Mary Davis - Courting Her Amish Heart

“I can’t believe it either.”

Mum released her and wiped her own eyes with her fingertips. “I didn’t expect you to be up already. I thought maybe you’d sleep in.”

Sleep had eluded her most of the night. It had been a long time since a full eight hours was available for her to sleep. Her body wasn’t used to it. It would take time, but she would adjust. “I’m not used to staying in bed for more than three or four hours at a time.”

“That’s awful. How can you function with so little sleep?”

Kathleen raised her cup aloft. “A lot of caffeine.”

“Fresh air and hard work will correct that.”

Kathleen nodded. But this work would be easy compared to sixteen- and twenty-four-hour shifts on her feet with only the occasional power nap.

“Mum, could you show me how to put my hair up right? I’m afraid I’ve lost my touch, being away so long.” Many days, she’d used a plastic claw clip or had her hair looped through a scrunchie under her kapp. Things real Amish women would never do, but she’d usually been too pressed for time. Necessity forced her to find shortcuts. But her hair had always been up and covered. She would not be able to take such measures now.

“Of course. But it’ll need to wait until after breakfast.”

“I don’t want Ruby or Jessica to know.”

Mum nodded. “With your kapp on, it’s fine for now.”

“Danki.”

After breakfast, Dat and the boys left to do their work, and Mum sent Ruby and Jessica out to the garden. Mum grabbed a chair from the table and guided Kathleen to the bathroom. Kathleen sat, facing the mirror.

Mum removed Kathleen’s kapp and studied her hair. “You’ve done pretty well. I’ll show you how to make it neater.” She pulled the hairpins out. Then, with a spray bottle of water and expert fingers, she twisted the front hair to keep the short hairs under control and wound the rest on the back of Kathleen’s head.

Kathleen studied each of Mum’s actions so she could get it right on her own tomorrow. Whoever heard of a grown woman needing her mutter to put up her hair?

Mum replaced Kathleen’s kapp and patted her shoulders while gazing at her in the mirror. “There you go.”

“Do I look like a proper Amish woman now?” Would Noah approve? Why had she thought of him?

Mum smiled. “Very proper. One more thing—and you’re going to like this—buttons!” She pointed to the buttons down the back of her own dress. “A couple of years after you left, they were approved as part of the Ordnung.”

Kathleen had noticed them but hesitated to say anything. She feared it was one of those things that wasn’t quite approved but people did it anyway and others overlooked the infraction. The numerous pins holding her own dress in place poked her sometimes. The one on her left side at her waist was particularly bothersome this morning. She mustn’t have gotten it tucked in just right.

“Only white or black buttons. And they must be plain and five-eighths of an inch—no bigger, no smaller.”

A long-overdue change. A few women had even started using them before Kathleen left. She didn’t understand why such a specific size. Would half of an inch or three-quarters of an inch be a sin?

She chided herself. There went those stray Englisher thoughts again. The wrong size buttons would be a sin only because as a church member, one promised to abide by the Ordnung. To go against that promise would be disobedience. And disobedience was sin. She needed to get her thinking straight if she was ever going to have a chance at convincing the leadership to allow her to practice medicine in their community. And then there was Noah. For some reason, his opinion of her mattered almost as much as her family’s. Strange.

Think like the Amish. Think like the Amish.

Kathleen pushed thoughts of their handsome neighbor aside.

Mum grabbed a produce basket from beside the door. “Let’s go help Ruby and Jessica.”

“I was going to stake out my clinic. Dat’s put what I need on the porch.”

Mum tilted her head. “Can’t that wait? Your sisters will want to spend time with you. Get to know you.”

Kathleen wanted to get reacquainted with her sisters as well. How much could she really accomplish before she got approval? Not much. Now she was glad church was only a few days off and headed out to the garden with Mum. Young plants rose healthily from the dirt.

Ruby worked the row to one side of Kathleen. “Tell me about going to university.”

Again with this question. Hadn’t her answer last night been sufficient? Kathleen could feel Mum’s gaze on her back. “It was very hard work. I never felt as though I was doing things right.” Her parents couldn’t have issue with that. The truth, yet not encouraging.

Giggling came from down the row Jessica was in.

“What’s so funny?” Mum asked.

Jessica shook her head.

Kathleen went on. “The professors had particular ways they wanted assignments completed. Other students didn’t like it if you got a higher grade than them. Most everyone didn’t think I belonged.” Most of the time she hadn’t felt as though she belonged either. In truth, she hadn’t belonged. This was where she belonged, and yet, she felt out of place here as well.

Jessica giggled again.

Mum straightened. “You can’t keep all the fun to yourself.”

Jessica bit her lip before she spoke. “She has an accent.”

Kathleen straightened now. “In Deutsch?” She knew she did in English.

Her youngest sister nodded.

She turned to Ruby and Mum. Both nodded. Then Mum said, “It doesn’t matter.”

But it did. It would make her stand out. She didn’t need more things to give the church leaders reason to question her Amish integrity. Straightening, she determined to eliminate her accent. She’d thought she could easily slip back into this life without effort. Evidently not. Fourteen years was a long time to be absent. What else of her Amish life had been whittled away? Had Noah Lambright noticed her accent? Noticed she wasn’t completely Amish anymore? Would everyone? She would work extra hard to make sure she once again looked, sounded and acted Amish. And thought like an Amish.

* * *

At midmorning, Noah rode into the Yoders’ yard. He wasn’t sure why he’d come. He’d just sort of ended up there.

A woman stood in the side yard pounding a stick into the grass with a hammer.

A smile pulled at his mouth.

Kathleen.

She hadn’t been a figment of his imagination. He jumped to the ground and tethered his horse. He stood there and watched her.

After tying a string to the top of the stick, she marched with measured steps.

What was she doing?

She pounded another stick into the ground, tied the string around that one, and strode toward a fourth stick already in the ground. Her enclosure was neither a true square nor a rectangle.

He walked over to her. “What are you doing?”

Looking up, she gifted him with a smile. “Hallo.” She spread her hands out. “This is my clinic.”

“You’re building it? Yourself?”

“Ja.”

“With those string lines?”

“Ja.”

How could he tell her she had no clue what she was doing without hurting her feelings? “And what if you don’t get permission from the church leaders?”

“Who says I haven’t?”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Have you?”

She hesitated, wiggling her lips back and forth. “Ne. But I will. So I want to be prepared.”

She had no idea how unprepared she was.

“Have you ever constructed a building before?”

“I went to many barn raisings when I was young. And I earned a medical degree. I don’t think putting up a few walls will be that hard. Just nail some boards together. I don’t need anything fancy.”