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Synopsis
The second book in a trilogy of light, warmhearted Amish romance perfect for fans of Jo Ann Brown and Jocelyn McClay.
Release date: April 29, 2025
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Print pages: 368
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An Amish Widow's Promise
Winnie Griggs
Late February
Sweetbrier Creek, Ohio
Please, Andrew, don’t do this.” Miriam Esh stared at her bruder-in-law, unable to believe what he was contemplating. This was a between Sunday, which was supposed to be a day for peaceful contemplation and fellowship with family and friends. But instead, it had suddenly turned into a nightmare. She tried again. “How can you possibly think of selling our orchard? This is Jonah’s legacy.” Thank goodness Jonah was in his room napping—this was not a conversation her six-year-old suh should be listening to.
“Don’t you mean half of the orchard is his legacy? And don’t worry, his share of the money I get from the sale can be his legacy. And this way he won’t be tied to working an orchard when he comes of age, he’ll be able to do whatever he wants with the money.”
His tone indicated he thought working in an orchard was not something anyone would voluntarily choose, an idea that she took exception to. Miriam inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself as her hands fisted under the kitchen table. The roots of that orchard ran deep with her familye. It had been established by her daed’s grossdaadi and had been tended and nurtured by every generation since. She herself had not only played there as a kinner but had learned about caring for the orchard at her daed’s side. And ever since Jonah had been born, she’d dreamed of the same thing for him. How could it come to this, that Andrew, who had no real tie to either the land or the trees on it, could now sell the whole place off to a relative stranger?
She tried for a reasonable tone. “Jonah is only six years old. But if working an orchard, this orchard, like four generations of his ancestors have done, is something he wants to do when he gets older, then you are stealing that chance from him.”
Andrew didn’t appear to be swayed. “I promised Paul before he passed that I would look after you and Jonah, at least until you remarried. That’s why he gave me half of the place outright and put me in charge of managing the half that was left to Jonah. But I never had an interest in becoming an orchardist—I only ever helped Paul out because I wanted to work on Daed’s dairy farm even less. And on top of that I’ll be moving to Deerwood soon, so I won’t be around to work in the orchard or help you out around here. Which means the best I can do is sell the place and leave you with the money you’ll need to get on.” He spread his hands, his expression self-righteous. “It’s what Paul would have wanted.”
“Nee!” She took a breath. “Paul loved this orchard and I promised him that I would guard it as our suh’s legacy until he was old enough to care for it himself.” How could she make Andrew understand how very much the orchard meant to her? She couldn’t let it slip through her familye’s fingers on her watch. She desperately tried a different approach. “What if I bought your half from you myself? I can take over managing Jonah’s share as well and you can go off to Deerwood and not worry about having to deal with any aspect of the orchard once you leave.”
But Andrew shook his head. “Paul didn’t want you to have to bear the burden of tending the orchard yourself—after all, you have a boy to raise and a household to manage. That’s why he set things up the way he did. I couldn’t betray his trust that way.”
She thrust her chin out. “I could always hire someone to help me.”
Her bruder-in-law made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a laugh. “Even if you could come up with the money to buy me out, and I have my doubts about that, you won’t have much left to put food on the table, much less hire a hand to help with the orchard, ain’t so?”
She hated that he was right. Time to try another approach. “If you feel you must sell your half, then that is your right.” Just saying those words left a bitter taste in her mouth. “But please don’t sell Jonah’s half. Paul left that to our suh for a reason.”
Andrew’s lips curled slightly, and she saw an almost imperceptible roll of his eyes. Was he actually feeling superior to her?
“I know this is hard for you, Miriam.” Andrew’s brow went up as he waved a hand. “It would be different if you had a mann to help you share the work. But you’ll be on your own when I leave here.”
Miriam straightened as a sudden thought occurred to her. “What if I did have a mann?”
His brows drew down and he blinked, his eyes reflecting confusion. “Do you mean you’ve been courting?”
“Nee, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen if I set my mind to it.”
“And you would be willing to do that, find a man to marry just to hold on to Jonah’s share of the orchard?”
She thrust out her chin. “If that’s what it takes.”
He rubbed his jaw for a moment. Finally, he met her gaze again with a nod. “All right. But I don’t want to let this drag out. I’ll give you three months—that’s twelve weeks. By that time, you need to be married or at least engaged. Otherwise, I sell both mine and Jonah’s portion and simply set his share of the money aside for him.”
Three months. Her hands clenched tighter still, her nails biting into her palms. “That’s not much time.”
He shrugged. “That’s as long as I’m willing to wait. I have plans for some new things in my own life and I want to have this settled by then.”
He wanted the money by then was what he really meant, she was sure. She knew Andrew was moving to Deerwood to apprentice with a farrier, something he was very excited about. He had also been courting a girl there—was he planning to propose?
But what choice did she have? “Very well, I accept your terms.”
“Gut.” He stood. “I’ll let Ivan know that I’m going to hold off on the sale—for now.”
