An Amish Proposal Read online

  Rescued: Mother-to-Be

  Pregnant and without options, Katie Kay Lapp is trapped between two worlds—abandoned by her baby’s Englisch father, not ready to return to her Amish family. With nowhere to go, she’s rescued by the unlikeliest of heroes—the man whose heart she shattered. Months ago, Micah Stoltzfus courted her, envisioned a future with her, until she chose the big city over him. Now bound by duty to protect mother and child, Micah offers a solution—marriage. Though his heart never healed, he still cares for the Amish beauty. He knows he’ll be the father Katie Kay’s baby needs...but can he show her he’s also the love she’s always wanted?

  Micah’s touch scrambled her thoughts.

  Her hopes that he hadn’t noticed the tremor in her voice faded when he said, “It’s going to be okay.” He flashed her a smile.

  Lost in her despair, she’d failed to see how much power his grins still had to move her, reminding her how they’d laughed together after singings. She realized how much she missed that.

  Something else she’d thrown away when she’d tossed him out of her life.

  “Tell me the truth, Micah,” she blurted. “Why are you helping me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? You’re pregnant and—”

  “You don’t have to feel obligated because you’re the one who found me.”

  He shook his head, sadness dimming his eyes. “After all this time, Katie Kay, I thought you knew me better than that.”

  She winced, realizing how she had wounded him. It hadn’t been intentional. She wanted to know the truth about why a man whom she’d treated poorly would help her.

  No, it was more than helping. He wanted to be certain she and the boppli were taken care of. He was a gut man. Better than she deserved.

  Jo Ann Brown has always loved stories with happily-ever-after endings. A former military officer, she is thrilled to have the chance to write stories about people falling in love. She is also a photographer and travels with her husband of more than thirty years to places where she can snap pictures. They have three children and live in Florida. Drop her a note at joannbrownbooks.com.

  Books by Jo Ann Brown

  Love Inspired

  Amish Hearts

  Amish Homecoming

  An Amish Match

  His Amish Sweetheart

  An Amish Reunion

  A Ready-Made Amish Family

  An Amish Proposal

  Love Inspired Historical

  Matchmaking Babies

  Promise of a Family

  Family in the Making

  Her Longed-For Family

  Sanctuary Bay

  The Dutiful Daughter

  A Hero for Christmas

  A Bride for the Baron

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  AN AMISH

  PROPOSAL

  Jo Ann Brown

  For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

  —Micah 4:5

  For Elizabeth McIntyre

  Thanks for keeping us on track.

  And herding writers is

  definitely harder than herding cats...

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from Christmas on the Ranch by Arlene James

  Chapter One

  Paradise Springs

  Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

  When the night sky opened and it started raining, Katie Kay Lapp stopped by the side of the road, covered her face with her hands and began to cry. The cold downpour was the final insult in a day that had begun badly and gotten worse with each passing hour. How had she gotten to this point? Months ago, she’d been the center of attention of young men at any gathering. They’d vied for time with her and for the chance to take her home in their courting buggies. Now she was abandoned and afraid and had no place to go.

  You could go home.

  Ach, it was easy for the little voice in her head—the one nagging her endlessly about doing the right thing—to say that. But she’d burned her bridges behind her and in front of her and around her. She couldn’t go home. Her sisters would welcome her, but Daed would insist on knowing every detail of what she’d done since she ran away. He’d want to pray with her and ask her to repent for any sins she’d committed.

  And she’d committed a bunch. Some intentionally and others by accident. In the eyes of Bishop Reuben Lapp, what she’d done would need to be repented for with prayer before it could be forgiven.

  She moaned aloud when she imagined telling her daed about her fear that she was pregnant. Many plain women her age were married with one or more bopplin, but she hadn’t been ready to settle down and lead an Amish life, the only life she’d ever known until she left home four months ago to find out what the rest of the world was like. It hadn’t been a carefree rumspringa decision. Instead, she’d made the choice with care and a lot of deep consideration.

  Or so she’d thought at the time.

  Raindrops slid beneath her T-shirt and down her spine like a cascade of ice cubes. October could be a beautiful month in southeastern Pennsylvania or unforgiving like tonight.

  Straightening, Katie Kay looked around. She wasn’t sure where she was. Somewhere in rural Lancaster County, she knew, but not exactly where. She hadn’t paid any attention. She’d been surprised when Austin, whom she’d described to others as her Englisch boyfriend because she’d foolishly believed he cared about her, had driven her and a couple of other Englischers out of Lancaster City, but she hadn’t watched where they were going. Rain had been falling, and the streetlights had glittered on the windshield, disguising any landmarks in splattered light. She hadn’t expected she’d need to know. She’d thought she was returning to the apartment she shared with Austin and their friends.

