Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3

by Barbara Cameron

  She shook her head as if to clear it and got out of the buggy, reaching in to lift the box she’d brought. No one was in the front of the house so she was able to climb the stairs and leave the box on the side of the porch before she went to the door and knocked on it.

  Sarah Rose answered it, and she beamed, obviously glad to see her. “I was just going to help Daedi go out on the porch,” she announced. “He needs some fresh air. He’s been cooped up in the house all day.”

  Anna saw that someone had built a small wooden ramp onto the front doorstep so that it was easier for wheelchair access. She wanted to help Sarah Rose maneuver the chair, but it was obvious that the child wanted to do it herself so she stepped back and waited to see what happened next.

  “I think what I said was someone had been cooped up for a while and needed to get outside for a while.”

  “Maybe everyone would enjoy some fresh air,” Anna said, holding open the door and watching his progress down the wooden ramp.

  “I can help Daedi,” Sarah Rose said, pushing the chair from behind.

  “Careful, sweetheart, you’re going a little fast,” her father told her.

  Anna noted his face paled and moved quickly to his side, prepared to stop the child if necessary.

  “Here, Daedi, this is a nice sunny spot.” Sarah Rose stopped in the corner of the porch, and Anna helped her set the brake. “My grandmother says he’s looking awful white from being inside so much. He can get a tan here.”

  He still looked pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His left arm and leg still wore casts, but oh, he looked wonderful to her.

  “I’m thinking you’re looking a little green around the gills myself,” she told Gideon quietly as Sarah Rose hopped from one foot to the other. It was obvious that the two of them had come outside so that she could burn off some energy.

  “Sarah Rose, I think there’s something in that box over there for you,” she told her, gesturing at where it sat in the corner of the porch.

  The little girl raced over to it, pulled back the flaps, and out popped the head of the kitten she’d fallen in love with at Anna’s house.

  Anna wasn’t sure who was more surprised—Sarah Rose or the kitten. Sarah Rose screamed and clapped her hands. The kitten jumped straight up and when it landed, it ran to Anna and tried scaling her skirts.

  Laughing, she disentangled the pet and stroked it until it calmed before handing it to Sarah Rose. “Sit down with her and help her calm down,” she urged.

  “Are you talking to my daughter or the kitten?” Gideon asked, leaning back in his chair and watching.

  “Can I keep her? Please, Daedi, can I keep her?”

  “What was this about me deciding things?” he asked Anna, his brow raised in irony.

  “See how it feels?” she asked him with a touch of mischief. “I know, I shouldn’t have. But she needs a new home.”

  “What’s wrong with the one she has now?”

  “Sarah Rose, your daedi and I need to talk for a few minutes. I put a carton of milk and a bowl in the box. Do you think you could take her inside and give her some?”

  The little girl looked from one to the other. Then she must have decided it would be more fun to feed the kitten. She nodded and scampered off with the kitten slung over her arm, the bowl and milk in her hands. The screen door slammed behind her.

  Anna walked over to a rocking chair, sat, and fanned herself with her hand. “Getting warmer.”

  He nodded, watching her.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “As good as a man can when he can’t take care of himself, let alone his farm.”

  She looked out at the fields and nodded.

  “Everyone turned out to finish the planting,” he told her, his gaze going with hers, seeming to look at the fields. But there was a faraway expression in his eyes, as if he were looking beyond the fields. “But you know. You were here to help feed the men on more than one occasion.”

  He turned to her suddenly. “Grace doing all right? And the baby?”

  “Eli, too.” Grace had gone into labor, and Eli had to leave to take her to his parents’ house where they’d planned a home birth.

  “I passed them on the way coming home from the hospital that day,” he told her.

  Anna found herself blinking hard against the hot tears that crowded the backs of her eyelids. “It could have been so different. I—” she stopped. She couldn’t say the words—I could have lost you.

  He moved forward awkwardly in his chair. “But it didn’t. Obviously that wasn’t in God’s plan . . . although I’m not certain what God’s plan is yet.”

  “Me, either.” She twisted her hands in her lap.

  He reached out with his free hand. “There’s one thing I know, though. I’ve had a lot of time to think, being laid up. I don’t want to lose you. I want us to work things out. I need you to tell me if you’ll give me another chance.”

  Anna bit her lip. “Will you give me another one, too?”

  “You? Why do you think you need to ask that?”

  “Because I’ve had a lot of time to think, too, and I realized that I might have overreacted. I looked for a reason to think we weren’t suited, that you’d overwhelm me, instead of trying to work out a way of us working together instead of against each other. A way so I wouldn’t just think I had to walk away.”

  She took his free hand and lifted it, pressing one of hers against it. “This is what I should have done. Pushed back more.”

  The screen door creaked. “Anna? Did you bring kitty any food?”

  “I did. I’ll bring it in soon.”

  “ ’Kay.” The door slammed again.

  “So why does the kitten need a new home?” Gideon asked her, staring at her intently.