“Do you think that’ll make him change his mind about buying?” Miriam tried to keep the hopeful note out of her voice.
But he shook his head, the wooden chair creaking as he leaned back. “My understanding is Ivan Hilty is trying to buy up quite a few orchards so his seh will have groves of their own to manage as they get older. I imagine he’ll be just as eager to buy in three months as he is now.” He waved his hand dismissively. “But if not, I’m sure I can find another buyer—I’ve had offers in the past.”
“If I have a mann by then, I would hope you would give me the first option to buy your share so that I can keep the orchard intact.”
Andrew nodded. “I suppose I owe you that.” He gave her a pointed look. “Assuming you have a mann or fiancé and he is agreeable to helping you run the place.” Then he changed the subject. “I guess my next step is to find someone to manage the orchard for me when I leave.”
Miriam’s first instinct was to protest that she could handle the job, but she realized that would be futile. So instead, she came at it from a different angle. “It’s going to be difficult to find someone with the right kind of skills in so short an amount of time.” She tapped her chin. “But I have a suggestion that might help you with that. You could hire someone who’s interested in learning, and I can train him as we go.” That would give her at least a small measure of control.
Andrew rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “I’ll keep that in mind as a backup plan. But I have someone I’m considering that I want to check with first.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Beiler.”
She frowned. “But he’s already employed by John Fretz.”
“Jah. But as you said, I need to look for someone with experience.”
That wasn’t exactly what she’d said. Miriam felt her temper rising. Of course Andrew would place his trust in someone else, never in her. Even though she was at least four years older than Daniel Beiler and had spent her whole life in an orchard while she doubted that he’d spent more than a half-dozen years or so, Andrew refused to even consider her.
“Anyway,” Andrew continued, “he’s a friend—we were scholars together. And I think if I offer him a job where he has free rein to run things as he sees fit rather than merely carrying out someone else’s plans, he just might be ready to swap over.”
Just what she needed, another Andrew to deal with.
Regardless, though, she’d have to make the best of it. If the orchard were sold, especially to someone like Ivan Hilty, it would be almost impossible to acquire it again, even if she could find the funds. And seeing her familye’s legacy in someone else’s hands would truly break her heart.
Which meant she had to find herself a mann quickly—the consequences of failing to do so were too disastrous to consider.
Daniel Beiler set a pouch and slingshot on the top rail of the wooden footbridge that spanned Miller Creek. Sheets of ice still covered the shallow waterway but there was no wind today, so the cold was tolerable. The narrow bridge was located a little ways past the southern edge of the Esh apple orchard and wasn’t used much since a newer, wider bridge had been built upstream. Which made it an ideal spot to come whenever he had thinking to do.
Like today.
He opened the pouch and pulled out a pebble, which he fitted to the pad of the slingshot. Then Daniel took aim and watched in satisfaction as the small stone went flying and hit the water some thirty feet downstream. The act of aiming and firing a slingshot had always relaxed and focused him when he felt tense or unsettled.
As he reached in the pouch for another pebble, Daniel reflected over how much progress he’d made toward his goals. This morning he’d spent several hours looking over and updating his plans, the way he did every year at this time. It was an activity he always looked forward to. First, he’d reviewed his plan for the prior year, noting where he’d met his goals and where he’d fallen short. And he’d been pleased, but not surprised, to note that every goal—financial, career, personal—had been met.
Then he’d reviewed his high-level five-year plan, updating it for changing goals, dropping the previous year and projecting a new fifth year. It was when he’d used it to develop a detailed plan for the coming year that he’d been set back on his heels. According to his rolling five-year plan, he’d set a goal to be married by the end of this year.
He’d looked at that goal for a long time, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with it. He could move it into a future year—after all, there was no shame in moving things around in one’s five-year plan. It was just a projection based on goals and facts at hand when drawing it up. And he’d placed that goal in his plan three years ago.
The question was, Was he even ready to get married?
Which was why, right after the very excellent Sunday lunch his shveshtah-in-law Phoebe had prepared, he’d slipped away to come here and do some thinking.
Many of his friends had already gotten married or were courting. But just because others were doing it was not a gut reason for him to rush into something he wasn’t ready for.
Then he’d catch sight of that special look that passed between his older bruder, Seth, and Seth’s new fraa, Phoebe, and something inside him would sting with a longing for the same kind of relationship.
If he wanted to meet that goal, he’d need to get serious about courting someone soon.
He launched another pebble, watching it arc over the water. Was he truly ready for that, though? He’d prefer to be more comfortably settled before taking on responsibility for a fraa. And right now every penny he could acquire went into his fund to buy an orchard of his own.
He let another pebble fly. Perhaps, when he saw John tomorrow, he’d speak to him about a raise. After all, he’d been taking on more and more of the work in the orchard this past year, first when John’s wife had gotten sickly in the spring and then again when John had injured his wrist this past winter.
