About fifteen minutes after Phoebe had seen Seth and Fannie start on their walk, she spotted Fannie entering the house, alone. The widow wore the same serene expression she’d had earlier, only breaking into a broad smile when she spotted her dochder. Did that mean things had gone well between her and Seth? Or just that she was gut at hiding her feelings?
Phoebe stepped out on the front porch—for fresh air of course—and spotted Seth across the yard, speaking with a group of men standing near the barn door.
He appeared relaxed and engaged with the other men in the group. No sign of how things had gone between him and Zilla’s friend there either.
Then she reconsidered—that wasn’t entirely true. The fact that both Seth and Fannie seemed so unperturbed was telling in and of itself.
And she wasn’t sure she liked the story it was telling.
That night Phoebe once again lay awake staring at the darkened ceiling. But this time it was for an entirely different reason.
She couldn’t deny it any longer—somehow, in only a few short weeks, she’d fallen in love with Seth Beiler.
Seeing him walk out with Fannie this afternoon had driven home to her just how much she cared for him.
How could she have let this happen? Especially since there was no indication he felt anything other than friendship and perhaps a big-bruder sort of protectiveness toward her. Because of course she didn’t have the qualities he looked for in a fraa. She was nothing like Dinah, the woman he described with such appreciation, and she was nothing like Fannie, this potential fraa he had met today.
How was she going to make it through the next few weeks of her stay here and not let her feelings show? Perhaps it was a gut thing that she would be going home for a few days at Christmas. It might give her some perspective, some time to think away from the Beilers, away from Seth.
If nothing else, it would give her a sample of how life would be without him once her time here was up.
Phoebe rose early Monday morning to finish the cleanup from the activities on Sunday. The youth group had stayed late for the singing last night but she didn’t begrudge them that—it was gut for the young members of the community to have a place to gather together.
And as usual Seth was up ahead of her, making a pot of coffee.
“Gut matin,” he said with a bit of sleepy gravel in his voice. “I had a feeling you’d be up early today.”
She nodded. “There’s a lot to be done and I want to get it taken care of before I leave tomorrow.”
Seth’s smile faltered a moment at that.
Did that mean he was going to miss her, even a little bit?
But he recovered quickly. “Before they head out this morning, I’ll get Levi and Daniel to help me move some of the benches around to free up the area around the washer in case you want to do laundry today.”
“Danke, that will be helpful.”
The coffee finished brewing and he poured himself a cup and then to her surprise poured up a second cup. He even remembered to add one sugar and a small dollop of cream before he carried it to her.
“Here,” he said as he held it out. “I thought you might need this to help you get going this morning.”
“Danke.” She reached for the cup and her fingers brushed his. Like it had once before, her pulse jumped at the sudden tingling shock the touch evoked. She could tell by the way his eyes widened that he’d felt something too.
Then his lips quirked up. “Sorry. Must be static electricity. Do you have a gut hold?”
She nodded and he released the cup and stepped back. He was out the door before she found her tongue.
She had thought that perhaps in the light of day her midnight musings over her feelings for Seth would prove to have been made of nothing more substantial than moonbeams and starlight. But if anything the feelings were stronger today. Perhaps it was a gut thing that she would be gone before anything definite would come to pass between Seth and Fannie.
Determined to push those unproductive thoughts away, Phoebe turned to whisking the eggs, using up quite a bit of pent-up energy in the process.
Seth sat at the head of the breakfast table, enjoying the scrambled eggs. This morning she’d folded in cheese, ham and some finely diced pineapple. It shouldn’t have worked but somehow it did.
He was doing his best to pay attention to Daniel as he tried to explain a conversation he’d had with a local farmer about a new grafting technique.
But in truth he found himself distracted by Phoebe. Not that she was doing anything particularly attention getting. It was just that ever since yesterday, when Fannie had asked him what he wanted in a fraa, he’d been reevaluating just what his priorities were on that score.
As if reading his mind, Levi turned to him during one of Daniel’s pauses. “You haven’t mentioned anything yet about how things went with you and Zilla’s friend Fannie. Any news to report?”
Seth froze as the whole table went silent and all eyes turned to him. He started to reprimand Levi for asking such a personal question, especially in a manner that blindsided him like this.
But instead he set his fork down and met his bruder’s gaze. “That’s not an appropriate question for you to be asking. But since you have asked and the answer impacts everyone at this table in some manner or another then I suppose you deserve a response.” He picked up his fork again. “Fannie and I have agreed that we need to spend a little more time together while she’s here to get to know each other better before we make a decision.” He speared a bit of scrambled egg. “And I expect there to be no more discussion on the subject until I bring it up myself.”
He refrained from glancing directly Phoebe’s way. What did she think? Did she care about his answer one way or the other?
He’d give a lot to be able to read her mind just for a moment. Then again, perhaps it was better that he not.
After breakfast Seth spent most of the morning cleaning up his workshop and taking care of his tools. Typically he had a few orders trickle in in January as individuals who saw the recipients of his sets asked for sets of their own, but now was the time for maintenance and preparation. And thanks to Phoebe he’d look at preparation in a whole new light.
Yesterday evening as they’d cleared the supper dishes, she’d casually mentioned that he should think about also offering sets in a smaller size. It was an intriguing idea. She had rightly guessed that carving the chess pieces in a smaller size but with the same level of detail would provide a challenge—something that piqued his interest and made him itch to give it a try. He would need to come up with new measurements and patterns for the different components of the chessboard and drawer. Then he’d have to see if he could scale the actual pieces properly and maintain the quality he expected of himself. He couldn’t wait to give it a try, and he’d do so, right after Christmas.
Later, as Seth carried his lunch dishes to the sink, Phoebe met his gaze. “We haven’t had time to enjoy a game of chess in a while. I thought it might be fun to take time for a match this afternoon, unless you have something else you need to do.”
Seth smiled. “I don’t have anywhere else to be and I’m not ready to start any new chess sets right now so jah, I’d like that.”
