The Amish Bachelor's Baby. Jo Ann Brown

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СКАЧАТЬ lifted his hands away and the warmth vanished. The day seemed colder than before.

      Somehow, she mumbled that she needed to let her twin know where she was going. He wrapped his arms around himself as another blast of wind struck them.

      “Hurry...anna...” The wind swallowed the rest of his words as she rushed toward the house.

      She halted in midstep.

       Anna?

      Had Caleb thought he was talking to her twin? She’d clear everything up on their way to the bakery. She wanted the job. It was an answer to so many prayers, for God to let her find a way to help her sister be happy again, happy as Leanna had been before the man she loved married someone else without telling her.

      Leanna was attracted to Caleb, and he’d be a fine match for her. Outgoing where her twin was quiet. A well-respected, handsome man whose gut looks would be the perfect foil for her twin’s. But Leanna would be too shy to let Caleb know she was interested in him. That was where Annie could help.

      God, danki for giving me this chance to bring joy back to Leanna’s life. I won’t waste this opportunity You’ve brought to me.

      As she was sending up her grateful prayer and rushing to the house, she reminded herself of one vital thing. She must be careful not to let her own attraction to Caleb grow while they worked together.

      That might be the hardest part of the job.

      * * *

      One task down, a hundred to go...before he started tomorrow’s list.

      Caleb glanced at the lead-gray sky as he moved closer to the heat box on the buggy’s floor, shifting his feet under the wool blanket there. The clouds overhead were low. Snow threatened, and the dampness in the air added another layer of cold. He hoped the Wagler twin wouldn’t remain in the house much longer. If he wanted to get home before the storm began, the trip to the bakery would have to be a quick one.

      He hadn’t been sure when he went over to the Wagler farm if he’d get a ja or a no to his job offer. He had to have someone to help at the bakery.

       But is she Annie or Leanna?

      He hadn’t been sure which twin he was talking to. His usual way of telling them apart was that Annie talked more than Leanna, but without both being present, he hadn’t known. Not that it mattered. He had to have someone help at the bakery because he had his farmwork, as well.

      After almost two years of traveling and recruiting families for the Harmony Creek settlement, he finally could make his dream of opening a bakery come true. He’d turned over the community’s leadership when the Leit ordained a minister and a deacon. It’d been the first service of the new year, and the right time to begin building the permanent leadership of their district.

      He smiled in spite of the frigid wind as he glanced toward the white two-story farmhouse. Miriam had suggested he ask a Wagler twin to work for him. It had been a gut idea. The Wagler twins made heads—plain and Englisch—turn wherever they went. Not only were they identical with their sleek black hair, but they were lovely. The gentle curves of their cheekbones contrasted with their pert noses. Most important, they seemed to accept everyone as they were, not wanting to change them or belittle their dreams as Verba Tice had his.

      His hands tightened on the reins, and his horse looked back as if to ask what was wrong. Caleb grimaced. It was stupid to think about the woman who’d ridiculed him. Verba was in Lancaster County, and he was far away. And...

      He pushed the thoughts from his head as the back door opened and a bundled-up woman emerged. Her shawl flapped behind her as she hurried—with care, because there were slippery spots everywhere—to the buggy. He slid the door on the passenger side open, and she climbed in, closing it behind her. The momentary slap of wind had been as sharp as a paring knife.

      “Sorry to be so long,” she said from behind a thick blue scarf. “My grossmammi asked me to get some canned fruit from the cellar.”

      “It’s fine.” Which twin was sitting beside him? Too late, he realized he should have asked straightaway by the goats’ pen.

      How could he ask now?

      Giving his brown horse, Dusty, a gentle slap of the reins, he turned the buggy and headed toward the road. He tried to think of something that would lead to a clue about which Wagler twin was half-hidden behind the scarf. He didn’t want to talk about the weather. It was a grim subject in the midst of a March cold snap. What if he talked about the April auction to support the local volunteer fire department? The Englisch firefighters found it amusing when the plain volunteers called it a mud sale. He wondered if the ground would thaw enough to let the event live up to its name.

      “Caleb?”

      He wanted to cheer when she broke the silence. “Ja?”

      “You know I’m Annie Wagler, ain’t so?”

      “Ja.” He did now.

      “I wanted to make sure, because people mix us up, and I didn’t want you to think you had to give me the job if you’d intended to hire Leanna.”

      She was plainspoken. He prayed that would be gut in his shop, because he wasn’t going to renege on his offer. It could be embarrassing for her, and him, and the thought of the humiliation he’d endured at Verba’s hands stung.

      And one thing hadn’t changed: he needed help at the bakery. It shouldn’t matter which twin worked for him.

      Who are you trying to fool? nagged a tiny voice inside his head. The one that spoke up when he was trying to ignore his own thoughts.

      Like thoughts of how right it had felt to put his hands on Annie’s shoulders as he kept her from falling in the barnyard. He didn’t want to recall how his heart had beat faster when her blue-green eyes had gazed up at him.

      He must keep a barrier between him and any attractive woman. Getting beguiled as he had with Verba, who’d claimed to love him before she tried to change everything about him, would be stupid.

      “Do you and your sister try to confuse people on purpose?” Caleb asked to force his thoughts aside.

      “We did when we were kinder. Once we realized people couldn’t tell us apart, we took advantage of it at school. I was better at arithmetic and Leanna excelled in spelling, so sometimes I’d go to the teacher to do Leanna’s math problems as well as my own. She’d do the same with spelling.”

      “You cheated?”

      “Not on written tests or desk work. Just when the teacher wasn’t paying attention.”

      He laughed, “The other scholars never tattled on you?”

      “They wouldn’t get any of Grossmammi’s delicious cookies if they did.”

      “I didn’t realize we had a pair of criminal masterminds in our midst.”

      “Very retired criminal masterminds.” She smiled. “Our nice, neat plan didn’t last long. A new teacher came when we were in fourth grade, and she kept much better СКАЧАТЬ