FRAM LEFT THE very next day with as little ceremony as when he’d come, but Tabitha rejoiced after their brief, closeted meeting. Of course, I cannot tell John what Fram said, she thought, carefully adjusting her ankle on a pile of quilts.
But, ach, dear Gott, what a pleasure it would be to build a life with John. She leaned back and eased her breakfast tray away from her. Frau Ebersol had stayed on—“Just to make sure everything was doing,” as she put it—and Tabitha was grateful for her pointed but still pleasant presence.
“Did ya eat?” the old woman demanded as she came into the room.
“Ya, danki.” Tabitha smiled.
“Well, I expect you can get up tomorrow. Doesn’t do to baby an ankle too much, even with a bad sprain. Besides, there’s a singing tomorrow nacht that I imagine John—or some fella—would like to take ya to.”
Tabitha gave her an innocent look. She knew the healer was referring in an oblique way to Rob, but she wasn’t about to confirm or disavow anything until she’d had the chance to talk to Rob himself. She owed him the truth that she no longer had feelings for him. But don’t I owe John the truth too? She pushed aside the thought for the moment and sipped on the tea that Frau Ebersol had brought to ease her pain. Though only Derr Herr can ease the pain in my heart of not having John in my life forever.
As it was, Tabitha saw neither John or Rob over the next day, and she didn’t know whether to prepare to go to the singing or not. But in the end, with Frau Ebersol’s help and an extra cup of the soothing tea she brewed, Tabitha was ready and waiting when John arrived, almost as if they’d planned it together.
He carefully lifted her into the buggy, crutches and all, and they set off at a brisk trot to Letty’s house, where the singing was being hosted that night.
Tabitha was surprised at how little John had to say on the drive, though she herself could hardly find words. She knew she’d have a chance to see and possibly speak to Rob that night but wasn’t sure of the setting as being appropriate.
And as John helped her into the Mast’s filled living room, she couldn’t miss the none-too-subtle whispers that seemed to abound around her. And then she realized why—Rob was standing in the place of honor as the leading gamesman for the night. It was he who would pick the songs and then decide the games they would play, and the fact that he would not meet her eyes made her slightly nervous.
As the evening progressed, Tabitha became aware too of Barbara Esch’s vengeful gaze and wished that she might somehow have peace with the other girl, who seemed bent on doing her harm. But then Rob announced the first game, and Tabitha swallowed hard. An old Amish favorite, the game was called “Please or Displease?” and required the buwes to line up on one side of the room and the girls on the other. The leader would then ask a girl if it pleased or displeased her to do a certain action or speak a certain phrase to an opposite buwe. She could choose, and there was normally much joking and laughter involved.
John helped her into place on her crutches, then immediately left her for the row of young men who stood across the way.
Rob began with a charming smile. “Let’s see—who shall it be first? Ach, I know—Ruby Loftus.”
Tabitha watched as the dark-haired Ruby colored prettily as she awaited Rob’s question.
“Ruby,” Rob queried with a smile. “Does it please or displease you to walk with Henry Lantz once around the barn—alone—together?”
There was a flurry of suppressed giggles as Ruby flushed even more, then lifted her chin. “It displeases me.”
Tabitha thought the girl’s decision wise, especially after her own experience with Henry’s attempt at kissing. Still, Tabitha wondered idly who it was that Ruby truly favored. But then she heard her own name called and snapped to attention.
Rob’s gaze swung in her direction, and the room suddenly grew silent. Tabitha realized that Barbara had most likely seen fit to spread her poisonous gossip among the youth, but Tabitha could also not dispute the fact that Rob’s eyes seemed to be twinkling at her.
“Tabitha Beiler,” he said in carrying tones. “Does it please or displease you to admit . . . that you are courting . . . John Miller?”
Tabitha felt she would have fallen had her crutches not been holding her. It was one thing to have the youth suspect her doings but quite another to make such an announcement—especially with Rob present. Then the room erupted, and she saw the smile that passed between John and Rob and her heart soared. “It pleases me,” she said clearly, and silence reigned once more. “I, Tabitha Beiler, am delighting in the courtship of John Miller.”
Rob nodded and swung to the men. “And does it please you, John Miller, to accept such a statement from the beautiful girl opposite?”
