A Match for Addy
In Search of True LoveSpinster Addy Coblentz fears she'll never marry. So her parents hire the new matchmaker who's moved to their Amish community of Seven Poplars. But Addy doesn't just want a match. She wants love. While some of her potential suitors are perfectly fine, only one man catches her eye. Gideon Esch is everything Addy's looking for: strong, kind–and handsome. But he's only a poor hired hand who can never give her family the stability they want. With her future happiness at stake, will Addy follow the rules…or follow her heart?THE AMISH MATCHMAKER: Bringing love to Seven Poplars–one couple at a time!
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In Search of True Love
Spinster Addy Coblentz fears sheâll never marry. So her parents hire the new matchmaker whoâs moved to their Amish community of Seven Poplars. But Addy doesnât just want a match. She wants love. While some of her potential suitors are perfectly fine, only one man catches her eye. Gideon Esch is everything Addyâs looking for: strong, kindâand handsome. But heâs only a poor hired hand who can never give her family the stability they want. With her future happiness at stake, will Addy follow the rulesâ¦or follow her heart?
THE AMISH MATCHMAKER: Bringing love to Seven Poplarsâone couple at a time!
âYou canât walk home alone.â
Gideon caught her by the arm.
âStay away from me. Youâre jealous because a boy wants to walk out with me. No matter who it is, you find fault with them,â Addy sputtered. âEven the butcher. You did everything you could to show him up for a pompous fuddy-duddy.â
âHe was a pompous fuddy-duddy.â
âYou know what?â She started walking again. Fast. âThe trouble with you, Gideon Esch, is that you like me yourself. And youâre too much of a coward to admit it!â
âNe! Thatâs not it,â he protested, following her. âIâm just... Iâm looking out for you. You deserve better than that boy, who isnât old enough to grow a proper beard.â
âAt least heâs man enough to court a woman!â
That stopped him short in his shoes. âAddy...â
âAddy, nothing.â She stopped and turned back to him. âIf youâd be honest with yourself, youâd know that Iâm speaking the truth.â She started walking again. âIâm going home.â
Gideon could do nothing but watch her go.
He always tried to be honest. But could he be so now? Could he admit she was right?
EMMA MILLER lives quietly in her old farmhouse in rural Delaware. Fortunate enough to be born into a family of strong faith, she grew up on a dairy farm, surrounded by loving parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Emma was educated in local schools and once taught in an Amish schoolhouse. When sheâs not caring for her large family, reading and writing are her favorite pastimes.
Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful.
âSong of Solomon 1:15
Contents
Kent County, Delaware...June
Dorcas Coblentz walked at a brisk pace, eager to reach Sara Yoderâs farm. Today was going to be an exciting day; she could feel it. She just wished her mother hadnât insisted that she wear her church shoes to her new job. They were black leather oxfords, old-fashioned, heavy and exactly like the ones her grossmama wore. Dorcas understood the value of Plain shoes that would hold up to mud and rain, but these were more suited to a sixty-year-old woman than one less than half that age.
And they had rubbed a blister on the big toe of her left foot.
It didnât matter that they were the same size her mam had been buying for her since she was fourteen; this pair had never fit right. Dorcas had tried to explain the problem to her, but as long as she lived under her parentsâ roof, she would be allowed little choice in her own clothing. No one ever asked for her opinion on anything, and when she dared give it, she wasnât taken seriously. Martha and Reuben Coblentz believed that a girlâs parents should make decisions for her until she moved into her husbandâs home. Then it was his responsibility to make those decisions. What was funny about that idea was that, as far as she could tell, it was her mother who made all the decisions in their house.
Dorcas sighed as she walked along the wooded path between her parentsâ property and Saraâs. Dealing with her parents was becoming more and more frustrating. She should have been married years ago, like her pretty Yoder cousins. Then she would have had her own husband, household and children. It wasnât that she didnât love her parents or honor them, as the Bible told her she must. But every once in a while, Dorcas longed to have more independence. Almost as much as she longed for a beau.
That thought elicited another long sigh from Dorcas.
Sheâd just learned that chubby Barbara Beachy had a young man courting her, a man with his own horse and buggy. And Barbara was barely seventeen. Sunday, Barbara had confided in Dorcas that she should try prayer to find a husband. The thing was, Dorcas had been praying for one every night since she was fifteen. Maybe that was where she had made her mistake. Maybe it wasnât right to pray for a husband. Good health, rain, even patienceâshe could understand asking God for those things. But maybe bothering Him about a husband was irreverent. Maybe thatâs why sheâd never had a boy ask her to a singing, or even offer her a ride home from a frolic.
