Their Pretend Amish Courtship Read online

  “Your parents are permitting this?” It was an unusual undertaking for an Amish woman.

  She looked away from him. “We haven’t been told we can’t do it. You know how crazy the Englisch are for anything Amish. If we can generate some interest, show what Connie’s horses can do, I know it will help her sell more of them. Besides, everyone in the group is depending on me to teach them—and the horses—the routines. Our first show is in a week.”

  Fannie had a way with horses that was unique. He’d always admired that about her. “I’m sure your parents will come around if you make them see how much you want to stay.”

  “Mamm won’t. She has her mind made up. She says Betsy is more help to her than I am because I’m always out in the barn. Betsy likes to cook, sew, mend and clean, while I don’t. I’ll die down there if I have to give up my horse.” Fannie sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

  Noah put Hank’s hoof down to stare at Fannie. He considered putting his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, but thought better of it. “Would it help if I talked to your folks?”

  “Nee, it won’t do any good. Mamm will know I put you up to it.”

  “I’m sorry, Fannie, but don’t you think your idea is a bit dishonest?”

  She shook her head. “If you ask to court me today, actually ask me, then it won’t be a lie. I can tell Mamm we are walking out with a straight face and a clear conscience.”

  “I don’t see how, when you concocted the whole thing.”

  “You have to help me, Noah. I don’t know what else to do. Betsy would love to spend a few months with our grandparents and see the ocean. You don’t have to tell anyone you are dating me. All you have to do is take me home after the singing on Sunday and I’ll do the rest. Please?”

  Why did she have to sound so desperate?

  * * *

  Fannie wasn’t making enough headway in swaying Noah. She took a deep breath and pulled out her last tool of persuasion. “What are your plans for this summer?”

  He looked suspicious at her abrupt change of topic. “We are putting up hay this week. We’ll start cultivating the corn after that if the rain holds off.”

  “I didn’t mean farmwork. Are you playing ball again this summer?” She flicked the brim of the blue ball cap he wore instead of the traditional Amish straw hat. Once he chose baptism, he would have to give up his worldly dress.

  He ducked away from her hand. “I’m in the league again with the fellas from the fire department. I’m their pitcher. If we keep winning like we have been, we have a shot at getting into the state invitational tournament.”

  She twined her fingers in Hank’s mane. “You must practice a lot.”

  “Twice a week with games every Saturday. In fact, we have a makeup game tonight with the Berlin team, as we were rained out last weekend.”

  “You wouldn’t mind missing a few of your practices or even a game for a family picnic or party, would you?”

  “What are you getting at, Fannie?”

  “I’m not the only one you’ll be helping if you go out with me. Your mother has been shopping around for a wife for you. Did you know that?”

  His expression hardened. “You’re narrisch. Up until this minute I was starting to feel sorry for you.”

  She almost wavered, but she couldn’t let Connie down. “I’m not crazy. With all your brothers married, you are the last chick in the nest.”

  “So?”

  “So she’s worried that you are still running around instead of settling down. She has asked a number of her friends to invite their nieces and granddaughters to visit this summer with the express notion of finding you a wife among them. They’ll be here for picnics and dinners and singings all summer long, so you can size them up.”

  “Mamm wouldn’t do that.” Amish parents rarely meddled in their children’s courtships.

  “Well, she has.”

  “My mother isn’t the meddling sort. At least, not very often.”

  Fannie shrugged. “Mothers are funny that way. They don’t believe we can be happy unless we are married, when you and I both know we are perfectly happy being single. Are you ready to spend the summer dodging a string of desperate-to-be-wed maidens?”

  “Nee, and that includes you and your far-fetched scheme. No one will believe I’m dating you of my own free will.”

  She felt the heat rush to her face. “You kissed me once.”

  He arched one eyebrow. “As I remember, you weren’t happy about it.”

  “I was embarrassed that your brother Luke saw us. I regretted my behavior afterward, and I have told you I was sorry.”

  “Not half as sorry as I was,” he snapped back. “That glass of punch you poured on me was cold.”

  She was sorry that evening ended so badly. It had been a nice kiss. Her first.

  She and Noah had slipped outside for a breath of fresh air near the end of a Christmas cookie exchange at his parent’s house the winter before last. She had been curious to find out what it would be like to be kissed by him. Things had been going well in his mother’s garden until Luke came by. When Noah tried for a second kiss after his brother walked away, she had been so flustered that she upended a glass of cold strawberry punch in his lap.

  “That was ages ago. Are you going to berate me again or are you going to help me?” Fannie demanded.

  He leaned over the pony’s back, his expression dead serious. “Find some other gullible fellow.”

  Her temper flared and she didn’t try to quell it. “Oh! You’re just plain mean. See if I ever help you out of a jam. You were my last hope, Noah Bowman. If I wasn’t Amish I might actually hate you for this, but I have to say I forgive you. Have fun meeting all your prospective brides this summer.” She spun on her heel and mounted her horse.

  “If I’m your last hope, Fannie Erb, that says more about you than it does about me,” he called out as she turned Trinket around.

