LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter One

      “Soup from a can?” Tessa Fisher’s mother, Waneta, asked incredulously. “None for me, denki. I’ll just have bread and cheese.”

      If her mother turned her nose up at canned soup, Tessa figured she wasn’t going to have an appetite for store-bought bread, either. She racked her brain for something else to offer her parents, who had arrived unexpectedly for Sunday dinner.

      It was an off Sunday, meaning Amish families held worship services in their homes instead of gathering as a community for church. Tessa should have anticipated guests, since Sunday visiting was a cherished Amish tradition. But the truth was, as a woman living alone, Tessa was more likely to be the one dropping in on others than the one receiving visitors in the little daadi haus she rented from Turner King. Still, she hadn’t imagined her parents would travel all the way from Shady Valley, which was two towns over, to Willow Creek, Pennsylvania. Since Tessa returned from worshipping at her sister’s house only a few minutes before they arrived, she was caught unprepared.

      “I’m sorry, Mamm,” Tessa apologized as she set a bagged loaf on the table. “If I had known you were coming, I would have made something ahead of time, like a dessert.”

      “From a mix?” her mother half jested, untwisting the tie from the plastic bag.

      When Tessa put her mind to it, she could bake and cook as well as any Amish woman, but those weren’t her favorite responsibilities and she didn’t see much point in laboring over large meals when she had only herself to feed. She’d much rather spend her time socializing or working extra shifts at Schrock’s Shop, the store in town where she was employed as a clerk selling Amish-made goods primarily to Englisch tourists. Besides, it was the Sabbath. No one prepared a big dinner on the day of rest.

      “Probably,” Tessa admitted. “It’s quicker that way.”

      “Since when is quicker better?” Waneta frowned. “It sounds as if the Englisch customers at Schrock’s Shop are influencing our dochder, Henry. I think it’s time she moved back home.”

      Tessa’s father grunted noncommittally as he served himself several thick slices of bologna. At least the bologna was homemade, although not in Tessa’s home; she purchased it the day before at Schlabach’s meat market.

      Tessa stifled a sigh. A little more than two years ago she and her sister, Katie, who were the youngest children and the only girls in their family, moved from Shady Valley so Katie could serve as a replacement for Willow Creek’s schoolteacher, who resigned to start a family. Although Katie was twenty-three at the time, Henry and Waneta were reluctant to allow her to live alone, something Amish women in their area seldom did. So, they sent Tessa, who was nearing twenty-one, to live with her. Early last November, Katie married Mason Yoder, a farmer, and moved into a small house Mason built on the Yoder family’s property. Ever since then Tessa’s mother had been pressuring Tessa to return home, which Tessa was reluctant to do. Although she loved her parents deeply, Tessa sometimes felt stifled by their overly protective attitude, and she cherished her friends and job in Willow Creek too much to leave. Yet, she also knew the Lord ultimately required her to honor her parents, no matter how old she was or how much she disagreed with their opinion.

      “The customers aren’t influencing me, Mamm,” Tessa protested. “Besides, I couldn’t leave Joseph Schrock shorthanded at the shop, especially since I didn’t have any experience when I first applied for a job there. You remember? He hired me with the agreement that if he took the time and effort to train me, I’d remain a loyal employee for as long as he needed me. I can’t walk away now—you and Daed always taught us to abide by our commitments.”

      Tessa knew her mother wouldn’t argue with her own instructive advice. As Henry silently chewed his bologna, Waneta slathered a slice of bread with butter and then held it up in front of her.

      “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” she said. “You’ll never catch a husband with food like this.”

      To Tessa, it sounded as if her mother were discussing laying a trap for a wild animal. If she had known serving store-bought bread was going to result in a discussion about her likelihood of matrimony, she gladly would have baked a dozen fresh loaves to avoid the topic. Most of the area’s Amish youth were discreet about if and who they were courting, and their parents seldom interfered in their children’s romantic pursuits. But, at nearly twenty-three years old, Tessa knew her mother feared she’d never wed, and Waneta’s strongly worded hints were gaining in frequency.

      “I’m in no hurry to get married,” Tessa replied. She’d had her share of suitors over the years, but in the end they didn’t seem compatible enough for her to imagine devoting herself as a wife to any of them. Nor could she imagine taking on the duty of raising a family. Not yet, anyway. Not when she’d just begun to experience the rare opportunity of being a single Amish woman living entirely on her own, without the responsibility of cooking, cleaning or taking care of anyone else in her household. She added, “There

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