Amish Mayhem (PAPERBACK)

Chapter 1.
Cherish couldn't believe it. She looked down at the paper in her hands. 
It was her father’s will. 
She had never known of its existence. If she or her sisters had known about it, things in their lives would’ve been very different. 
This meant Wilma, their mother, was a dreadful person. She had known about the will. She had to have, since it had been stored in her special box. 
With the will firmly under her arm, Cherish flung open the front door of the house and with Caramel, her beloved dog, beside her, she headed into the orchard without closing the door behind her. 
Things like closing doors and behaving properly didn’t matter anymore. Not to Cherish. Not since realizing her mother had done this. There was only one thing she cared about right now and that was setting things right—the way they should’ve been. 
She looked down at Caramel trotting beside her as she stomped away from the house. “I've got to right the wrongs done by Mamm, Caramel. The orchard should've been Florence’s all the way along. Everybody knew it. Even Florence felt it in her heart that it should've been hers, I know she did. Florence didn't need to leave it at all when she fell in love. Not really, because everything was hers all along. Well, it should've been—she just didn’t know it. Now she’s about to find out.”
Caramel, panting and smiling his dog-smile with his tongue hanging out one side of his mouth, kept up with his owner’s fast strides.
Cherish didn't know much about the legal implications of wills, but she was sure that having been named as executor, her mother was under some kind of obligation or duty to carry out the will to the letter. But the further Cherish walked, the sicker she felt. She didn’t want to make an error in judgment and cause her mother and the whole family stress. 
Cherish slowed her pace, and then settled herself to sit under one of the apple trees. With her full dress and her apron spread over her knees, she unfolded the will to read it again. This time, more carefully. Her mother always said she charged at things like a bull before thinking. 
Perhaps she'd read it incorrectly, or missed something.
Caramel sat down beside her placing his head in her lap. 
Cherish blinked a couple of times and then started reading from the top. 
It was written fairly plainly with little legal jargon. It still said what she thought it had. 
The entirety of the orchard was left to Florence with the rest of the family to have a home there in the large house for the rest of their days. She read it through once, and she read it again from beginning to end. 
It still said the same thing. Not a word about Wilma, only to name her as executor. 
Cherish double-checked the date. 
The will was made about a year before Dat died.
Looking out across the peaceful orchard with no one about, Cherish rested her head back on the tree trunk. She knew why Florence felt like she did about the place. The orchard was like a living and breathing thing.
It pained Cherish that her mother was such a disappointment. Old people were supposed to be honest and law-abiding, especially parents.
Yet, why did her mother hold everyone to such a high standard when she obviously had no standards of her own?
Cherish folded the will once more as she remembered all the times that Mamm had labeled her uncontrollable. She’d been packed off to Aunt Dagmar’s farm on the other side of the world as punishment for a series of wrongdoings. Well, it wasn't exactly the other side of the world, but that was what it had felt like when they were sending her there as punishment. 
The more Cherish thought about it, the more she felt all the adults in her life weren’t up to standard. They’d all let her down. Her father had died way too young, her mother had married Levi—that was a disappointment and a half. And, Florence had left her and her sisters to run away to marry Carter.
Not that she blamed Florence too much. She would’ve done exactly the same given half a chance. She was sure her father couldn’t help dying, but the feelings in Cherish’s heart were ones of abandonment. She’d felt like an orphan when he died, and those feelings had echoed once more to haunt her when Florence had left. 
Cherish groaned, disturbing her dog who looked up at her. 
Cherish patted him on the head. “It’s okay. I’m okay. No one’s to blame for what they’ve done, but even so, they’ve all let me down. That’s how it feels. There’s no one who’s always there for me. Aunt Dagmar was, but now she’s gone too. You’re the only one who loves me, Caramel.”
Caramel put his head back down in her lap and she smoothed her hand over his soft head. 
“When I’m officially an adult, I’ll do what I want to do. Live how I want. I wonder if I'm doing the right thing giving this will to Florence? The will did say to give us a home, but it said nothing of Levi because Mamm hadn't married him back then, of course, because Dat was still alive.”
She looked across at the dappled light falling through the leaves of the apple trees. 
“Now Levi thinks he owns the land by the way he talks. I didn't find anything amongst their papers to say Levi was the owner. There was no deed, no contract, no paperwork. So Levi must talk as if he owns that because he's a man and he thinks he owns everything that his fraa owns, but he doesn't. He doesn't own the orchard. But he might as well because he makes all the decisions.”
She scratched her back where some bark was sticking into her and irritating her skin. 
“Except he allowed me to make that decision regarding when to start the harvest. Maybe Levi’s not so bad. He’s also giving Joy and Isaac his house to live in. That was nice.”
Cherish remembered how horrible it had been when her mother first married Levi. He and Mamm didn’t get along at all at first, and Levi even complained to the bishop about Wilma. 
Perhaps he’d seen Wilma’s true colors. Cherish stared at the document in her hands. Had Levi seen Wilma’s muddy and murky colors that she was just starting to see? 
Looking up at the sky once more, Cherish wondered if her father knew what was going on. Did he know that Wilma had pushed aside his will and left it forgotten in a box on the top shelf of her closet? In her heart, Cherish knew she’d found it for a reason.
“We have to get this will to Florence.” She stood up and just as she was about to walk toward the cottage where her half-sister lived, she spotted Morgan, one of their horses. He was out of the barnyard and chewing on one of the apple trees. 
This wasn’t good.
The horses were kept in large barnyards and pastures, with plenty of room to graze and move about. They had their stalls too, where they could sleep or hide from unpleasant weather. Sometimes all they wanted was to figure out how to get on the other side of their fence so they could munch on the apples.
She pushed the will down the front of her apron and set off to get Morgan back in his barnyard. Firstly, she needed some rope. The horse wasn’t going to follow her, or do what he was told, willingly. That, she knew from past experience. What she needed was a rope or a lead. She ran to the barn, and the first thing she spotted was a discarded length of twine, used to hold the bales of hay together. It was a good length, plenty for what she needed. She hurried through to the back of the barn into one of the stalls that led out into the barnyard. 