  She nudged her mare into a gallop and blinked back tears. She didn’t want him to see how deeply disappointed she was.

  Now what was she going to do?

  Chapter Two

  Noah regretted his parting comment as he watched Fannie ride away. She didn’t have many friends. She was more at ease around horses than people. Her reputation as a hothead was to blame but he knew there wasn’t any real harm in her. Her last bobby pin came loose as she rode off. Her kapp fluttered to the ground in the driveway.

  Willy raised his head and neighed loudly. He clearly wanted the pretty, golden-chestnut mare with the blond mane to come back.

  “Don’t be taken in by good looks, Willy. A sweet disposition lasts far longer than a pretty face. I don’t care what Fannie says—Mamm isn’t in a hurry to see me wed.”

  He walked out and picked up Fannie’s kapp. At the sound of a wagon approaching, he stuffed it into his back pocket. His cousins Paul and Mark Bowman drove in from the hayfield with a load of bales stacked shoulder high on a trailer pulled by Noah’s father’s gray Percheron draft horses. The chug-chug sound of the gas-powered bailer could be heard in the distance where Noah’s father was pulling it with a four-horse hitch. Noah’s brothers Samuel and Timothy were hooking the bales from the back of the machine and stacking them on a second trailer.

  “Who was that?” Mark asked.

  “Fannie Erb.” Noah watched her set her horse at the stone wall bordering her family’s lane. Trinket sailed over it easily.

  “She rides well,” Paul said with a touch of admiration in his voice.

  “She does,” Noah admitted.

  “What did she want?” Mark asked.

  Noah shook his head at the absurdness of her idea. “She’s looking for a beau. Are you interested?”

  Mark shook his head. “Nee, I’m not. I have a girlfriend back home.�
��

  His brother Paul nudged him with an elbow. “A man can go to an auction without buying a horse. It doesn’t hurt to look and see what’s out there.”

  Mark and Paul had come from Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania, to stay with Noah’s family and apprentice with Noah’s father in the family’s woodworking business. The shop was closed for a few days until the Bowmans had their hay in, and Noah was glad for the extra help.

  Mark scowled at his brother. “A man who doesn’t need a horse but goes to the auction anyway is wasting a day Gott has given him. You know what they say about idle hands.”

  “I won’t suffer from idle hands today—today—today. I’ll have the blisters—blisters—blisters to prove it,” Paul called out in a singsong voice. The fast-talking young man was learning to become an auctioneer.

  Mark maneuvered the hay wagon next to the front of the barn. The wide hayloft door was open above them, with a bale elevator positioned in the center of it. Noah pulled the cord on the elevator’s gas-powered engine. It sprang to life, and the conveyer belt began to move upward. Noah glanced toward the house and saw his brother Joshua jogging toward them. Noah sat on the belt and rode up to the hayloft. Joshua came up the same way and the two men waited for the bales their cousins unloaded.

  After stacking the first thirty-five bales deep in the recesses of the hayloft, Noah and Joshua moved to the open loft door to wait for the next trailer load to come in from the field.

  Joshua fanned his face with his straw hat and then mopped his sweaty brow with his handkerchief. “It’s going to be another hot one.”

  The interior of the barn loft would be roasting by late afternoon, even with the doors open. Noah pulled off his ball cap and reached into his back pocket for his handkerchief, but pulled out Fannie’s kapp instead.

  The silly goose. Did she really think he would agree to court her at a moment’s notice? Only she could come up with such a far-fetched scheme. He tucked her kapp back in his pocket and wiped his face with his sleeve, determined to stop thinking about her.

  He leaned out of the loft to see how close the second wagon was to being full. “Looks like I’ll have time to finish putting a new horseshoe on Hank before they get here. We have some pony-size shoes, don’t we?”

  Joshua nodded. “On the wall in the tack room. I had John Miller make a full set for Hank right after I brought him home.”

  “Goot.”

  “I can take care of him later,” Joshua offered.

  “Checking the horses’ feet is my job. I only have Hank and Ginger left.”

  “What does Ginger need?”

  “I noticed she was limping out in the pasture. I haven’t had a chance to see why.”

  “I can take care of her. I know you want to have your work done before you head to your ball game.”

  “Danki, bruder.”

  “You can return the favor some other time. I’m looking forward to your game next weekend. It should be a goot one. Walter Osborn can knock the hide off a baseball when he connects.”

  Walter was an English neighbor and volunteer fire fighter. Part of his job was to gather the Amish volunteers in the area and deliver them to the fire station when the call went out. He was also a good friend of Noah’s.

  “Walter is the best catcher in the league and our power hitter. If we can get into the state tournament, he’ll have a chance at being scouted by the pros. Those men don’t come to these backwater places. Walter deserves a chance to show what he’s got.”

  Joshua settled his hat on his head. “Are you hoping to be scouted by a pro team?”

  “Where’d you get that idea?” Noah avoided looking at his brother. He’d never told anyone about his dream.

