The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth 1) (20 page)

Mamm
took another calming breath. “I heard what you’ve told everyone.” She bowed her head. “What you said about Samuel walking too.”

“I believe he will.”

Tears spilled down
Mamm’s
face. “I don’t want to lose you, Judith. I just can’t lose you.”

Judith’s throat tightened. “Please,
Mamm
, don’t cry. You won’t lose me.”

Her mother blew her nose. “You
muscht nett
speak of this again.”

“But—”

“It’s for the best. Why do you think I want to have the singing at our
haus
? I want you to find a mate. I want you to marry and have
boppli
and . . .” She reached across the table for Judith’s hand. “And have the life God purposed for you.”

Judith mustered a smile. Her mother probably assumed that Levi Plank fit into her daughter’s future. She couldn’t tell her there wasn’t anyone interested in marrying her now. Besides, maybe marriage wasn’t God’s purpose for her life after all.

The
church
deemed marriage a duty to fulfill, but did God? Judith had accepted and anticipated her womanly role . . . anticipated being married more than she anticipated falling in love. And she couldn’t deny that Levi had broken her heart. But was it losing the dream of marriage that left her feeling brokenhearted? The thought startled her.

“Judith, I know you’ve been worried over Samuel, but his accident isn’t your burden to bear.”

“I shouldn’t have yelled for him to come off the roof.”

“What is done is done.”
Mamm
squeezed her hand. “There will be no more talk of angels in this
haus
.”

“There were angels in the Bible,” Judith said softly.

“
Jah
, and they fought battles and delivered very important messages. Don’t you see? We are only a small group of plain people. Why would God send an angel to our district? We already share His gospel within our community, and we already follow His word.” She thumped her chest with her thumb. “We have His law deep in our hearts.”

Her mother’s drawn-out gaze pulled at Judith’s heart. She believed everything
Mamm
said, but it didn’t explain why she’d seen Tobias multiple times.

She needed to see him again. She needed to know more about the message God sent him to deliver.
Mamm’s
question was one she had been asking herself for days. Of all the plain people in their community, why had God chosen her?

Chapter Eighteen

A
ndrew veered his buggy into the Fischers’ drive and sighed when he saw Levi’s buggy already parked next to the barn. He had convinced himself to be bold around Judith, and now it seemed his efforts would once again be compared to Levi’s. He might as well have been chaff on the threshing floor.

Well, perhaps it was for the best if he never found courage to talk with Judith about courtship. After all, his father rarely changed his mind.

Mrs. Fischer answered the door. It would be another hour before Samuel finished his physical therapy exercises. Not wishing to see Levi, Andrew declined the invitation to wait in the sitting room. He decided to leave his tools on the porch and go for a walk.

He took the shortcut through the woods and sat at the river until he thought Samuel’s therapy would be over. Then he walked the path leading to the house. At the sight of Judith picking apples, he stopped and leaned against a tree. She tossed an apron full of fruit into the basket, then bent and selected an apple. As he watched her bite into it, Andrew’s mouth watered for a cup of warm apple cider.

He was about to step toward her when he heard someone whistling. Levi.

As Levi neared Judith, his tune turned into a long flirtatious whistle directed at her. Judith turned her back to him, but Levi latched onto her elbows. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

She tried to pivot away, but his nose followed her neckline to her ear like a hound on a fox trail.

Andrew’s chest deflated as he turned to walk away. Levi had won again. It shouldn’t have come as a shock that Levi realized he wanted Judith—or she him.

Judith’s voice carried. “I told you before. I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

Hearing her in distress was enough to ignite Andrew. He spun around, blazing with fury as he saw her trying to push herself off Levi’s chest.

“I just want to talk with you, that’s all. Give me five minutes.”

Andrew stormed toward them. “Let her go, Levi.”

Greeya fatt
, Andrew.” Levi looked at Judith. “Tell him we “were just talking.”

“Our talk is over. I was hoping to meet Andrew here, not you.”

The moment Levi’s arms dropped from around her, Judith rushed to Andrew’s side. She slipped her hand into his and looked up at him with wide eyes. “Will you take me for a walk
nau
?” Her voice quivered, but her gaze bored a hole into his heart.

Andrew felt his insides stammering to reply. Vaguely aware that Levi was walking away, he held his focus solely on Judith, yet couldn’t utter a sound.

She bounced up to her toes. “Please,” she whispered next to his ear.

The warmth of her words sent a prickle along his spine. He turned his face toward her, and her lips brushed against his cheek. An accident or a kiss, he wasn’t sure, but the touch of her lips against his cheek quickened his pulse.

“Were you really hoping I’d be out here?” he asked, his lips only inches from her face.

She tried to look over her shoulder to where Levi had been, but Andrew cupped her face in his hands. As he glided his thumb over her cheekbone, she tried to explain.

He leaned closer, her lips his focus. She was saying something, but he didn’t hear her words. Unable to think of anything but kissing her, he stopped her speaking with his mouth.

Judith tensed and brought her hands up to his chest. Had she pushed against him, he would have stopped. She didn’t. She eased into his embrace, responding to his kiss, and he lingered as long as he dared.

