Second Chance Proposal. Anna Schmidt

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      Chapter Four

      The vote was unanimous in John’s favor.

      The bann had been lifted and in the yard, where the members of the congregation had gathered to share the light fare of the after-services meal, the atmosphere was that of a celebration. As Lydia brought out platters of food the women had prepared in Greta’s kitchen she saw John surrounded by a circle of men, his full-throated laughter at something one of the men had just said filling the air around her. It was as if the past eight years had never happened. She froze suddenly, her eyes riveted on John, her ears attuned to his voice, so familiar, so dear.

      “Oh, it is so good to have this matter decided!” Greta exclaimed as she came alongside Lydia and followed her gaze to where John was standing. “Now things can return to normal around here.” She wiped away beads of sweat from her forehead with the back of one hand. “Is it me or is it unusually hot today?”

      “It’s you and that extra weight you’re carrying,” Pleasant replied as she nodded toward the protrusion of Greta’s pregnancy and relieved Lydia of the platter she’d nearly forgotten she was holding. “Liddy, find your sister a place in the shade before she passes out.”

      “Please do not make a fuss,” Greta protested, but Lydia saw the way her younger sister pressed one hand against her side and the grimace that followed.

      “Come and sit, anyway,” Lydia instructed. “You still have Samuel’s birthday supper to manage. It will do you good to rest some.” She saw Luke glance up and excuse himself from the group of men, then move quickly to his wife’s side.

      “Are you all right?”

      “I am fine,” Greta assured him.

      “I’ll get you some water,” Luke said, but before he could do so John was there with a glass filled with cold lemonade.

      “I seem to remember you liked your lemonade extra tart, Greta.” He grinned at her and Greta giggled as she accepted the glass.

      “It is so good to have you back, John,” she said. “Everyone is truly pleased.”

      Lydia did not miss the way her sister cut her eyes in her direction as she said this.

      “It is certain that we have been losing more people than we have gained here in Celery Fields,” Pleasant added. “What are your plans, John Amman?”

      Lydia hid her smile at her half sister’s well-known habit of speaking her thoughts bluntly, not taking time to temper them with discretion.

      John chuckled. “Ah, Pleasant, I’ve missed your forthright way of coming to the heart of any matter.”

      “That does not answer my question.”

      “For now I will work at the hardware store with my uncle. In time...”

      Lydia almost gasped when she glanced at John as he paused. In his eyes she saw the faraway look she remembered so well from their youth, as if he were already miles away from this place and time.

      He had not changed at all, she thought. He was still the dreamer.

      “In time?” Pleasant prompted.

      John shrugged. “Only God can say.” He focused his gaze on Lydia.

      “I forgot the bread,” she murmured, and hurried back inside the house. From the kitchen she watched out the window. She saw Gert tug on John’s arm and lead him across the yard to be introduced to people who had moved to Celery Fields since his departure.

      She saw him smile as he spoke to those families that had moved to Celery Fields since he’d been gone. She saw him nod sympathetically as Gert introduced him to a young couple who had lost everything in a recent fire. She watched as he admired children and bent to their height to speak with them, charming them with some chatter that made their eyes go wide or their faces break out in smiles.

      Oh, how she had loved him once long ago. Loved him for all of these things. But he had left her, and seeing the way he had looked away when Pleasant questioned him, Lydia had no doubt that in time he would leave again.

      * * *

      By the time he walked back to his rooms following the services, John had heard the story of how Lydia had one Sunday simply decided that she would no longer sit with the unmarried girls. He chuckled as he imagined her walking into the service, looking neither left nor right as she took her place in the back row with the married and widowed women. And no one protested.

      Of course, that was Liddy. She might not be as free-spirited as he had often been but even as a girl she had demonstrated a streak of independence that had worried her father and older half sister. It had been that very inclination toward questioning things that had attracted John to her. From the first day he’d worked up the nerve to walk home from school with her he had felt she was someone who could perhaps understand his own restless spirit. And as they had spent more and more time together, his certainty had grown that they were meant to be together—destined to share a life filled with happiness beyond anything they could imagine. While at home he had to face his father’s constant disapproval, when he was with Liddy none of that mattered. She listened. She encouraged him to pursue his love of carpentry. She believed in him. She loved him—or so he had thought.

      But in the end she had chosen the community over him, as any good Amish girl would have. She had conducted herself as any Amish girl would when dealing with someone under the bann. She had let his letters go unanswered, shunning him as tradition required. That single СКАЧАТЬ