Naomi's Hope

by Jan Drexler

  The rider gathered the reins in his hand and turned to mount.

  “Wait,” Naomi said. “You don’t need to leave so quickly. Come with us, and we’ll fix some supper for both of you.”

  “Johnny, come meet my grossdatti. Remember? I told you he’d let you stay with us.”

  Cap took a step closer. “You don’t have to go back to the bandits, do you? Why don’t you come home?”

  Johnny looked at Cap for a long minute, his foot in the stirrup and his hands on the saddle. “I can’t. I’ve turned too far away.” His voice was muffled, strained.

  Naomi looked from Johnny to Cap. Bandits? They were talking as if she had come into the middle of a conversation.

  Cap took a step toward him. “You can always come home. At least have some supper. Stay the night. Decide in the morning.”

  Johnny cleared his throat. “You’re sure you want me?”

  Cap nodded. “Of course. You don’t fit in with the Smith gang, do you?”

  “But will I fit in here?”

  “Come and see.”

  Naomi took Davey’s hand until they reached the edge of the woods at Daed’s farm, then he ran to the house. It was dark and the family was sleeping, but they wouldn’t mind being awakened by this news.

  As Naomi and Cap came into the kitchen, with Johnny behind them, Davey ran to the bedroom door and knocked. Cap lit the lantern in the middle of the table while they waited.

  Davey knocked again. “Grossmutti! Grossdatti! Come out!”

  Mamm rushed out, her hair hanging down in a braid. “Davey. Our Davey is home.” She folded him in her arms as Daed joined her.

  Henry clattered down the ladder. “Davey is here?” He looked from Naomi to Cap, and then caught sight of Johnny. “Daed, we have a visitor.”

  Daed walked into the kitchen where Johnny stood next to the door, his ragged hat twisting in his hands. Daed didn’t hesitate, but held out his hand. “Welcome to our home. My name is Eli Schrock.”

  Davey ran over and grabbed Johnny’s other arm. “He brought me home, Grossdatti. This is John—”

  “Hans,” Johnny interrupted. “My name is Hans Borntreger, from Holmes County.”

  Daed grinned as Naomi held Davey close again. “Welcome, Hans. We are grateful to you for bringing our boy home.”

  Naomi squeezed Davey, ignoring his protests. Cap circled both of them in his arms and pulled them close. He bent his head to whisper in her ear.

  “He’s home. Everything we have hoped and prayed for has come to pass.”

  She smiled as she looked into his eyes. “Everything.”

  Epilogue

  OCTOBER 1846

  Naomi set the basket of rolls on the table Cap and Henry had put together the day before and looked around Cap’s farm. Men from both parts of the district were hard at work already, framing the walls of the new barn as Daed set the ridgepole.

  Davey set his basket next to hers. “Is Crow Flies here?”

  The old Pottawatomie had returned to his winter camp the week before, and Davey had invited him to the barn raising.

  “I don’t see him. Maybe he’s coming later.”

  Davey tugged at her sleeve. “Then can I go play now?”

  “Instead of playing, why don’t you go see what William and Mose and the other boys are doing to help?” She turned Davey’s shoulders so he could see the work site. “See? There is Mose, helping Hans carry a board. You can do the same with Cap.”

  “Can I?” His blue eyes sparkled and Naomi hugged him. He had grown tall over the summer and his head was nearly up to her shoulder.

  “Ja, for sure.”

  He took off and Naomi heard laughter behind her. It was Mattie, walking beside Hannah as she made her way to the table. Hannah definitely had a waddle in her step.

  “He is in a hurry, for sure,” Mattie said.

  “Isn’t he always?” Naomi pulled a bench out from the table for them.

  When they had taken their seats, Naomi leaned close to Hannah. “When did you say you expect this baby?”

  Hannah rubbed her swollen stomach. “Any day now, but I couldn’t miss Cap’s barn raising. I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since Jacob and Cap started organizing it.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” Mattie said. She bit her lip and laid her hand on her own stomach. She had confided to Naomi two weeks ago that she thought another little one might be making his appearance in the spring, and she was feeling the same all-day illness that she had with her first.

  Naomi didn’t answer but watched the men hammer nails into the newly sawn boards. Cap had made the trip back to Ohio last month to retrieve the proceeds from the sale of his Ohio farm from his brother-in-law, and had invested most of the money in lumber for the barn and improvements for the house. He had also purchased some more ewes from a farmer in Holmes County who raised Leicestershire Longwools to strengthen their flock and Jacob’s. But the most exciting purchase, as far as Davey was concerned, was a pony, already broken to pull a cart.

  “I was so happy for you when Preacher Abe announced your coming wedding in church on Sunday.” Mattie smiled, in spite of her pale face. “I just knew you and Cap were going to get married one day.”

  “Only a couple more weeks.” Naomi couldn’t help but watch Cap as he swung his hammer.

  Hannah nudged her. “You must think Cap is pretty special.”

  Naomi rested her chin in the heel of one hand. “Ja.” He was coaching Davey on how to hold a nail with one hand and manage the heavy hammer with the other. “Ja, he’s pretty special.”

  Mattie and Hannah giggled and Naomi felt her face turning red. “I remember you, Mattie, going all moony over Jacob a few years ago.”

  Her sister glanced at Jacob, working alongside Hans Borntreger. “Ja, well, he was worth being moony over.”

  They all watched the building until Hannah sighed and Naomi and Mattie turned to her.

  “I was just thinking. Our children”—she waved her hand toward the dozen or so little ones and the older boys and girls like Davey—“will all grow up together here in Pleasant Prairie. Just think what it will be like twenty years from now.”