“Can you teach me how to do that?”
Daniel turned to see a young boy of about six or seven standing at the foot of the bridge. Where had he come from? Other than the dog with a peppery gray-and-white coat at his side, the kinner appeared to be alone.
“Well, hello there. I’m Daniel. And who might you be?”
The boy put his hand on the dog by his side. “I’m Jonah and this is Buster.”
“And do you live around here, Jonah?”
The boy nodded and waved off to his left, his gaze never straying from the slingshot in Daniel’s hand. “How did you learn to do that?”
“My daed taught me when I wasn’t much bigger than you are.” His daed had made it for him as well.
“I don’t have a daed anymore. Just Onkel Andrew.”
Onkel Andrew. This must be Andrew Esh’s nephew. The widow of Andrew’s bruder Paul lived on the other side of the orchard—no small walk, especially for a boy Jonah’s size. “Does your mamm know you’re out here?”
The boy stroked his dog’s head again. “She knows I’m with Buster.”
Which wasn’t an answer. Daniel motioned toward his buggy. “Kum, let me give you a ride home.”
“Could I try your slingshot first?”
There was a wistful note to the boy’s voice and expression that put Daniel in mind of his youngest bruder, Jesse, at that age. He supposed a quick lesson wouldn’t hurt anything. “All right, just one time.” He waved Jonah over. “Kum and I’ll show you.”
The boy eagerly joined him, eyeing the slingshot with an anticipatory gleam in his eye.
Daniel held out the slingshot and the boy took it almost reverently.
“Hold the handle with your left hand like so.”
The boy grasped it as directed and Daniel had him place his clenched fist on the top of the railing, which was about chest high to him.
Then Daniel pulled a pebble from the pouch. “Place this in the pad and hold it securely between your thumb and forefinger.”
Jonah, his expression quite earnest, did as he was bid.
“Very gut. Now, it’s very important that you don’t aim it toward anyone or any sort of animal. That’s why we’re going to aim it over the water.”
The boy nodded without taking his gaze from the object in his hands.
Daniel stood behind Jonah and wrapped his hand around the boy’s left hand. “We want to keep your fist that’s holding the handle firmly planted on the railing. Now slowly pull back on the pad. Jah, just like that but lower your hand a bit so it’s aiming up. Gut. Now when you’re ready, let it go.”
Jonah released the pebble and then let out a whoop of excitement as it flew a short distance over the icy stream.
Daniel smiled at the boy’s reaction. “Gut job.”
“Can I do it again?”
“Not right now. I think it best we—”
“Jonah! What are you doing?”
Both Daniel and his young companion turned at the sharply uttered question. Daniel immediately recognized the newcomer as Miriam Esh.
Before he could greet her, Jonah held up the slingshot he still clutched in his small fist. “Mamm, did you see? Daniel showed me how to shoot a slingshot.”
“I saw enough.” The look she shot Daniel was less than friendly. But she turned back with a smile for her suh. “Jonah, I’ve told you before about wandering off without telling me where you’re going. You had me worried.”
The boy scuffed the toe of his shoe on the bridge. “I’m sorry, Mamm. But you were busy with that tree and Buster went after a rabbit and I tried to make sure he didn’t hurt it.”
“Next time you just let Buster go—he knows his way back home. Understand?”
The boy hung his head. “Jah.”
“Gut.” She gentled her tone. “Now you and Buster head on home. You have a long walk ahead of you but there’s some cookies waiting on the table when you get there. I want to talk to Daniel for a moment and then I’ll be right behind you.”
Jonah nodded, then turned to Daniel. “Danke for letting me try out your slingshot. Can we do it again sometime?”
Daniel smiled. “Jah. As long as you ask your mamm first next time.”
The boy nodded with a grin, then grabbed hold of his dog’s collar and headed back toward the orchard.
Daniel turned back to Miriam and his smile immediately died. From the look of the hand she had planted firmly on her hip and the tilt of her chin that had her looking down her nose at him even from her shorter height, she was definitely upset.
“It is not your place to teach my suh to use such weapons.”
Weapons? “It’s just a slingshot, not a weapon,” he said, holding it up.
Her lips pinched tighter. “David slew Goliath with a slingshot.”
It had been a sling, something quite different from a slingshot. But he figured she didn’t want to hear that, especially if she was comparing some harmless slingshot practice with the story of David and Goliath. “My apologies if I overstepped,” he said, trying for a reasonable tone, “but surely there was no harm done.”
If anything, his words seemed to make the muscles in her face tighten more.
Daniel shook his head as he watched her march stiffly away. His peaceful, time-to-gather-his-thoughts afternoon had certainly taken a turn. He scooped the pouch of pebbles off the railing and headed for his buggy.
As far as a decision on whether or not to keep courting in his goals for this year, he decided that perhaps he would defer that to next year.
