The Amish Bachelor's Baby

She laughed, “I don’t know. We haven’t had a spelling bee in a long time.”

“Maybe we should have one. I read somewhere that Englisch pioneers used to hold spelling bees for entertainment.” He gave her a grin. “Something we could do in our spare time.”

“When we get some.”

Miriam had told him how much fun she had with the Wagler twins, but he hadn’t known Annie possessed a dry sense of humor. She wasn’t trying to flirt with him, either, and he’d heard several of the community’s bachelors saying Leanna was eager to marry. Maybe asking Annie instead of her twin hadn’t been such a mistake after all.

When they reached the main road, Caleb held Dusty back. Traffic sped past. Most cars were headed to ski resorts in Vermont, and the drivers couldn’t wait to reach the slopes. Local drivers complained tourists drove along the uneven, twisting country roads as if they were interstates.

Two minutes passed before Caleb felt safe to move onto the road. They didn’t have to go far before he signaled a left turn. He held his breath as a car zipped by him, heading east, but he was able to make the turn before another vehicle, traveling as fast, roared toward Salem.

“Everyone’s in a hurry,” Annie said as she turned her head to watch the car vanish over abandoned railroad tracks.

“I hope they slow down before they get hurt.” Pulling into the asphalt parking area behind the building where ghosts of painted lines were visible, he said, “Here we are.”

“Your bakery is going to be here?”

“Ja.” He was still amazed he’d been able to buy the building in October.

It had served as a supply depot for the railroad until the mid-1960s. The parking area and the pair of picture windows on the front were perfect for the shop he had in mind. Its wide eaves protected the doors. The building needed painting, but that had to wait for the weather to warm. As a few stray snowflakes wafted toward the ground, he couldn’t help imagining how it’d look in May, when he planned to open.

“Why a bakery?” she asked.

“My grossmammi taught me to bake when I was young, and I enjoyed it.” He didn’t add he’d been recovering from an extended illness and had been too weak to play outside.

She glanced at him, and he suspected she wanted him to explain further. He didn’t.

Walls. Keep up the walls, he reminded himself. Getting close was a one-way ticket to getting hurt again. He wasn’t going to do something that dumm again.

Not ever.

* * *

The wind tore at Annie’s coat and shawl when Caleb opened the door on his side and got out. When she reached for her door, he called to her. She had to strain to hear his voice over the wild wind.

“Head inside. Don’t wait for me.” He grabbed a wool blanket off the floor. “I’ll tie up Dusty. I want to put this over him to keep him warm while I give you the nickel tour.”

She nodded, but she wasn’t sure if he saw the motion because he’d already turned to lash his horse to a hitching rail. The building would provide a windbreak for the horse.

After hurrying through the back door, she paused to cup her hands and blow on them. She wore heavy gloves, but her fingers felt as if they’d already frozen.

It was dusky inside. Large boxes were stacked throughout the cramped space. She wondered what was in them. Not supplies, because the room didn’t look ready for use. Paint hung in loose strips between the pair of windows to her left.

She stood on tiptoe to look for writing on the closest box. She halted when she heard a quiet thump.

It came from beyond the crates. She peered around them. A door led into another room.

Was someone there?

Should she get Caleb?

A soft sound, like a gurgle or a gasp, was barely louder than her heartbeat. If someone was in trouble in the other room, she shouldn’t hesitate.

God, guide me.

She took a single step toward the other room, keeping her hand on the wall and trying to avoid the big crates. Her eyes widened when she saw a silhouette backlit by a large window. She edged forward, then froze as a board creaked beneath her right foot.

The silhouette whirled. Something struck the floor. A flashlight! It splashed light around the space. A young woman was highlighted before she turned to rush past Annie.

“Wait!” Annie cried.

A boppli’s cry echoed through the building.

“Stop!” came a shout from behind Annie.

Caleb!

“There’s someone here,” she called as she spun, hoping to cut off the woman’s escape.

She ran forward at the sound of two bodies hitting each other.

Caleb yelled, “Turn on the lights.”

“Lights?”

“Switch...on the wall...by the door.” He sounded as if he was struggling with someone.

