Jan Drexler - The Amish Nanny's Sweetheart

“So, when can we start the lessons?”

“I’ll have to check with Annie, first.”

He nodded and thumbed at the corners of the songbooks in his hand. “I saw you talking with Luke Kaufman earlier. Is he taking you home?”

If any boy was taking a girl home, it was supposed to be a secret, except for the girls who had steady beaus, like Waneta. Even Judith knew Reuben would be taking her home. But Guy looked at her with such intensity when he asked the question that she had to give him an answer.

“No.” She shook her head. “He asked, but Matthew is coming for me.”

“Whew,” Guy said. “I’m glad.”

He picked up a few more songbooks that someone had left on a chair and Judith followed him. If he was asking to take her home, he had a strange way of doing it.

“Why are you glad?”

“No reason.” He gave the books to Benjamin Stoltzfus, then turned back to Judith. “Except that maybe I can get a ride with you and Matthew?”

He wiggled his dark eyebrows up and down as he asked, and Judith found herself laughing at him.

“For sure, you can. Matthew will be here at ten thirty.” She glanced at the clock. “I had better get my bonnet and shawl. Meet you by the back door?”

“Yeah. I’ll wait for you there.”

As Judith went toward the kitchen, she glanced back. Guy had picked up the end of one of the benches, ready to help Benjamin carry it out to the church wagon. After talking with Luke at the break, she had been breathless and feeling a little bit like she was dabbling in deep, unknown waters. But that exchange with Guy...it had been more like talking to a friend she had known for a long time.

Hannah was in the bedroom, putting on her bonnet. Her black shawl was already wrapped around her shoulders.

“You’re ready to go home?” Judith asked, reaching for her own bonnet.

“Ja.” Hannah peered into a small, round shaving mirror fastened to the edge of the towel rack on the washstand, pinching her cheeks to bring some color into them. “Luke asked me to remind you that he’ll be waiting for you at the end of the lane.” She turned to Judith with a smile. “He has a brand-new courting buggy and can’t wait to try it out.”

“But I told him that Matthew was coming for me. I don’t need a ride.”

Hannah laughed. “No girl ever needs a ride!” She grasped Judith’s hand. “My brother is looking for a wife, and I have a feeling you’re just the girl he’s been waiting for. If you step carefully, you and I could be sisters before you know it.”

Judith withdrew her hand. “I’m not ready to be married. This is my first Singing, and I want to get to know other people before I settle down to one fellow.”

Hannah picked up a pair of mittens from the bed and pulled them on. “If Luke is set on you, there will be no changing his mind.”

“I’m still not going to let him take me home. Matthew asked to be the one to do it on my first night out, and I want to go home with him.” Judith found her own mittens tucked in the folds of her shawl. “Besides, Guy Hoover is going to ride with us.”

Hannah faced her. “Guy Hoover? You don’t want to get involved with him.”

“Why not?”

Hannah shook her head, her face set in a frown. “He isn’t one of us. Never has been, and he never will be. He’s an outsider.” She turned toward the door, then gave one last shot. “He doesn’t belong here.”

Judith’s fingers chilled as if she had plunged them into a snowdrift. Hannah’s animosity toward Guy was shocking, and not what she had expected from her new friend.

If Guy was an outsider, that explained why he didn’t know Deitsch. Judith tugged her mitten on. New friend or not, Hannah was wrong. She would do everything she could to help him feel welcome in the community.

Chapter Two

Spring was in the air on Tuesday morning as the weekend’s cold spell gave way to warmer breezes and fitful sunshine. Guy turned the team at the end of the field, then threw the lever to start the manure spreader’s gears as they made another pass. When David had given him this early-spring job of fertilizing the fields, Guy had chosen to do these acres first. Why? He grinned to himself as he drove the horses toward the fence on the other end. Because from here he could watch the Beacheys’ farmyard across the road.

He had only seen Judith once since the Singing two days ago. Just a glimpse, but he knew she was there. Ever since he had said goodbye to her when Matthew let him off at the end of the Mast lane that night, the only thing on his mind was to see her again.

Judith. Even her name sang in his mind.

He shook his head at himself, frowning. Why would he think he had a chance with her? The prettiest girl around, and new in the community, to boot. The boys were going to buzz around her like bees in a flower garden.

Guy turned the horses at the other end of the field and started back across. There, finally, he was rewarded with the sight of a figure in a blue dress and black shawl. She carried a basket and headed toward the chicken house. And disappeared. He hadn’t even seen her face, so he knew she hadn’t seen him.

After two more trips along the length of the field he saw her again. This time, she had let the shawl slip back from covering her head and held it loosely around her shoulders. She carried a basket full of eggs in her other hand as she picked her way along the wet path to the house. With her white Kapp gleaming in the bit of sunshine that had made its way through the cloud cover, she was a lovely sight. Blue eyes, he remembered. Dark blue and thoughtful. She dodged a mud puddle with a graceful step, hurried the rest of the way to the house and disappeared behind the closed door.

He stared at the door. Hannah Kaufman had brown eyes, full of laughter and beautiful. At least, he had thought so until he found out the laughter was at his expense. He had no business getting mixed up with an Amish girl, even though Judith seemed kinder and friendlier than Hannah. He didn’t belong here, and he wasn’t planning to stay. If Pa showed up—

“Guy! What in the world are you doing?”

Startled by David’s shout, Guy slammed back to reality. The horses had pulled the spreader off the straight track he thought they were on and were headed toward the barn.

“Sorry!” he called, and waved in David’s direction as he guided the horses back to the middle of the field. At least no one would notice his distraction, the way they would if he had been plowing. He shook his head as he thought about the ribbing he would have gotten if the crops had grown in crooked rows.

He finished the field and headed toward the barn to pick up another load of manure. Without a word, David met him at the manure pile and started shoveling. Guy joined him, eyeing his expression to gauge his mood.

David was a good boss, and had always been more than kind to him, but even David could get riled. He expected the best work from Guy, just as he expected it from himself. Mistakes were always fixed, sloth was never tolerated and attention to the task at hand was demanded. Guy had broken that last rule too often, and he waited for David’s reprimand.

It came when the spreader was filled and ready for the next field.

“You weren’t driving the team back there, they were driving you.” David leaned on his shovel, his gaze on the front acres. “What were you thinking about?”

Guy shot a glance toward the Beachey house. The first thing he had learned that summer when he was nine, his first summer with the Masts, was that David could always tell when he tried to skirt the truth.

“I saw that new girl come out of the house.”

David let the shadow of a grin show. “I guess a girl is a fair distraction for a fellow your age, but don’t let it happen again. When you’re driving a team, they need your full attention.”