Miriam marched purposefully toward home, trying to work off some of her leftover worry and irritation. Jonah had always had a tendency to wander but he hadn’t ever gone quite this far from the house before. She knew he didn’t deliberately disobey, he just didn’t think things through. How could she make him understand how important it was that she knew where he was?
When she’d finally found him there on the old footbridge, she’d felt a mixture of relief and exasperation. But when she’d seen him with that slingshot in his hands and the way he looked at Daniel Beiler, her exasperation had turned to annoyance. Part of it was because this relative stranger had taken it on himself to put that slingshot in her six-year-old’s hand without thinking of whether that was something his eldre would approve of. But if she were being honest with herself, part of it was because of her earlier conversation with Andrew and his having named Daniel as someone he’d talk to about taking over managing the orchard.
Had she overreacted? Would she have spoken so sharply to him if not for that?
Then she tilted up her chin. Daniel had had no right to let Jonah play with that slingshot without her permission. Period. Her reaction had been totally justified.
Still, perhaps the next time she saw Daniel she would apologize.
Monday evening Daniel passed the bowl of mashed potatoes to his older bruder, Seth, then picked up his fork and focused on his own plate. Seth’s wife, Phoebe, was a great cook, even if her tendency to experiment in the kitchen made the results somewhat unpredictable. But her culinary offerings were lost on him tonight—his stomach was tied up in knots and he wasn’t sure he could swallow anything. What a difference a day could make.
He wasn’t worried about anyone noticing his mood, though—with five brieder as well as Phoebe and Aenti Edna around the table, no one would notice if he picked at his meal and didn’t participate in the conversation.
Even though his thoughts were on his own unexpectedly bleak situation, he picked up bits and pieces of the talk flowing around him.
Jesse and Kish, the youngest of his brieder, were telling a skeptical Mark about a fox they’d seen on their way home from school.
Seth said something to Levi about repairs that were needed on the buggy shed.
Phoebe and Aenti Edna were discussing the upcoming wedding of one of his aenti’s nieces.
But it was all mostly background noise as he tried to process what had happened today. How could he not have anticipated this, not set up a contingency for it in all his planning? Just one ten-minute conversation this afternoon had changed everything. All his well-thought-out plans for his future had just gone up in smoke and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do now.
“Daniel?”
It took Daniel a minute to realize Seth had said his name more than once. “Sorry, were you talking to me?”
Seth raised a brow. “Is everything all right? You haven’t said much since you came in and you’ve barely touched your food.”
Daniel shifted uncomfortably as he realized the other conversations had stopped and he was the focus of everyone’s gaze. He toyed with the idea of brushing off the question with a platitude but then decided his familye was going to find out sooner or later—it would be best if they heard it from him. He gave up pretending to eat and leaned back in his chair. “I got some bad news today. John Fretz has sold his orchard, and it looks like I’m going to be out of a job.” There was no point in telling them that he had been saving his money in the hopes of buying the orchard himself when John decided to retire someday. Or how betrayed he felt that John had sold it without a word of warning, much less given him the opportunity to purchase it himself.
There was an immediate and not unexpected chorus of surprised and sympathetic exclamations. His familye was nothing if not supportive.
Seth broke through the outpouring of sympathy. “Who did he sell to?”
“Ivan Hilty.”
“Who’s that?”
The question had come from Jesse, who, at fourteen, was the youngest of his brieder.
“He owns a large orchard over in Deerwood. I guess he’s looking to expand.”
Seth cut into his thoughts. “So why don’t you stay on and work for Ivan the way you did John?”
“According to John, Ivan will be turning the place over to his oldest suh to manage and apparently they have other familye to help run it.”
“So what are you going to do now?” Phoebe met his gaze, her expression reflecting both sympathy and concern.
“I’m not sure yet. I only found out this afternoon.” Then, not wanting to say more on the subject before he’d had time to form a plan, Daniel deliberately turned to Levi, who worked with their onkel’s construction crew. “How is work coming on James Baker’s roof?”
Levi looked momentarily startled by the question, but then apparently decided to go with the change of subject. “If this weather holds out, we should be done by the end of the week.”
Aenti Edna joined in. “That’s too bad because I heard it’s going to rain on Friday.”
Just like that the focus was once again off him and onto other subjects. And though he received several concerned looks throughout the rest of the meal, no one brought the subject of his job or future plans up again.
Daniel stood on the front porch, leaning against a support post, watching the sun go down. He barely felt the chill of the cold evening air and only gave a passing thought to what Checkers might be barking at or the hoot of an owl from the direction of the barn.
He’d hardly said a word to anyone since supper—his mind hadn’t been able to stop going over and over his current situation. He still couldn’t believe John hadn’t at least given him the opportunity to match Ivan’s offer. He’d put so much of himself into that land and those trees, and had visualized himself buying the place outright someday, that he realized he’d subconsciously felt a sense of ownership in the orchard. So John’s sale to someone else made it feel as if a part of himself had been ripped away.
