Read Online Christmas at Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard - Free Book Online Page A

backside.”
    Mattie’s quick intake of breath made him chuckle. He hoped she wasn’t ashamed of her body, as so many Plain women seemed to be.
    â€œPuh! I’ll be sure to figure out where you’re working, then, and point it in the other direction,” she said. But a hint of laughter had crept into her voice. “Maybe you should concentrate on your carpentry, Amos Troyer. You’ve been working a couple stories high, and that’s a long way to fall if you get distracted by the view.”
    â€œTrue enough,” he replied. “On Friday, we put the roof on the Kurtz place and then shingled it, so now the house is enclosed. Lester Lehman’s going to install the siding as soon as he’s finished bidding some jobs in Forest Grove. Seems the post office and mercantile want new windows.”
    â€œ Jah , the Lehman brothers are more in demand than Floyd figured on when he was first checking us out,” she remarked. “And it’s a gut opportunity for Lester to complete his house before he moves his family here from Ohio, too—although his wife surely must miss him.” Mattie’s smile had returned now that he’d changed the subject, and she squeezed Amos’s hand. “It was a fine thing to see the walls of Roman’s house going up yesterday. Of course, while you were on the ladder I was mostly noticing how you have such broad, strong shoulders and hardly any backside at all.”
    Amos burst out laughing so loudly it startled his mare. “Easy there, Mabel,” he said, tightening the lines until the horse settled down. Then he smiled at Mattie. “What’s gut for the goose is gut for the gander, I guess.”
    â€œNo guessing about it, Amos. You have the flattest pants I’ve ever seen—but your other endearing qualities make up for it.”
    â€œGlad you see it that way. Glad you look,” he added softly. It relieved him that Mattie’s sense of humor had returned, and that she’d left the conversational door open a crack on the matter of revisiting the way husbands and wives behaved behind closed doors. He would never, ever force her . . . might have to entice her past whatever fear or displeasure she’d experienced with Marvin.
    But for now, Amos wanted to concentrate on topics they both took pleasure in. “I enjoyed working with your boys yesterday,” he said. “Noah’s fast with a hammer—has such a deadly aim, I almost felt sorry for the nails.”
    Mattie chuckled. “Comes from his hours of welding—drawing a bead of solder so accurately—”
    â€œNot to mention his being a crack shot with his rifle. I doubt Rosetta would have any chickens left by now, had Noah not kept the coyotes in check.” Amos steered the horse onto the county highway and then over to the shoulder of the road, to stay clear of any cars. “I know he and Deborah were looking forward to their first weekend of collecting wedding gifts. It’s an exciting time for them.”
    Mattie nodded, a wistful expression on her dear face. “They’re a well-suited pair. I hope we’ll soon settle this matter of wives working at home, because Noah installed an extra-large double oven so Deborah could continue her baking business this winter.”
    Amos nodded, hoping to avoid the topic of Bishop Floyd’s ultimatums—which would put both of them in an unsuitable mood for such a fine autumn Sunday. The breeze was crisp enough that Mattie pulled her coat a little tighter, but she was gazing at the maples and oaks along the roadside, reveling in their crimson, gold, and orange foliage.
    â€œSeems she’s not the only one baking lately,” he remarked. “While we were working on Roman’s place yesterday, Gloria brought over a pan of bars, still warm enough that the chocolate chips were runny. It was a shame that when she took the first ones out of the pan, they either stuck