Then she saw the spot where Morgan had gotten out. The top rail had been pushed down and he’d stepped high over the bottom railings. 
With Caramel following her, she got to the broken fence, climbed over it and headed to Morgan. “Come here, boy.”
He didn’t even look around. She was able to pat his shoulder, and then slip the twine around his neck. “Let’s go.” She moved him away from the tree, and then he walked alongside her as she led him back through the front gate and into his section of the barnyard. 
Then Cherish walked to the fence and, using the same twine she’d used on the horse, she tied the fence rail back up. It would do for a day or two until she came back to hammer it in place. She couldn’t do it now because she had to get the will to Florence. 
Cherish looked around for Caramel in time to see Morgan kick out at him. Now Cherish was confused. Morgan was normally a calm horse and he seemed spooked. 
She walked over to check he had enough water in the trough and just as she did so, she tripped on a rock and fell on the ground. Fortunately, she was able to break her fall with her hands. 
When she pushed herself up, she noticed part of the ground was wet. Now she had mud on her. “Botheration.” That was something her Aunt Dagmar always used to say. She couldn’t even brush it off because she’d have dirty hands when she touched the will. 
Her heart nearly stopped when she remembered the will. 
She gasped and looked down at the front of her apron hoping it wasn’t soiled. 
It was gone.
Looking around, she saw it wasn’t in the barnyard. She ran back to retrace her steps. 
It had to be somewhere!
Then she saw it near where Morgan had been eating. It must’ve slipped out when she was busy trying to get him back. 
She reached down to grab it just as a gust of wind swept it out of her reach. “Botheration.” Cherish watched her father’s will get swept up into the air like a dried-out leaf. 
It was odd that it did that.
Was someone angry? Was it her father, or God? 
Then it landed on the ground. She ran for it, and made a lunge, but again, it moved on. From there, it tumbled away from her, taunting her by doing summersaults. 
She had to get it. 
If it got lost or blew away, no one would believe that it ever existed. Her mother certainly would deny its very existence. 
Cherish made one more effort and threw herself onto it. Her body landed with a thud onto the hard ground and just as the wind picked up again, she grabbed the will by its corner. 
She had it. 
Holding the important document in the air so it wouldn’t soil, she scrambled to her feet. Then she ran through the orchard to Carter and Florence’s house next door before anything else happened to stop her. 
Relief washed over her when she slipped through the barbed wire fence that separated the two properties. 
She was nearly there.
Their car was parked close to the house, and that meant they were home. She’d give them the will and she’d no longer be responsible for it. 
With the important document held out at arm's-length and with Caramel beside her, Cherish ran the rest of the way to Florence's house. She took a giant leap up the porch steps and landed with a thud on the boards. 
To her shock, her foot went straight through the old boards. 
She called out in fright as she tried to pull her foot out of the hole she’d just made. Caramel turned and ran.
Just as she was in the most unladylike position with her legs outspread, grabbing at her foot, Florence opened the door. 
The will was the last thing on Cherish’s mind at that moment. 
“Oh no!” Florence yelled out. “Carter,” she called over her shoulder. “Come quick and help Cherish.”
Just as Cherish pulled her foot back out, Carter appeared. 
Now they both stood looking down at her. 
“I’m so sorry,” Carter said, looking in horror at the damage. He then lifted Cherish to her feet. “Are you okay? Is your leg all right?”
She looked down at her foot and moved it all about. “I’m fine, I think.”
“Good. I’ve been meaning to do something about the boards with wood rot. I didn’t know they were that bad.”
“No real harm done. Just a couple of scratches.” Cherish looked around for the will. It had fallen beside her. She leaned down and picked it up. “I found something very interesting. You've got to see this.”
Florence looked at her apron. “What happened to you?”
“I was just wondering the same,” Carter said. “You can’t have got that dirty from falling through the porch.”
Cherish shook the paper in her hand. “This got away from me, and the horse getting out didn’t help either. I nearly lost this because it tried to get away from me. Or it could've been Gott or Dat.” From the looks on Florence and Carter’s faces, they had no idea what she was talking about. 
Florence tried to get a better look at the paper she was swishing about in the air. “What are you talking about, Cherish?” 
“Dat's will. This is it, his will.” She held it out proudly. 
“Dat didn't leave a will.”
“That's where you're wrong. He did and this is it.” She continued to hold the will out to Florence feeling relieved she had gotten it there all in one piece and without getting any dirt on it—well, maybe just a little bit on the one corner.
“Let's go inside,” said Carter, "and then we’ll be able to hear Iris if she wakes.”
As soon as they got through the front door, Florence stood there and unfolded the paper. Her eyes traveled up and down and then she looked up at Carter. 
“What does it say?” he asked.
“This really is my father's will. I never knew about it. No one said a thing.” As she handed it over to Carter, she continued, “It says I'm to be left the orchard. Me and me alone.”
Everyone was quiet while Carter read it through. He looked up. “How did you come across this, Cherish?”
“It was in amongst Mamm’s paperwork in her room.”
Florence frowned at her. “What were you doing going through Wilma’s things?”
“It was just getting to me that everyone was talking about the orchard as if Levi owned it and I wondered if he did. I thought that if he did, there’d be some paperwork proving it. That's all I was looking for and I didn't find one thing mentioning it. Then I realized he talks as though he owns it because his wife owns it, so naturally he thinks he's in charge.” 
Florence’s face drained of color and she moved to sit down on the couch. With her hand on her head, she said, “I can't believe this. If this is real, it was supposed to be mine.”
“Maybe it’s not too late,” Cherish chirped.
Florence looked up at Carter. “What should we do? Can we take this to a lawyer since Wilma has ignored it? Because that’s what it seems like she’s done.”
Carter sat down next to Florence and put his arm around her. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s leave things be. So much time has passed since your father has died and so many things have happened.”
“It does matter,” Florence snapped. “I want my orchard. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

