A Precious Christmas Gift
Autor
Patricia Johns
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15
HarlequinChapter One
The wind was bitingly cold this December morning, and Noah Wiebe hunched his shoulders against the probing chill as the Englisher snowplow ground on past Redemption Carpentry. The driver—a man in a baseball cap with cold-reddened ears—nodded at Noah in a silent mutual acknowledgment as the giant blade scraped across the asphalt, snow accumulating in a tumbling avalanche in front of the vehicle. Noah nodded back and headed across the street toward the town center roundabout where Redemption Carpentry had built a nativity stable to collect donations for a local family in need.
Wollie Zook’s family, more precisely. Noah had known Wollie since they were both boys, and they’d been good friends. Wollie left the community when he fell in love with an Englisher girl, and when their house went up in flames a week ago, he’d asked for help. He and his wife had four kinner, the youngest of which was still a toddler. He was doing his best to provide, and he had a decent job and some insurance, but he needed help to get through the Christmas season. Wollie had been talking to his parents about returning to the Amish life, but whether or not he could make that happen with an Englisher wife and children was anyone’s guess. This one had hit Noah hard—but no matter how much Noah liked to get things organized and into line, he wasn’t going to be able to help Wollie without the town’s cooperation. And Noah had a personal investment in bringing ex-Amish home again.
Noah carried a clapboard sign under one arm, and he stepped aside and politely nodded as an Amish woman with three little girls in tow passed him on the sidewalk. The clapboard had the times that the nativity would be open written in black paint so that passersby would know when to bring the donations that might be in danger of being stolen so that they could be brought back to a safe location. If the Zooks were going to get settled again, they needed everything from forks and spoons up to beds and furniture.
Noah stopped at the top of the street, and then jogged across, ahead of an Amish buggy, heading to the nativity stable in the center. This was his handiwork, and he was proud of it—a traditional looking stable with a locking door and animal silhouette cutouts that decorated the snowy ground in front of it. There was a firepit, too, usually used during street festivals as a source of heat where people could warm up. But today there was no fire in it—just some blackened logs.
Noah paused at the door—it wasn’t locked—and when he opened it, he looked into the simple interior and found a woman standing with her back to him, sorting through a box. She looked up as the door thunked open, and when she partially turned, he saw that she was heavily pregnant. She wore a thick, dark gray shawl that seemed to make her creamy skin glow in comparison, and her kapp was gleaming white against her dark hair. Her eyes were bright, but she didn’t smile. Instead, she turned her attention back to the box.
“Good morning,” Noah said.
“Good morning.” She pulled out a broken dish and tossed it into another cardboard box, presumably the garbage.
“I’m just here to drop off the sign,” he said.
“Oh... Okay. I’m just going through some donations. It’s not all good enough to give away.” Who was she? She had an interesting face—dark, expressive eyes and a strong jaw. Her lips were pink and they looked perpetually ready to smile, even though she looked at him with a completely solemn expression.
“You’re new around here,” he said. “Aren’t you?”
He was only being polite. Obviously, she was. He knew everyone in their Amish community, and he’d remember meeting a woman like her.
“Yah, just visiting,” she said.
He nodded. “I’m Noah Wiebe. I work at Redemption Carpentry. I know Wollie Zook, the man we’re helping with this charity drive, from our growing up years.”
“He’s a cousin...on my mamm’s side,” she said. “A distant one, but still family.”
“Oh.” Noah nodded. “Well, we’ll do our best to get them back on their feet. And you are...”
She blushed slightly. “Sorry. I’m Eve. I’m Lovina Glick’s niece.”
Noah started. Lovina Glick’s niece... His heart sped up as the details clicked into place. Lovina owned Quilts and Such, the shop next door to the carpentry shop, but that wasn’t what made his heart skip a beat. This hit his family more personally than even Wollie.
“Wait—” He cleared his throat. “Are you the niece who is...uh...who is...”
Eve turned toward him, her expression wary. Noah now knew exactly who she was. His brother Thomas and his wife Patience were hoping to adopt a baby...
“I’m Thomas Wiebe’s brother,” he added. “Thomas and Patience Wiebe are... Well, they know your aunt quite well, and...”
How was he supposed to say this? Or had he already said too much? The color drained from Eve’s face, and she ran her fingers over her stomach protectively. She suddenly looked different—sadder, even a little smaller.
