The Amish Nanny's Sweetheart. Jan Drexler

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      “You should give it a try.” Judith stepped closer to him. “All you need is someone to teach you.”

      He glanced around, then ducked his head toward her. “Could you teach me?”

      He was serious, his eyes locked on hers, waiting for her answer.

      “I’m not sure I’d be a very good teacher, but I could try.”

      “Maybe we could get together this coming week?” He grinned. “If you can ever get away from those babies.”

      Judith frowned. Did he dislike children that much? “Those babies are the reason I’m here, and I don’t want to get away from them.”

      “C’mon, I was only teasing.” His cheeks turned red.

      Judith grinned back at him. “I’m glad you were, because I love Annie’s children. All three of them.”

      “So, when can we start the lessons?”

      “I’ll have to check with Annie, first.”

      He nodded and thumbed at the corners of the songbooks in his hand. “I saw you talking with Luke Kaufman earlier. Is he taking you home?”

      If any boy was taking a girl home, it was supposed to be a secret, except for the girls who had steady beaus, like Waneta. Even Judith knew Reuben would be taking her home. But Guy looked at her with such intensity when he asked the question that she had to give him an answer.

      “No.” She shook her head. “He asked, but Matthew is coming for me.”

      “Whew,” Guy said. “I’m glad.”

      He picked up a few more songbooks that someone had left on a chair and Judith followed him. If he was asking to take her home, he had a strange way of doing it.

      “Why are you glad?”

      “No reason.” He gave the books to Benjamin Stoltzfus, then turned back to Judith. “Except that maybe I can get a ride with you and Matthew?”

      He wiggled his dark eyebrows up and down as he asked, and Judith found herself laughing at him.

      “For sure, you can. Matthew will be here at ten thirty.” She glanced at the clock. “I had better get my bonnet and shawl. Meet you by the back door?”

      “Yeah. I’ll wait for you there.”

      As Judith went toward the kitchen, she glanced back. Guy had picked up the end of one of the benches, ready to help Benjamin carry it out to the church wagon. After talking with Luke at the break, she had been breathless and feeling a little bit like she was dabbling in deep, unknown waters. But that exchange with Guy...it had been more like talking to a friend she had known for a long time.

      Hannah was in the bedroom, putting on her bonnet. Her black shawl was already wrapped around her shoulders.

      “You’re ready to go home?” Judith asked, reaching for her own bonnet.

      “Ja.” Hannah peered into a small, round shaving mirror fastened to the edge of the towel rack on the washstand, pinching her cheeks to bring some color into them. “Luke asked me to remind you that he’ll be waiting for you at the end of the lane.” She turned to Judith with a smile. “He has a brand-new courting buggy and can’t wait to try it out.”

      “But I told him that Matthew was coming for me. I don’t need a ride.”

      Hannah laughed. “No girl ever needs a ride!” She grasped Judith’s hand. “My brother is looking for a wife, and I have a feeling you’re just the girl he’s been waiting for. If you step carefully, you and I could be sisters before you know it.”

      Judith withdrew her hand. “I’m not ready to be married. This is my first Singing, and I want to get to know other people before I settle down to one fellow.”

      Hannah picked up a pair of mittens from the bed and pulled them on. “If Luke is set on you, there will be no changing his mind.”

      “I’m still not going to let him take me home. Matthew asked to be the one to do it on my first night out, and I want to go home with him.” Judith found her own mittens tucked in the folds of her shawl. “Besides, Guy Hoover is going to ride with us.”

      Hannah faced her. “Guy Hoover? You don’t want to get involved with him.”

      “Why not?”

      Hannah shook her head, her face set in a frown. “He isn’t one of us. Never has been, and he never will be. He’s an outsider.” She turned toward the door, then gave one last shot. “He doesn’t belong here.”

      Judith’s fingers chilled as if she had plunged them into a snowdrift. Hannah’s animosity toward Guy was shocking, and not what she had expected from her new friend.

      If Guy was an outsider, that explained why he didn’t know Deitsch. Judith tugged her mitten on. New friend or not, Hannah was wrong. She would do everything she could to help him feel welcome in the community.

       Chapter Two

      Spring was in the air on Tuesday morning as the weekend’s cold spell gave way to warmer breezes and fitful sunshine. Guy turned the team at the end of the field, then threw the lever to start the manure spreader’s gears as they made another pass. When David had given him this early-spring job of fertilizing the fields, Guy had chosen to do these acres first. Why? He grinned to himself as he drove the horses toward the fence on the other end. Because from here he could watch the Beacheys’ farmyard across the road.

      He had only seen Judith once since the Singing two days ago. Just a glimpse, but he knew she was there. Ever since he had said goodbye to her when Matthew let him off at the end of the Mast lane that night, the only thing on his mind was to see her again.

      Judith. Even her name sang in his mind.

      He shook his head at himself, frowning. Why would he think he had a chance with her? The prettiest girl around, and new in the community, to boot. The boys were going to buzz around her like bees in a flower garden.

      Guy turned the horses at the other end of the field and started back across. There, finally, he was rewarded with the sight of a figure in a blue dress and black shawl. She carried a basket and headed toward the chicken house. And disappeared. He hadn’t even seen her face, so he knew she hadn’t seen him.

      After two more trips along the length of the field he saw her again. This time, she had let the shawl slip back from covering her head and held it loosely around her shoulders. She carried a basket full of eggs in her other hand as she picked her way along the wet path to the house. With her white Kapp gleaming in the bit of sunshine that had made its way through the cloud cover, she was a lovely sight. Blue eyes, he remembered. Dark blue and thoughtful. She dodged a mud puddle with a graceful step, hurried the rest of the way to the house and disappeared behind the closed door.

      He stared at the door. Hannah Kaufman had brown eyes, full of laughter and beautiful. At СКАЧАТЬ