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He laughed. “I think you’ll get sick of sandwiches, but we’ll see.”
After he finished eating, Nate rose to throw away his paper plate. He turned and caught a glimpse of Charlie standing at her cousin’s paddock, watching the horses at play. Her glorious red hair was like a beacon that called to him. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her?
He headed in her direction.
* * *
Charlie gazed at the horses and felt a rush of pleasure. What she wouldn’t give to race like the wind on the back of a horse! She smiled. The chestnut mare pranced and chased her companions into a playful gallop. She’d give anything to feel the freedom of riding through the fields with the warmth of the sun against her skin and her hair unpinned without a head covering. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the cool breeze tempered by the afternoon sunshine.
This week she wouldn’t be babysitting for the youngest Peachy children. The family was going out of town, which made her sigh. She loved spending time with them and missed them when she wasn’t needed. She loved children. It was her biggest wish to take over the teaching position at the Happiness School when the current schoolteacher left. That would be in a month or so, when current schoolteacher Elizabeth Troyer and her family moved to Ohio.
I’d make a gut teacher. She had done well in school, and she knew how to break down problems and find fun ways to make children remember what they’d learned. And she was ready. Her birthday was next month and she’d be nineteen. Her opportunity for teaching would be gone if it didn’t happen soon. She planned to approach the church elders this week about her filling the upcoming vacancy.
The sun slipped beneath a cloud, and she felt a sudden chill. She hugged herself with her arms. The sky was only partially cloudy. In a few moments the sun would resurface and warm her again.
“Charlie.”
She stiffened, recognizing his voice. She faced him. “Nate.” The shock of his appearance made her heart flutter. Ironically, she’d come here alone to seek refuge from the feelings he’d churned up inside her.
He leaned against the fence rail with only a few inches separating them. She became instantly aware of the heat his nearness generated. Something within her urged to flee from him; yet, she didn’t move.
She straightened her spine and stared. “What do you want, Nate? What are you doing here?”
“How’s your knee?” he asked, his eyes soft with concern.
She swallowed hard. “Fine. Your first aid helped.” She bit her lip. “Danki.”
He nodded with satisfaction. “You like to play ball.”
Charlie drew away, putting several more inches between them. “Ja, so?”
A tiny smile hovered on his lips. “You play well.”
“Then why were you trying to distract me?”
“My bruder was on the other team.”
She gaped at him for several seconds then laughed. She watched as his mouth curved into a grin before he joined in her laughter.
It felt good to laugh, yet strange to laugh with him. The fact that she liked the feeling made her stop laughing. Suddenly tense, she quieted and leaned against the fence and returned to her study of the horses.
They stood silently for a few moments. “What do you hope for, Charlie?” he asked. “In your life.”
She hesitated. “I like children. I’d like to teach.”
Clearly surprised, Nate raised his eyebrows. “You want to teach at our Happiness School?”
“Ja,” she whispered. “I know there are some members within our community who won’t think I’m good enough—”
“I believe you’d be an excellent teacher.”
“You do?”
“Ja, I do.” His gaze seemed intense as he studied her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You surprise me.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “I can help you.”
“Help me what?”
“Become a teacher. My father is deacon. I could speak with him.”
“Nay!” she gasped. “You mustn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want or deserve the job if I can’t earn it on my own.”
He shook his head as he watched her, as if he’d learned something new about her that stunned him.
“Charlie!”
She glanced back to see Ellie waving at her. “Time to head home. I’ve got to go,” she told Nate. “I—ah—danki again for helping me today.”
“You’re willkomm.”
“I’ll see you next Sunday,” she said.
Nate nodded without saying a word, and Charlie turned and hurried toward their buggy, where her family had gathered to leave.
Her heart hammered within her chest. Nate Peachy was a complex man, and she didn’t understand him. With one breath, he’d told her she’d be a good teacher, but then in the next, he’d proven that he didn’t believe it unless he stepped in to help. She sighed with sadness. If Nate felt this way, then there was every chance that no one would consider her seriously for the soon-to-be vacated teaching position. Maybe I’m being foolish to try.
When she was younger, her tendency to be impulsive frequently got her into trouble, but she was older and wiser now and she’d learned from her mistakes. She’d meant what she’d told Nate. If she couldn’t get the job on her own, then she didn’t want—or deserve—it.
Chapter Two (#u3d475f2b-a2e5-5383-ab72-1e17b06859f9)
As his family left for Indiana, Nate watched the hired car that carried them until the vehicle disappeared from sight. He turned toward the house and saw his brother on the front porch, gazing after the car as if he, too, was affected by their departure.
Nate strode toward the house and climbed the porch steps. “Ready to make hay?”
“How about some breakfast first?” Jacob suggested.
“Didn’t you eat earlier?”
“Nay, busy helping our sisters with their luggage.”
He smiled with amusement. “You, too? I helped Mam, Dat and Harley with theirs.”
The brothers headed inside for coffee and freshly baked muffins.
“I spoke with John King. His dat is lending us his hay mower for as long as we need it,” Jacob said as he finished up his coffee a while later.
“It will make the job easier.” He eyed his brother with approval. “Do we need to go get it?”
“Nay. John said he’d bring it by first thing. He should be here anytime now.”
Amos King, John’s father, was also his stepmother’s dat. He was a good man with a kind heart.
Nate washed the breakfast dishes while Jacob put the remaining muffins back in the pantry. The sound of horse hooves drew them outside to discover John King’s arrival with the mower.
