“Oh, Daniel…!”
She pulled him close and his lips met hers. Their kiss deepened, and Miriam felt the whole world fall away. This man who had appeared in her life only a few short months before was her life, now. He loved her. He wanted to be the father of her children, of her unborn baby.
“Let her go!”
The sharp command echoed through the barn, causing the horses to stir restlessly.
Miriam jumped back, glancing over her shoulder but retaining her hold on Daniel’s arms.
“Caleb!”
“I said let her go!”
“Caleb, no!”
Miriam whirled to keep herself between the two men, though she felt Daniel’s grasp on her arms and knew he would push her behind him, if Caleb came too close.
“We trusted you!” Caleb snarled, glaring at Daniel in the dim light. “And now this!”
“Caleb, please!” Miriam pleaded. “You do not understand.”
“I said let her go!”
Caleb would have pulled her away, but Daniel blocked him.
“Leave her alone, Daniel commanded, ensuring that Miriam remained beyond Caleb’s reach.
Caleb glared at Daniel, fury evident in his gaze. “How dare you?”
Daniel took a step back from Caleb and extended his hand in an attempt to calm the man down. “Caleb, you have walked in on a private moment. This is between Miriam and me, and is none of your concern.”
“As my brother’s widow, Miriam is my sister, and I have every right and every intention to protect her!”
“Stop it! Both of you!” Miriam cried.
“She was my sister before she was yours, Caleb,” said another voice out of the darkness.
“Abram?” Miriam’s head was swimming.
“So why don’t you do something to stop this man?” Caleb snarled.
Abram’s voice was calm and even in the darkness. “Because I trust him.”
“How can you after finding them like this!”
“Because I trust her, too.”
Caleb threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “Then you are a fool!”
“I allowed her to marry Jacob, Caleb. Are you now going to question my judgment where my sister is concerned?”
Caleb glowered at Abram, and Miriam held her breath. Then the moment passed and Caleb let out a great huff of breath.
“No,” he said softly. “No, I am not. But Abram…”
“Daniel is a good man, Caleb,” Miriam said, breaking in, her voice calm once more, “and he loves me. He loves my children. He loves the child I am carrying.”
She saw the contrasting expressions on her brothers’ faces and realized instantly that Caleb hadn’t know until that moment that Miriam was expecting a child. She stepped away from Daniel to Caleb and laid a gentle hand on his arm. “Please believe in me, Caleb. I loved Jacob with all my heart, and a part of me always will. But I cannot go on alone. As much as I need all of you, I need Daniel even more.”
“Where will you live?” he asked after a moment, glaring at Daniel, clearly torn between his love for her and his loyalty to his brother’s memory.
“Wherever Miriam wants,” Daniel said.
Miriam reached back for his hand and squeezed it hard. “I once promised Rachel I would never take her grandchildren away.”
“Then if Shem and Rachel have no objections—or you, Caleb—we will live with them. It will be the best for everyone, but especially for your parents. Something tells me we are going to need that big sleeping loft in time.”
Abram snorted in amusement. Caleb narrowed his eyes, but the heat was gone from his glare.
“Will you trust me, Caleb?” Miriam asked in a soft voice. “Please?”
He looked down at her, and she saw him soften. He cupped her cheek in his palm then pulled her into an embrace. “You had best unsaddle your horse,” he growled softly at Daniel. “I have a feeling we will all be here for a while yet this evening.
Daniel nodded and turned to comply, slipping the saddle quickly from his horse’s back and dropping it on a waiting rack. By the time he turned back, Caleb had left the barn, but Abram waited with Miriam.
“Thank you,” he said to Miriam’s brother.
Abram smiled and held out his hand, and Daniel took it gratefully.
“Just do nothing to prove me wrong,” Abram said, the warning clear despite his smile.
Daniel glanced at Miriam and smiled.
“That will never happen.”
16
“You have a son!”
Hannah Stutzman, the midwife, held up the squalling infant, so Miriam could see him. tHannah laid him across Miriam’s belly while she cut the cord, and Miriam wept with happiness as she heard the lusty cry of her baby.
“He is a fine one,” Hannah said, taking him back long enough to wash him in the warm bath Rachel had waiting.
Miriam looked at Rachel and saw the older woman’s tears.
“We will call him ‘Jacob,’” Miriam whispered, and Rachel nodded mutely.
In another moment, Miriam cried out at a sharp, unexpected pain.
“You had better hold the babe,” Hannah said, handing little Jacob to Rachel and taking control of the situation. She looked under the apron to examine Miriam then smiled.
“Well, well, well,” she said. “It looks as though little Jacob was not alone in there!”
“What?”
Then it was happening again, and Miriam was once more drawn into the otherworld of life-affirming pain. Finally, with one last push, she felt the second babe slip from her womb.
“Ah, a little girl, this time!” Hannah said. “And is she not a beauty?”
Exhausted, Miriam could only stare in wonder. “Rachel,” she whispered.
She drifted off to sleep for a time, and when she awakened, she was back in bed, her gown clean, and her two babies—bathed and sweet-smelling—sleeping in the crooks of her arms. Rachel was lightly petting her arm, and her eyes were bright with happy tears.
