Landchester Amish Love: Ruth (Amish Romance) (Landchester Amish Love Series Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

seeing if she could have made more than that.
    But on his arrival, he’d noticed that people were looking at him differently. Some were looking away. He detected more than a few people speaking under their breaths to each other after seeing him.
    When he was satisfied that it was not merely his imagination, and that people were in fact looking at him, he asked his schweschder what had happened. She looked at him wide-eyed.
    “There’s a rumor going around about you and a woman. The Moore girl. Ruth. It’s said you were seen together in the fields.”
    I was unsure how to process this.
    “Who would say such a thing?”
    Katie shook her head as if to say she didn’t know and looked down.
    Just when he had begun to think that he had definitely made the right choice and he could see the future for himself here that he had returned for, this happened! Of all the rumors that could be spread about him, he thought, this one was the worst. She had only spoken to him once, too.
    And who had even known? He wracked his brain. He had told a few people, but he couldn’t imagine any of those could have said anything. Perhaps, he began to think, his disagreement with Jacob over the price of his father’s table was more of an issue that he had thought. Joseph hadn’t taken Jacob to be the sort that would start a malicious rumor like this, and involving his own schweschder -in-law, no less!
    Under his anger there was something else lurking. Something didn’t add up here. Even if he believed that Jacob was such an angry mann that he would do such a thing, did he really think him that rash?
    But all of that had to be figured out later. For now, there was the barn raising to get through. He looked around. He needed to see how Ruth was taking it.
    And then he saw her, headed right towards him. She must not know! What he needed to do made him feel sick. He would need to turn his back on the girl that he had wanted to talk to for the last week more than he cared to admit to anyone.
    And so he did. It was as though he could feel the pain his actions were causing behind him. He tried to focus on the conversation at hand, so as not to think about it. Amish men weren’t angry. They weren’t supposed to be. Well, if that was the case, then he couldn’t be an Amish mann , could he? Better to be an Englischer , if being an Amish meant just accepting things like this.
    After a few minutes, he looked around. His attempt to find focus on the conversation he’d been having was in vain. There was no way he could think about anything else. Instead, he scanned the crowd for Ruth. But he did not see her.
    Gut, he thought. Let her be free of all this.
    But it meant that he couldn’t leave. Not if the rumor was to be believed at all. He had to stay, and save face. At least, that was what Daed advised when he had pulled him aside and asked what he should do.
    “We will sort all this out later, Soh ,” he said, and encouraged him to ignore the looks, and enjoy the party as best as he could.
    Once most people had eaten, the time came to place the last of the roof. It was a lovely ceremony, and it meant quite a lot to Leah and George. He had not known the two of them before this, but he had met them today. They were a sweet couple, ready to start their lives together. And Joseph felt a stab of pain, at their happiness.
    They had all this, but he wouldn’t. Not with what had happened today. He’d always doubted, when he was honest, that he would find love. And then this girl, who he had talked to so briefly but in whom he was already so interested, had had this happen to her.
    And Joseph wanted this, he knew. He wanted the support of the community as had come out in full force for George and Leah tonight. He wanted this sense of extended familye , and of everyone caring and everyone lending a hand. But this only made him feel more that if he couldn’t have it, then he must leave entirely.
    It had been long enough now since Ruth left that he could leave