“Yah, that would be me,” she said. “I’m the one they’re probably hoping to meet.”
Noah dropped his gaze. He’d heard a little bit about the mother—a girl who got pregnant outside of wedlock and who had come to give birth to her baby and give it to a good Amish home. There wasn’t much more information than that, but Lovina Glick had told Thomas about her niece’s baby, and that she hadn’t decided on which family she would give her child to. Patience couldn’t have any children of her own, and this was a chance to grow their family. It felt like a Christmas answer to prayer...if Eve would choose them, that was.
“Are there any other families you’re considering?” Noah asked.
“There is one. They’re willing to take the baby, but—” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
“Being willing to take a child and longing to take one are two different things,” he said.
“Yah.” She nodded.
“My brother and his wife—they’re longing for another child,” he said. “My brother had a child before he met his wife, but they aren’t able to have any kinner together. They desperately want another baby to grow their family.”
She nodded. “It is different, I agree.”
Noah smiled at that. Maybe he could put his brother in a good light—help the cause a little bit. Because he knew how deeply Thomas and Patience desired to grow their family.
“I wasn’t even going to come here,” Eve went on. “Aunt Lovina heard that I was staying with strangers the last few months, and she insisted I come be with family. And when I got here and Wollie’s house burned down, I wanted to help him somehow. Wollie was older than me, but he visited us once to help my daet with the corn shocks, and he was a good man. I don’t know if it’s too much to hope he might come back.”
“We prayed for him last Service Sunday,” he said. “His parents told us that the last time they visited with him, he said he wished he could find a way to come back.”
“Really?” Eve’s eyebrows went up. “I don’t know his mamm and daet personally. Wollie only visited the once, and he came alone. But that’s something to fuel some hope, isn’t it?”
“Seems like,” he agreed.
Their gazes met and Noah smiled. “Now, I don’t like to blame house fires on Gott, but I do believe that Gott can use this calamity for good.”
“Maybe He will,” she agreed.
Noah glanced around. There didn’t seem to be anyone else out here. And this was a particularly cold day. Eve rubbed her hands together and blew on her fingers.
“It’s cold,” he said.
“Yah.” She turned back to sorting through the box.
“Are you sure you should be out in this cold—I mean, this close to...” How could he put this delicately?
“Noah...” She paused and turned back. “I could try to be coy about this, but we both know the biggest reason why I’m here in Redemption. I came out here to have my baby and to leave it in the arms of another woman.” Her voice shook, and she sucked in a breath. “I’ve tried not to love this baby—I really have. But I couldn’t help it. I love this child, even though I know I have to give it up. So while I wait for that miserable day, I’m trying to make this time count for something—maybe make a difference for Wollie’s family in their time of need. This is very likely the hardest thing I will ever do in my lifetime, and the day is coming very quickly. So while I wait, and I dread, are you wanting to take away the one thing that might make this time in your town be about more than my own heartbreak?”
Noah blinked at her. She wasn’t like other Amish women—there was no quiet deference to him as a man. But she had a point. He shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t do that.”
Eve turned back to the box. “Good.”
She obviously wasn’t looking for permission, nor did she seem overly concerned over his opinion. And yet, looking at her standing there with a donated pot in one hand, she looked very much alone. This was Christmas, and the women would be gathering in warm kitchens to cook together and laugh and talk—
Noah eyed her for a moment. Maybe she didn’t have anything more to lose here in Redemption, because she wasn’t going out of her way to be friendly, either.
“I know that Thomas and Patience are looking forward to meeting you,” he said.
“I’m not ready for that,” she replied with a quick shake of her head. She put the pot aside on a folding table and pulled out a teapot next, turning it over as she inspected it.
“Oh...” He wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was she perhaps changing her mind about giving up her baby?
“I just need some time,” she said, glancing up. “I don’t want to meet them until I’m ready.”
“No, that’s understandable,” he said quickly. “And there is no pressure. I promise. In fact, if you need anything at all, you can ask me. I’m Thomas’s brother, yah, but I’m not quite so directly involved.” He cast her a smile, hoping to charm her into relaxing a little bit.
“You’re only offering because you want me to choose your brother,” she said bluntly.
Noah paused. “Maybe. But I’m going to be around—either at the carpentry shop, or here. And we both want to help Wollie out the best we can, so while we’re doing that, if you need anything, tell me.”