Tabitha waited breathlessly, and then John smiled. “It so pleases me,” he said, and cheers and well wishes echoed around the room.
Suddenly Tabitha was caught in a brief hug in John’s arms and then John and Rob were shaking hands and laughing together. Tabitha knew she’d remember the singing for the rest of her life—with John.
John glanced beside him in the moonlight at Tabitha’s smiling profile as he navigated Tudor down the dark road. The singing had ended in a round of merry congratulations that still stirred his heart. He knew Tabitha’s thoughts must be equally occupied by the evening when she jumped at his gentle query, “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing,” she replied. “And everything.”
He laughed low, his mind still savoring her clear, dulcet voice as she admitted to courting with him.
“Did you know?” she asked, turning her face to him.
He almost jumped, unsure if she wanted him to admit that he had any suspicion of her love for him. “What Rob was going to do?”
“Ya.”
He shook his head, easing his hat back. “Nee, I surely did not. But Rob’s always been like that—unpredictable at times.”
“Well, I’m glad he was tonight.” Her pretty voice sounded shy, and John worked up the courage to gently cover her folded hands with one of his own. “I’m glad he was too. I had talked to my fater a few nachts back and had planned on telling you—uh—how I feel, but I didn’t want to keep you from your feelings for Rob.”
“How you feel?” she whispered.
He swallowed hard and pulled the buggy off the road and beneath a low overhanging of tree branches, illuminated by the moonlight.
“Ya, how I feel . . .” He slipped his hat off and turned to face her. “Tabitha, I love you. I don’t know when or how it happened, but I know that Gott wrought this love in my soul, in all that I am.”
He waited breathlessly as the seconds seemed to tick by interminably, and then she slipped her tender young arms about his neck and he heard her whisper on a sigh. “Ach, John—I love you too. I knew the day you said you were going to leave to work in the mountains that I loved you.” Then, as if she realized the spontaneity of her hug, she drew back and he wanted to throw his abandoned hat up in the air and kiss her breathless. He settled instead for a chaste kiss on her forehead.
She sighed with a sweet smile “I guess we were at cross purposes all along. I didn’t want you to know how much I loved you because I thought you’d never return the feelings out of your loyalty to Rob.”
“What a guy Rob is!” John joked on a laugh. Then he grew more serious. “Tabitha, you know we give no pledge of jewelry to keep a promise between—couples. But I would have you know that I pledge you my heart this night and that it is my dearest wish that we would court with genuineness until we can marry. And, you know, Rob put you on the spot tonight with the idea of courting and all, but I want to ask you myself—will you marry me?”
He watched a beautiful smile play across her lips, and then he felt her lean her bonneted head against his shoulder.
He savored the sweetness of her voice as she whispered. “Ya, John. I will.”
The next day John looked up from where he worked on the pie safe for Tabitha and watched Rob ride his familiar big red roan down the drive. Rob tied the horse to the hitching post, then sauntered over to the wood shop.
“Well?” John heard him ask.
John laid aside the sand paper he held. “Well, what?”
Rob grinned. “Don’t you want to thank me?”
John arched a brow and slid his hands to his hips. “For that display last nacht? You were taking an awful risk with my heart if it had not pleased Tabitha to court me.”
“But it did,” Rob answered smugly.
John had to smile. “Ya, it did.”
Rob clapped him on the back. “Gut, but now I need to ask you a favor.”
“What?”
“I want you to help me tell my mamm about Katie and that I’m going to leave the Amish.”
“What are you talking about?” John was floored.
“Katie . . . I told you. I love her. But she’s English.”
“Are you narrisch? You fall in and out of love so often I can’t count, and now you think you’re going to give up your way of life because of one woman?”
But John saw a new look in Rob’s brown eyes—a seriousness and maturity.
“Ya, John. Because of one woman. The woman I want to marry and spend my life with.”
John sank down on a nearby sawhorse. “I believe you,” he said finally.
“Good. So, will you do it?”
John shook his head. “The last time you asked me for a favor I—”
“Found the love of your life?” Rob quipped.
John nodded. “All right. I’ll help you talk with your mamm, but you’re going to tell the absolute truth, and Rob, you’re going to hurt her—you know that?”
Rob bowed his head. “I know.”
John began to pray beneath his breath, determined to help his friend—but this time with honesty instead of lies.