She flipped the switch and gasped when she saw the person trying to escape from Caleb.

It was a teenage girl, holding a boppli. Blonde and cute, the girl had eyes the same dark green as Caleb’s. The boppli held a bright blue bear close to his cheek and squinted at them in the bright light.

Annie started to ask a question, but Caleb beat her to it when he asked, “Becky Sue? What are you doing here?”

Chapter Two

Becky Sue?

Caleb knew this girl and the boppli?

Annie wondered why she was surprised. Caleb knew everyone who came to Harmony Creek Hollow. Was this young woman part of a new family joining their settlement? There was one empty farmstead along the twisting road beside the creek.

Annie faltered when she saw the shock on Caleb’s face. His green eyes were open so wide she could see white around the irises, and his mouth gaped.

Then she remembered what he’d said after calling the girl by name.

What are you doing here?

He wasn’t shocked to see Becky Sue. He was shocked she was in his bakery.

What was going on?

As if she’d asked that aloud, Caleb said in a taut tone, “Annie, this is my cousin, Becky Sue Hartz. She and her family have a farm a couple of districts away from where Miriam and I grew up.” He closed his mouth, and his jaw worked with strong emotions.

The girl shared Caleb’s coloring and his height. Annie wondered how alike they were in other ways.

Stepping forward with a smile, she tried to ignore the thick tension in the air. “I’m Annie Wagler. I should have guessed you were related to Caleb. You look alike.”

“Hi, Annie.” Becky Sue’s eyes kept cutting toward Caleb. Her expression announced she expected to be berated at any second.

Why? For being in the bakery? It wasn’t as if she’d broken in. The door had been unlocked. However, even if Becky Sue had jimmied a window and climbed in, her cousin would have forgiven her.

“And who is this cutie?” Annie tapped the nose of the little boy in the girl’s arms, and he chuckled in a surprisingly deep tone.

For a moment, Becky Sue lost her hunted look and gave Annie a tentative smile. “This is Joey. He’s my son.”

Her son? The girl didn’t look like much more than a kind herself. If Annie had to speculate, she would have guessed Becky Sue was sixteen or seventeen. At the most. The little boy, who had her flaxen hair, appeared to be almost a year old.

Shutting her mouth when she realized it had gaped open as Caleb’s was, Annie struggled to keep her smile from falling away. Though it wasn’t common, some plain girls got pregnant before marriage as Englisch ones did. Or had Becky Sue been a very young bride?

As if she’d cued Caleb, he asked, “Is your husband with you?”

Becky Sue raised her chin in a pose of defiance. A weak one, because her lips trembled, and Annie guessed she was trying to keep from crying.

“No,” the girl replied, “because I don’t have a husband. Just a son.” When Caleb opened his mouth again, she hurried to add, “I’m not a widow, though that would be convenient for everyone, ain’t so?”

“Everyone?” He frowned. “Do your parents know where you are?”

“Ja.” When he continued to give her a stern look, she relented enough to say, “They know I left home.”

“But not where you’re going?”

She didn’t answer.

“Where are you going?” Caleb persisted.

Again the girl was silent, her chin jutting out to show she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. Though the girl was terrified. Her shoulders shook, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

Knowing she should keep quiet because the matter was between Caleb and the girl, Annie couldn’t halt herself from saying, “I’m sure you and Joey would like something warm to eat. It’s cold here, ain’t so? Though I was here last winter, I can’t get used to it. Caleb, we need to get these two something warm to eat.”

Caleb aimed his frown in her direction. She pretended she hadn’t seen it. Didn’t he understand they wouldn’t get any information if the conversation dissolved into the two of them firing recriminations at each other? Once the girl and her boppli weren’t cold and hungry—and exhausted, because Joey was knuckling his eyes with tiny fists and dark crescents shadowed his mamm’s eyes—Becky Sue might be willing to come clean about why she and her son were so far away from home.

But Annie’s comments were ignored as Becky Sue said, “I told you, Caleb. I left home, and I’m—we’re not going back.”

“And you decided to come to Harmony Creek Hollow?” Annie asked, earning another scowl from Caleb.

