Free An Amish Country Christmas by Naomi Charlotte; King Hubbard Page B

thought I was with Martha last night, it was really Mary.”
    He went out the back kitchen door toward the stable then, relieved that none of the
     Coblentzes followed—and not surprised that Bram didn’t join him. This was his own
     issue to deal with, after all, not his brother’s. When he hitched Clyde to his new
     sleigh, he tossed the harness strap with the bells under his seat, so their merry
     jingle wouldn’t mock him the whole way home. With a last glance at the cozy white
     house and the smoke curling out of its stone chimney, Nate sighed.
    “Let’s go, Clyde,” he said sadly. “Just you and me, buddy.”

Chapter Eight
    “So what’s this I’m hearing, girls?” Amos asked in a low voice. He looked steadily
     at his two older daughters as they sat with their heads bowed. “Is it true, what Nate
     said? Did you mislead your guests about which one of you was Mary and which one was
     Martha?”
    Bram sat silently, not looking at the twins in their moment of truth. It wasn’t his
     place to stick up for them, or to interfere in this conversation. And what would he
     say? Would he appear stupid if he admitted he hadn’t noticed the difference last night?
     Would these folks—or his brother—think him disloyal if he didn’t follow Nate back
     to Willow Ridge? Owen, Noah, and the younger twins remained quiet as they watched
     this discussion with interest, but Nell’s expression had lost its Christmas morning
     cheer.
    “Answer your dat ,” she said. “We’ll not eat until we’ve gotten the whole story.”
    The twin across from him cleared her throat. “ Jah , we did that,” she said in a tiny voice.
    “But only after we heard Nate and Bram telling each other some mighty tall tales about
     their dates with us on Friday night,” her sister blurted.
    Bram’s face prickled with heat. He and Nate had engaged in some brotherly bragging . . .
    “So you’re also saying you eavesdropped on their conversation?” Amos asked tersely.
     “Put a glass against the wall of their room, did you?”
    When he peered from beneath his eyelashes, Bram saw how the girls’ faces were nearly
     the same red as their Christmas dresses. Down the table he heard fidgeting and a snicker.
    “Oh, but you’re gonna get it now,” Joanna murmured.
    “That’ll be enough out of you, missy,” Nell declared quietly. “Girls? We need to hear
     you say it out, what you did, so we’ll all know what you’ll be asking Bram to forgive
     you for. You should be ashamed, treating your company that way.”
    “Thought we had this discussion about your fooling folks enough times when you were
     wee girls to get that out of your systems,” their father went on sternly. “It’s not
     a topic meant for our Savior’s birthday, either, but I won’t have this cloud hanging
     over our heads until tomorrow.”
    The redhead across the table looked at Bram with tear-filled eyes. “I—I’m sorry I
     pretended to be Mary yesterday,” she stammered.
    “Switching places on you boys was a low-down trick,” her sister agreed woefully, “and
     listening in on your chat with Nate wasn’t one of our finer ideas, either. We’re really
     sorry, Bram—”
    “And we feel awful about hurting Nate’s feelings.”
    “—and if you want to go home, too, well, I can’t say as I’d blame you. I hope you
     can—”
    “Forgive us?”
    “Forgive us?”
    Bram let out the breath he’d been holding, not sure he’d kept accurate track of who
     had said what. “ Jah , apology accepted. Nate’s leery of girls right now, after the way he thought he was
     gettin’ married and Roberta gave him the slip. But, um . . .” He paused, hoping for
     the right words. “Those tall tales you heard were just a guy thing. Not meant to upset
     you, see.”
    “And we didn’t swap places to hurt your feelings, either,” Mary insisted as she wiped
     away tears. “We just, well—”
    “We each wanted to find out if we were better suited to the other