  She turned back to him. “I’m thinking of moving. Of selling my farm.”

  “Really?”

  Nodding, she took a deep breath. “Samuel and I worked hard to start a life there, and it’s time to let someone else do it. I want to sell it to Eli and Grace. They’ll continue what Samuel and I started—in their own way, of course. Raise children there and fill the house with them and their laughter and their noise.”

  She realized that he’d used his good foot to pull the chair closer to her. “And where will you live, Anna?”

  “Here, if you’ll ask me to marry you again,” she said, feeling the butterflies in her stomach and trying to breathe. “With my heart in hand, I’m ready to give you all of it and not hold back.”

  He took her hand in his, caressing the palm with his thumb. “I’ll take it and cherish it, Anna. And give you mine as well.” Leaning forward, he kissed her until she was breathless.

  Lost in the kiss, they didn’t hear the sound of the screen door opening. When they broke apart, they were startled to see Sarah Rose standing there, the kitten clutched to her chest, grinning at them.

  “Are you gonna come live with Daedi and the kitten and me here?”

  Gideon laughed. “I don’t think you get to say no,” he told Anna. “Or at least, you may have trouble getting the kitten back.”

  “Yes, I’m going to come live here, when your daedi and I get married after the harvest,” she said, stroking her hand over the girl’s head.

  Sarah Rose grinned. “Gut.”

  She hugged Anna’s neck, and the kitten squealed at being smooshed too closely between them.

  Then she stood back. “Now can I feed the kitten?”

  Anna and Gideon exchanged a bemused look.

  “Get the box and we’ll open it for you,” he told his daughter. “Priorities,” he told Anna with a shake of his head.

  Anna pulled the can, a spoon, and a dish from the box. She quickly opened the can and put a few spoonfuls in the bowl. “There you go,” she said, handing it to Sarah Rose.

  She watched the girl set the bowl on the porch floor and hunch down to watch the kitten eat.

  “Do you know what made me think we belonged together?” she asked
Gideon.

  “Aside from the fact that we love each other?”

  Anna smiled. “Aside from that. Because love isn’t always enough. It was something the bishop said. He told me that he’d watched how we behaved with Sarah Rose when he saw us at church and such. Gideon, he said we were already behaving like parents and working things out as a family.”

  Gideon’s eyes were warm and full of love—and more. “And there’ll be more,” he promised and she felt herself blush.

  “If God wills,” she whispered.

  “If God wills,” he agreed.

  But somehow, deep in her heart, she knew he was right.

  RECIPES

  Creamed Celery

  4 cups finely chopped celery

  ½ tsp. salt

  ½ c. sugar

  2 tablespoons vinegar

  1 tablespoon flour

  ½ c. milk

  2 tablespoons mayonnaise

  Cover celery with water in saucepan, add salt, sugar, and vinegar, and cook until tender. Drain. Combine flour and milk and bring to a boil. Stir in mayonnaise. Add cooked celery and mix until blended. Serve hot.

  Snickerdoodles

  ½ cup butter, softened

  1 cup sugar

  ¼ teaspoon baking soda

  ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

  1 large egg

  ½ teaspoon vanilla

  1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

  4 tablespoons granulated sugar

  1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using mixer, beat butter for 30 seconds, then add sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar, and beat until combined. Add egg and vanilla, then slowly add flour until all is used. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for an hour. In small bowl combine the 4 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into one-inch balls, roll in cinnamon sugar mixture, and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

  White Hot Chocolate

  1 cup white chocolate chips

  1 cup heavy cream

  4 cups half-and-half

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  Peppermint sticks or candy canes, optional

  Place chips in a saucepan over medium heat, add cream and stir until chips are melted. Add half-and-half and extract. Serve warm with peppermint sticks or candy canes as stirrers.

  Three Bear Soup

  (great for sick kids)

  3 tablespoons olive oil

  1 onion, diced

  1 pound stew meat or lean hamburger

  2 large carrots, diced

  3 stalks celery, diced

  1 16-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables

  1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, juice included

  1 tsp salt

  ½ tsp pepper

  1 tsp dried parsley

  2 quarts beef or vegetable broth

  Sauté onion, meat, carrots, and celery until meat is no longer pink. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour (two hours are even better). Serve at a temperature that is not too hot, not too cool, but just right and see sick kids perk up.

  Soup is even better the next day.

  Alphabet macaroni or seashell macaroni may be added.

  Glossary

  allrecht—all right

  boppli—baby

  bruder—brother

  daedi—daddy

  danki—thank you

  dat—father

  dawdi haus—addition to a house where elderly parents can live and be cared for, similar to an Englisch mother-in-law apartment.

  Der Hochmut kummt vor dem Fall. “Pride goeth before the fall.”

