The Amish Widow (Amish Romance Mystery) (Amish Secret Widows' Society Book 1) (4 page)

Chapter 4.

Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

Psalm 62:1

“Mrs. Kurtzler, I hope you don’t mind me visiting you.”

Emma took a step back toward her
haus.
“I most certainly do. You’ve been told already that I am not selling. I never said I was selling at all. So please leave my property.”

He took a step closer to her. “It’s a big place for you to manage just by yourself.”

Emma folded her arms and held her head up high. “Well, it’s none of your concern. Anyway, I lease it out, so it’s all under control.”

The vulture was not going to give up easily. He moved clear of his car and walked toward her. “Mrs. Kurtzler, if you take the money I give you for the farm and invest it, I’m sure that will give you far much more money to live on than leasing it to someone.” He took another step closer, which left only four feet between them. “What we need to do is sit down and go through the figures.”

Emma considered him condescending, as if she would not know how to manage money just because she was a woman. “Mr…whatever your name is, it’s not all about money. I’m trying very hard to be polite to you, but I don’t know how much longer I can do so. Please leave my property now, or I shall call someone and have you removed.” Emma lifted up her chin some more and tried to look confident while secretly wishing she had a telephone installed in the barn like a lot of other Amish folk do. She could not call someone even if she wanted to, but the vulture didn’t know that.

“An attractive woman like you shouldn’t be alone out here, you never know what might happen.”

A ripple of concern ran down her spine; she was alone and if this man got nasty she had no defenses. Out of the corner of her eye she spied the gardening fork and if he got nasty, she would be forced to use it to defend herself. “Leave my property now.”

“I’m just trying to be helpful and get you to see that what I’m offering you is a good deal.”

“Please go.” Maybe she was being too polite; she tried again, a little louder. “Just get in your car and go.” She glared into his eyes.

He turned and walked slowly back to his car. Once he opened his car door, he said, “My office is above the post office if you change your mind.”

Emma stared him down and then he got in his car and drove away. Emma threw her head back and let out a groan and then she went inside, careful to lock the front door after herself. She sat at the kitchen table and tried to calm down.
A cup of tea is what I need,
Emma thought. Once she had calmed down a little, she put the kettle on the stove.
I wonder if I should tell Wil that the vulture came to the haus. Nee, he already is concerned enough; I don’t want him to be coming over twice every day to watch me, once is enough.

In the back of Emma’s mind she wondered why Wil was so fast to get to her place when he saw Mr. Weeks’ car, but he did nothing to rescue her when the vulture appeared. Surely the vulture’s car would have passed Wil on his way home.

While she drank hot chamomile tea, she decided to go into town and get herself some needlework; that would give her something with which to occupy herself. She also considered getting some sort of a weapon, something a little better than a gardening fork. Was the vulture threatening her, talking about being all alone or trying to scare her? She wasn’t sure which one. Maybe she would look around the barn and see what she could use to defend herself.

Emma hitched the buggy for her trip into town and then had a look around the barn for a weapon of self-defense. The best she could find was a pitchfork and a spade. She put them both in the back of the buggy just in case she had any trouble on the way to town or the way back.

The wool and craft shop was more crowded than Emma had ever seen it. It was as if everyone had decided to go there that day. She spotted her friend Maureen at the back of the shop. “Maureen.”

“Hello, Emma. I was going to visit you later today.”

“Please still come. I’d love it if you did.” Seeing Maureen’s smiling face made Emma happy.

“I’ll come see you in a couple of hours if you’ll be home by then.”

“I’ll be home. I just came here to get something to sew.” Emma held a couple of things in the air that she had chosen. “Trying to keep busy and all.”

Maureen smiled, revealing the familiar gap in her front teeth as she did so.

Before long, a queue formed in the shop as people waited to pay for their goods. Maureen was first in the queue; she paid for her things and left the shop. Emma was five back from the register. The next person to be served was taking a very long time and Emma wondered whether the sales assistant was having a gossip session instead of serving the woman.

Emma impatiently shifted her weight from one foot to another and then glanced out the window. Across the road she saw Wil, but who was the man he was talking to? She looked a little harder and saw that the man Wil was speaking to was the vulture.

“Next,” the sales assistant shouted.

Emma looked around, but she was still three from being served. She turned again to study the two men. They were speaking to each other in a civil manner as if they were friends. Emma frowned.
That can’t be right
;
why would Wil be friendly with that horrid and rude man? He certainly looks to be friendly with him. But, Wil was rude to him at the funeral so why is he nice to him now?

“Next.”

Emma looked up to see the bored sales assistant waiting for her to bring her goods to the counter.

Once she paid for the goods and was ready to leave the shop, Emma looked out the window again, but the two men had gone. She stepped out of the store and looked both ways up the street, but still no sign of either man. Confused and upset at the sight of the two men being friendly, she hurried back to her buggy. She passed the post office and remembered the terrible man saying his office was located above it. She stopped and stepped through the doorway, which led to the upstairs offices. Ah, there it was ‘McAllister Realtor.’
I just don’t like the way the man conducts business, by harassing people.
She stepped back onto the pavement.

What she needed was something to make herself feel better. Chocolate would be just the thing she needed. Nearly every time Emma came to town, she stopped at the specialty chocolate shop. The hand-made chocolates tasted so much better than regular store bought chocolate. Emma had tried to make her own chocolate at home once, but nothing compared to the chocolate from the little store that she had found in town. She considered she deserved a little indulgence every now and again.

