The Amish Widow's New Love by Liz Tolsma

Author:Liz Tolsma
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-02T17:53:15+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

With Naomi staring at Elam the way she did, her eyes wide, her jaw clenched, his stomach tumbled like a rock down a hill. Joseph whimpered as she squeezed him. “I can’t believe you went behind my back like this,” she hissed.

The Englisch women stared at them. The last thing Naomi and Elam needed was to make a scene in front of the customers. “Please, let’s go talk in private. I can explain.”

She marched out of the building, and he followed like an obedient puppy. This is what he’d been afraid of. The exact reaction he expected if she found out. How could he have ever thought he could keep it from her?

She led him from the commotion of the auction to a field behind the building, out of earshot of the crowd. “Nothing you say can excuse what you did.”

“Ja, I went to the papers.”

“When the bishop expressly forbade it? Didn’t you think? Don’t you ever think?”

“I thought I was doing a gut thing for you, for Joseph, Aaron, Daed, Simon. So many others.”

“Apparently not. Joseph sticks out in a crowd. Everyone will know he is the bobbeli from the story. They will stare at us. I can’t stand that, being a monkey in a show. I won’t have it.” Her voice cracked.

He lifted his hat and pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to her. “This is the article. Read it. Please. Then you will know I only did it for your good, for Joseph’s, to help you out.”

“Now you read the Englisch newspapers?”

“Please, Naomi, try to understand.” He walked in a tight circle before facing her again. “No one here accepts me. They treat me as if I’m a criminal. Forgiven, ja, but still an outcast.”

“So you’re doing this to win favor with the district?”

“Nein, because I want to help you.”

“This will never make up for paralyzing my brother and breaking my heart.” Her breaths came in rapid succession.

His shoulders sagged. “I know. But I love you. That’s what I want to prove. That I’m now worthy of that love.”

“You’re trying to earn it.”

“Maybe.”

“This wasn’t the way. I never wanted anything to do with this in the first place.” She crumpled the newsprint and threw it into the long grass. “You’ve betrayed me. Worse now than when you walked away. Please, I beg you, just leave me alone. All you end up doing is hurting me.” A sob escaped her throat, and she ran toward the row of parked buggies, Joseph bouncing on her hip.

Elam stood in the field as the sun beat down on him. Despite the warmth of the rays on his shoulders and his head, he shivered. Didn’t the ends justify the means? Maybe he would never win her favor. Or that of the district.

A grasshopper jumped on his shoe, sat for moment and then hopped away. It bounced above the grasses several times before it disappeared. Oh, to have the life of a grasshopper. To be so carefree as to jump everywhere you went, not worrying what people thought about you.

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