Read Online The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis - Free Book Online Page A

without coming into the room, honoring their privacy. They rose and walked into the kitchen just as Joanna’s father was entering the back door.
    May this supper go well , prayed Joanna.
    She could hardly wait to share her meal with Eben. But then the back door opened once again, and Cora Jane stepped inside, as if she’d never gone anywhere at all.
    Suddenly realizing that Mamma had set the table with only four plates, Joanna scrambled quickly to the cupboard and pulled out another for Cora Jane. It would never do for her sister to think she wasn’t wanted, not after spending all day with Mammi Sadie next door, undoubtedly stewing.
    But Cora Jane caught her eye just then and saw what Joanna was doing. She raised an eyebrow as Joanna placed the plate and an extra set of utensils on the table. This is sure to set her off again!
    By the time Dat came into the kitchen after washing up, Joanna didn’t know whom to introduce to Eben first. But it was her sister who looked the most interested, standing in the middle of the room and trying not to be conspicuous in her scrutiny of Joanna’s beau.
    â€œCora Jane, I’d like you to meet Eben Troyer from Shipshewana,” Joanna said, finding her voice. “Eben, this is my sister Cora Jane.”
    â€œHullo.” Eben offered to shake her hand, which she did with a pleasant enough smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you and your family . . . put faces to names, ya know.”
    â€œWillkumm to Hickory Hollow,” Cora Jane said, eyeing the table again. She went to her regular spot to the left of Dat, who’d dried his hands and was moseying around Eben’s duffel bag to the head of the table now without stopping to speak.
    â€œDat, this is my friend . . . Eben Troyer,” Joanna said, holding her breath for what he might say.
    Her father said hullo agreeably, then stuck out his hand to shake Eben’s.
    â€œGut to meet ya.”
    â€œPlease call me Nate,” Dat said as he took his seat. “That’ll be just fine.”
    Cora Jane attempted to squelch the smirk that appeared at this but failed. Joanna was on pins and needles as she went around the table to the right of Mamma, where she sat with Eben on her opposite side.
    So the suppertime setting was lopsided, instead of the way Joanna had envisioned things earlier, without her sister present. At least Cora Jane had shown some respect and come home to meet Eben. Yet Joanna still wasn’t convinced that was such a good thing.
    â€”——
    Eben found the unspoken interplay between Joanna and her younger sister curious. There was certainly an undercurrent of tension between them, yet Joanna hadn’t referred much in her letters to Cora Jane or to her older, married siblings, all of whom had two or more children of their own. She had written mostly about the sister named Salina and her three S’s , as Joanna liked to call her young nephew and two nieces. And Joanna had also told of an English friend named Amelia, who played the fiddle, as well as an elderly woman nicknamed the Wise Woman and other folk who lived there in the hollow.
    Eben listened as Rhoda Kurtz praised Joanna’s cooking skills, finding it somewhat humorous. After all, his taste buds were definitely in the know, and right this very minute, too.
    â€œJoanna cooks and bakes near everything from scratch,” Rhoda added.
    â€œ ’Cept for her pizzas,” Cora Jane said, leaping into the conversation, her eyes sparkling mischief.
    Eben felt Joanna stiffen on the wooden bench next to him.
    â€œOh jah, the store-bought tomato sauce,” Rhoda defended Joanna. “Well, all the womenfolk use it.”
    Eben glanced at Nate Kurtz, a seeming caricature with a healthy appetite. His graying beard had somehow managed to grow in the shape of a V, something Eben hadn’t seen before. It almost looked as though someone had taken a scissors and trimmed it, and in a