She licked her lips, then sighed. “Thank you. It’s a kind offer. In the meantime, let’s do what we can for Wollie.”
If she wasn’t ready to meet Thomas and Patience yet, he could understand that. Noah opened the door again to go arrange the sign. He’d start up a little fire in the brick-lined firepit while he was at it, too. But he couldn’t help but glance in the direction of the woman with those dark, expressive eyes. There was something about her that tugged at him—and he pushed it aside. This wasn’t about him.
Maybe, if Gott was willing, this woman could be the answer to Thomas and Patience’s most earnest and heartfelt prayers.
Eve sorted through the last of the box—some ladles, three tea towels, a box of matches and a pair of gloves. The rest would be useful, and she pulled out a list her aunt had given her and wrote the items down. They had to keep track of the donations so they would know what else was needed.
But Wollie needed more than household items—he needed to come home to his Amish roots. Just before Wollie jumped the fence, he’d come to help her daet with the corn, and she’d been too talkative as a teenager when she’d been doing all the regular adolescent questioning of the Amish ways. When she learned that he’d left the Amish life, she’d been stunned. He seemed so...normal. She’d determined then that she’d never flirt with that line—she’d be good. She’d stay Amish, and have the Amish family she’d always dreamed of.
Her baby shifted and stretched inside her. This far along, there wasn’t any room for proper kicks anymore, and she paused her work and put a hand over the spot where the baby was pushing. She could feel something pointy—an elbow?
A wagon came clattering along the road, and she heard the driver’s jovial voice as he reined in the horses. Eve looked out the window as Noah headed over to the wagon that was piled high with firewood.
“Hello, Elmer!” Noah called. “Cold enough for you?”
“Yah—it’s plenty cold,” the other voice replied, and when they were close enough, their voices lowered and she could no longer make out what they were saying.
Eve hadn’t decided on a family for the baby yet. There were families that would accept another child, but simply being willing to feed and shelter an unwanted baby wasn’t what she was hoping for. This baby should be wanted—by someone.
Thomas and Patience seemed like an ideal choice, even though she wasn’t ready to admit that to Noah. They wanted this child desperately. And that had made her feel almost competitive with the woman who longed for her baby. It stoked an instinct inside her to fight the woman back. And she knew it wasn’t rational. It was maternal instinct—an instinct that she’d have to tamp down. She’d meet this couple eventually, she knew, but she’d been putting it off because she didn’t know how she’d feel to look at the woman who might be mamm to this baby. She’d rather imagine the baby’s adoptive mamm like a faceless doll—an idea rather than a real woman who would be everything that Eve could not.
She looked out the window again, watching as the men unloaded wood from the back of that wagon, carrying it over to the firepit and stacking the wood neatly beside it. Noah was taller, broader, and he carried himself with the latent strength of a man accustomed to physical labor. He was distractingly handsome—something that seemed almost silly to be noticing in her present condition—and he might be uncle to this baby.
Adoption was no longer just an idea...she’d be handing her child over to very real people. There would be family, extended family, a whole community—and none of it would include her. So strange to even think that! She’d spent the last eight and a half months being the physical protection for this little one, and when she gave birth, other people would take over. The thought brought a lump of anxiety to her throat.
Noah and Elmer came back to the stable, and when they came in, the older, lanky man looked at her in mild surprise as he saw her figure for the first time. She dropped her gaze and turned away.
“Your husband isn’t going to like you being out here in the cold in your state,” Elmer said glibly, bending down to pick up a package of matches and kindling that had been stored in a wooden crate in one corner of the small room.
“Let her be,” Noah said gruffly. He didn’t look up, or explain, but Elmer closed his mouth into a firm line and didn’t say anything else.
The men went back out to start a new fire, and the door clattered shut behind them again, leaving her in silence.
She heaved a shaky sigh.
Yes, most Amish assumed she had a husband, because that was how a proper Amish family began—marriage and then babies. She hoped to have that very thing in the next couple of years. She hoped to meet a nice man, marry him, and start a family the respectable way. This child inside her that she was trying so very hard not to get too attached to wasn’t even fully Amish. This baby was half-Amish, half-English, and the best way for this baby to grow up would be in a proper Amish home, without the blight of her reputation. To be adopted was in no way shameful. It was a blessing. But to be raised fatherless with an unmarried mother? That was different—that kind of stigma clung.