“Daniel?” Miriam whispered.
“He is here,” Rachel assured her, stepping back to make room for the new father.
“Daniel…?”
“Miriam.” He stroked her hair as he took in the beautiful sight – one he’d feared he would never see – his wife and their newborn infants.
“There were two of them,” she said, her voice reflecting the wonder of the thing.
Daniel’s smile turned into a grin. “So I see. I told Caleb we would need that sleeping loft.”
“Are you happy?” she asked, wondering even as she did, how she could question that smile.
“I am very happy,” he told her, kissing her softly.
“I am glad,” she said. “I love you.”
She drifted off once more, so she did not hear his heart-felt reply.
Ruth's Story
"Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies." Proverbs 31:10
17
“Guder mariye, Ruth Miller!”
“Guder mariye, Frau Lapp! And how are you this fine day?”
“Very pleased the sun is shining,” Frau Lapp answered cheerfully. “My old bones do not ache nearly so much!”
Ruth laughed with the tiny elderly woman. At seventy-six, Elizabeth Lapp had been working in her husband’s Amish store ever since she was married more than fifty years before. A kind and generous woman, Elizabeth knew everyone and everything about the Amish community surrounding the town of Paradise, and she collected secrets and money alike while sitting on her stool behind the shop’s counter. Ruth had always liked Elizabeth, for she knew that although the older woman loved to know every detail in her customers’ lives, that she was never a gossip and that any secrets that you told Elizabeth would be safe.
“And how are the twins?” Frau Lapp asked.
“They are wonderful,” Ruth answered. Her eldest niece, Miriam, had given birth to twins in April, just nine short months after her husband had been killed in an accident. �
�Miriam’s mother-in-law tells me little Jacob is just like his papa was at the same age, and I see so much of Miriam in little Rachel.”
Frau Lapp laughed. “I remember Rachel and Shem bringing their Jacob into the store back before his brothers came along. Oh, he was an armful, that one, even as a tiny boy. I remember Miriam, too, at the same age,” she said, smiling at the memory. “Your brother and Leah never had to worry about Miriam touching anything, but she would wander everywhere, just looking and looking, as though she could find all the answers, if she simply looked closely enough.”
Ruth laughed. “And little Rachel seems to be just the same. She hardly ever cries, because she is too busy watching everything going on around her, and she has this way of looking into your eyes as though she can draw all the secrets of the universe out of you, if she just stares long enough.”
Frau Lapp chuckled. “They are so precious, are they not?”
“Indeed they are.”
“And how is Miriam’s new husband taking to fatherhood?” Frau Lapp asked, obviously digging for gossip.
Miriam’s new husband was Daniel Lantz, who had come to Paradise to start a new business raising and breeding horses with Seth, Miriam’s brother-in-law. Daniel, too, had been widowed but had never had children of his own.
“Daniel is the best of fathers to all the children. They call him ‘Papa Daniel,’ and he dotes on them. And oh, Frau Lapp, you should see his face when he holds one of the babies.” Ruth sighed, and her eyes sparkled with happy tears.
“It was like that for my granddaughter, Hannah’s, husband last summer, when he held their baby daughter for the first time.” Frau Lapp snorted softly. “Men pretend to be so distant from the children they have helped to make, but then they hold them, and it is as though God has knocked them over the head!”
The two women laughed together as the chime of the bell over the door announced the arrival of an English family in the store.
“Good morning!” Frau Lapp greeted them. “May I help you find something?”
“No, thank you,” the woman answered. “We’re just window shopping.”
“Well let me know if you need anything,” Frau Lapp called as she came out from behind the counter. “For you, Ruth, I have something special.” She took Ruth’s arm and led her back to the produce section.
“Blueberries!” Ruth exclaimed, reaching for a small carton of the ripened fruit. “I had not expected them for another week at least!” Ruth popped one of the berries in her mouth and savored its flavor. “You always remember that blueberries are my favorite!”
“John Barber brought them in this morning. He tells me this variety is ripening early because of the wonderful mix of rain, warm temperatures, and sunshine we have had this spring. He expects the season to be a very good one, too, because the blueberry bushes have all been covered in blooms.”
“Wonderful,” Ruth said reverently, inhaling the scent of the freshly-picked blueberries. “I will take these today and have Daniel ask Miriam if I can take the older children to pick blueberries soon.” Ruth placed the small square container in her shopping basket then added another along with some late strawberries and oranges from Florida, and then she went in search of poppy seeds for the dressing she envisioned for the fruit salad she’d make for dinner.
“I will leave you to your shopping,” Frau Lapp said, obviously pleased to provide a treat for her friend.
“Frau Lapp?” Ruth said, turning back from her poppy seed quest. “How is John Barber doing?”
The older woman sighed and smiled sadly. “He is having a very difficult time,” she said. “He is so lost without Joanna, and now that Martha has married and moved out, he is all alone in that big house, with too many hours alone. He is working too hard, too, and sleeping too little, I think. It will be good when people start coming to his farm to pick the blueberries. It will keep him busy and distracted.” Elizabeth paused and looked at Ruth. “You were so close to Joanna, I am surprised that you haven’t been to visit John.”
