Read Online A Simple Autumn: A Seasons of Lancaster Novel by Rosalind Lauer - Free Book Online

or later.”
    “It’s already later.” Hannah sighed. “I’m eighteen and I’ve never courted anyone.
     I’m sure to be an
Alt Maedel
.”
    Annie laughed out loud. “You can’t be an old maid so young! You’re just beginning
     to court. If you were an old maid, then tongues would surely be wagging about me,
     with no prospects in sight and even older than you.”
    “You heard them?” Hannah’s voice was a whimper nearly drowned out by the clip-clop
     of horses’ hooves.
    Annie’s jaw dropped. “You mean …” She’d been joking, but now the joke was on her.
     Her good mood began to fade. Were people really talking about her because she didn’t
     have a beau? “Do folks say I’m going to be an old maid?”
    Hannah pressed her palms to her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have told you! I’m sorry. And
     now I have to close my eyes for the bridge. It always scares me.” She lifted the rough
     blanket and ducked her head underneath.
    Hannah had always been afraid to go over the Halfway Mill Covered Bridge. The echoing
     noises and darkness inside the wood structure had spooked her since she was a child.
    “I’ll tell you when it’s over.” Annie had always found the old wooden bridge to be
     comforting. The cozy wood overhead and the sound bouncing around made her feel like
     she was attending a singing in a barn.
    Tonight she was grateful to have a minute to sort through her thoughts. With her eyes
     on Dapple’s bobbing head, she mulled over her childhood dreams. Maybe it was her fault
     for pinning her hopes on Adam. They had never courted—not really—but she had spenta lot of time with him. Mary King was her best friend, and in their younger years
     the two girls had spent every spare moment with each other, playing games or running
     the summer produce stand or baking cookies and pies.
    Annie had always admired Mary’s brother Adam. From the time he was a boy he could
     build things—birdhouses and boxes in the beginning, then cabinets and chairs. She
     had liked his shiny black hair and had always wondered what was going on behind those
     smoky brown eyes. Then came the time when Annie and Mary came upon Adam building a
     hope chest in the woodshop.
    “Are you going to sell it?” Mary had asked her older brother.
    “I don’t want to,” Adam had answered. “I’d like to keep it.”
    “What for?” Mary had asked.
    “Maybe for the girl I marry.” At that moment Adam’s eyes had landed on Annie … and
     she’d been sure he was talking about her.
    That was the day Annie had started to plan. Annie loved planning, and she realized
     if she married Adam, she and Mary could remain close friends forever.
    But it was not to be.
    The air grew light around them and echoes faded as they emerged from the covered bridge.
     “You can come out now, scaredy-cat.”
    Hannah’s face peeked out from the blanket. “I wish they would take the cover off that
     bridge.”
    “Tourists love it,” Annie said, still stuck on her worries. “Those girls who are talking
     about me … What exactly are they saying?”
    “One of the girls in the group getting baptized said—Oh, I don’t want to gossip, Annie.
     I won’t tell you her name, but she said she hopes she doesn’t end up twenty years
     old with no beau in sight.”
    Annie’s cheeks blazed with embarrassment, a fire that no amount of wind could cool.
     “No beau in sight … that much is true,” she admitted.
    Hannah touched her arm. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
    “No, I’m glad you told me, even if the truth hurts.”
    “Well, the best way to make them stop talking that way is to start courting someone.”
    “I don’t know about that.” Annie swallowed over the lump in her throat. She couldn’t
     think of a single young man in their district who she’d take a ride with. And certainly
     there was no one she would kiss.
    Maybe she would be an alt maedel.
    “There must be someone you’ve got your eye on,” Hannah