But he couldn’t keep looking back, it was time to move on, to adjust his plans, or throw them out and make new ones.
There were two other orchards in the d. . .
Sweetbrier Creek, Ohio
Please, Andrew, don’t do this.” Miriam Esh stared at her bruder-in-law, unable to believe what he was contemplating. This was a between Sunday, which was supposed to be a day for peaceful contemplation and fellowship with family and friends. But instead, it had suddenly turned into a nightmare. She tried again. “How can you possibly think of selling our orchard? This is Jonah’s legacy.” Thank goodness Jonah was in his room napping—this was not a conversation her six-year-old suh should be listening to.
“Don’t you mean half of the orchard is his legacy? And don’t worry, his share of the money I get from the sale can be his legacy. And this way he won’t be tied to working an orchard when he comes of age, he’ll be able to do whatever he wants with the money.”
His tone indicated he thought working in an orchard was not something anyone would voluntarily choose, an idea that she took exception to. Miriam inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself as her hands fisted under the kitchen table. The roots of that orchard ran deep with her familye. It had been established by her daed’s grossdaadi and had been tended and nurtured by every generation since. She herself had not only played there as a kinner but had learned about caring for the orchard at her daed’s side. And ever since Jonah had been born, she’d dreamed of the same thing for him. How could it come to this, that Andrew, who had no real tie to either the land or the trees on it, could now sell the whole place off to a relative stranger?
She tried for a reasonable tone. “Jonah is only six years old. But if working an orchard, this orchard, like four generations of his ancestors have done, is something he wants to do when he gets older, then you are stealing that chance from him.”
Andrew didn’t appear to be swayed. “I promised Paul before he passed that I would look after you and Jonah, at least until you remarried. That’s why he gave me half of the place outright and put me in charge of managing the half that was left to Jonah. But I never had an interest in becoming an orchardist—I only ever helped Paul out because I wanted to work on Daed’s dairy farm even less. And on top of that I’ll be moving to Deerwood soon, so I won’t be around to work in the orchard or help you out around here. Which means the best I can do is sell the place and leave you with the money you’ll need to get on.” He spread his hands, his expression self-righteous. “It’s what Paul would have wanted.”
“Nee!” She took a breath. “Paul loved this orchard and I promised him that I would guard it as our suh’s legacy until he was old enough to care for it himself.” How could she make Andrew understand how very much the orchard meant to her? She couldn’t let it slip through her familye’s fingers on her watch. She desperately tried a different approach. “What if I bought your half from you myself? I can take over managing Jonah’s share as well and you can go off to Deerwood and not worry about having to deal with any aspect of the orchard once you leave.”
But Andrew shook his head. “Paul didn’t want you to have to bear the burden of tending the orchard yourself—after all, you have a boy to raise and a household to manage. That’s why he set things up the way he did. I couldn’t betray his trust that way.”
She thrust her chin out. “I could always hire someone to help me.”
Her bruder-in-law made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a laugh. “Even if you could come up with the money to buy me out, and I have my doubts about that, you won’t have much left to put food on the table, much less hire a hand to help with the orchard, ain’t so?”
She hated that he was right. Time to try another approach. “If you feel you must sell your half, then that is your right.” Just saying those words left a bitter taste in her mouth. “But please don’t sell Jonah’s half. Paul left that to our suh for a reason.”
Andrew’s lips curled slightly, and she saw an almost imperceptible roll of his eyes. Was he actually feeling superior to her?
“I know this is hard for you, Miriam.” Andrew’s brow went up as he waved a hand. “It would be different if you had a mann to help you share the work. But you’ll be on your own when I leave here.”
Miriam straightened as a sudden thought occurred to her. “What if I did have a mann?”
His brows drew down and he blinked, his eyes reflecting confusion. “Do you mean you’ve been courting?”
“Nee, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen if I set my mind to it.”
“And you would be willing to do that, find a man to marry just to hold on to Jonah’s share of the orchard?”
She thrust out her chin. “If that’s what it takes.”
He rubbed his jaw for a moment. Finally, he met her gaze again with a nod. “All right. But I don’t want to let this drag out. I’ll give you three months—that’s twelve weeks. By that time, you need to be married or at least engaged. Otherwise, I sell both mine and Jonah’s portion and simply set his share of the money aside for him.”
Three months. Her hands clenched tighter still, her nails biting into her palms. “That’s not much time.”
He shrugged. “That’s as long as I’m willing to wait. I have plans for some new things in my own life and I want to have this settled by then.”
He wanted the money by then was what he really meant, she was sure. She knew Andrew was moving to Deerwood to apprentice with a farrier, something he was very excited about. He had also been courting a girl there—was he planning to propose?
But what choice did she have? “Very well, I accept your terms.”
“Gut.” He stood. “I’ll let Ivan know that I’m going to hold off on the sale—for now.”
“Do you think that’ll make him change his mind about buying?” Miriam tried to keep the hopeful note out of her voice.
