“Yes, Daniel, you may go in and see Rachel.”
“May I see her alone for a few minutes?”
Jenny looked at Jonathan and then nodded her assent.
*****
Rachel lay still and quiet, her eyes half-closed and her dark hair spread out against the white sheets. The nurse stood holding a bundle in her arms. Rachel could see the tiny arms waving and her heart filled with a love she had never known before. She reached up. The nurse put the baby down beside her and Rachel took the newborn into her arms. She could see Gerald in the small face and she thought back to all that had happened to her in the last year. Then the door opened quietly and Daniel stood there, his face aglow. The nurse nodded to him. “I’ll let you speak with her for a moment while I go clean up. Do not excite her. She is very tired. It was a hard labor.”
The nurse left and Daniel came and looked down at Rachel. Without thinking, he reached out and stroked her brow.
Rachel looked up at him. “The baby is well, Daniel.”
Daniel nodded.
“You have been so good to me, Daniel. Why have I been so blind?”
Daniel touched her lips and silenced her. Then he knelt down beside the bed. He took her hand in his. “Now, Rachel, you will listen to me for once in your life.”
Rachel stared at him.
Daniel went on. “I have loved you since we were children. God has put you in my way, and there is nothing I can do about it. You are going to marry me and this baby will be my son. His name will be Levon King and he will be Amish and his children will be Amish.”
Rachel started to protest. “But, Daniel, I am not good enough for you to love me. I am ruined. I cannot be a good wife to you. I can’t give you what I should, my purity...”
Daniel looked at Rachel. “I, too, am ruined, Rachel.”
“What do you mean, Daniel?”
Rachel could see Daniel struggling with himself. Then he spoke, so quietly she almost could not hear.
“I killed a man.”
Rachel’s eyes opened wide. “Daniel...when?”
“When I came to rescue you there was a man waiting in your room. We fought and I killed him. I violated the deepest tenant of our faith. So, we are both broken. But don’t you see? That is where du leiber Gott wants us to be—having nothing in ourselves and putting our lives in His hands. Rachel, He has given you to me and me to you. We are broken and hopeless, both of us faithless. But it is His plan for us to be together for the rest of our lives, depending on Him and helping each other to walk each day in faith and love. Now, say that you will marry me, and let me be a father to this boy.”
Daniel reached over and tenderly touched Rachel’s face. Then quietly and gently he leaned down and kissed her. Rachel felt a stirring in her heart that she had never felt before and her arm went around Daniel’s strong shoulders and then she was kissing him back with all the strength and passion and love that was in her.
And like the golden sun that awakens the day after a long dark night, the truth and strength of Daniel’s love for her poured into Rachel’s heart and the emptiness and despair were swept away by the power of God reaching through Daniel to her. And like a flash of lightning on a hot summer night, the truth came to her. She loved Daniel. She had always loved Daniel and now their love would somehow make everything right again. And she would be Amish, and her son would be Amish, and she would live her life with this man, and the mighty angel that had turned her away from the gate of the garden would lower his flaming sword, and she would return with joy to live again in Paradise.
The End
Epilogue
The Rest of the Story
The tall writer put down the last page of the manuscript and looked up at the clock. It was four-thirty in the morning. He had been reading since six o’clock the night before. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his brow. Then he turned to the phone, picked it up, and dialed a number. The phone rang a few times, and then a voice came on the other end.
“Who’s calling me at four-thirty?”
“I finished the manuscript. It’s an amazing story. It’s so far outside anything she ever wrote before. I couldn’t put it down. It’s really a thriller.”
The writer could hear the interest in the other man’s voice. “That good, huh?”
“That good. She’s a brilliant writer. The literary world lost an icon when she handed these manuscripts over to me.”
“How long will it take to re-write it?”
“Not long. There’s not a lot to do. It will be very hard not to just copy it word for word.”
“No, don’t do that. We need the man’s point of view in this story. We need the adventure angle and the words and observations that only a man would see.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll get to work on it right away.”
“What else does she have?”
The writer shuffled through the stack of manuscripts. They were hand typed on a manual typewriter and then tied with a red ribbon.
“There’s a story here about Jonathan’s great-great-great grandmother. She was an Indian princess who converted to the Amish faith. And there’s another one about a Polish princess who became the matriarch of the Hershberger family. Pretty heady stuff.”
“Good. I’ll call our publisher—at a decent hour—and tell him you’re ready to go on to the next book.”
The line clicked and went dead.
The writer picked up the manuscript he had been reading and started to tie the ribbon back around it. A handwritten note that he had not seen before slid out from between the pages. He picked it up. It was written in Jenny’s smooth cursive and was addressed to him.
Dear Friend,
I just wanted to fill in a few of the details in the rest of Daniel and Rachel’s story. They married and went to live on the King farm with Daniel’s family. Jonathan, Bobby, and Jonas helped them build a fine house on the knoll by their tree. Daniel adopted the baby and he and Rachel named their boy Levon St. Clair King, in honor of Gerald. Interestingly enough, Levon was born with the Key, the birthmark above his heart—the same one that caused Rachel so much trouble. Someday there may be another story there for you to write.
A year after they were married, Jonathan received an unexpected royalty check from a reprint of one of Richard Sandbridge’s old albums. With the agreement of the elders of our church, Jonathan used the money to pay Rachel’s way through a local veterinary school. Now our community has a real Amish vet.
Rachel returned to the church and as Jonathan so lovingly put it, “Grace trumped all.”
