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“Lucy Knepp?” Kevin chortled. “No one will ever believe you’re interested in her. She’s such a wallflower! Haven’t you noticed how pale she is? I don’t think she ever goes outside in daytime except to attend church. She’s such a goody-goody.”
“Exactly. Which is why Mamm and Daed won’t object if they think I’m going out with her during the week,” Nick reasoned. “So here’s what’s going to happen now. While I’m bringing Lucy to her haus, you’re going to walk to ours. Mamm and Daed will still be awake and when they ask where I am, you can let it slip I’m taking Lucy home. Plant the seed in their minds, okay?”
“But what about going to Highland Springs like we planned?”
Nick shrugged. “I already told Lucy I’d take her home. If you still want to go to Highland Springs, go ahead and go. Just make sure you ask whoever gives you a ride to swing by Jenny’s haus first so you can tell her you can’t afford the cost of repairs to the cabin.” Before turning to leave, he tossed Kevin’s jacket at him and added, “Her eldre probably will just contact Daed instead of getting the police involved.”
That got Kevin’s attention. “Wait! I’ll do it. I’ll walk home now.”
“Gut,” Nick said. “And remember, you can’t let on to anyone—not even Lucy—that you know this is a sham.”
“Is it a sham?” Kevin jibed as he shoved his arm through his coat sleeve. “Or could it be this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for your entire rumspringa? To court Lucy Knepp?”
Nick elbowed his brother. “You should be thanking me, not mocking me, so knock it off.”
Grumbling, Kevin began his long schlep home and Nick went to unhitch Penny. A few minutes later, Lucy appeared. Kevin was right—she was so fair her skin glowed in the moonlight, which also reflected off her glasses. It was a good thing she was carrying a bag; it served as an anchor to keep the stiff wind from carrying her away.
“Here, let me help you,” Nick offered, indicating he’d assist Lucy into his open one-seat buggy.
“I can manage,” she replied, using her free hand to pull herself into the carriage. But the step was too high or the bag too heavy because she faltered backward and Nick steadied her by her waist—he could practically encircle his hands around it—before giving her a clumsy boost up. She scooted to the far end of the front seat, clutching her bag to her chest as if it contained gold.
On the way Nick tried to drum up something to say, but he drew a blank. Recognizing he and Lucy had absolutely nothing in common except they were both Willow Creek Amish singles, he was relieved this charade would last only a week, or two at most.
Finally, he remarked, “I really appreciate your letting me say I’m courting you. Knowing how quickly the rumor mill spins, everyone probably saw us leave and they’re already gossiping that we’re getting married.”
Ach! It was true their peers were probably expressing curiosity about their relationship, but why did Nick even bring up the notion of marriage? As if this experience weren’t already awkward enough as it was.
Lucy giggled behind her hand. “That’s not likely,” she said, and Nick didn’t know if she meant it wasn’t likely their peers were already gossiping about them or it wasn’t likely the two of them would ever get married. Of course the latter wasn’t likely, but it was kind of haughty for her to snicker at the idea.
Lucy dropped her hand to her lap again, guarding her bag. “So when do you want to get started on the repairs?”
“As soon as possible,” Nick replied, glad to switch subjects. “I can’t start on Monday because I’ll be returning from a trip to one of our suppliers out of town. So I’ll probably buy the stuff I need and begin the prep work on Tuesday night.”
“That’s fine. I’ll arrange to make an early supper for my family and you can pick me up any time after six. I’ll wait on the porch so Mildred and Katura won’t accost you with questions.”
“What?” Nick panicked, his pulse galloping. He only wanted to imply he was courting Lucy; he hadn’t intended to actually take her out. “What do you mean, pick you up? You do realize this is a pretend courtship, don’t you?”
Lucy didn’t know whether she was amused or annoyed by Nick’s alarmed reaction. It was obvious he’d never consider dating her for real. Not that she wanted him to, but still, he didn’t have to act so repulsed.
“Of course I realize this is a pretend courtship. But I’m not going to lie about going out with you and I’m not going to allow you to use my name to lie about it, either. If you tell your eldre—if you even imply to them—you’re spending an evening out with me, then you’ve got to actually spend some part of the evening out with me.”
Nick gulped audibly. “You want to kumme with me while I work on the cabin?”
Lucy couldn’t do that. The sawdust would cause her allergies to act up. “Neh. You can drop me off at the library and then pick me up when you’re finished. That way, if anyone asks where we went—which they shouldn’t, but that won’t necessarily stop them—I can truthfully say you took me for a ride and we stopped at the library.”
Nick hesitantly conceded, adding, “I always knew you were a bookworm but I didn’t realize you like to read quite that much. I’ll be gone for a couple of hours each evening, you know.”