But he shook his head, the wooden chair creaking as he leaned back. “My understanding is Ivan Hilty is trying to buy up quite a few orchards so his seh will have groves of their own to manage as they get older. I imagine he’ll be just as eager to buy in three months as he is now.” He waved his hand dismissively. “But if not, I’m sure I can find another buyer—I’ve had offers in the past.”
“If I have a mann by then, I would hope you would give me the first option to buy your share so that I can keep the orchard intact.”
Andrew nodded. “I suppose I owe you that.” He gave her a pointed look. “Assuming you have a mann or fiancé and he is agreeable to helping you run the place.” Then he changed the subject. “I guess my next step is to find someone to manage the orchard for me when I leave.”
Miriam’s first instinct was to protest that she could handle the job, but she realized that would be futile. So instead, she came at it from a different angle. “It’s going to be difficult to find someone with the right kind of skills in so short an amount of time.” She tapped her chin. “But I have a suggestion that might help you with that. You could hire someone who’s interested in learning, and I can train him as we go.” That would give her at least a small measure of control.
Andrew rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “I’ll keep that in mind as a backup plan. But I have someone I’m considering that I want to check with first.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Beiler.”
She frowned. “But he’s already employed by John Fretz.”
“Jah. But as you said, I need to look for someone with experience.”
That wasn’t exactly what she’d said. Miriam felt her temper rising. Of course Andrew would place his trust in someone else, never in her. Even though she was at least four years older than Daniel Beiler and had spent her whole life in an orchard while she doubted that he’d spent more than a half-dozen years or so, Andrew refused to even consider her.
“Anyway,” Andrew continued, “he’s a friend—we were scholars together. And I think if I offer him a job where he has free rein to run things as he sees fit rather than merely carrying out someone else’s plans, he just might be ready to swap over.”
Just what she needed, another Andrew to deal with.
Regardless, though, she’d have to make the best of it. If the orchard were sold, especially to someone like Ivan Hilty, it would be almost impossible to acquire it again, even if she could find the funds. And seeing her familye’s legacy in someone else’s hands would truly break her heart.
Which meant she had to find herself a mann quickly—the consequences of failing to do so were too disastrous to consider.
Daniel Beiler set a pouch and slingshot on the top rail of the wooden footbridge that spanned Miller Creek. Sheets of ice still covered the shallow waterway but there was no wind today, so the cold was tolerable. The narrow bridge was located a little ways past the southern edge of the Esh apple orchard and wasn’t used much since a newer, wider bridge had been built upstream. Which made it an ideal spot to come whenever he had thinking to do.
Like today.
He opened the pouch and pulled out a pebble, which he fitted to the pad of the slingshot. Then Daniel took aim and watched in satisfaction as the small stone went flying and hit the water some thirty feet downstream. The act of aiming and firing a slingshot had always relaxed and focused him when he felt tense or unsettled.
As he reached in the pouch for another pebble, Daniel reflected over how much progress he’d made toward his goals. This morning he’d spent several hours looking over and updating his plans, the way he did every year at this time. It was an activity he always looked forward to. First, he’d reviewed his plan for the prior year, noting where he’d met his goals and where he’d fallen short. And he’d been pleased, but not surprised, to note that every goal—financial, career, personal—had been met.
Then he’d reviewed his high-level five-year plan, updating it for changing goals, dropping the previous year and projecting a new fifth year. It was when he’d used it to develop a detailed plan for the coming year that he’d been set back on his heels. According to his rolling five-year plan, he’d set a goal to be married by the end of this year.
He’d looked at that goal for a long time, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with it. He could move it into a future year—after all, there was no shame in moving things around in one’s five-year plan. It was just a projection based on goals and facts at hand when drawing it up. And he’d placed that goal in his plan three years ago.
The question was, Was he even ready to get married?
Which was why, right after the very excellent Sunday lunch his shveshtah-in-law Phoebe had prepared, he’d slipped away to come here and do some thinking.
Many of his friends had already gotten married or were courting. But just because others were doing it was not a gut reason for him to rush into something he wasn’t ready for.
Then he’d catch sight of that special look that passed between his older bruder, Seth, and Seth’s new fraa, Phoebe, and something inside him would sting with a longing for the same kind of relationship.
If he wanted to meet that goal, he’d need to get serious about courting someone soon.
He launched another pebble, watching it arc over the water. Was he truly ready for that, though? He’d prefer to be more comfortably settled before taking on responsibility for a fraa. And right now every penny he could acquire went into his fund to buy an orchard of his own.
He let another pebble fly. Perhaps, when he saw John tomorrow, he’d speak to him about a raise. After all, he’d been taking on more and more of the work in the orchard this past year, first when John’s wife had gotten sickly in the spring and then again when John had injured his wrist this past winter.
“Can you teach me how to do that?”
Daniel turned to see a young boy of about six or seven standing at the foot of the bridge. Where had he come from? Other than the dog with a peppery gray-and-white coat at his side, the kinner appeared to be alone.
