachy. Nash was sure there would
be some way he could use this to his advantage. If nothing else, it
would lift the boredom which had so rapidly descended upon his
life, being stuck living with his parents in the boring
countryside, surrounded by boring Amish folk.

Romans 8:38-39.

For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord.

Chapter
4

Sarah sat awkwardly at the large, wooden
table in the bishop’s wife’s kitchen. She was worried on two
counts, and both with good reason. Fannie Graber, the bishop’s
wife, had invited the
youngie
to lunch, and Fannie was known
for her strange food choices. This was also the first time that
Sarah would see Benjamin again after that day by the pond, when she
had told him that her real
vadder
had died when she was a
boppli
, and, more to the point, when she had fallen and he
had caught her in his arms.

Fannie’s ample frame bustled over to the
table. “Here, have a little something to eat while we wait for the
others to arrive,” she said, setting plates of what looked like
raisin bars in front of Sarah and the other young people.

Sarah was used to Fannie’s food, so asked,
“What is in them?”

“Why they are raisin and raw liver bars,
dear,” Fannie said, as if she were stating the obvious. “Very good
for you, high in iron. Eat up.”

To Sarah’s relief, the door opened and
Benjamin, Nash, and Jessie all arrived at once.

Sarah stared in puzzlement at Nash; after
all, he was an
Englischer
now, and not one of the
community’s
youngie
, but then, Fannie Graber was a kindly
soul and probably thought that Nash was simply on
rumspringa
. And he might still be, for all she knew, Sarah
reminded herself. Sarah noted that Nash had removed his piercings,
and had rolled down his sleeves to cover his tattoos, despite the
day being warm.

As they took their places at the table, Sarah
wondered about the pungent perfume that hung around Jessie. Surely
she hadn’t taken to wearing perfume, and if so, why such a
distasteful one? Perhaps Jessie had brushed up against an
Englischer
guest’s car at the B&B, as the scent had
somewhat of a stale, mechanical smell.

Sarah looked up from her musings over Jessie
to see Benjamin staring at her. He looked away at once.

Fannie was clearly delighted that all her
guests were there, and set many plates of sandwiches on the table.
All her guests looked aghast, and opened the sandwiches to look
inside them. “What’s in your delicious sandwiches today, Mrs.
Graber?” Jessie asked with no obvious trace of sarcasm.

“Those ones are plain sugar and pickle
sandwiches; those ones are chocolate spread and blue cheese; those
ones are anchovy and marmite. Now excuse me a moment; I’ll just
fetch the pea and ham soup.”

Everyone looked at each other then all
reached for the sugar and pickle sandwiches and put them on their
plates. When Fannie returned with a large soup tureen, Jessie
asked, “What’s in the soup?”

“Why I told you, pea and ham, dear.”

Sarah tentatively ladled some soup into her
bowl and tasted it gingerly. It did taste like pea and ham soup
after all. She let out a sigh of relief, but then saw funny little
things floating inside the soup. She fished one out and looked at
it. It looked like a cashew nut. “Is this a cashew nut, Mrs.
Graber?”

Mrs. Graber looked at Sarah as if she were
somewhat silly. “Yes, of course, dear; I already just said twice
that it was pea and ham soup.”

Oh well, it could be worse
, Sarah
thought, as she tucked into the pea and ham—and cashew—soup.

Sarah had hoped to speak to Benjamin, but
Jessie Yoder was hogging the conversation, flirting with Benjamin
and Nash, the only two
menner
her age at the table. Until
now, Sarah had never considered that Benjamin would be interested
in Jessie, but here he was, laughing at her jokes and generally
getting on well with her.
Jessie works at the B&B, and
Benjamin is a guest there
, Sarah thought with dismay, suddenly
assaulted by uncomfortable pangs of jealousy.

Sarah shook her head to try to clear it.
Benjamin isn’t interested in me
, she thought,
or he would
have asked me on a buggy ride ages ago, before I left my community
and came here. He’s only here to try to force me to go back
.
Once more, she sent up a silent prayer to
Gott
to ask Him to
take away her feelings for Benjamin.

* * *

Nash helped himself to some more Applesauce
Cake Surprise. He had no idea what the surprise was, and he didn’t
care, even if it did taste more than a little like garlic. All he
cared about was that it was free. No matter how much these boring
and unadventurous Amish people stuck up their noses at Fannie
Graber’s free food, he for one was going to eat as much as he
could.

Nash watched Sarah through narrowed eyes. She
had no idea he was watching her; she only had eyes for Benjamin. In
fact, she stared at Benjamin throughout the whole meal. Nash prided
himself on being observant, but even someone less observant than he
could see that Sarah Beachy was plainly head over heels in love
with Benjamin Shetler, and what’s more, was not happy that Benjamin
was chatting so happily to Jessie Yoder.

Nash smiled to himself. This was a golden
opportunity.

Daniel 9:4.

I prayed to the Lord my God and made
confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps
covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his
commandments.

Chapter
5

“Are you up for some fun?” Nash had waited
that morning for Jessie Yoder to show up at the ruins of the old,
stone cottage.

Jessie narrowed her eyes. “What do you
mean?”

Nash shrugged and tried not to look too keen.
“I’ve had an idea how to liven things up around here. When we were
at the bishop’s for lunch, it was obvious to me that Sarah Beachy
likes Benjamin Shetler. She was jealous that you were flirting with
him.”

“I was not!” Jessie sounded indignant, and
Nash silently chastised himself for getting her off side.