“I heard about the new settlement.” Though she answered Annie’s question, she glared at her cousin. “I didn’t know this was the one you were involved with, Caleb. If I had—”

“Well, isn’t it a wunderbaar coincidence, Becky Sue?” Annie hurried to ask. “And your timing is perfect.”

“It is?” Becky Sue seemed overwhelmed by Annie.

Gut! That was what Annie wanted. If the girl stopped thinking about defying Caleb, she might relax enough to reveal a smidgen of the truth; then Annie and Caleb could figure out what was going on.

No! Not Annie and Caleb. She shouldn’t use their names together in her thoughts. She had to keep her focus on helping Caleb see what a wunderbaar wife Leanna would make him.

Wishing she could think of a way to bring her twin into the conversation, Annie said, “Your timing is great because Caleb was giving me a tour of his bakery.”

“Bakery?” Hope sprang into the girl’s voice. “I didn’t see any food around here. Do you have some?”

“I’ve got soup in a thermos in the buggy.” Caleb’s face eased from its frown. “I meant to eat it for lunch, but I got busy and forgot.”

“Wasn’t that a blessing?” Annie hoped her laugh didn’t sound as forced to them as it did to her.

“It probably won’t be hot,” Caleb said.

Annie frowned. Didn’t he realize his cousin might be so hungry she wouldn’t care what temperature the soup was? “We can heat it up.”

He shook his head. “The stove isn’t connected. Nothing is yet. The gas company is supposed to have someone come later this week.”

Annie made a quick motion with her fingers toward the door. Did he understand that she hoped, when he was gone, Becky Sue would open up to her? Sometimes it was easier to speak to a stranger.

The boppli wiggled in Becky Sue’s arms and began crying. While the girl’s attention was diverted, Annie gestured again to Caleb. He gave her a curt nod, but his frown returned as he headed for the door. If he disliked her idea, why was he going along with it?

Focus, she told herself.

Pasting on a smile, Annie held out her arms to Becky Sue. “Do you want me to hold him while you have something to eat?”

“No, I can do it myself.” Her sharp voice suggested she’d made the argument a lot already.

With Becky Sue’s parents? Other members of her family? Joey’s daed? The girl had said she wasn’t a widow, but where was the boppli’s daed?

Wanting to draw Becky Sue out without making the conversation feel like an interrogation, Annie began to talk about the weather again. Her attempts to convince the girl to join in were futile. Becky Sue refused to be lured into talking. Instead she stared at some spot over Annie’s head as she bounced her son on her hip in an effort to calm him.

But Annie wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. There was one topic any mamm would find hard to ignore. “Becky Sue, do you have enough supplies for your boppli?”

Her face crumbling as her defiance sifted away, Becky Sue shook her head. “I’ve only got one clean diaper left for him.”

“Do you have bottles, or is he drinking from a cup?”

“I had a bottle.” She stared at the floor. “It got lost a couple of days ago.”

“My sister-in-law has a little one not too much older than Joey. I’m sure she or someone else will have extra diapers and bottles you can borrow.”

Bright tears clung to Becky Sue’s lashes but didn’t fall. The girl’s strong will astonished Annie. It was also a warning that Becky Sue, unless she decided to cooperate, would continue to avoid answering their questions.

“Gut,” the girl replied.

“I know it’s none of my business, but are you planning to stay here?”

“You’re right. It’s not any of your business.” A flush rose up Becky Sue’s cheeks, and Annie guessed she usually wasn’t prickly. In a subdued tone, she added, “I don’t know if I’m staying in Harmony Creek Hollow...beyond tonight.”

“I’m glad you don’t plan to go any farther tonight. It’s going to be cold.”

“I didn’t expect the weather to be so bad.”

“None of us did.”

Annie watched as the girl began to relax. Becky Sue was willing to talk about trite topics, but the mere hint of any question that delved into why she was in Caleb’s bakery made her close up tighter than a miser’s wallet.

A few admiring queries about Joey brought a torrent of words from the girl, but they halted when the door opened and Caleb walked in. Annie kept her frustrated sigh to herself as she searched for a chair Caleb said was among the boxes.