Lucy was surprised Nick knew she liked to read—their paths hardly crossed since they had been scholars in the town’s two-room schoolhouse. She’d chatted with him a few times when her cousin Bridget still lived in Willow Creek and was walking out with him, but that was almost three years ago. For some reason it annoyed Lucy that Nick called her a bookworm, the same term her stepmother used to describe her.
“It’s true I like to read. Reading allows me to learn about new ideas and places. But that’s not why I want you to drop me off at the library,” she said. “I have a special embroidery project I need to finish by December 21 and the library is a quiet place to do that.” Then, to make it clear she was as disinterested in being courted by him as he was in becoming her suitor, she said, “That’s the only reason I agreed to this arrangement. Otherwise, Betty and my sisters would pressure me into attending all the upcoming Grischtdaag social events and I’d never finish my project on time.”
“Oh, so that’s why you were embroidering at the singing,” Nick replied. “I just thought you were too stuck—”
Nick cut his sentence short but Lucy knew what he was going to say. He was going to call her stuck-up. She wasn’t unaware some young men thought that about her, but she’d never been told it outright. Why the meed in Willow Creek thought Nick Burkholder was such a catch, she’d never know, but Lucy wasn’t impressed by his manners.
Changing topics, she asked, “How long will it take to make the repairs?”
“I should be done in a week. Ten days, at most.”
Lucy was actually hoping it would take longer than that, but she’d just have to make the most of her time away from the house. “And then what will we tell people?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll agree to pretend we’re walking out together until your repairs are finished, but not any longer than that. It would be nosy for someone to ask us why we’ve broken up, but in case they do, it’s a gut idea to have a credible answer ready. After all, two weeks is an awfully short time for a courtship, even for you,” she said, not mincing words.
Nick puffed loudly, as if exasperated. “I suppose we’ll just say it didn’t work out.”
“Ha,” Lucy uttered. “If you think that answer will satisfy my sisters’ curiosity, you don’t know how persistent they can be.”
“Then what do you propose we say instead?”
Lucy was quiet. How would she know what to say? She’d never been in a real courtship, much less a phony one. “I guess we’ll have to cross that bridge when we kumme to it.”
“Yeah, all right.” Nick urged his horse into a quicker trot, as if he couldn’t wait to get to Lucy’s house to drop her off.
She had often heard Mildred and Katura nattering on about Nick’s expensive racehorse, and the animal was certainly living up to its reputation. Because it was an open-seat buggy, Lucy felt the wind biting at her cheeks as they cruised along the country roads, but she didn’t mind. Despite the horse’s speed, the carriage wasn’t bouncing about. Lucy might not have had many conversations with men her age, but she’d read enough articles in The Budget to know Nick probably tinkered with the suspension of his buggy springs, which was a popular trend among Amish young people. In any case, she felt surprisingly invigorated by the quick trip home.
When they pulled up her lane, she noticed lamplight in the window. Her father would have been in bed since he worked the early shift the next day, but Betty was probably still awake. Because the step down from the carriage was higher than Lucy was used to and she had to hold on to her tote bag, she allowed Nick to assist her. Even though they were both wearing gloves, her hand warmed from the pressure of his fingers but the sensation was fleeting because he let go as soon as her feet touched the ground. Then he began walking with her to the door.
“Why are you following me?” she asked, afraid he’d want to be invited in. If Betty got one glimpse of how uncomfortable Lucy was around Nick, their cover would be blown.
“I’m not following you. I’m walking you to the door. You know, like I’d do if I were actually courting you,” Nick explained.
Lucy’s cheeks stung. Since she’d never been courted before she didn’t know whether all suitors walked their girlfriends to their doors or if this was part of Nick’s supposed charm.
When they reached her back porch, he loudly announced, “So I’ll pick you up at six o’clock on Tuesday night, okay?”
She put her finger to her lips. “Shh! My stepmother might hear you.”
Nick leaned in and whispered, “Jah, that’s the general intention, right?” He was close enough she could smell a hint of mint chocolate cocoa on his breath and she quickly skittered up the stairs.
“Gut nacht,” she said over her shoulder before turning the knob to the door.
Inside Betty was sipping tea at the table and reading The Budget. “Hi, Lucy. I thought I heard a buggy. Are the girls stabling the horse?”
“Neh, they’re still at the singing,” Lucy answered ambiguously, avoiding meeting Betty’s eyes as she removed her gloves, unwrapped her cloak and hung it on a peg by the door. She bent to unlace her boots.
“Oh? Then who brought you home?”
“Nick Burkholder,” Lucy reported in what she hoped was an offhanded manner.
“Nick Burkholder?” her stepmother marveled. “Why would he bring you home? Are you sick?”