“Well, hello there. I’m Daniel. And who might you be?”
The boy put his hand on the dog by his side. “I’m Jonah and this is Buster.”
“And do you live around here, Jonah?”
The boy nodded and waved off to his left, his gaze never straying from the slingshot in Daniel’s hand. “How did you learn to do that?”
“My daed taught me when I wasn’t much bigger than you are.” His daed had made it for him as well.
“I don’t have a daed anymore. Just Onkel Andrew.”
Onkel Andrew. This must be Andrew Esh’s nephew. The widow of Andrew’s bruder Paul lived on the other side of the orchard—no small walk, especially for a boy Jonah’s size. “Does your mamm know you’re out here?”
The boy stroked his dog’s head again. “She knows I’m with Buster.”
Which wasn’t an answer. Daniel motioned toward his buggy. “Kum, let me give you a ride home.”
“Could I try your slingshot first?”
There was a wistful note to the boy’s voice and expression that put Daniel in mind of his youngest bruder, Jesse, at that age. He supposed a quick lesson wouldn’t hurt anything. “All right, just one time.” He waved Jonah over. “Kum and I’ll show you.”
The boy eagerly joined him, eyeing the slingshot with an anticipatory gleam in his eye.
Daniel held out the slingshot and the boy took it almost reverently.
“Hold the handle with your left hand like so.”
The boy grasped it as directed and Daniel had him place his clenched fist on the top of the railing, which was about chest high to him.
Then Daniel pulled a pebble from the pouch. “Place this in the pad and hold it securely between your thumb and forefinger.”
Jonah, his expression quite earnest, did as he was bid.
“Very gut. Now, it’s very important that you don’t aim it toward anyone or any sort of animal. That’s why we’re going to aim it over the water.”
The boy nodded without taking his gaze from the object in his hands.
Daniel stood behind Jonah and wrapped his hand around the boy’s left hand. “We want to keep your fist that’s holding the handle firmly planted on the railing. Now slowly pull back on the pad. Jah, just like that but lower your hand a bit so it’s aiming up. Gut. Now when you’re ready, let it go.”
Jonah released the pebble and then let out a whoop of excitement as it flew a short distance over the icy stream.
Daniel smiled at the boy’s reaction. “Gut job.”
“Can I do it again?”
“Not right now. I think it best we—”
“Jonah! What are you doing?”
Both Daniel and his young companion turned at the sharply uttered question. Daniel immediately recognized the newcomer as Miriam Esh.
Before he could greet her, Jonah held up the slingshot he still clutched in his small fist. “Mamm, did you see? Daniel showed me how to shoot a slingshot.”
“I saw enough.” The look she shot Daniel was less than friendly. But she turned back with a smile for her suh. “Jonah, I’ve told you before about wandering off without telling me where you’re going. You had me worried.”
The boy scuffed the toe of his shoe on the bridge. “I’m sorry, Mamm. But you were busy with that tree and Buster went after a rabbit and I tried to make sure he didn’t hurt it.”
“Next time you just let Buster go—he knows his way back home. Understand?”
The boy hung his head. “Jah.”
“Gut.” She gentled her tone. “Now you and Buster head on home. You have a long walk ahead of you but there’s some cookies waiting on the table when you get there. I want to talk to Daniel for a moment and then I’ll be right behind you.”
Jonah nodded, then turned to Daniel. “Danke for letting me try out your slingshot. Can we do it again sometime?”
Daniel smiled. “Jah. As long as you ask your mamm first next time.”
The boy nodded with a grin, then grabbed hold of his dog’s collar and headed back toward the orchard.
Daniel turned back to Miriam and his smile immediately died. From the look of the hand she had planted firmly on her hip and the tilt of her chin that had her looking down her nose at him even from her shorter height, she was definitely upset.
“It is not your place to teach my suh to use such weapons.”
Weapons? “It’s just a slingshot, not a weapon,” he said, holding it up.
Her lips pinched tighter. “David slew Goliath with a slingshot.”
It had been a sling, something quite different from a slingshot. But he figured she didn’t want to hear that, especially if she was comparing some harmless slingshot practice with the story of David and Goliath. “My apologies if I overstepped,” he said, trying for a reasonable tone, “but surely there was no harm done.”
If anything, his words seemed to make the muscles in her face tighten more.
Daniel shook his head as he watched her march stiffly away. His peaceful, time-to-gather-his-thoughts afternoon had certainly taken a turn. He scooped the pouch of pebbles off the railing and headed for his buggy.
As far as a decision on whether or not to keep courting in his goals for this year, he decided that perhaps he would defer that to next year.
Miriam marched purposefully toward home, trying to work off some of her leftover worry and irritation. Jonah had always had a tendency to wander but he hadn’t ever gone quite this far from the house before. She knew he didn’t deliberately disobey, he just didn’t think things through. How could she make him understand how important it was that she knew where he was?
