The Shy Amish Man

By Samantha Collier

Rebecca is a shy Amish spinster that everyone tries to play matchmaker for. Her other two sisters are already married and she begins to feel the pressure to find someone by everyone close to her. She is set up with some perfectly eligible men in the community but Rebecca turns them down. Why? Because she secretly has a crush on a handsome young man who visits her bakery every morning. The problem is that he seems even more shy than she is. Can she break out of her shell and break the ice with him?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201252588

Book preview

Rebecca’s eyelids were drooping.  Then the yawn came, long and low.

Mrs Helmuth, sitting to her left, started choking on her coffee. Rebecca Beiler!

But she couldn’t help it.  She had been up since five this morning, in preparation for her little sister’s wedding day.  It was four o’clock in the afternoon now, and the force of her eyelids was almost too much.

"Your kapps is eschew, Rebecca," Mrs Helmuth continued. The woman’s eyes raked over her, assessing every imperfect detail. Why, oh why, had she drawn the short straw and been seated next to the district matchmaker and gossip?

Yes, her prayer cap had slipped. Stray dark curls were escaping from it.  Her black dress, ironed hastily this morning, was now as wrinkled as Mrs Helmuth’s face.  But she wasn’t the only one showing signs of wear.

Annie, the bride herself, was smiling fixedly. Levi, her new husband, was sweating as if it was a scorching summer’s day, rather than a chilly one in late November. Rebecca could see their hands intertwined beneath the table, though.

Celery stalks, the traditional Amish wedding decoration, were wilting in their vases. The last of the season’s brown autumn leaves fluttered onto the tables, and a bitter wind was whipping napkins into the air. The salads were drooping in their bowls. The hog in the middle of the wedding table was shrivelled. Children whined, clinging to their parents.

Hours to go, before she could make her excuses, leave the tables under the trees and climb the stairs to her room.  There was still singing and storytelling after the banquet ended.

At least the wedding was at their own farm.  Rebecca offered up a silent prayer: Thank you, Lord, for small mercies.

Mrs Helmuth heaved. She sounded like an out of tune piano accordion when she spoke. The whole table shook as she leaned across it, grabbing Rebecca’s hand in her short pudgy one.

"A very busy day, my lieb. It is hard, is it not, seeing your little sister married, while you still occupy a single room in your parent’s house?"

Rebecca flinched as if she had been slapped.  Stop it, she said to herself.  She doesn’t mean it in a nasty way. She is just concerned that I will never marry. It is normal. It is the way of things. Oh, Lord, please give me the strength to endure it.

Oh my dear, I didn’t mean to distress you, Mrs Helmuth said, patting Rebecca’s hand. It just makes me so sad to see such a lovely and humble girl like you with no husband of her own. And I am here to change that for you!

What do you mean? Rebecca couldn’t quite keep the thread of alarm out of