Somehow they were going to have to convince the mulish girl to let them help. Becky Sue must be honest with them about what had brought her to northern New York. Annie prayed for inspiration about how to persuade her to trust them.

Not having any ideas on how to solve a problem was a novel sensation.

And it was one she didn’t like a bit.

* * *

While Becky Sue sat on the floor and began to feed her son small bites of the vegetable soup from the thermos, Caleb watched in silence. The same silence had greeted him when he came into the bakery. He’d heard Annie talking to his cousin, but Becky Sue had cut herself off in the middle of a word the moment she saw him.

Annie edged closer and offered him a kind smile. He was startled at the thought of how comforting it was to have her there. She was focused on what must be done instead of thinking about the implications of his cousin announcing the boppli was her son.

But the situation was taking its toll on her, as well. Lines of worry gouged her forehead. She was as upset as he was about his cousin.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“For what?” she returned as softly.

“Putting you in the middle of this mess. When I asked you to work for me, I didn’t think we’d find my cousin hiding here.” He gulped, then forced himself to continue. “Here with a boppli.”

“You didn’t know she was pregnant, ain’t so?”

He moved out of the front room. When Becky Sue glanced at them with suspicion, he made sure no emotion was visible on his face. The boppli chirped his impatience, and she went back to feeding her son.

Standing where he could watch them, he leaned toward Annie. A whiff of some sweet fragrance, something that offered a tantalizing hint of spring, drifted from her hair. He hadn’t thought of Annie Wagler as sweet. She was the forthright one, the one who spoke her mind. But standing close to her, he realized he might have been wrong to dismiss her as all business. She had a feminine side to her.

A very intriguing one.

“Caleb?” she prompted, and he realized he hadn’t answered her.

Folding his arms over his coat, he said, “Nobody mentioned anything about Becky Sue having a kind.”

“But you’ve got to let her family know she’s here. She...”

Annie’s voice trailed off, and Caleb looked over his shoulder to see Becky Sue getting to her feet. Annie didn’t want his cousin to know they’d been talking about contacting Becky Sue’s parents. A wise decision, because making the girl more intractable wouldn’t gain them anything.

He realized Annie had guessed the same thing because she strolled into the front room and began asking how Becky Sue and Joey had liked their impromptu picnic.

The girl looked at her coat that was splattered with soup. “He liked it more than you’d guess from the spots on me. I should wash this out before the stains set.”

Making sure his tone was conversational, Caleb pointed into the kitchen area and to the right. “The bathroom is through that door.”

Becky Sue glanced at her drowsy son and hesitated.

Annie held out her hands. “I’ll watch him while you wash up.”

“Danki,” the girl said as she placed the boppli in Annie’s arms.

Becky Sue took one step, then paused. She half turned and appraised how Annie cuddled the little boy. Satisfied, she hurried into the bathroom and closed the door.

Annie began to walk the floor to soothe the uneasy boppli. He calmed in her arms when she paced from one end of the kitchen to the other. As he stretched out a small hand to touch her face, she said, “This may be the first moment she’s had alone since they left home. I can’t imagine having to take care of a boppli on my own while traveling aimlessly.”

“What makes you think she’s being aimless?”

“It seems as if she’s thought more about running away than running to a specific place.”

Caleb nodded at Annie’s insightful remark. “We’ve got to figure out what to do.”

“What’s to figure out? She has to have a place to stay while you—” She gave a glance at the closed bathroom door. “While you make a few calls.”

He was grateful she chose her words with care. If they spooked Becky Sue, she might take off again.

“That’s true, but, Annie, I live by myself. I can’t have her under my roof with nobody else there.”

Puzzlement threaded across her brow. “Why not? She’s your cousin.”

“She’s my second cousin.”

Comprehension raced through Annie’s worried eyes. Marriage between second cousins wasn’t uncommon among plain folks. He had two friends who’d made such matches.

“Won’t Miriam take them?” she asked, adjusting the boppli’s head as it wobbled at the same time he began to snore.

“Under normal circumstances, but she has caught whatever bug has made so many of her scholars sick. When I stopped by earlier today, the whole family was barely able to get on their feet. She won’t want to pass along the germs.”

