“Once there was a boy who had a horse. It was a small horse, and he needed to sell it. So he brought his little horse to a farmer who was looking for a horse to plow his field. The farmer looked at the little horse and shook his head. He said, ‘That horse is too small. I’d give you a hundred dollars for him. He’s no good for farm work!’”
“Poor little horse,” Violet said.
“I know. So then, the boy took his horse to a horse auction, and the auctioneer looked at him and said, ‘That horse might be good for children to ride, if he was trained properly. You might be able to get a thousand dollars for him.’”
“That’s better,” Violet said.
“And the boy almost said yes,” Elias said, shooting her a smile. “But then his grandfather said, ‘Take that horse to the racing stables. And ask that horse breeder what he’d pay for him.’ And so he did. And the horse breeder said, ‘That horse has the makings of a fine racer. I’ll pay you fifty thousand dollars right now!’”
“Oh!” Violet laughed, and her eyes widened.
“Do you know the moral?” he asked.
“Ask your grandfather before you sell a horse?”
Almost, but so far from what he wanted her to learn and to tuck away.
“You need to go to where people know your true value,” Elias said. “Violet, you are worth all the love in a man’s heart and his most faithful vow. You are. And you can have it! But just because you are worth your weight in gold doesn’t mean every man will see that, or treat you accordingly. And that’s what I’m trying to protect you from.”
“That’s what I want, too,” Violet said earnestly. “But I don’t want to be a farmer’s wife. I don’t want to be the woman who cooks and cleans and gets calluses on her hands from all the hard work. I want a husband who loves me for more than the work I do around the house. That’s what I want.”
Her bright gaze moved to the door again, and he could feel the whole world tugging at her heart, pulling her away from the world he’d raised her for. That big, heartless world wanted their tender, sheltered children. The world told them that the knowledge of good and evil was preferable to innocence. And he wished he had the words to fix all of this for her—to show her how it all fit together—but he kept coming up short.
“You can find that here with an Amish life,” he said. “There are plenty of Amish men who aren’t farmers, if that’s your worry. I work at the canning plant. Your uncle and aunt own a restaurant. There are other options.”
“It’s not just about the job, Daet,” she said with a long-suffering look on her face.
And he knew it wasn’t, but she couldn’t see the pitfalls waiting for her that he saw.
“I’m going to go help Mammi with dishes,” Violet said.
He could talk and talk, but would she truly hear him? Or would she look back on these talks years from now and realize what he’d meant after she’d had her heart broken out there with all her freedom?
“All right,” Elias said. “That’s nice of you to help your mammi. I’ll finish up out here.”
Violet headed out the door and it clattered shut behind her. The horse nuzzled his hand, and Elias started brushing again, his mind tumbling over her words.
“I love my daughter for more than her cooking and cleaning, too,” he murmured.
Elias loved Violet for who she was, and for her bright smile. He loved her for her laughter and her silly jokes. He even loved her for her brooding teenage worries. He loved her for the depth of her heart and the height of her hopes. He’d loved her since her first newborn cries and would continue to love her into the future when he knew she’d leave his home and go start a life of her own and she’d no longer be under his careful protection.
But did she know that?
Chapter Eight
Delia watched as Joseph’s buggy disappeared onto the main road. She would follow him in her own buggy shortly.
Joseph had seemed different this time—more vulnerable and more helpless. Joseph and her mother had always maintained a very united front. Mamm had called the shots with parenting, and Joseph had backed her up with unswerving loyalty to her. But that relationship had very much been between Joseph and her mother. So to have Joseph come to her...it meant that Joseph was really, truly at the end of his rope.
Was Mamm going to be all right? She’d seen other women in the community dealing with aging parents, but somehow that had felt very far away for her. Until now. Things were starting to change around here, weren’t they? The boys were growing up, but more than that, everyone else was growing older, too. Including Delia.
As Delia turned toward her own buggy, she saw Elias bend down and squeeze through the rungs of the fence, and somehow the sight of his tall strength was comforting. He carried a basket in one hand that he held aloft as he hopped on one foot, pulling his other boot over the rail.
“Good evening,” he said. “I come bearing some baking from my mother.”
Delia couldn’t help but smile at that.
“Danke,” she said. “That’s nice that she thought of me.”
“Well, she’s already mentally planning our wedding, so...this baking is really the least of it.” He handed the basket over and she peeked inside to see three round loaves of bread. Those would be very helpful over the next couple of days.
“How disappointed will she be when they find out you weren’t really courting me?” she asked.
“Quite. But take that as a compliment, and I think they’ll understand why we did this. They can see how Violet has been struggling with things.”
Delia hoped so. Elias paused, his warm gaze moving over her face, and she dropped her gaze under his sudden scrutiny.
“Are you all right? You look a bit shaken,” he said.
She felt a rush of relief that he’d noticed.
“That was my stepfather just leaving,” Delia said. “My mamm is...well, I don’t know what is wrong with her exactly, but she needs to see a doctor.”
Elias’s expression clouded. “Can I help at all?”
Delia was about to say no, that she could handle this alone, but suddenly a wash of longing swamped her. She didn’t want to do it all alone. She didn’t want to be the only person providing solutions around here.
“Yah, actually,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind some help. I’m headed to see her now.”