Like mamm, like dechder. Lucy was miffed Betty made the same assumption Mildred made about why Nick would bring her home. Lifting her chin she said, “Neh, I’m not sick. I’m going upstairs to bed now. Gut nacht.”
Lucy scurried down the hall before her stepmother could ask any more questions. The upstairs room she shared with her sisters stretched the entire length of their Cape-style home. Mildred and Katura’s beds and dressers took up most of the open space, whereas Lucy’s dresser and bed were tightly tucked in the back section of the room beneath the sloping roof. Because Lucy was so short, she never bumped her head on it and she liked the roof being so close to her bed. During storms, she could hear raindrops pattering the wood and she felt as if she were sleeping in an ark.
She turned on the gas lamp, sat on her bed and removed her embroidery hoop from the canvas bag. As she began unpicking her earlier mistakes, her hands trembled. She tried to tell herself it was because she’d dashed up the stairs too quickly, but she knew that wasn’t it. She was breathless and quivering because Betty and her stepsisters had found it preposterous that Nick would bring her home. But what right did she have to be angry? They were correct: it was inconceivable he’d want to court her.
Yet, when she recalled his strong hands embracing her waist, the notion of a courtship didn’t seem so terribly far-fetched. At least, not from her perspective. She tried to focus on restitching a delicate snowflake in the center of the napkin, but her mind kept wandering back to Nick, and after pricking her finger three times she finally gave up and went to bed.
Nick was relieved. He’d presented his proposal to Jenny, and because she’d known Nick for years, she agreed to allow him to make the repairs, provided he restored everything to its former condition by the twenty-first of December. That was her first day of winter break from the local community college and Jenny and her mother were planning to decorate the cabin together in preparation for their celebration. Based on Kevin’s description of the situation, Nick assured her he didn’t think it would take nearly that long, and Jenny promised she wouldn’t tell anyone he was working on it.
Gripping the key to the cabin in his fist, Nick traveled to the little house in the woods, where he discovered that although the repairs were manageable, the damage was more extensive than he expected it would be. Terrific. Now I’m going to be stuck with Lucy longer than I anticipated, he groused.
She was already getting on his nerves, acting like he’d never read a book in his life, or as if he wanted to be invited into her house. She was so prim he couldn’t imagine what they’d talk about when he was taxiing her back and forth on these so-called outings. It was a small comfort that he could count on Penny’s speed to decrease their traveling time.
The entire situation was far more inconvenient and uncomfortable than Kevin knew, and Nick decided as soon as he returned home, he was going to give his brother grief—and make him fork over his paycheck for supplies, too. But when he entered the house, it was almost eleven o’clock and he was surprised to find his mother, not Kevin, sitting in the parlor.
“Mamm? What are you doing up?” he asked quietly.
“I’m waiting for you,” she said, and rocked back and forth in her chair a few times before saying anything else. “Your brother told me where you’ve been.”
Nick’s pulse quickened—Kevin had decided to own up after all. On one hand, Nick was relieved he wouldn’t have to cart Lucy back and forth to the library after all. On the other hand, he dreaded the lecture his mother was about to deliver. He straightened his posture and resigned himself to shouldering part of the blame for Kevin’s carelessness in causing the fire.
“I’m surprised, but I’m glad he did.”
“Well, he didn’t want to, but I insisted. So don’t get angry at him.”
Nick was confused. Why would he be angry at Kevin for telling the truth about the fire? Before he could tell his mother he didn’t understand, she said, “Don’t worry. Other than telling your daed, I won’t mention to anyone that you’re courting Lucy Knepp.”
Oh, right—I forgot I told Kevin to plant the seed in Mamm and Daed’sminds. That’s where Kevin told them I’ve been—at Lucy’s haus, not at Jenny’s. Nick didn’t know why but he wasn’t as disappointed as he expected he’d be when he realized he’d still have to carry through with his arrangement with Lucy. Still, he was surprised his mamm was bringing up the topic. As often as she lectured Nick that it was time he put his running around years behind him, she rarely spoke openly about the meed he courted.
“Denki,” he said. “I appreciate that—”
His mother butted in, “Lucy Knepp is a wunderbaar maedel.”
Good—his mother approved. This was going to be easier than he thought. “Jah, she is—”
Again, his mother cut him off. “So you’d better not be up to any shenanigans.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” Nick sputtered. Had Kevin let something else about their plan slip?
“She’s not like other meed you’ve courted. You’d better not be toying with her feelings, suh.”
Nick clenched his jaw. While it was true he’d courted many meed who were frequently distraught when he ended their relationships, he never set out to hurt anyone’s feelings. He was offended his own mother would think that was ever his intention. “I wouldn’t do that, Mamm. I wouldn’t deliberately play around with any woman’s emotions.”
