Her Scandalous Amish Secret by McClay Jocelyn

Author:McClay, Jocelyn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Sighing, Lydia watched her daed’s buggy as it diminished into a black dot in the distance. Before he’d left, she’d assured him she would be all right. He’d assured her he’d be back in an hour. With the widow. And her family. She’d learned that the woman her father was courting did indeed have at least two unmarried daughters around her age. Ones who would conceivably move in when the widow did, although the prospective date of that occurrence may have been pushed back a bit.

Her lips twitched as she hitched Caleb onto her hip and the small bag for him that she’d kept with her onto her shoulder. Her minister father could hardly propose in the near term to the respectable widow, with the upcoming kneeling confession and possible shunning of his hussy daughter who was still living in his house. One who wouldn’t tell, and some said, didn’t even know who, the child’s father was. Factors that were the antithesis to the faith, family and community bedrocks of Amish life.

It’d taken some convincing before she’d come today. To face what she knew was being said. It was one thing for folks to assume she was graciously taking care of a deceased relative’s son. It was another to have it known that she was an unwed mother. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to gossip. It was just that she’d always directed it away from herself. Now Lydia was sure she was so much the primary topic of discussions that she might as well paint the news on the side of the tallest silo in the district, much like the Englisch used billboards.

Perhaps sensing her unease, Caleb grasped one of her dangling prayer kapp ribbons and began to gnaw on it. Lydia didn’t bother to retrieve it. Given an opportunity, she might’ve done something similar herself. Eyeing the nearby orchard, she suppressed the urge to hide amongst the trees until the event was over, but as it was a cider frolic, the orchard would be an area where many strolled today, including those who used the occasion to couple up. As assuredly, Rebecca and Jonah would. Her stomach hollowed at the thought.

Other than watching him arrive and depart from the farm, and hearing the sounds of construction through the securely closed door to the mudroom, she hadn’t seen, nor spoken with Jonah since he stalked out of the kitchen three days ago. Every night after he’d left, she’d wandered through the addition, her chest tightening over the speed of progression. Progression which would precipitate his departure and the widow and family’s arrival. Both events cause of little cheer. But if she cared for him at all, she shouldn’t have him; she couldn’t have him.

With another sigh, she pressed a kiss against Caleb’s wispy hair. “Are you ready? We might as well go. It’s either face them here, or tomorrow at church.” With straightened shoulders and a purposeful stride through the closely cropped hayfield that was now repurposed as

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