  Mattie smiled. “Henry will be married by then, with his own family.”

  “All of these children could be marrying and setting up housekeeping for themselves by then,” Hannah said. “Even my own James and Maria.”

  “I wonder what kind of man Davey will be by then,” Naomi said.

  Hannah squeezed her hand. “With a father like Cap, he will be a fine young man. The father of his own family.”

  “Each of them will need their own farms.” Mattie looked at the trees all around them. “And more trees will be cleared.”

  “Josef said that the county is planning to improve the roads, and build schools.”

  Naomi shook her head. “As long as the progress doesn’t happen too fast.”

  “I know one thing, though,” Mattie said. “It will be everything we have hoped for, and more.”

  When dinner was ready, the men took a break from their work and the whole community gathered together to pray. Cap found Naomi and stood near her. Christian Yoder, with Annalise and their younger children beside them, prayed for the meal, for the safety of the workers, and for blessings for the barn that was being built.

  “And Lord, as we have many times before, we give thanks to you for bringing us to this full and fruitful land. A land that sustains us through your blessing, and will continue to sustain our families for years into the future.”

  Cap slid his arm around Naomi’s waist and drew her close.

  “We thank thee, and give thee all of the glory. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.”

  The men formed into a line for their food, but Cap took Naomi’s hand and led her toward the barn. “Come see what we did this morning.”

  “I was watching you. You’ve made a lot of progress.”

  He drew her into the interior of the barn. Walls had been built part
of the way up on three sides, providing a secluded spot for a few minutes. He put his arms around her and kissed her cheek.

  “How many more weeks do we have to wait?”

  Naomi snuggled close to him. “Only two. Two weeks from Thursday.”

  “And then you’ll be my wife. My very own.”

  He leaned his forehead against hers and she gazed into his golden brown eyes. Cap was more than she had ever hoped to find. He was her friend, her partner, and soon to be her husband. She lifted up her lips and kissed him.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  At the sound of Davey’s voice, Naomi pushed away from Cap. She could feel her ears burning.

  Cap held out a hand to Davey and he joined them in the corner of the barn. “What do you think we were doing?”

  “I saw you.” Davey crossed his arms and frowned. “You were kissing.”

  Cap shrugged. “That’s what mamms and daeds do. They kiss.”

  “When you get married, you’ll be my real daed, right?”

  Naomi grasped Cap’s hand. “That’s right. Cap will be your real daed.”

  “Not pretend anymore.”

  Cap grinned. “Ne, Davey. Not pretend anymore. When I marry your memmi, we’ll be a whole family.”

  “When do I get brothers and sisters?”

  Naomi ducked her head to hide her laugh, waiting to see how Cap was going to answer this question.

  He pulled Davey into a hug. “We’ll leave that up to God, all right?”

  Davey nodded. “Ja, for sure.”

  Author’s Note

  Arriving at the last book in a trilogy is just as bittersweet for an author as it is for a reader. I hope you feel the way I do, that you aren’t quite ready to leave the world of Pleasant Prairie.

  The events in this story are based on facts, with a lot of literary license employed. The Amish settlement in northern Indiana did have its problems in the 1840s. The two halves of the district were divided by the swampy area around the two forks of the Little Elkhart River and traveling from one end of the district to the other was difficult.

  Added to that is the fact that the Amish didn’t drive buggies on the Sabbath in those early days. Modern Amish have both buggy horses and work horses, but one hundred seventy years ago, they would have had only one team. The Sabbath was a day of rest for the horses as well as the farmers, so the families walked to church. The long distances they needed to travel on some Sundays (as much as five miles one way) was a strain on the members of the community.

  Another factor that the early Amish settlers in northern Indiana dealt with was the slight doctrinal differences between the families who had come from Pennsylvania and the families who had come from Ohio. The tensions between the tradition-minded settlers (generally from Pennsylvania) and the change-minded settlers (mostly from Ohio) of the church were a microcosm of the unrest throughout the Amish church at this time, leading to a division in the denomination in the second half of the nineteenth century.

  There was a temporary split in the northern Indiana church in the late 1840s, but no one is quite clear on what caused it. Shem Fischer, the instigator of the split in my story, is a creation out of my own imagination. His role in the split is what might have happened—always the case in a work of fiction.

  Thank you for reading Naomi’s Hope. I hope you enjoyed her story!

  And I love to hear from readers. You can contact me through my website, www.JanDrexler.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JanDrexlerAuthor.

  Acknowledgments

  The more books I write, the more I am indebted to all the people “behind the scenes.” Without them, we would have no stories to read!

  Thank you to my agent, Sarah Joy Freese of WordServe Literary. Your encouragement always comes at the right time.

  Thank you to the editors at Revell who keep me on my toes when life gets chaotic—Vicki Crumpton, Barb Barnes, and many others who make sure all of the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed.

  Thank you to the publicity and marketing people at Revell and Baker who get the word out so well. Karen Steele and Michele Misiak are tireless in their work!

  And a big thank-you to our daughter and new son-in-law, Carrie and Josh, who scheduled their wedding with the deadline for Naomi’s Hope in mind. I so appreciate it!

  Jan Drexler brings a unique understanding of Amish traditions and beliefs to her writing. Her ancestors were among the first Amish, Mennonite, and Brethren immigrants to Pennsylvania in the 1700s, and their experiences are the inspiration for her stories. Jan lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband of more than thirty-five years, where she enjoys hiking in the Hills and spending time with their expanding family.

  Other Books by Jan Drexler

  Hannah’s Choice

  Mattie’s Pledge

  www.jandrexler.com

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