“Then there’s only one solution.”

“What’s that?”

“She can stay at our house.”

To say he was shocked would have been an understatement. “But they’re not your problem.”

She gave him a frown he guessed had daunted many others. He squared his shoulders before she realized how successful her expression nearly had been.

“Caleb, Becky Sue and Joey aren’t a problem. Becky Sue is a girl with a problem. Not that this little one should be called a problem, either.” Her face softened when she gazed at the sleeping boppli in her arms and rocked him.

He almost gasped, as he had when he recognized his cousin among the boxes in the bakery’s kitchen. The unguarded warmth on Annie’s face offered a view of her he’d never seen before. He wondered how many had, because she hid this gentle softness behind a quick wit and sharp tongue. He was discovering many aspects of her today. He couldn’t help being curious about what else she kept concealed.

“We’ve got plenty of room in our house,” she went on, her voice rising and falling with the motion of her arms as she rocked the kind. “There will always be someone there to help Becky Sue.”

He couldn’t argue. The twins’ younger sister, Juanita, was in her final year of school. In addition, Annie’s grossmammi and younger brother lived with them.

At that thought, he said, “You’ve already got your hands full.”

“True, so we won’t notice another couple of people in our house. Let us help you, Caleb. You’ve worked hard building our community, and doing this will give our family a chance to repay you.”

Guilt suffused him, but he couldn’t think of another solution. It seemed Becky Sue had already decided she could trust Annie. Now he must show he trusted her, too.

The bathroom door opened and Becky Sue emerged. When Annie asked her to stay with the Wagler family, she made the invitation sound spontaneous.

Caleb held his breath until his cousin said, “Danki.”

“Get your things,” he replied. “I turned the heater on in the buggy when I got the thermos. It’s as warm in there as it’s going to be, so bundle up. I’ll stop by later and check on you.”

“You aren’t coming with us?” Becky Sue asked suspiciously.

“No. I’ve got work to do.” Turning to Annie, he said with the best smile he could manage, “You taking them tonight will let me keep my work on schedule.”

“Gut,” Annie replied, as if the timetable for the bakery was the most important thing on their minds.

As soon as Becky Sue went into the front room, Caleb lowered his voice and said, “Danki for taking her home with you. Now I’ll have the chance to contact her family.”

“Do they have access to a phone?”

“I’m pretty sure they do. If not, I can try calling the store that’s not far from where they live. The Englisch owner will deliver emergency messages.” He couldn’t keep from arching his brows. “I don’t know what would constitute more of an emergency than a missing kind and kins-kind.”

“You know the number?”

“The phone here at the bakery is for dealing with vendors, but I’ve let a couple of our neighbors use it, and at least one of them mentioned calling the store. The number should be stored in the phone’s list of outgoing calls.”

Becky Sue returned with a pair of torn and dirty grocery bags in one hand. The girl carried a bright blue-and-yellow blanket in the other. Stains on it suggested she and her boppli had slept rough since leaving their home.

Joey woke as Annie was wrapping the blanket around him. He took one look at Caleb and began to cry at a volume Caleb hadn’t imagined a little boy could make.

As Annie cooed to console him, she handed him to his mamm. She finished winding the blanket around him at the same time as she herded Becky Sue out of the bakery.

Caleb went to a window and watched them leave in his buggy. He went to the phone he kept on top of the rickety cabinet that must be as old as the building. He’d planned to start tearing the cupboard out after giving Annie a tour of the bakery. He wondered when he’d have time to finish.

Soon, he told himself. He’d set a date at the beginning of May to open the bakery. He’d already purchased ads in the local newspaper and the swap magazine delivered to every household in the area because his customers from the farmers market had been so insistent he inform them as soon as the bakery opened its doors.

Picking up the phone, he frowned when he began clicking through the list of outgoing calls. Someone had made a call about ten minutes before he and Annie had arrived. He had no doubt it was Becky Sue.

The number wasn’t a Lancaster County one. It had a different area code, one he didn’t recognize. He wasn’t sure where 319 was, but he’d ask someone at the fire department where he was a volunteer firefighter to look it up for him.