Lydia's Hope
Page 1
PRAISE FOR THE PLEASANT VALLEY NOVELS
Hannah’s Joy
“An enjoyable Mennonite romance starring two fascinating individuals . . . Fans will enjoy this warm tale of love and belonging.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“Amish book lovers . . . you are ferhoodled if you don’t go out and pick up a copy of Hannah’s Joy RIGHT NOW!”
—The Mary Reader
“Refreshing.”
—Romance Novel News
“The characters in this book are great . . . As usual, I loved my visit to Pleasant Valley.”
—Night Owl Reviews
Katie’s Way
“Superb . . . Magnificent Marta Perry provides another engaging Pleasant Valley tale.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
“Katie’s Way stands alone, but readers will love . . . all of the novels in the order they were published . . . Great characters and a bit of mystery . . . A delightful novel!”
—Romance Reviews Today
“A great story of friendship, second chances, and faith . . . Wonderful.”
—Reviews from the Heart
“While this is a love story, it’s also a very complex story . . . I highly recommend this book and this series to anyone who loves Amish romances.”
—Night Owl Reviews
Sarah’s Gift
“Perry’s fourth Pleasant Valley book places her well-rounded characters in a sweet, entertaining romance.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Perry’s narrative keeps a nice pace as things develop credibly . . . between Aaron and Sarah; the legal challenge makes for more than merely romantic tension. Minor characters are also clearly sketched and differentiated.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The latest Pleasant Valley inspirational Amish romance is a superb contemporary that focuses on the role of a midwife in modern America . . . Another powerful Pleasant Valley tale.”
—Genre Go Round Reviews
Anna’s Return
“Those who enjoyed the first two series titles will eagerly await this third entry, which does not disappoint. It will also appeal to fans of Amy Clipston and Shelley Shepard Gray.”
—Library Journal
“Perry crafts characters with compassion yet with insecurities that make them relatable.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A story of forgiveness, redemption, and mistaken ideas . . . Full of wonderful characters . . . A wonderful book!”
—Romance Reviews Today
“In today’s fast-paced society, it’s a joy to sit back and enjoy a book that can combine romance, faith, and a bit of a thriller . . . I look forward to reading more of Ms. Perry’s books.”
—Night Owl Reviews
Rachel’s Garden
“Sure to appeal to fans of Beverly Lewis.”
—Library Journal
“A large part of the pleasure of this book is in watching Rachel be Amish, as she sells snapdragons and pansies to both Amish and ‘English’ at an outdoor market, taking in snatches of Pennsylvania Dutch.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Leah’s Choice
“What a joy it is to read Marta Perry’s novels! Leah’s Choice has everything a reader could want—strong, well-defined characters; beautiful, realistic settings; and a thought-provoking plot. Readers of Amish fiction will surely be waiting anxiously for her next book.”
—Shelley Shepard Gray,
New York Times bestselling author of Ray of Light
“A knowing, careful look into Amish culture and faith. A truly enjoyable reading experience.”
—Angela Hunt,
New York Times bestselling author of The Offering
“Marta Perry has done an exceptional job describing the tradition of the Amish community . . . A wonderful start to what is sure to be a very memorable series.”
—Romance Junkies
“I loved Leah’s Choice by Marta Perry! More than just a sweet Amish love story, it is a complex mix of volatile relationships and hard choices. I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it!”
—Colleen Coble, author of Safe in His Arms
Other Pleasant Valley novels by Marta Perry
LEAH’S CHOICE
RACHEL’S GARDEN
ANNA’S RETURN
SARAH’S GIFT
KATIE’S WAY
HANNAH’S JOY
NAOMI’S CHRISTMAS
LYDIA’S HOPE
The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley
BOOK ONE
MARTA PERRY
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
For more information about the Penguin Group, visit penguin.com.
This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
Copyright © 2013 by Martha Johnson.
Excerpt from Susanna’s Dream by Marta Perry copyright © 2013 by Martha Johnson.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-62391-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perry, Marta.
Lydia’s Hope : the Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley book one / Marta Perry. —
Berkley trade paperback edition.
pages cm. — (The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley ; book one)
ISBN 978-0-425-25356-4 (alk. paper)
1. Amish—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Family secrets—Fiction. 4. Christian fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.E7933L94 2013
813'.6—dc23
2013000223
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley trade paperback edition / June 2013
Cover art by Shane Rebenschied.