  Englisch, Englischer—Non-Amish person

  fraa—wife

  guder mariye—good morning

  gut—good

  hungerich—hungry

  kaffe—coffee

  kapp—prayer covering or cap worn by girls and women

  kich—kitchen

  kind, kinner—child, children

  kumm—come

  liebschen—dearest or dear one

  maedel—young woman (maid)

  mamm—mother

  mann—husband

  nee—no

  Ordnung—The rules of the Amish, both written and unwritten. Certain behavior has been expected within the Amish community for many, many years. These rules vary from community to community, but the most common are not to have electricity in the home, not to own or drive an automobile, and to dress a certain way.

  Pennsylvania Deitsch—Pennsylvania German

  rumschpringe—time period when teenagers are allowed to experience the Englisch world while deciding if they should join the church. It is not the wild period so many Englisch imagine, according to Amish sources.

  schul—school

  schur—sure

  schweschder—sister

  sohn—son

  wilkumm—welcome

  wunderbaar—wonderful

  ya—yes

  zwillingbopplin—twins

  Discussion Questions

  Caution: Please don’t read before completing the book because the questions contain spoilers!

  1. Anna and Gideon have been widowed at a young age. Why do you think God would put two people together only to take one away?

  2. Have you lost someone you loved? How did you deal with the loss?

  3. Some people would think that Anna and Gideon have a lot in common. What do you think they have in common? What were their challenges to their relationship?

  4. How did Anna help Sarah Rose deal with the loss of her mother?

  5. What do you think parents can learn from the Amish?

  6. Work is an important element of life in both the Amish community and the Englisch community. Anna, her cousins, and their grandmother find a way to be creative in their work life. Sometimes being able to deal with people is being creative. How do you use creativity in your own work life?

  7. Knitting is not just Anna’s work—it is an activity that keeps her centered. What activity do you use to stay centered?

  8. Anna is afraid to give her heart to Gideon. If you knew Anna, how would you help her learn to trust God and love again?

  9. Do you feel it makes any difference if couples are engaged a short time or a long time?

  10. Gideon is a strong male who likes to help, but Anna finds it hard to accept that help. What would you say to Gideon? To Anna?

  11. Gideon’s accident makes him feel vulnerable and unable to run his life. Have you ever experienced something similar? How did you cope? What did you learn?

  12. The community comes together to help Gideon after his accident. How do the people in your community rally to help someone?

  Abingdon Press is delighted to announce a return to the Quilts of Lancaster County series in fall 2013 with Annie’s Christmas Wish, a story about one of Jenny and Matthew Bontrager’s daughters.

  Come travel with us to visit with old friends and new ones in the Amish and Englisch community of Paradise, Pennsylvania, in the first chapter of Annie’s Christmas Wish.

  1

  Annie lay on the quilt-covered bed tucked up in her cozy little attic bedroom. She held up the snow globe and shook it, watching the little snowflakes inside swirl and swirl and then float gently down to cover the skyscrapers of New York City.

  It was her favorite Christmas present ever, brought back from the big city by her mamm when she went to see her editor years ago. After she’d received the globe with its tiny glimpse of the city, Annie had borrowed books from the library and studied the photos and read everything she could. New York City seemed like such an exciting place, filled with such towering, fancy buildings, its streets lined with so many types of people from so many places. Stories were everywhere, stories of hope and joy and death and loss and—well, her imagination was soaring just thinking about them.

  She might be twenty-one now, a woman and not a child. But she was no less interested—some
might say obsessed—with the city than when she first received the globe. Her one big wish had become to visit New York City, and now it was finally coming true.

  Life here in her Plain community of Paradise, Pennsylvania, wasn’t boring. Not exactly. She loved everything about it. But she’d always been a seeker, endlessly curious about even the tiniest detail of life. She’d been like that even before her mamm had moved here and married her daed. Before she had been Jenny Bontrager, her mother had been Jenny King, a television news reporter who specialized in traveling around the world and showing people what war did to innocent children.

  Annie thought the work sounded amazing. All the travel, so exciting. Meeting all kinds of people. Telling the story of someone who needed attention to their story to help them. Annie had never lacked for a meal. She’d always had a comfortable bed.

  And even though she had lost her mother at a young age, she’d always had so many people around her to love her and make her feel safe and happy. The children her mother had seen overseas in war-torn countries had often lost parents, their homes . . . even been injured or killed themselves. And sometimes there was little food.

  She looked up when there was a knock on the door frame.

  “Hi. May I come in?”

  “Of course.” Annie moved so her mother could sit on the bed with her.

  When she saw her mother’s gaze go to the snow globe she held, she handed it to her. Jenny shook it and watched the snowflakes settle on the skyscrapers inside, just as Annie had done.

  “I remember when I gave this to you.”

  “You came back from a trip there and told us you were going to have a baby.”

  “Seems like just yesterday.”

  “Seems like he’s been around forever to drive me crazy.” She grinned. “Don’t worry. I don’t mean it. He’s a good little brother.”

  “You mean when he’s not being a little terror?”

  Annie laughed and nodded. “Right. He’s not afraid of anything. Must have some of the adventurer spirit you have inside him.”