Chapter 9
Jonas Peachy loaded the bags of potting soil into the back of the buggy while his mother waited.
He’d only gotten back home last night to the news that Old Tom had passed away, and they’d already had the funeral a week ago.
He’d known Tom—everyone had—and he was sad to hear the news.
He was even more perplexed to hear about the troublesome will.
For Tom Yoder not to leave his farm to his grandsons and to choose the girl who’d been cooking and caring for him instead?
It was outrageous, and it was all that Jonas’s family had talked about since he got back.
This morning, he was already pitching in with his mother’s gardening efforts.
She had been given some flower seedlings by a neighbor and had decided to put up some new planters along the veranda at home.
So they’d come to the seasonal greenhouse to pick up some more gardening supplies.
The fourth bag of potting soil landed with a thump on top of the others, and Jonas brushed off his hands.
“I’m so glad you’re home again,” his mother said with a smile.
She was a slim woman with iron-gray hair and a kind smile.
Her gray work dress had a couple of streaks of dirt down the side from her gardening efforts before they left to buy more soil.
She’d never been one to go change her dress before heading to the greenhouse.
“So I can lift dirt for you?” he joked.
“Yah,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, then she laughed. “I’m even more grateful for Nellie Stoltzfuz, though. She really is a miracle worker.”
“I’m not that hard to match!” Jonas chuckled, and they headed around to the front seat of the buggy. They both got inside. The June sunlight already warmed up the interior, and a sweat sprung up on Jonas’s brow.
“Simon is getting me another two bags of soil,” Mamm said. “I paid for six, so let’s just wait for him to bring them out.”
“Sure.” He looked out the side of the buggy, watching for Simon’s return.
“You’re not hard to match,” his mother said after a beat of silence. “But you were stuck in a rut, and I’m glad to see you’re jostled free again.”
The “rut” was how his mother described his relationship with Tabitha Schrock, who could never be more than a friend. And with his deep and growing feelings for her, he wasn’t going to find someone else here in Shepherd’s Hill.
That’s why Nellie Stoltzfuz had stepped in.
The matchmaker from Sugarcreek, Ohio, had quickly found Jonas a match.
In fact, she’d found him three, and when he met them a few weeks ago, he and Christina had seemed to have the most in common.
Christina had been described as a middling cook and a good quilter, but Nellie had also said that she was bright and happy, and it was Christina’s smile that had drawn Jonas in.
She was twenty-nine, and she was eager to get married and start a family.
At thirty, Jonas was ready for the same.
He couldn’t allow himself to continue pining over Tabitha.
Tabitha had been right about that, and a little time away in Ohio had shown him the wisdom there.
“Tell me more about Christina,” his mother said.
“Well . . . like I said, she’s very cheerful. I think you’ll enjoy her. She’s got a good sense of humor. She’ll laugh at Daet’s jokes. She’s a good listener, too, a lot like Tabitha.”
His mother cast him a veiled look.
“Mamm, Tabitha has a lot of good qualities, and I know her a lot better than I do Christina. So if I can see ways that Christina is like her, that’s a compliment.”
“I wouldn’t use those words when talking to Christina, dear,” his mother murmured.
“Of course not,” he said, except he hadn’t actually thought of that, and it would be good to keep in mind.
“Does Christina know about Tabitha?” Mamm asked cautiously.
“A little, yah.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That we were good friends, a little about Tabitha’s history. That’s about it.”
“Did Christina have a sweetheart too?” Mamm asked.
“Mamm, Tabitha was not my sweetheart,” he said.
He would have liked her to be. He would have sat here in Shepherd’s Hill and been everything he could be for her—friend, confidant, moral support.
But Tabitha had put a stop to it. And she’d been right.
“And, yes, Christina had been in a . . . complicated friendship with an Amish man in her community, and then he married someone else.”
“Complicated friendship—that’s a good way of putting it,” his mother said.