  Not her friends, she knew. Neither had protested when Austin snatched her cell phone from her purse and ordered her out of the car. Maybe Vinnie and Juan, his Englisch friends, had been as astounded as she’d been, never guessing he’d drive off and not come back for her.

  She kept walking. She didn’t have any other choice. The country road was two narrow lanes that curved and rose and fell over the rolling hillsides. It was edged on both sides by harvested fields. She peered through the darkness, but the lights she could see appeared to be a mile or two in the distance. Was she somewhere without many houses? Or were there ones between her and the distant lights? Amish houses wouldn’t be lit this late in the evening because the people living in them usually rose before the sun and were in bed soon after sunset.

  Two cars raced toward her. If the drivers saw her, they gave no sign, not swerving to the middle of the road to make sure they avoided her as they passed. The tires of the second sent a shower of dirty water over her.

  “It’s not fair!�
� she cried out. Nothing had been fair since her mamm died five years ago. Everyone had expected her to step into the role of housekeeper for her daed. After all, her half sister had when Daed’s first wife died. But Priscilla was the perfect Amish daughter and now was the perfect Amish wife and mamm. Katie Kay had been the one who questioned everything and was too curious to accept things just because someone told her so.

  But look where curiosity had gotten her. A part of her wanted to pray, but she silenced that longing as she had for four months. Reaching out to God seemed like admitting she couldn’t survive on her own among Englischers.

  And why would God want to hear from her after she’d turned her back on Him and the life He’d given her? Another bridge she’d burned and wondered if it could ever be rebuilt.

  A familiar sound came from behind her. Metal wheels on asphalt accompanied by iron horseshoes clip-clopping in a steady rhythm.

  Katie Kay knew the source of those sounds. They’d been a part of her life since her earliest memories. Stepping off the edge of the road, she considered going down the slope toward a shadowed hedgerow until after the buggy had passed. An Amish person wouldn’t go by her without stopping as the cars had, but she needed to avoid plain people until she figured out where she was.

  Her feet refused to move. Her own body rebelled against standing a moment longer than necessary in the cold rain. Maybe she should try to hitch a ride with the buggy, so she could find shelter before the rain turned to sleet. Who would recognize her as the wayward daughter of Reuben Lapp, a beloved bishop?

  The clatter of the wheels began to slow, and she knew she’d been seen in the lights connected to the buggy. Again, she was torn between running away and running toward it. How could she have gotten herself to this point? A few months ago, she’d been the pampered daughter of a respected Amish bishop. Now she was cowering by the side of a country road, left behind like a discarded kitten dropped by a heartless owner.

  Which wasn’t far off from the truth. Austin hadn’t tossed her out of the car, but he’d raised his hand when she hesitated to follow his orders. Though he’d never struck her, she’d seen him flatten a man a head taller than him with a single blow. Again she told herself she shouldn’t have been honest with him about her suspicion she might be pregnant until she was absolutely sure. Austin Moore prided himself on being a man without a single obligation to anyone or anything, and she should have known he’d refuse to take responsibility if she’d conceived. She wasn’t sure, though signs pointed in that direction. By now, he’d be at the apartment in Lancaster they’d shared with two other Englischers, and he’d be watching sports and drinking whatever was in the fridge. He wouldn’t spare her another thought. It wasn’t as if he loved her.

  And that realization was the most painful of all.

  A voice called from the buggy that had pulled alongside her while the rain fell relentlessly on her bare head. “Katie Kay? Katie Kay Lapp, is it you?” Surprise lifted the deep voice several notches, but she recognized it.

  Micah Stoltzfus!

  Out of everyone in Lancaster County, why did he have to be in the buggy?

  Micah had taken her home—several times—from social events, and she’d even let him kiss her. She’d decided she liked him well enough, and she’d enjoyed his kisses, but she wasn’t interested in someone who kept talking about the future. She’d been happy focusing on the present, when there were a lot of gut-looking guys eager to take her home.

  Why not enjoy what was going on and let tomorrow worry about itself?

  That had been her motto, but now she was being forced to see where such a shortsighted plan had left her.

  Alone.

  Possibly pregnant.

  And about to have to beg help from a man she’d told to get lost a year ago.

  * * *

  The petite woman standing beside his buggy bore little resemblance to the vivacious beauty he’d admired for years, but Micah Stoltzfus knew he wasn’t mistaken. Though she didn’t answer him and confirm her identity, he recognized Katie Kay Lapp’s oval face and very large blue eyes. Her blond hair was no longer pulled back beneath a white organdy kapp. It’d been cropped short with bangs above her tawny brows and hung around her shoulders, weighed down by the rain. He guessed the strands which had been silken when they escaped her bun and brushed his face would, when dry, bounce with each step she took. Instead of a simple dress, she wore blue jeans and a black T-shirt that looked as if it’d been ruined before she’d stood outside in the storm.