THE AMISH BONNET SISTERS

Book 1 Amish Mercy

Book 2 Amish Honor

Book 3 A Simple Kiss

Book 4 Amish Joy

Book 5 Amish Family Secrets

Book 6 The Englisher

Book 7 Missing Florence

Book 8 Their Amish Stepfather

Book 9 A Baby For Florence

Book 10 Amish Bliss

Book 11 Amish Apple Harvest

Book 12 Amish Mayhem

Book 13 The Cost of Lies

Book 14 Amish Winter of Hope

Book 15 A Baby For Joy

Book 16 The Amish Meddler

Book 17 The Unsuitable Amish Bride

Book 18 Her Amish Farm

Book 19 The Unsuitable Amish Wedding

Book 20 Her Amish Secret

Book 21 Amish Harvest Mayhem

Book 22 Amish Family Quilt

Book 23 Hope's Amish Wedding

Book 24 A Heart of Hope

Book 25 A Season for Change

Book 26 Amish Farm Mayhem

Book 27 The Stolen Amish Wedding

Book 28 A Season for Second Chances

Book 29 A Change of Heart

Book 30 The Last Wedding

Book 31 Starting Over

Book 32 Love and Cherish

Book 33 Amish Neighbors

Book 34 Her Amish Quilt

Book 35 A Home of Their Own

Book 36 A Chance for Love

Book 37 Her Amish Wish

Book 38 Amish Harvest Time

Book 39 Whispers of Change

Book 40 Her Hopeful Heart

Book 41 Return to Love's Promise

Book 42 Amish Circle of Blessings