His mother must have caught the defensiveness in his voice because she said, “Neh, I don’t suppose you would, Nick. I only mean I want you to be careful, okay? As I said, Lucy’s not like other meed you’ve courted. She’s...she’s special.”
She’s special all right. She’s so special she thinks she’s a cut above everyone else, Nick thought. As uncomfortable as he was discussing this subject with his mother, he felt it was important to emphasize, “I’ve always considered every woman I’ve courted to be special.”
“I believe you have, suh. But some women are more...they’re more earnest than others. I don’t think Lucy has had many suitors and I wouldn’t want her to get her hopes up about a relationship with you if that’s not a real possibility,” his mother explained.
It seemed a struggle for her to find the right words, but Nick knew what she meant. She meant he’d ended every relationship he’d had so far, and she was assuming he’d end this one, too. As much as Nick resented the implication, he admitted there was an element of truth to it.
“Don’t worry,” he assured his mother. “I’ve made my intentions very clear to Lucy. But she’s not quite as naive as you think. I got the feeling she was reluctant to walk out with me. We’re not even really courting, it’s more like we’re spending time together. I’m sort of helping her with...with one of her charity endeavors for Grischtdaag. After that, we’ll have to see what happens.”
His mother looked perplexed, but she smiled and said, “Well, for your sake, I hope it works out this time. Who knows, Lucy might be a gut influence on you.”
That was exactly what Nick was hoping his parents would think about Lucy, but now that he heard his mother say the words, he was disgruntled. Who was to say he wouldn’t be a good influence on her? Maybe he’d show her a thing or two about how to lighten up and be a little more social. Didn’t anyone ever consider that?
Mildred and Katura were considerate enough not to turn on the lamp while they were getting ready for bed, but their voices woke Lucy anyway.
“I wish Mark didn’t have to go back to Ohio tomorrow morning,” Mildred whined. “One of the rare few likable guys who comes to Willow Creek leaves as soon as he gets here. It’s not fair. I hope he visits Frederick again at Grischtdaag.”
“Speaking of Frederick, didn’t you tell me he was planning to ask to court Lucy tonight?”
“That’s what Melinda Schrock told me she heard Frederick’s mother saying to Jesse’s ant in the store last week,” Mildred said, and her words caused Lucy to remember what the book of James said about a little fire kindling a great matter.
“Do you think Frederick got a chance to ask to court Lucy before she left with Nick?” Katura questioned.
“Probably not. Otherwise, she would have stayed until the singing was over so Frederick could have given her a ride home. Or she would have asked him for a ride right then since she was sick.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Katura yawned. “Can you believe she asked Nick for a ride instead? That’s awfully forward.”
“Jah, but Nick’s so nice he probably agreed because he felt sorry for her.”
Lucy considered coughing to let her stepsisters know she was awake and could hear them, but she felt too humiliated. Why didn’t Mildred and Katura believe she hadn’t left because she was ill? Couldn’t they at least entertain the possibility Nick was interested in her?
As if answering Lucy’s unspoken question, Katura said, “One thing’s for sure. He’d never consider being her suitor. She’s not his type. Nick only courts women who are outgoing and adventuresome. You know, women who are more like you and me.”
Lucy heard Mildred gasp. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. “Nick probably wanted to talk to Lucy about one of us!”
“Do you really think so?” Katura questioned, and Lucy discerned the hopeful catch in her voice.
“Jah. That’s how buwe in Willow Creek sometimes determine if a maedel is interested in being courted. They talk to her friends or sisters. Or if they’re really shy, they’ll pass a note,” Mildred explained knowingly.
“But Nick isn’t shy at all.”
“Neh, not usually. But maybe he likes one of us so much he’s afraid we’ll reject him. Maybe that’s why it’s taken him so long to propose courtship—he hasn’t been able to work up the courage. So instead of asking us straight out, he’s taking the safe approach.”
Lucy would have been inflamed, but instead she pushed her quilt against her mouth to suppress a giggle. Her stepsisters might have lacked self-awareness, but they sure didn’t lack self-esteem.
“I should get him. I’m the oldest,” Katura demanded, as if she were competing for a prize.
“You can’t claim him. He’ll decide for himself which one of us he wants to court.”
As her stepsisters bickered about who was more worthy to have Nick as her suitor, Lucy rolled to her side and curled the pillow over her ear to block them out. They may have been right to think Nick didn’t want to court Lucy, but they were just as wrong to imagine he wanted to court either of them. Once again, she stifled a guffaw. She couldn’t wait for her cousin Bridget to visit at Christmastime so they could share a laugh over the hilarious irony of it all.