  “Mamm and Daed were talking about it the other day. Your coach has been telling everyone you have a gift. It’s easy to see how much you love the game, but you’ll have to stop playing soon. You will be twenty-two this fall. Your rumspringa can’t go on forever.”

  Noah gave the answer he always gave. “I intend to enjoy a few more years of my running-around time before I take my vows. I’m in no rush.”

  Giving up his English clothes, his cell phone and the other worldly things he could enjoy now would be easy. But could he give up the game? That would be tough. He loved playing ball. Out on the pitcher’s mound, with the pressure mounting, he felt alive.

  He suspected that Fannie felt much the same way about her horses. She would hate giving up her riding but she would have to one day. Riding a horse astride was considered worldly and only tolerated before baptism. A rush of sympathy for her surprised him.

  He pushed thoughts of Fannie and her problems to the back of his mind as he climbed down the ladder in the barn’s interior and headed to the tack room. He needed to concentrate on winning the game tonight. It would bring him one step closer to his goal.

  To find out if he was good enough to play professional ball.

  If he was good enough, he believed it would be a sign from God to go out into the world and use his gift. If he didn’t have the level of talent that his coach thought he did, that would be a sign, too. A sign that God wanted him to remain in his Amish community. Either choice would be hard but he had faith that God would show him the right path.

  He was finishing Hank’s shoeing when he heard the sound of a buggy coming up the lane. His mother and his sister-in-law Rebecca pulled to a stop beside him in Rebecca’s buggy.

  His mother graced him with a happy smile from the driver’s seat. “We have just heard the nicest news.”

  “What would that be?” He opened the corral gate and turned Hank in with the other horses. The second hay wagon was on its way.

  “The bishop’s wife told me two of her nieces have arrived to spend a month visiting them. I have invited them to supper this evening,” his mother said quickly.

  “And I received a letter telling me my cousins from Indiana are coming to visit.” Rebecca smiled at the baby in her arms. “I’ll certainly be glad to have a pair of mother’s helpers with me for a few months. This little fellow and his brother wear me out.”

  “So, both your cousins are girls?” he asked trying not to appear uneasy. Had Fannie been right?

  His mother exchanged a coy glance with Rebecca. “They are, and all the young women are near your age. I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting to know them. Maybe one will catch your eye. I might even talk your father into hosting a few picnics and singings this summer. Won’t that be wunderbar?”

  “Sounds like fun, but you know I’ll be gone a lot this summer, and I have a ball game this evening.”

  His mother frowned. “It won’t hurt you to miss one of your silly games. I insist you join us for supper and meet the bishop’s nieces.”

  “The team is depending on me. I can’t cancel now. It’s important to them.”

  A stern expression settled over his mother’s face. “And this is more important. Noah Bowman, we need to have a talk.”

  His heart sank when his mother stepped out of the buggy. She rarely took the lead in family matters. Normally his father took him aside for a talk after some indiscretion. Rebecca drove the buggy on to the house, leaving them alone.

  His mother folded her arms over her chest. “Your father and I have spoken about this and prayed about it, and we have come to a decision. My sohn, you are our youngest. Your father and I have been lenient with you, letting you dress fancy and not plain, letting you travel with your team and keep your cell phone, but you are old enough to put away these childish things as all your brothers have done. It’s time you gave serious thought to finding a wife.”

  He leaned close trying to cajole her with his smile. He didn’t want her to worry about a decision he couldn’t make yet, so he told her what he thought she wanted to hear. “You don’t have to worry about me, Mamm. I plan to join the church in due time. If
that is Gott’s will.”

  “You give lip service to this most solemn matter, but nothing in your actions gives me cause to believe your words.”

  He took a step back. She was dead serious. If his parents forbade his ball playing, he would have to do as they asked or leave home. He wasn’t ready to make that choice.

  The odds of getting picked up by a major-league team were a thousand to one against him, but he needed to know if he was good enough. Why had God given him this talent, if not to use it?

  What could he say that would change his mother’s mind?

  He shoved his hands into his hip pockets and rocked back on his heels. His fingers touched Fannie’s kapp. Would she still agree to a courtship or had he burned that bridge with his taunting?

  Swallowing hard, he pulled the kapp from his pocket and wound the ribbons around his fingers. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I have plans to see someone before my game tonight.”

  His mother glanced from his face to the head covering in his hand. “Who?”

  “Fannie. Fannie Erb.”

  His mother’s eyes brightened as she smiled widely. She took his face between her hands and kissed his cheek. “Oh, you sweet boy. You don’t know how happy I am to hear this. The daughter of my dearest friend. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  * * *

  “I thought I had a plan to stay, but it fell through.” Fannie and Connie had finished exercising two of Connie’s horses and were brushing them down before returning them to their stalls.

  “What plan was that?”

  “I asked Noah Bowman to pretend to court me and he turned me down.” Fannie patted Goldenrod’s sleek neck and ran her fingers through the mare’s cream-colored mane. She hated to admit her failure to her friend.

  Connie swept a lock of shoulder-length blond hair away from her face and gave Fannie a sympathetic smile. “Thanks for trying. Don’t worry so. The team will carry on without you.”