Andrew broke from the kiss first. They stared at each other a long minute, then, seeing her glance in the direction where Levi had been, his mind spun to find some way to explain his rash action. “Next time you want to fool Levi, make it believable.”

Her attention snapped back to him. “
Ach
, that was pretend?” She covered her mouth with her hand.

“You and I both know it wasn’t all pretend.” He walked to the apple basket, picked it up, then turned to look back at her. “
Kumm
on. Levi will know it was staged if we don’t walk back together.”

Judith hesitated.

Andrew’s stomach was in knots. He had prayed for boldness, but now he despised himself for behaving brashly like Levi.

“If it helps to know,” he said, “I think Levi was jealous when he left.”

“
Gut
.” She looked at him sideways. “I guess we won’t have to do that again.”

“I suppose you’re right. If that was
your
only intention, there won’t be another reason for us to kiss.” He watched for her expression to change, but it didn’t.

Back at the house, Andrew cut his time with Samuel short. He found himself looking for Judith, not concentrating on the project at hand. But Samuel didn’t seem to mind after Andrew promised to take him on a furniture delivery in the morning.

Before he could take his leave, Judith appeared at the back door, one fisted hand on her hip. “It’s time to eat,” she said. “My
mamm
insisted that I invite you to stay.”

Andrew bent to pick up Samuel from the porch while Judith held the door open. He stopped in the threshold and peered into her eyes. “Is Levi staying also?”

“He’s gone.”

“Then you won’t need me.” He smiled wider than he should have, by the look of her knitted brow, and continued into the kitchen.

Mrs. Fischer pulled out a chair from the table. “I have your place set next to Samuel.”

“
Denki
, but I need to be going.” He patted Samuel’s shoulder. “I’ll pick you up early
meiya
.”

He kept his head down when he passed Judith at the door. He opened his mouth to apologize, but closed it just as fast. He had stirred that boiling pot enough to know she was about to hiss like a kettle if he even uttered a word. Besides, what was he sorry for? That the softness of her lips and the taste of apple made him linger? That he’d acted out in the boldness he’d prayed for?

She wouldn’t view either of those reasons as an apology. Besides, she had responded. She made him breathless. He had summoned every fiber within him in order to separate their embrace.

Andrew climbed into his buggy and plopped down on the seat. Praying for boldness had a powerful effect on his mind-set. What had he done? He’d cemented his shunning. Disobeying the bishop’s order was punishable. He couldn’t go home until he settled his nerves.

Andrew flicked the reins and directed Patsy onto the paved road. He’d only been to the cabin once since Esther died, and that was to close it up. Today was as good a day as any to start working on it. He might be taking up residence there soon.

He turned onto the bumpy road leading to the cabin and pulled back on the reins, forcing Patsy to yield to the birch trees that narrowed the lane. Once he reached the cabin, he sat in the buggy for a moment and stared at the dilapidated clapboard house. He’d bought the old hunting cabin for nearly nothing. Once the county developed a paved road to Hope Falls, not far from the cabin, the wildlife had scattered, and with them the downstate recreational hunters who sold him the place.

He stepped down from the buggy and tied Patsy under the oak tree. Three years ago he’d made a list of all the tasks needing attention. Now by the looks of the vines creeping along the wood siding and covering the windows, he’d have to amend his list. Fortunately the hunters never had the electrical or plumbing installed. What they termed “roughing it” Andrew called a way of life.

The rotten boards on the porch steps dipped under his weight. He glanced around the overgrown yard and suddenly locked eyes with a man traipsing around the side of his house.

Gut
day.” Andrew stepped off the porch and walked toward “the man.

“
Jah
, fine day.” The man came closer. “I wondered who owned this
haus
. Since it’s on the border of the district, I wasn’t sure if you’d be an
Englischer
.”

“I’m Andrew Lapp.”

“
Jah
, I know who you are.” He gazed around the surroundings. “
Jah
, this is a
gut
plot of land.”

Andrew nodded. He’d forgotten about the clearing he planned to plow for a garden. He sighed. After the winter season he would have a better idea of how involved his father would allow him to be in the community.

“Moving in with a
fraa
?”

“
Kumm
to
redd-up
.” Andrew studied the man but couldn’t place him at any of the church meetings on this side of the district. Even so, word would get back to his father that he was fixing up the place.

“Fine place to start a family.” He paused, his blue eyes shining like the uncluttered sky. “How long have you owned it?”

“Three years.” Andrew meandered over to the back side of the buggy and unlatched the pine box in which he carried miscellaneous tools to repair a broken harness or wheel axle if needed. He pulled out a pair of leather gloves and headed to the house.

“Mind my asking why you haven’t moved in sooner?”

“I suppose it wasn’t meant to be.” Andrew slid on his gloves. If the man insisted on prying into his life story, Andrew decided, pulling weeds would allow him to hide some of his sorrow.

“Things are not always how we want them.” The man came up beside him and pulled out the vines encroaching on the windows. “Sometimes we let worries choke out life.” He pointed to the edge of the property. “Look at the apple tree over there. If you cut the weeds back, it’ll grow and be fruitful.”

Andrew walked over to the apple tree.