Ruth and Joanna had been friends since they were both little girls, though Ruth had never spent much time talking to John. He had always been so busy with the farm that most of the lovely afternoons Ruth had spent at the Barber farm had been just the two women, at least after the children had grown. When Joanna had passed away of a heart condition in the spring, Ruth had been heartbroken to lose her closest friend. She had attended the viewing to share in the family’s grief, but Ruth had been reluctant to approach John, thinking that her close friendship with Joanna might make his grief even harder to bear. Since the funeral, she had seen him around town on occasion and worried that he had not looked like himself.
“Elizabeth, I just didn’t have the heart to go over there. I miss Joanna something awful, and though I know John must miss her too, it all just makes me so sad. Now I feel bad for not having checked on the poor man. I will make a point to speak to him when we go pick blueberries.”
“His daughters and grandchildren will be helping with the blueberry picking, I imagine, so things will be better for him in the coming weeks,” Frau Lapp said. “You should go to see him, too, Ruth. Take your nieces and their children. I am sure he will be happy to see you, someone who loved Joanna as much as he did.”
“I will do that,” Ruth promised.
Frau Lapp headed back to the front counter to help the English family, who had decided to buy something after all, and Ruth turned back to her shopping. As she finished up collecting the things she needed for dinner, Ruth scolded herself for having selfishly avoided John. Ruth missed Joanna, but John had lost his wife, his partner, and Ruth should have been big enough to visit and see if there was anything she could to do make things easier for John. She resolved to visit right away, and she smiled as she thought about all of the things she would bake with her blueberries.
***
The Lapp’s store had become crowded by the time Ruth was ready to leave, so there had been no more time to chat with Frau Lapp. Ruth’s basket was heavy as she stepped out onto the sidewalk and headed toward the lot where her brother had parked their horse and buggy. She was just passing the flower beds beside the store when she heard a half-familiar voice from behind her, as if a voice had spoken her name decades ago and sent it ahead in time.
“Ruth? Ruth Miller?”
Ruth turned back and gasped in shock as her mouth fell open. It cannot be…
“Thomas?” Ruth’s voice was nothing more than a whisper.
The man smiled when she recognized him and took several long strides toward her. “I’ve often wondered if you’d remember me. It’s been a long time.”
How could I ever forget you? Ruth wanted to shout but managed, with great effort, to keep her voice level. “More than twenty-five years,” she answered, slowly shaking her head at the notion of Thomas standing on the street in front of her.
Ruth’s shopping basket suddenly felt much heavier than it had only a moment before, and she moved to set it gently on the ground at her feet. She looked up from her basket and looked at Thomas in wonder. “What are you doing here?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady.
Thomas stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged as if he were the same nervous young man that Ruth had known decades ago. Ruth recognized the behavior and realized that Thomas was just as surprised by this unexpected meeting as she.
Thomas looked at Ruth, taking in the differences between the woman who stood before him and the girl he had known and loved all those years ago. Realizing that he was flat-out staring, Thomas cleared his throat and answered Ruth’s question.
“We – that is my wife, Katherine, and I decided that the time was right to talk to our children about my Amish past. My daughter was looking through all our old photo albums the other day, and she realized for the first time that there aren’t any pictures of me before my wedding. She was curious, and I realized it was time I tell my kids about my Amish roots. I had no reason to withhold the truth.”
“You ke
pt it a secret all this time?” Ruth wondered why that surprised her.
“Katherine—my wife—she knew, as did her parents, of course. Her dad’s the one who hired me right off the farm and later mentored me in the family business. We just didn’t think it was all that important for the kids to know, but then we realized that maybe we were wrong.”
“Katherine and your children are here with you?”
“They’re getting ice cream in Peterson’s,” he answered, referring to the ice cream shop across the street that was a favorite summer tourist haunt. “I thought I saw you go into Lapp’s store, but I wasn’t certain it was you.”
Ruth wondered how much time they had, before the rest of the family joined them out on the street.
“You must be married and have a family of your own now,” Thomas said, gesturing to her loaded shopping basket.
Ruth shook her head. “No. Well, not exactly. I never married, but my life has been full of family,” she answered with a smile.
“No? You never married?” Thomas looked genuinely shocked.
“My sister-in-law, Leah—do you remember Leah?”
Thomas nodded.
“She died after giving birth to her fourth child, and I moved in with Ezra raise the children.”
“That must have been tough. I know how much you always wanted your own kids.”
“Ezra’s children are my own,” she told him, smiling again. “I could not love them more, had I borne them.”
Thomas returned her smile. “I can picture that.”
They were silent for an awkward moment and Thomas and Ruth looked everywhere but at one another, trying to avoid bringing up their shared history and all they had known of one another all those years ago. Remembering the circumstances under which Thomas had left the Amish community, Ruth wondered about his plans while he was in town. She remembered the ordeal of sitting through the elders’ decision to shun Thomas for having left to live among the English.
Romance In Amish Country Series Boxed Set: 1-3 Naomi's Story; Miriam's Story; Ruth's Story Page 10