Outside, she could see that the fire was now started, and Noah hunkered down and poked some wood into the new, crackling flames. She heard the muffled farewell and the clop of horses’ hooves as the wagon pulled away.
Eve was done sorting through the latest donations that had been left overnight, and she came back outside toward the fire, leaving the boxed items in the stable for now. She didn’t mind admitting that she was cold.
“What did you tell him?” Eve asked, coming up to the flickering warmth.
“That you were visiting your aunt and it was a complicated situation,” Noah replied, standing up.
Complicated—that could cover a lot of ground. Was it wrong of her to want people to believe a lie? Because she did! She wanted them to see her as a respectable woman instead of as a warning to the younger girls.
Eve licked her lips. “What are they like?”
“Uh—” Noah looked over at her. “My brother and his wife, you mean?”
“Yah.”
“They’re very nice. They’re newly married—and very much in love. My brother works with me in the carpentry shop. He’s very skilled, and his work is in demand with Amish and English alike.” Noah crossed his arms over his chest. “My brother had no idea how to be a daet when his daughter ended up on his doorstep, but he threw himself into it. I was impressed, really.” He glanced toward her. “And it wasn’t his fault that he didn’t know Rue—that’s his little girl. The Englisher mamm didn’t want him in her life, and what was he supposed to do?”
Eve held her hands out toward the crackling fire. She understood that dilemma well enough, and her aunt had explained Thomas’s situation. He’d fathered a child during his Rumspringa, and then he and the Englisher mother broke up. The Amish life was separate from the English life—and Amish didn’t go about suing others in courts. Thomas would have made his mistake that resulted in a child, and he’d have to live with the painful consequences—much like she would.
“Anyway,” Noah went on, “Patience is teaching school until Christmas break, and then her replacement will come and take over. She takes Rue with her some days—so Rue is getting an early start with her reading and writing. She’s smart, that little girl. The other days Rue is with her mammi, but Patience wants to raise Rue herself, and she wants the girl with her, so...”
“She sounds like she’s accepted Rue, then,” Eve said. This was a detail that mattered to her.
“Completely.”
“Are they strict?” she asked.
Noah paused, then shrugged. “Not overly. Rue managed to keep them from eating a crotchety rooster, just because she loved it.”
Eve smiled at that. “That’s rather sweet.”
“They’re good people,” Noah said, straightening to look at her. “And you could be an answer to their prayers—I promise you that. They love kinner, and they want nothing more than another baby to raise with Rue.”
Eve glanced up as a car sped past. “Lovina said the same.”
“Are you... Are you sure that you’re willing to give your baby up?” Noah asked.
Was she sure? Not on an emotional level, but she’d thought this through over and over again, and she always landed on the same conclusion.
“I need to find a family for this baby,” she said, her throat feeling tight. “That’s already decided.”
Noah gave a nod, then smiled with a look of relief. “They’re good people,” he repeated.
And from what she’d heard of them, they were. They’d be loving and stable and faithful. What more could she ask for?
“I will meet your brother and his wife, of course,” she added. “Eventually. But right now, I want to find a way to help my cousin.”
“Of course.” He met her gaze, and her stomach fluttered in response. She looked down.
“I should get back to my aunt’s store,” she said. “I’m sure she needs some extra help.”
Eve just wanted out—away from here. Whatever it was about this man, she was talking too much. She needed to just survive these next couple of weeks—that was all. She could sort out her emotions later, when her future was secured once more. She wrapped her shawl a little more snugly around herself.
“I’d better go,” she repeated.
“I’m glad you’re here—” he said, then cleared his throat. “With the charity drive, I mean. I’m glad for another person who sincerely wants to bring Wollie home.”
“Yah,” she said with a weak smile. “We’ll do our best.”
Eve met his gaze, and then turned away without any further goodbye. She picked up her pace as she headed across the street and stepped up on the opposite sidewalk, the tiny, icy snowflakes whipping through the air around her.
Noah seemed nice, and he was oddly comforting, but she knew better than to get herself entangled with new friendships while she was here. Eve was in the town of Redemption for one reason, and the Amish community here wasn’t going to be any part of her long-term solutions. She was very much in Gott’s hands.
