LITMIR.BIZ

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sure.

      He shrugged. Even his shrugs were smooth and self-assured.

      “No girl to speak of.” He lifted one of her Kapp strings with his finger. “Not now.”

      She couldn’t stop the nervous giggle from escaping again. “Then, there was a girl?”

      “No one special.” Luke breathed the words as he leaned even closer. He smelled of soap and something else that Judith couldn’t identify. Something smoky and bitter. His gaze slid from her eyes to her mouth and her stomach flipped over.

      Someone clapped their hands to get everyone’s attention. “It’s time to take your seats.” Reuben Stoltzfus’s voice carried over the rest of the sounds in the room, but Luke didn’t move.

      “Let me take you home tonight. Meet me at the end of the lane.”

      Judith found herself nodding, but then remembered her promise to Matthew and turned the nod to a shake.

      “I can’t. Matthew said he was coming for me.”

      “When he sees that you’ve already gone, he’ll understand.”

      Judith shook her head again and ducked under Luke’s arm to head back to her seat. “Ne. Matthew said that he wanted to take me home this time.”

      “I’ll get my way.” He tugged on the Kapp string again and gave her a heart-stopping smile. “Count on it.”

      As Judith slid into her seat next to Hannah, the other girl grabbed her hand.

      “I saw you talking to Luke. Did you like him?”

      Judith glanced down the table toward Luke. He was laughing with the fellows sitting on either side of him. Their conversation during the break had been unsettling, but she wasn’t sure why. She hadn’t had much experience talking to boys.

      “He is nice, I guess.”

      Hannah squeezed her hand. “I knew you’d think so.”

      Reuben called out the number for the first song, and the group had nearly finished it before Guy took his seat again. He looked in her direction, then at his songbook. Judith kept watching him. He stared at the book, but didn’t join in the singing.

      The next song was a fun one. Each verse was about two people who had a hole in their bucket, and at the end it repeated the lines from all the previous verses. By the time they reached the twelfth verse, everyone was laughing so hard they couldn’t keep singing. Everyone except the young man across the table from her.

      After the rollicking fun, someone suggested a quick break. Judith stayed in her seat this time, not wanting to be cornered by Luke again.

      A few minutes later, a cup of punch appeared on the table in front of her. She looked up to see Guy smiling at her.

      “Denki,” she said.

      He made his way around the end of the table to his seat and took a drink of his punch. Judith leaned toward him, keeping her voice low so the others wouldn’t hear their conversation.

      “Why didn’t you sing with us?”

      Guy rubbed the side of his nose. “I don’t talk Deitsch well, and I can’t read it.”

      “So why did you come to the Singing?”

      “I don’t know.” He looked miserable.

      “You have a nice voice. I heard you humming along with us earlier.”

      A shadow of a smile flashed at her. “Do you mind if we speak English?”

      She switched languages, just as he had. “No.” She gave him a mock frown. “But you won’t improve your Deitsch if you don’t use it.” She laid her hands on the table and leaned closer to him. “Why don’t you know how to speak like us?”

      “I wasn’t raised here—”

      Before he could finish his sentence, the next song was announced. This one was a round, and it took concentration for Judith to keep up with her part. Half of her thoughts were on Guy, though. How could he not know Deitsch?

      At ten o’clock, the singing was over. Luke and some of the other boys rushed out the door, but the girls stood in groups to chat. With a half hour to wait for Matthew, Judith started helping a few of the young people who were collecting the songbooks.

      She had picked up a small stack when she met Guy coming around the other side of the table with his own hands full of books.

      “I’ll take those for you,” he said.

      Judith handed him the books she had gathered. “You’re speaking English again.”

      Guy shrugged. “The Penn Dutch is too hard. Everyone here understands English, so why should I learn it?”

      “You’d fit in with the other fellows better. Don’t you want that?”

      “I’m not sure they want me around.”

      “You should give it a try.” Judith stepped closer to him. “All you need is someone to teach you.”

      He glanced around, then ducked his head toward her. “Could you teach me?”

      He was serious, his eyes locked on hers, waiting for her answer.

      “I’m not sure I’d be a very good teacher, but I could try.”

      “Maybe we could get together this coming week?” He grinned. “If you can ever get away from those babies.”

      Judith frowned. Did he dislike children that much? “Those babies are the reason I’m here, and I don’t want to get away from them.”

      “C’mon, I was only teasing.” His cheeks turned red.

      Judith grinned back at him. “I’m glad you were, because I love Annie’s children. All three of them.”

      “So, when can we start the lessons?”

      “I’ll have to check with Annie, first.”

      He nodded and thumbed at the corners of the songbooks in his hand. “I saw you talking with Luke Kaufman earlier. Is he taking you home?”

      If any boy was taking a girl home, it was supposed to be a secret, except for the girls who had steady beaus, like Waneta. Even Judith knew Reuben would be taking her home. But Guy looked at her with such intensity when he asked the question that she had to give him an answer.

      “No.” She shook her head. “He asked, but Matthew is coming for me.”

      “Whew,” Guy said. “I’m glad.”

      He picked up a few more songbooks that someone had left on a chair and Judith followed him. If he was asking to take her home, he had a strange way of doing it.

      “Why are you glad?”

      “No reason.” He gave the books to Benjamin Stoltzfus, then turned back to Judith. “Except that maybe I can get a ride with you and Matthew?”

      He wiggled his dark eyebrows up and down as he asked, and Judith found herself laughing at him.

      “For sure, you can. Matthew will be here at ten thirty.” She glanced at the clock. “I had better get my bonnet and shawl. Meet you by the back door?”

      “Yeah. I’ll wait for you there.”

      As Judith went toward the kitchen, she glanced back. Guy had picked up the end of one of the benches, ready to help Benjamin carry it out to the church wagon. After talking with Luke at the break, she had been breathless and feeling a little bit like she was dabbling in deep, unknown waters. But that exchange with Guy...it had been more like talking to a friend she had known for a long time.

      Hannah was in the bedroom, putting on her bonnet. Her black shawl was already wrapped around her shoulders.

      “You’re

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