  He wanted to ask her where she’d been and what she’d been doing since she had left her daed’s house after a big argument. Reuben had been troubled about her vanishing, fearing what might happen to his naïve daughter. Katie Kay had left behind a message stating she was going to live with an Englisch friend. She hadn’t said which one or where or when she might come home. The burden of not knowing had bent Reuben’s shoulders, and Micah believed only his plans to marry Wanda Stoltzfus, Micah’s mamm, and his strong faith had kept the bishop from being ground down completely. Reuben was a shadow of the vibrant man he’d once been.

  Instead of asking the questions taunting him, Micah called through the open door on the driver’s side of his buggy, “Don’t you want to get out of the rain?”

  She nodded, biting her lower lip.

  For a moment, he wondered if he was wrong about her being Katie Kay Lapp. The Katie Kay he knew never had been abashed or quiet. Instead she’d had a quick retort and an easy laugh. This pale wraith might look like the woman he’d known, but where had her bright sparkle gone?

  He was being silly. The woman was Katie Kay Lapp. She was walking in the direction of Paradise Springs, where both her family and his lived.

  “Komm in,” he said as he reached across the buggy to open the passenger side door. He shut the one on his side while she hurried around the buggy. The rain was falling harder, and he didn’t want to get soaked before he reached home. He would have been there by now if he and his business partner, Sean Donnelly, hadn’t needed to meet with a new client tonight.

  He hoped he and Sean would get the job installing solar panels for a new client. Otherwise, it would have been a waste of an evening and a slow, cold ride home. Sean’s wife, Gemma, had asked Micah to stay at their house overnight, but he hadn’t wanted his family to worry when he didn’t return to the farm.

  And Katie Kay would have been left to walk along the road connecting Paradise Springs and Ronks in the heart of Lancaster County. He hadn’t seen another vehicle, other than a couple of cars driving at an unsafe speed along the twisting road. Certainly no buggies, because any person with sense would be inside on an inclement night.

  When Katie Kay climbed in and slid the door closed, she sat as far from him as possible in the small buggy. Which wasn’t very far. If they both put their hands on the seat between them, their fingers would overlap.

  As they used to when he took her home after a singing.

  That’s over and done with, he reminded himself. She’d made it clear the last time he took her home in his courting buggy that if he disappeared from the face of the earth, she’d be fine. Instead, she had gone away, jumping the fence to live with Englischers.

  She didn’t look at him or speak, but in the glow from the buggy’s lights, he saw she was shivering.

  “Here.” He stretched his arm behind the seat and pulled out a towel he kept among his tools. He used it when he washed up after a hot day of working on a roof while installing solar panels.

  “Thanks.” She hesitated as if he’d be upset her first word to him wasn’t in Deitsch, the language of the plain people, and he’d order her out of the buggy. Before he could ask why she acted like a beaten pup, she added in not much more than a whisper, “Danki.”

  “Sounds like you’ve gotten used to talking to your Englisch friends.”

  “They aren
’t my friends,” she snapped and then turned away to dry her dripping hair.

  At last! A glimpse of the self-assured Katie Kay, though he wished he hadn’t had to be irksome to get her to respond. When they’d first started walking out together, he’d admired that aspect of her. He’d thought then that she could be the special one for him. When she’d selected him from among her admirers, he’d believed it meant something. What a fool he’d been!

  Taking the reins, he slapped them on Rascal’s back. The horse was the same dark gray as the storm clouds overhead. Rascal stepped on the road. Micah didn’t need to convince him to a faster pace. The buggy horse was eager to get home and dry.

  Katie Kay didn’t say anything as they drove through the night. From the corner of his eye, he saw her squeezing water out of her hair and into the towel. She never glanced in his direction. He might as well have been invisible.

  He pulled on the left rein to turn Rascal onto the road to the Lapp farm. The horse resisted.

  “Let’s go, Rascal,” Micah said past clenched teeth. He couldn’t let his irritation with the woman beside him make him upset at the buggy horse. Rascal wanted to go right to reach his dry stable.

  A damp hand settled on his left arm. He hated the tingle erupting out from where Katie Kay touched him. After a year, she had the same effect on him. He was a bigger fool than he’d thought.

  “Go some other way,” she ordered. “Any other way.”

  “This is the fastest way to your house.”

  “No! You can’t take me home.”

  “Of course I’m taking you home.” He frowned. “Where else did you think I was taking you?”

  “I don’t care. Anywhere else.” Her voice broke, and her whisper was raw. “Just not home. Please, Micah. Don’t take me home.”

  He didn’t bother to hide his shock. What had happened to her? He’d never heard her beg anyone for anything.

  “You need to go home, Katie Kay. Your family has been beside themselves with worry about you. I’m taking you home.”