Cover design by Annette Fiore DeFex.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.
This story is dedicated to the memory of my beloved sister, Patricia Perry Drotos. And, as always, to Brian.
Contents
Praise
Also by Marta Perry
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
List of Characters
Glossary
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EPILOGUE
Recipes
Reader Letter
Special Excerpt from Susanna’s Dream
LIST OF CHARACTERS
Lydia Weaver Beachy, wife of Adam Beachy; their sons: Daniel, eight, David, six
Diane Wentworth Weaver, Lydia’s deceased mother; Eli Weaver, Lydia’s father, also deceased
Joseph and Anna Weaver, Lydia’s adoptive parents; their sons: Andrew, Joshua, and Matthew
Susanna Bitler, Lydia’s birth sister, adopted by Jonah and Elizabeth Bitler
Chloe Wentworth, Lydia’s birth sister, raised by their Englisch grandmother, Margaret Wentworth
Paula Schatz, Mennonite, runs Pleasant Valley’s bakery
Bishop Mose, spiritual leader of the Pleasant Valley Amish
Kendra Phillips, Chloe’s friend and colleague
Seth Miller, Englisch, son of Lydia’s Amish neighbor
Emma Miller, Seth’s mother
Jessie Miller, Seth’s younger sister
Bradley Maitland, family friend of Chloe and her grandmother
GLOSSARY OF PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH WORDS AND PHRASES
ach. oh; used as an exclamation
agasinish. stubborn; self-willed
ain’t so. A phrase commonly used at the end of a sentence to invite agreement.
alter. old man
anymore. Used as a substitute for “nowadays.”
Ausbund. Amish hymnal. Used in the worship services, it contains traditional hymns, words only, to be sung without accompaniment. Many of the hymns date from the sixteenth century.
befuddled. mixed up
blabbermaul. talkative one
blaid. bashful
boppli. baby
bruder. brother
bu. boy
buwe. boys
daadi. daddy
Da Herr sei mit du. The Lord be with you.
denke. thanks (or danki)
Englischer. one who is not Plain
ferhoodled. upset; distracted
ferleicht. perhaps
frau. wife
fress. eat
gross. big
grossdaadi. grandfather
grossdaadi haus. An addition to the farmhouse, built for the grandparents to live in once they’ve “retired” from actively running the farm.
grossmutter. grandmother
gut. good
hatt. hard; difficult
haus. house
hinnersich. backward
ich. I
ja. yes
kapp. Prayer covering, worn in obedience to the Biblical injunction that women should pray with their heads covered. Kapps are made of Swiss organdy and are white. (In some Amish communities, unmarried girls thirteen and older wear black kapps during worship service.)
kinder. kids (or kinner)
komm. come
komm schnell. come quick
Leit. the people; the Amish
lippy. sassy
maidal. old maid; spinster
mamm. mother
middaagesse. lunch
mind. remember
onkel. uncle
Ordnung. The agreed-upon rules by which the Amish community lives. When new practices become an issue, they are discussed at length among the leadership. The decision for or against innovation is generally made on the basis of maintaining the home and family as separate from the world. For instance, a telephone might be necessary in a shop in order to conduct business but would be banned from the home because it would intrude on family time.
Pennsylvania Dutch. The language is actually German in origin and is primarily a spoken language. Most Amish write in English, which results in many variations in spelling when the dialect is put into writing! The language probably originated in the south of Germany but is common also among the Swiss Mennonite and French Huguenot immigrants to Pennsylvania. The language was brought to America prior to the Revolution and is still in use today. High German is used for Scripture and church documents, while English is the language of commerce.
rumspringa. Running-around time. The late teen years when Amish youth taste some aspects of the outside world before deciding to be baptized into the church.
schnickelfritz. mischievous child
ser gut. very good
tastes like more. delicious
Was ist letz? What’s the matter?
Wie bist du heit. how are you; said in greeting
wilkom. welcome
Wo bist du? Where are you?
CHAPTER ONE
Lydia Beachy continued to tuck the log cabin quilt over her great-aunt, hands moving gently but automatically as she struggled to make sense of what the elderly woman had just said. Great-aunt Sara’s mind must be wandering, for sure.
I still remember your mammi playing with you and your two little sisters in the apple orchard.
The apple orchard part made sense. The orchard was still there, still producing apples for Lydia and her husband and little boys. But she didn’t have any sisters.
