A Husband For Mari

Mari heard the sound of a car coming up the driveway, and Sara turned from the stove. “That must be Peter,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron. “Ellie, watch that the potatoes don’t burn. I’ll just go out and welcome him. Mari, can you go fetch James?”

“Going.”

“Plenty of coats hanging in the utility room,” Sara instructed. “You might as well just save your own for good. On a farm, a sturdy denim is best, anyway.”

Mari found a coat and slipped into it. Though the style was certainly utilitarian and obviously Amish, Sara’s old coats were warmer than her own. Buttoning up, she dodged Hiram coming in with a bucket of milk and hurried across the back porch.

She walked around the house to find James using a power saw to trim a length of wood. Walking up makeshift steps into the still-open-to-the-elements addition, she called his name, but he couldn’t hear her over the loud whine of the power tool. She waited for him to finish the cut and turn off the saw before speaking again. The gas-powered generator was still running, but it was far enough away that the noise wasn’t too bad. “James?”

“Oh, hey.” He turned toward her and smiled. “Sorry I didn’t hear you, Mari. I was just finishing up here.”

He said her name correctly—just like Mary. Some people wanted to call her Maury because of the way she spelled her name. It was short for Maryann, but she’d never liked that name, so when she started writing the shorter version, as a child, she decided to use an i instead of a y.

Mari’s breath made small clouds of steam, and she pulled the coat tighter around her and suppressed a shiver. The walls and roof cut off some of the wind, but there was no heat. Her ears and nose felt cold, and she wondered how the carpenters could work outside in such bitter weather.

“What can I do for you?” James asked.

And then he smiled at her again, and she immediately became flustered. “Um, I— Sara—” Mari couldn’t seem to speak, and she had no idea why. Obviously it had something to do with James, but she didn’t understand her reaction. This was so unlike her.

Mari didn’t dislike men, but she certainly wasn’t in awe of them like other women her age she’d known. She’d learned that a woman who wasn’t looking for a boyfriend or a husband found life a lot easier. James was looking at her expectantly, but his expression was curious, not impatient. She glanced around at the half-finished space. There didn’t seem to be any of the other workmen there, which made her mission easier since Sara had specified James and not any of the others.

“Sara sent me to ask you if you’d join us for supper,” she said in a rush, then went on to explain why Sara was hoping that he’d join them.

James unplugged and wound the power cord for the saw. “I’d be glad to. I’d be having leftovers at home.” He noticed her looking at the saw. “You’re wondering about the electric saws and such.”

She nodded. Sara had a lot more modern conveniences than the Amish community Mari had come from in Wisconsin. Her uncle hadn’t even had a real bathroom; they still used an outhouse. Maybe this community was a lot more liberal, she thought.

“Gasoline-powered generators are okay,” he explained. “Makes the job go faster. I can build the traditional way when I need to, but Sara wanted this addition done as soon as possible.”

Mari took in the size of the structure. “She must be expecting a lot of company. Wanting more bedrooms.”

“She’s big business in Seven Poplars. Got a waiting list of folks wanting to come and stay and find a spouse.” James placed the heavy saw on a stack of lumber and covered it with a tarp. “So how was your first day at the shop?”

“Um. Good.” Her mind went blank. She studied him, wondering at his interest in her day. It had been a long time since anyone had asked her about her day.

James Hostetler appeared to be in his late twenties, maybe a little younger than she was. His height was average, maybe five-eleven, not as tall as the Swartzentruber brothers or Thomas. James was lanky, with slender, sinewy hands. His fair German complexion was suntanned, his eyes slightly oval and his hands and wrists calloused from a lifetime of manual labor.

James possessed a typical Amish face, more long than round; light brown feathery hair, very clean; a well-defined nose; and a wide, expressive mouth. He was handsome, though not overly so, with a friendly smile and the intelligent brown eyes she’d noticed on first meeting him. He moved easily, almost boyishly, with a bounce in his step. She didn’t know James and she didn’t give her trust easily, but she was inclined to like him. He seemed trustworthy, which wasn’t a trait she saw often in her world.

Not that she was interested in him in any romantic sort of way. Her life was complicated enough without that. She’d proven with Ivan, Zachary’s father, that she didn’t have good judgment when it came to choosing a partner. And she had quite enough on her plate without more complications. A man was the last thing she needed.