After John left with his brother Joshua, Nate hitched his father’s two black Belgian horses to his dat’s equipment for his brother to use. He would mow the front field with Amos’s mower while Jacob started work at the back of the property.
It was a busy workday. By late afternoon they’d mowed just over a third of the hayfields. He and Jacob put away the mowers. They ate leftovers for dinner, before heading to the barn to make sure all of the animals were settled in for the night.
There was a definite new chill in the air when Nate arose the next morning. He dressed, made coffee and waited for his brother to rouse and join him. The kitchen filled with the rich scent of the perked brew as Jacob entered, looking sleepy-eyed with tousled hair.
“’Tis colder today. We’d best grab our woolen hats and jackets before we head out.”
Jacob nodded as he turned from the stove with a mug of coffee. “Think we’ll finish today?”
“We’ll be pushing it. Didn’t get much more than a third done yesterday.”
His brother agreed. “We can do it.”
Nate smiled. “We can try.” The mowed hay would be left to dry in the fields before they baled it.
“Let’s move,” Jacob said as he set his mug in the sink.
* * *
Charlie drove down the road toward Whittier’s Store. It was a chilly November morning, but she didn’t mind. She wore her black bonnet and woolen cape with a heavy blanket across her lap. Her mother’s list was on the seat beside her with the apple pie Mam had baked for Leah and Henry. She would stop first at Yoder’s Country Crafts and Supplies, her sister Leah’s shop, to deliver the pie before continuing on to grocery-shop.
The sunshine was bright across the surrounding farmland. A farmer cut hay in the fields ahead and she watched him as she steered her horse closer. The man maneuvered his horse-drawn mower down the length of the hayfield before turning to mow the uncut section.
Charlie smiled. She knew how to use a mower. With five daughters and no sons, her father had been glad of her help, once she’d convinced him that she could handle the job. Dat had objected the first time, until her repeated requests made him finally relent enough to show her how. She’d been pleased by his smile of approval after she’d mowed in neat, even rows across their field. After that he’d allowed her to relieve him while he’d completed other chores.
It had been a while since she’d mowed hay. Watching the farmer work made her smile and long for another chance on the back of a mower.
She returned her attention to the road. She had gone only a short distance when she heard someone bellow sharply in alarm. Startled, she drew up on the reins to stop her horse. Her heart went cold when she saw that the mower had tipped and the farmer lay on the ground. A second man raced toward the fallen farmer, and with a gasp, she recognized Nate Peachy. She pulled her vehicle off the road and secured her horse before she sprinted across the field to help.
She briefly locked gazes with Nate before she turned her attention to the man on the ground—his brother Jacob. “Jake, are you hurt?” she rasped, out of breath.
“Charlie.” Jacob met her gaze and smiled. “I’m fine.” But when he tried to stand, he cried out with pain and fell back.
Nate’s brow creased with worry. “Stay still. You are not fine.”
Charlie hunkered beside the injured man and experienced the impact of Nate’s startling blue gaze. She glanced away. “What hurts?” she and Nate asked simultaneously.
“My foot.”
“Can you walk?” Nate asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“My buggy is right there,” Charlie said, gesturing. “Maybe we can lift him into it...” She bit her lip as Nate rose. He stared down at her thoughtfully until she stood. “I can bring it closer.” She returned her attention to the man’s brother. “Jake?”
“I can make it with help.”
Her gaze met Nate’s. “Where do you want me to park it?”
“Leave it,” he said sharply. “Your vehicle is fine where it is.” He narrowed his eyes. “Go back there and wait. I’ll bring Jacob.”
Unwilling to argue, Charlie stood by her buggy and waited. Jacob gave her a weak smile as the brothers approached. The young man was obviously in pain, and she worried about him. Nate bore the brunt of Jacob’s weight as he half carried him with an arm securely around his brother’s waist.
She wondered how to help, but knew instinctively that Nate would mutter something cutting if she tried. Charlie watched silently as he lifted his brother into the back of the buggy.
“We should get him to the clinic.”
Nate flashed her an irritated look. “I’ll take him after I see to the horses and equipment. Drive around to the front of the haus,” he ordered. “I’ll meet you there.”
His tone irritated her. She had to bite her tongue to keep from arguing with him. “I can take care of the horses and equipment for you.”
“Nay,” he snapped. “Absolutely not.”
Charlie reeled back, offended. “I know how to handle farm equipment, Nathaniel Peachy. I’ve mowed hay for my vadder.”
“I don’t want you touching ours, Charlotte Stoltzfus. If you want to help, then get my bruder back to the house. I’ll meet you there.”
“Fine,” she agreed as she abruptly turned away. She didn’t bother to look to see what Nate was doing as she climbed into the buggy and checked on Jacob. “How’re you doing, Jake?”
“Foot hurts, but I’ll live.”
She frowned. “What happened?”
“I got distracted.” He seemed embarrassed.
She flicked the leathers and the horse moved. “What distracted you?”
“I don’t know. One minute I was mowing and the next I felt a sudden jerk on the reins. It threw me off balance.”
“Do you see any blood?”
She heard Jacob take in a breath. “Nay.”
She shot him a glance over her shoulder before she returned her attention to the road. “Do you feel like you’re bleeding?”
“My foot feels odd. I could be, I guess, but I can’t tell for sure. I don’t think so.”