After she paid for her favorite soft centers, she decided to buy a cake for Maureen’s visit. The next store she came to was a café with bakery attached. She wondered if she might buy a few cookies as well. Before Emma got to the front door she happened to glance through one of the two full-length windows. It was through one of those windows that Emma saw an odd sight. Wil and the vulture were sitting at the same table having what looked like lunch together and they were laughing as though they were old friends.

Nee, surely not; that can’t be the vulture I see Wil with
. Emma looked harder and her first sighting was confirmed; that indeed
was
the horrid little man himself sitting with Wil. Emma continued walking past the café window hoping that either man would not see her.

She walked on ahead, quite forgetting the idea of cakes or cookies. Emma climbed into the buggy and drove her horse toward home.

Usually the clip clop of the horse’s hooves soothed whatever disagreeable mood she might be in, but today her nerves were shattered beyond repair. She could not shake the sight of the two men being friendly.
What on earth would they have to laugh and chat about?
A few days earlier Emma had concerns of Wil’s rudeness to the man and now they appeared best of friends. It all did not make sense. Emma forced the two men out of her mind and concentrated on Maureen’s visit.

After Emma put the buggy away and tended to the horse, she walked out of the barn to see a buggy heading to the
haus.
She knew the gray buggy belonged to Henry Pluver.

Emma met the buggy and noticed that Bob, Henry Pluver’s adult son was there also. Emma always felt uneasy around Bob and Levi had told her never to let him around the
haus
if she was there by herself. Bob never talked to anyone and that unnerved many people.

“I’m sorry to hear what happened to your husband,” Henry said.

“
Denke.”

He would only be there to discuss the lease; Emma knew that for sure and for certain. Levi and she weren’t close with the Pluvers even though they were in the same community. They might not have even spoken at all if it weren’t for Pluvers and their arrangement for him to farm their land. “My lawyer said that the lease is fine and can carry on as is.” Well, what her lawyer did say is that as long as Mr. Pluver was happy to carry on as usual the lease would suffice, but since the lease was in her name and her late husband’s name, it did give Pluver an ‘out’ if he wanted one.

He avoided eye contact with her as much as possible when he said, “That’s why I’m here. I can’t carry on with the leasing of your property.”

Another blow
, Emma thought. It never occurred to Emma that Pluver would want to stop leasing her land. That was how he derived his income, after all. What would she do now with no income? With no income she would surely be forced to sell the farm, unless she could find someone else to lease it quickly.

“Why is that so? You’ve been leasing the land for years.”

“The business is going in another direction. Anyway, I will pay you ‘til the end of the month, and that’s all.”

Emma felt the weight of generations of Levi’s ancestors who’d worked the farm for generations fall heavily on her shoulders. “What prompted your decision?”

“The business is going in a different direction.”

That told Emma absolutely nothing. “Is there a chance you’ll change your mind?”

Bob stood beside his father and never looked at her or spoke to her once. Mr. Pluver said, “
Nee
, everything’s set in place. I’m sorry to do it at a time like this.”

Emma nodded and Mr. Pluver and Bob wasted no time to get into their buggy and drive away.

What would she do now? She didn’t even have Levi to talk things over with. She was on her own and about to lose her husband’s legacy. She wondered what else could go wrong. Emma walked back to the buggy and took out the pitchfork and the spade and placed it in the utility room of her kitchen – she was not going to be without some self-defense in her
haus
tonight. She might even keep one of the objects under her bed. Bob Pluver sent shivers up and down her spine and so did McAllister, the vulture.

* * *

Half an hour later, Emma was pleased to see Maureen’s happy face.

“So, how are you handling everything? It can’t be easy with Levi gone.”

Emma inhaled deeply. “I’m glad I went to Elsa-May and Ettie’s place. I think I’ve found new friends in them and Silvie, of course.”

Maureen remained silent and sipped her tea. “John, my
bruder
can come help if you need anything done around the place.”

“
Denke
, Maureen, but Wil’s only next door. He comes over nearly every day to make sure everything’s okay.”

Maureen raised her eyebrows. “Does he?”

“Stop it, Maureen. Don’t say it like there’s something going on.”

Maureen pursed her lips and leaned toward Emma. “I’ve always thought that he was in love with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never married because he’s always been in love with you.”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous. He’s always been Levi’s best friend and nothing more.” The situation with the vulture and Wil kept playing on Emma’s mind. “Oh, I’ve had a dreadful day.”

“Why what’s happened?”

Emma swallowed hard and steeled herself to speak. “Did you see a small balding
Englisch
man at the funeral?”

Maureen put her elbow onto the table and cradled her full face onto the palm of her hand. “There were a few
Englischers.
The one that John and I nearly ran over in the buggy?”

Emma recalled the scene of the vulture nearly being trampled by a horse as he backed away from Wil’s buggy. “Oh, was that your buggy?”

“
Jah
, we saw he’d grabbed onto Wil’s horse. Who is he?”

Emma pushed her lips out. It was hard for her to talk about the farm. “He wants me to sell the farm to him.”

“
Nee
. And he asked you at the funeral?”

Emma nodded.

Maureen’s green eyes flashed. “You wouldn’t sell, would you?”

“
Nee
, I mean – I had no reason to sell until today. Henry Pluver just came and told me he wouldn’t be leasing the farm any longer. Anyway, that’s not all I was going to tell you.”