“Yah, I thought so too. So she understands. And I understand her too. I’m going to ask her to marry me when I pack up and go back to Ohio.”
“Does she know that?”
“Yah, she knows.”
But even saying that out loud gave his stomach a tumble.
He was going to propose. That was a serious commitment, because once he did propose, they’d have their banns announced at Sugarcreek’s Service Sunday, and that would start the wedding machine rolling.
Their engagement would be a short one, and he’d be a married man that fall.
And by agreeing together that he was going back to start that process with her, he’d given her his word.
His reputation was on the line with this.
So was hers. There was a matchmaker, a bishop, and church leadership keeping an eye on the process.
Jonas didn’t know Christina terribly well, but he knew what mattered.
He was convinced she was a good woman. She was kind, smart, funny, and Nellie and other people in the community had spoken for her character.
And . . . this was maybe less important, but he liked the way she looked at him.
Her eyes crinkled when she smiled up at him, and she had an expression on her face like she was waiting with honest interest for what he would say.
Was that enough for a marriage? Nellie Stoltzfuz seemed to think so, and so did the bishop of the Sugarcreek community. His advice had been to find a woman with a good heart and solid character, and marry her. A happy life together was sure to follow.
Easy peasy, Jonas thought to himself wryly.
Life was never quite that simple, but maybe this had just been good timing—he’d been ready to look for a wife, and she’d been ready to look for a husband.
But Christina was certainly a woman with all of those attributes the bishop recommended, and Jonas was grateful to have met her.
Nellie Stoltzfuz was as good at her job as people said.
“Where will you live once you marry her?” Mamm asked.
“We’ve talked about it, actually. For the first year we thought we’d live with her parents in their dawdie hus so that she can feel more comfortable,” he said, “and then we’ll move back here so I can start building up the herd of sheep with Daet.”
“I think that’s wise to start out in Ohio,” his mother said. “It gives you time with just her, away from . . . distractions.”
Away from Tabitha. That was what Mamm meant.
“Yah, I can see that, Mamm,” he agreed. “And that’s what I was thinking. I want time to really settle in with Christina and find our balance. That’s important.”
He needed a little more time to set those feelings for Tabitha firmly into the past. Christina was now counting on him, as were her parents, the matchmaker, and the community in Sugarcreek.
He’d told them that he was a man they could rely on to be honorable and moral, and he had character references from here in Shepherd’s Hill, as well, stating the same.
Simon’s tuneless whistle drew Jonas’s attention, and he hopped out of the buggy to help him load up.
Simon was a big, burly guy, and his shirt seemed to be perpetually dirt streaked.
He carried both bags of soil stacked one on top of the other over one shoulder, and he heaved them into the back of the buggy without Jonas’s help.
“Danke,” Jonas said. “It’s good to see you, Simon.”
“Yah, you too, Jonas. How was Ohio?”
“Nice. It’s a bit different than here.”
For a few minutes they talked about the differences between their communities, but Jonas didn’t bring up Christina or the matchmaker.
When there was a wedding date and the banns had been published, he’d tell people.
Or rather, they’d know from the church service since the banns would be published both in Sugarcreek and here at home.
Still, that was the point when he’d talk about it.
“It seems like you left, and everything turned upside down around here,” Simon said.
“You mean Old Tom’s will?”
“Yah, that was unexpected. I don’t know how I’d feel if this business was left to someone outside the family, you know? You work for years for the family business, and then—” Simon shook his head. “I feel for Moses and Benuel. I really do.”
“Me too,” Jonas agreed. “But Tom was always so levelheaded. I don’t understand why he’d do that.”
Simon just shrugged. “And then there’s Tabitha Schrock’s situation, of course.”
Jonas frowned. “Tabitha’s? What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t hear?” Simon asked.
His family certainly hadn’t mentioned Tabitha. And maybe they wouldn’t—they wanted him focused on Christina.
“I only got back last night,” he replied. “What happened?”