When she’d finally found him there on the old footbridge, she’d felt a mixture of relief and exasperation. But when she’d seen him with that slingshot in his hands and the way he looked at Daniel Beiler, her exasperation had turned to annoyance. Part of it was because this relative stranger had taken it on himself to put that slingshot in her six-year-old’s hand without thinking of whether that was something his eldre would approve of. But if she were being honest with herself, part of it was because of her earlier conversation with Andrew and his having named Daniel as someone he’d talk to about taking over managing the orchard.
Had she overreacted? Would she have spoken so sharply to him if not for that?
Then she tilted up her chin. Daniel had had no right to let Jonah play with that slingshot without her permission. Period. Her reaction had been totally justified.
Still, perhaps the next time she saw Daniel she would apologize.
Monday evening Daniel passed the bowl of mashed potatoes to his older bruder, Seth, then picked up his fork and focused on his own plate. Seth’s wife, Phoebe, was a great cook, even if her tendency to experiment in the kitchen made the results somewhat unpredictable. But her culinary offerings were lost on him tonight—his stomach was tied up in knots and he wasn’t sure he could swallow anything. What a difference a day could make.
He wasn’t worried about anyone noticing his mood, though—with five brieder as well as Phoebe and Aenti Edna around the table, no one would notice if he picked at his meal and didn’t participate in the conversation.
Even though his thoughts were on his own unexpectedly bleak situation, he picked up bits and pieces of the talk flowing around him.
Jesse and Kish, the youngest of his brieder, were telling a skeptical Mark about a fox they’d seen on their way home from school.
Seth said something to Levi about repairs that were needed on the buggy shed.
Phoebe and Aenti Edna were discussing the upcoming wedding of one of his aenti’s nieces.
But it was all mostly background noise as he tried to process what had happened today. How could he not have anticipated this, not set up a contingency for it in all his planning? Just one ten-minute conversation this afternoon had changed everything. All his well-thought-out plans for his future had just gone up in smoke and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do now.
“Daniel?”
It took Daniel a minute to realize Seth had said his name more than once. “Sorry, were you talking to me?”
Seth raised a brow. “Is everything all right? You haven’t said much since you came in and you’ve barely touched your food.”
Daniel shifted uncomfortably as he realized the other conversations had stopped and he was the focus of everyone’s gaze. He toyed with the idea of brushing off the question with a platitude but then decided his familye was going to find out sooner or later—it would be best if they heard it from him. He gave up pretending to eat and leaned back in his chair. “I got some bad news today. John Fretz has sold his orchard, and it looks like I’m going to be out of a job.” There was no point in telling them that he had been saving his money in the hopes of buying the orchard himself when John decided to retire someday. Or how betrayed he felt that John had sold it without a word of warning, much less given him the opportunity to purchase it himself.
There was an immediate and not unexpected chorus of surprised and sympathetic exclamations. His familye was nothing if not supportive.
Seth broke through the outpouring of sympathy. “Who did he sell to?”
“Ivan Hilty.”
“Who’s that?”
The question had come from Jesse, who, at fourteen, was the youngest of his brieder.
“He owns a large orchard over in Deerwood. I guess he’s looking to expand.”
Seth cut into his thoughts. “So why don’t you stay on and work for Ivan the way you did John?”
“According to John, Ivan will be turning the place over to his oldest suh to manage and apparently they have other familye to help run it.”
“So what are you going to do now?” Phoebe met his gaze, her expression reflecting both sympathy and concern.
“I’m not sure yet. I only found out this afternoon.” Then, not wanting to say more on the subject before he’d had time to form a plan, Daniel deliberately turned to Levi, who worked with their onkel’s construction crew. “How is work coming on James Baker’s roof?”
Levi looked momentarily startled by the question, but then apparently decided to go with the change of subject. “If this weather holds out, we should be done by the end of the week.”
Aenti Edna joined in. “That’s too bad because I heard it’s going to rain on Friday.”
Just like that the focus was once again off him and onto other subjects. And though he received several concerned looks throughout the rest of the meal, no one brought the subject of his job or future plans up again.
Daniel stood on the front porch, leaning against a support post, watching the sun go down. He barely felt the chill of the cold evening air and only gave a passing thought to what Checkers might be barking at or the hoot of an owl from the direction of the barn.
He’d hardly said a word to anyone since supper—his mind hadn’t been able to stop going over and over his current situation. He still couldn’t believe John hadn’t at least given him the opportunity to match Ivan’s offer. He’d put so much of himself into that land and those trees, and had visualized himself buying the place outright someday, that he realized he’d subconsciously felt a sense of ownership in the orchard. So John’s sale to someone else made it feel as if a part of himself had been ripped away.
But he couldn’t keep looking back, it was time to move on, to adjust his plans, or throw them out and make new ones.
There were two other orchards in the d. . .
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An Amish Widow's Promise
Winnie Griggs
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