“You must be thinking of someone else, Aunt Sara.” She patted her shoulder, just as she’d have patted Daniel or David when they lay down for a nap. “Rest now. A nap every afternoon, that’s what the doctor said, ain’t so?”
Aunt Sara flapped her hand as if to chase away the doctor’s words. “I’ll just close my eyes for a minute or two. You and your sisters, ja, and the apple trees with blossoms like clouds. Three sweet girls Diane had, that’s certain-sure.” She smiled, veined lids drooping over her china blue eyes, and in an instant her even breathing told Lydia that she was asleep.
Sharp as a tack, she is. Mamm’s voice seemed to echo in Lydia’s ears. She and Daad had brought Great-aunt Sara to stay with them after she’d been hospitalized with pneumonia, even though she continued to insist that she’d be fine in her own little place.
Stubborn, that was the word for her great-aunt. She was always wanting to be the one who helped out, not the one who received help.
Great-aunt Sara had another role as well . . . that of family historian. She could tell the children family stories going back many generations and never miss a name or a date. But why would she say something so obviously wrong about Lydia’s own family?
Lydia’s forehead furrowed as she slipped quietly across the wide wooden floorboards of the house where she had grown up. Her great-aunt was confused, surely. Illness and age could do that to the sharpest mind.
But she’d said Diane. Lydia’s birth mother was Diane, and she’d always known the name even though she didn’t remember her. Diane had been married to Daad’s brother, Eli, and Daad and Mamm had adopted Lydia when Diane and Eli had both died in an accident.
Those birth parents had always been misty figures in her mind, like a pair of Amish dolls with features she couldn’t see. She saw them as young and happy one minute and gone the next in the accident Lydia didn’t remember, even though she’d been involved as well and five at the time.
When she’d fretted at not remembering, Mamm had always soothed the worry away. It is God’s way of making it easier for you, Mamm would say. The accident was a terrible thing, and it’s better for you not to remember.
The memory kept Lydia company down the bare, narrow stairs of the old farmhouse where she’d grown up. Coming back here was like returning to her childhood, but home was where her husband and children were now. She turned left at the bottom as she always did, her steps taking her into the kitchen, the heart of any Amish home.
The square farmhouse kitchen was as spotless as it always was, the long wooden table maybe a bit empty-looking now that all of them were grown and mostly out of the house. April sunshine streamed through the window, laying a path across linoleum faded from so
many scrubbings.
Mamm always had a calendar on the wall over the table for decoration as well as use, and this year’s had pictures of frolicking kittens. A few violets had been tucked into a water glass on the windowsill, a reminder that spring had come to Pleasant Valley at last.
Mamm was bending over the oven door of the gas range, pulling out a cookie sheet. The aroma of snickerdoodles mixed with that of the beef pot roast that was stewing in the Dutch oven on top of the stove. Mamm looked up, her cheeks red from the warmth of the oven, and slid the tray onto a waiting cooling rack.
“Cookies for you to take to Daniel and David,” she said, probably needlessly. The boys would be dumbfounded if Lydia came home from Grossmammi’s house without some treat she’d made for them. It was a thing that never happened.
“Denke, Mamm. That will be their snack after they get home from school.”
Lydia hesitated, wondering if she should speak. Her great-aunt’s words kept going round and round in her mind. They made no sense. And yet, Aunt Sara had sounded perfectly rational.
Mamm glanced at her, face questioning, and closed the oven door. She dropped a crocheted pot holder on the counter.
“Was ist letz? Is something wrong with Aunt Sara?” She took a step toward the stairs, as if ready to fly up and deal with any emergency in her usual capable manner.
“No, no, she’s fine,” Lydia said quickly. “She’s sleeping already.”
“Ach, that’s gut. Rest is what she needs most now, even though she doesn’t want to admit it.” Mamm reached for the coffeepot. “Do you have time for a cup before the boys get home from school?”
Lydia shook her head. The words seemed to press against her lips, demanding to be let out, even though she felt a reluctance that was surely odd. She could talk to her mamm about anything.
“Aunt Sara said something I didn’t understand.”
“Ja? Was she fretting about the hospital bill again?”
Mamm’s brown eyes, magnified by her glasses, showed concern. Hospital bills were nothing to take lightly when, like the Amish, a person didn’t have insurance. Still, the church would provide what was needed when the family couldn’t manage. That was the Amish way.