I see that the first three books did very well. I read them and I appreciate your honesty and clarity in telling the story of my family. May the Lord bless your further endeavors.
Jenny Hershberger
The writer remembered the day several years before that he sat with Jenny on the front porch of the old farmhouse. Cups of tea stood on the small table in front of them and a warm summer breeze had heralded the coming of another beautiful evening in Paradise, Pennsylvania. He had come all the way from California to meet her, and she had unfolded the story of her family as she had unfolded the marvelous quilt that held the secrets of the Hershberger saga. After she told the story of her sister, Jenna, and of her husband, Jonathan, he had asked her a question.
“What about your daughter, Rachel?”
Jenny smiled. Her kappe was slightly askew and the rebellious curls, now turning white, fought to escape at the urging of the evening breeze. And then the breeze picked up and the golden light of the setting sun touched the leaves of the trees and they began to dance, and then they flamed into fire.
“It was hard for Rachel when her papa came home. She was fourteen, she was becoming a woman, and Jonathan had missed such a big part of her formative years. They were at odds for a long time. I think she felt like he came between her and me. Eventually, they found what they once had when Rachel was little, but it took circumstances far outside the boundaries of our quiet Amish life
to heal Jonathan. And Rachel...well, Rachel went through her own trials before she came home. But then, that’s another story.”
The writer smiled as he remembered. He picked up the manuscript and looked at the title.
Yes indeed, Jenny Hershberger. That was another story...
About The Author
Patrick E. Craig is a lifelong writer and musician. He has served as a worship leader, seminar speaker, and pastor but now concentrates on writing and publishing both fiction and nonfiction books. Patrick and his wife, Judy, make their home in Idaho and are the parents of two adult children and grandparents of five.
Table of Contents
The Amish Heiress
Copyright Information
Dedication
Acknowledgements
A Note from Patrick E. Craig
Part One - The Key
Chapter One - Trouble in Paradise
Chapter Two - A Longing
Chapter Three - The Inheritance
Chapter Four - Painful Days
Chapter Five - The Search
Chapter Six - Daniel’s Heart
Chapter Seven - Closing In
Chapter Eight - An Open Door
Chapter Nine - Phone Calls
Chapter Ten - The Trail
Chapter Eleven - The Connection
Chapter Twelve - The Secret Revealed
Chapter Thirteen - Who Am I?
Chapter Fourteen - Rachel’s Choice
Chapter Fifteen - The Meeting
Chapter Sixteen - The Breaking
Chapter Seventeen - Many Sorrows
Chapter Eighteen - A Two-Edged Sword
Chapter Nineteen - Surrender
Part Two - The Prison
Chapter Twenty - The Lie
Chapter Twenty-One - Deep Darkness
Chapter Twenty-Two - The Guardian
Chapter Twenty-Three - Double Cross
Chapter Twenty-Four - The Plot
Chapter Twenty-Five - The Key
Chapter Twenty-Six - Pressure
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Discoveries
Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Diary
Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Plan
Chapter Thirty - Suspicion
Chapter Thirty-One - The Fading
Chapter Thirty-Two - Hopeless
Part Three - A Wind from the Sea
Chapter Thirty-Three - First Light
Chapter Thirty-Four - Deep Games
Chapter Thirty-Five - The Greatest Trial
Chapter Thirty-Six - The Truth Will Set You Free
Chapter Thirty-Seven - Rescued
Chapter Thirty-Eight - The Road Home
Chapter Thirty-Nine - Home from the Sea
Epilogue - The Rest of the Story
About The Author
Table of Contents
The Amish Heiress
Copyright Information
Dedication
Acknowledgements
A Note from Patrick E. Craig
Part One - The Key
Chapter One - Trouble in Paradise
Chapter Two - A Longing
Chapter Three - The Inheritance
Chapter Four - Painful Days
Chapter Five - The Search
Chapter Six - Daniel’s Heart
Chapter Seven - Closing In
Chapter Eight - An Open Door
Chapter Nine - Phone Calls
Chapter Ten - The Trail
Chapter Eleven - The Connection
Chapter Twelve - The Secret Revealed
Chapter Thirteen - Who Am I?
Chapter Fourteen - Rachel’s Choice
Chapter Fifteen - The Meeting
Chapter Sixteen - The Breaking
Chapter Seventeen - Many Sorrows
Chapter Eighteen - A Two-Edged Sword
Chapter Nineteen - Surrender
Part Two - The Prison
Chapter Twenty - The Lie
Chapter Twenty-One - Deep Darkness
Chapter Twenty-Two - The Guardian
Chapter Twenty-Three - Double Cross
Chapter Twenty-Four - The Plot
Chapter Twenty-Five - The Key
Chapter Twenty-Six - Pressure
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Discoveries
Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Diary
Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Plan
Chapter Thirty - Suspicion
Chapter Thirty-One - The Fading
Chapter Thirty-Two - Hopeless
Part Three - A Wind from the Sea
Chapter Thirty-Three - First Light
Chapter Thirty-Four - Deep Games
Chapter Thirty-Five - The Greatest Trial
Chapter Thirty-Six - The Truth Will Set You Free
Chapter Thirty-Seven - Rescued
Chapter Thirty-Eight - The Road Home
Chapter Thirty-Nine - Home from the Sea
Epilogue - The Rest of the Story
About The Author
The Amish Heiress (The Paradise Chronicles Book 1) Page 31