She found her voice. “My day was good,” she said. “Everyone was really nice. There’s a lot to learn. I don’t know anything about the business, but I want to know everything.”

“I’d think Gideon would be an easy boss to work for. And Addy is fair. She speaks her mind and some might fault her for that, but there’s not a mean bone in her body.” He removed his heavy leather work gloves and shoved them into his coat pockets. “This can’t be easy for you, losing your job, your home. Making the move with Zachary and starting over in a new town.”

She looked up at him. How did he know about her being evicted from her trailer?

He smiled. “Sorry,” he said, seeming to know what she as thinking. “Zachary told me all about it. I hope that’s okay. He’s a good kid, Mari,” he added thoughtfully. “I don’t think there’s any need to worry about him.”

She hesitated. “I wanted to thank you for letting Zachary help you today.” She looked down at her sneakers and them up at him again. “And...I don’t know what you said to him, but it must have been the right thing. I was afraid he’d be in a funk when I got home, but he’s not. In fact, he’s great. He seems so...happy. And he apologized to me for his behavior this morning.”

The easy smile reached his eyes, lighting them from within and revealing hints of green and gray that she hadn’t noticed before. If he’d been a woman, people would have said that they were her best feature. In a man, they were remarkable.

“Ya. We kept him pretty busy,” James went on. “He carried a lot of coffee, fetched some nails and did some sweeping. We worked on how to drive a nail properly.”

“He told me you were going to bring a hammer for him to use. He was really excited about it,” she said.

“Good.” James nodded his head slowly. “I like your Zachary. You must be very proud of him.”

“I am.” She smiled. “It wasn’t necessary to pay him.”

“But it was.” He settled his gaze on her. “He earned it. I try to give fair wages for good work.”

She pushed her cold hands into the pockets of the coat, trying to warm them. “It was still good of you to take the trouble to make things easier for him. Kids don’t like change, and he’s had more than enough of it.”

“He was no bother. He really wasn’t. In fact, it was fun having him with us today. I’m looking forward to spending time with him tomorrow.”

James squatted in front of a wooden toolbox on the ground just outside the addition and began to unload his tool belt and fit everything inside. It was an orderly box, his tools clean and well cared for. Mari admired that. She liked order herself, when she could find it in her life.

“Zachary has a quick mind,” James continued. “And he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. It’s plain to see that you’ve done a good job with him.”

“I try.” She stood there for a minute watching him, then realized it was silly for her to just be standing there. She’d passed on Sara’s message. There was no reason for her to linger. She put her hands together. “Well, I hope you like ham,” she said. “I saw one in the oven. I think Sara and Ellie made enough food for half the county.”

“Sometimes it seems like half the county’s eating with them. Sara has an endless string of pretty young women and their beaus as dinner guests. She hasn’t been in Seven Poplars that long, but she’s made a lot of friends here, and there’s no doubt she provides a much-needed service.”

“Not for me,” Mari blurted out, then felt her face flush. “I mean, I’m not here to find a husband. That’s not why I came here. We’re old friends. From Wisconsin. She’s just giving me a hand until I can get settled here in Delaware. I came for the job.”

He glanced up from his toolbox. “That’s what Zachary told me.”

“I’m not married. I’m not even Amish.” She felt as if she was babbling. “Not anymore. I was, but—” She pushed her hands deeper into the coat pockets. “Not anymore,” she repeated.

He nodded, holding her gaze. There was no judgment in his eyes.

“But you were born to Amish parents.”

“Sara told you?”

James shook his head. “A name like Mari Troyer?” He smiled that easy smile of his again. “It’s not hard to guess what your background is.”

“I left that life a decade ago.”

“It’s hard, leaving. Hard coming back, too.”

“Oh, I’m not... I didn’t come to be Amish again. It’s not who I am anymore,” she added softly, wondering what it was about James that made her feel as if she could stand there in the bitter cold and discuss things she hadn’t talked about in years.

“I think the people who raised us, our parents and grandparents and their kin, they’re always a part of us, whether we want them to be or not.”

“I don’t know about that. I guess I’m part of the English world now.”