A Match for Addy. Emma Miller

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ in Wisconsin.”

      Sara nodded with approval. “There’s hope for you, then. But you’re going to have to get girls’ names right if you expect me to find you a wife. You can’t go around making up nicknames for every woman you meet the way you tried with Dorcas.”

      “I don’t make a habit of it,” Gideon assured her as he smoothed the wrinkles from the lavender dress and hung it on a hanger. “But she looks a lot more like an Addy than a Dorcas to me. She’s too young to be a Dorcas.”

      “I agree,” Ellie put in. “The last Dorcas I knew was ninety, and snored through every church sermon.”

      “And I didn’t really change her name,” Gideon defended. “She told me that her middle name was Adelaide. I thought Addy fit her better.” Remembering how Addy had smiled at him when he called her by that name made him smile.

      Sara took a fresh tablecloth from the chest under the window and spread it over the table. “I would think that Dorcas would have a thing or two to say about what she’s called,” she mused.

      “I think she liked it.” He went into the large utility room off the kitchen and hung Addy’s dress on a hook where she’d see it when she came again. Then he returned to the doorway. “If you don’t need me to do anything, I think I’ll go sit awhile on the porch.”

      “Mind if I join you?” Ellie removed her apron, then glanced at Sara. “Unless there’s something else you’d like me to do?”

      “Ne.” Sara made shooing motions with her hands. “It’s a good thing for you young people to get to know each other. Ellie has made quite a few friends since she arrived,” she explained to Gideon. “She can introduce you around.”

      “I’d be glad to. There’s a singing on Thursday night at the Peachys’ for older singles,” Ellie told him. “Charley and Miriam Byler are chaperoning. You’ll like them, and they know everyone.”

      “You two go on outside and enjoy the evening breeze.” Sara took paper and a pen from a drawer in one of the cherry sideboards she’d brought with her from Wisconsin. “I have letters to write. There’s a young woman wanting to come here from Canada, the cousin of a girl I matched last year.”

      “Hope you have better luck with her than me,” Ellie teased. She followed Gideon out onto the porch that wrapped three-quarters of the way around the Cape Cod. “I think Sara’s none too happy with me being so picky with who I’ll court.”

      “I hope she’s not plotting to match the two of us up.” When Gideon realized that what he’d said might offend her, her went on, quickly. “I didn’t mean that you...that I thought you...” He trailed off. “I’ve put my foot in my mouth, haven’t I?” He looked down and self-consciously rubbed the neat patch on one trouser leg knee.

      Ellie chuckled. “Ya, you have. But don’t worry. I’m not that anxious to have a match, either. I’ve turned down four men that Sara offered me.”

      “Then why are you here?”

      “My parents.”

      He nodded, understanding perfectly. A mother and a father, no matter how loving, could be demanding.

      “For now,” Ellie went on, “I’m happy being single. I’m excited to teach at the Seven Poplars schoolhouse come fall.”

      Gideon sat down on the step and leaned back against a white post. It was solid enough, he noted, but probably needed another coat of paint. “I’m happy being single, too. It’s my mother who’s anxious for me to marry. And my dat. I’m the only son,” he admitted sheepishly. “It’s up to me to carry on the family name. It’s a big responsibility.” He frowned. “I probably shouldn’t have said that, either.”

      Ellie boosted herself up into the porch swing and scooted back until her tiny feet stuck straight out. “I understand,” she said. “And don’t worry about saying what you think with me. I like it.” She flashed him an impudent grin. “And I like you. You treat me like I was average-sized.” She arranged her dress. “Not everyone does.”

      “Sometimes people feel awkward with those who are different. That kind of thing doesn’t bother me. I have a cousin who’s like you.”

      “A little person? Really?” She seemed surprised.

      “Ya. My second cousin Abraham is a harness maker, a good one. And he’s a great guy, hardworking. He married a regular-sized woman a few years ago, and they have two sons.”

      “Big or little, the kinner?”

      “Average size.”

      “Ah. They could have been small. I think it’s a worry for some. But I’ve never minded being short.” She shrugged. “It’s just who I am. God has given me good health and a good mind. Why should I complain about how tall I am?”

      Gideon bent to retie a bootlace that had come loose. “If they hired you to teach school here in Seven Poplars, then your height must not matter to the community.”

      “I have Hannah Yoder to thank for my new position. I stayed at her house last year when visiting with Sara, and we got to know each other. When she found out that I was looking for a teaching job and had been turned down twice elsewhere, she suggested me. And...” Ellie spread both hands, palm up. “Since two of her sons-in-law are on the school board, they accepted my application. My parents thought I should come to Delaware now with Sara, rather than waiting until fall.”

      “Has it been hard? Moving from Wisconsin?”

      “Ya. I miss my family, but this is a nice place. I like it here. Still, it would be nice to have a friend from Wisconsin.” She uttered a small sound of amusement. “If we were friends, like a brooder and schweschder, we wouldn’t have to feel awkward about being together.”

      “Friends.” He removed his hat and pushed back his thick yellow hair as he considered it. “Ya,” he said. “I’d like that. And we wouldn’t have to worry about Sara matching us up.”

      Ellie chuckled. “She could try, but it wouldn’t work. As nice as you are, I’m not...” She looked at him. “Now I’m the one putting my foot in my mouth.”

      Gideon cocked his head. “You aren’t attracted to me?”

      She shook her head. “Ne.”

      “What’s wrong with me?” he ventured, feeling a little disappointed. Girls usually liked him.

      “Besides being so pleased with yourself, you’re too tall,” she said. “Too much of you altogether. It would give me a stiff neck to be always staring up at you.”

      “Right, with me being tall and you not,” he answered, ignoring what she’d said about him being conceited, which he didn’t agree with. Though she wasn’t the first girl to ever say that, he didn’t want to ruin their budding friendship by arguing with her. “I guess we’d make quite the pair, wouldn’t we?”

      She giggled. “Daykli and a grohs beah. Not good.”

      A tiny lump of dough and a huge bear. Gideon laughed. “You think СКАЧАТЬ