“Her husband—the Englischer fellow—he died.”
Jonas’s head spun, and he tried to veil his surprise, but he wasn’t sure he was very successful. Michael was dead? That didn’t sound right. . . .
“What? You mean Michael?” was all he could manage to say.
“Yah, Michael. He died. Apparently, he was skydiving, and something went wrong with his—” He gestured above his head.
“Parachute?” Jonas asked weakly.
“Yah, something when went wrong with his parachute, and it didn’t open. He just . . .” Simon made a whistling sound and pointed at the ground. “Tabitha got a call from a lawyer letting her know.”
“You’re telling me that Tabitha Schrock’s ex-husband is dead?”
Simon nodded. “Did you know him? I’m sorry . . . I might have repeated that news insensitively. I didn’t realize—”
“I didn’t know him,” Jonas interrupted. “No better than anyone else, at least. I just had no idea.”
“I was going to ask you how Tabitha was holding up,” Simon said. “It’s got to be a shock. I mean, even with the divorce, he was her husband. But she’s not his wife—not to the Englischers, right? So that can’t be easy on her. She can’t grieve as his widow.”
“Poor Tabitha,” Jonas said. “I don’t know how she’s doing.”
He looked over to find his mother standing next to the buggy, her eyes wide.
“Tabitha’s husband is dead?” she asked. Even though Michael had been divorced and remarried in the eyes of the Englischer world, Amish folk didn’t normally bother with the ex part.
“She did the spaying and neutering of our puppies recently,” Simon said. “Anyway, when you talk to her, let her know I send my sympathies.”
“Yah, I will,” Jonas said. “Danke, Simon. We’d better get going. I’ll talk to you later.”
As they drove back toward the road, Jonas looked over at his mother questioningly. She held her purse in her lap, but she was fiddling with the zipper—a nervous habit.
“You had no idea?” he asked.
“None,” she said. “Sohn, I would have told you.”
Would she, though? They’d sent him off to Ohio to find a wife, and with Tabitha’s new situation, they might think it would derail those wedding plans. His parents might decide to keep their mouths shut about it. But his mother looked as shocked as he was.
“I’ll have to go over there and see how she’s doing,” he said.
“Jonas—”
“Mamm, this is huge. I know he broke her heart and utterly betrayed her, but this is going to be a difficult for her, all the same.”
“I know, sohn. But what would Christina think?”
Jonas stilled. What would Christina think if he dashed over to the Schrock farm and took a long walk with Tabitha to find out what she was feeling? He was officially courting another woman right now, and that meant he owed her his loyalty first. And he needed to be careful to guard his heart.
“I doubt she’d understand.” He sighed. “You’re right. I can’t go dashing over there, can I?”
His mother cast him an understanding look. “Nee, I don’t think she would. When you choose one woman, sohn, you are also choosing not to be that close to any other woman ever again. That’s part of the package. You’d best start now if you want to stay on good footing with your sweetheart.”
Because in a few weeks, she’d be his fiancée, and then his wife, and Tabitha’s heart would not be his business any longer.
Yet as the horse clopped along, carrying them toward home in the comfortingly squeaky buggy, Jonas couldn’t help but wonder how Tabitha was handling it all.
Michael was dead . . . and that meant that Tabitha could marry, just in time for him to have found his own match in Ohio.
Would Tabitha be glad to be free? Would she be ready to move on with her life?
Would she be grieving Michael’s death at all?
Before Jonas had left Shepherd’s Hill for Sugarcreek, they’d had some very strong feelings for each other.
But those had been hemmed in by their inability to be more to each other.
In her new freedom, would her feelings have changed?
Sometimes not being able to have something made it more appealing. The forbidden fruit and all.
But it shouldn’t matter. Jonas had given his word to a very sweet, very worthy woman that he was courting with the intent to get engaged shortly. He’d promised that she would be his focus, and a man’s word had to count for something.