A Marriage of the Heart
Praise for Kelly Long
“
Arms of Love
is rich in the historical details of the Amish in America in the 1700s.”
—Romantic Times
, 4 stars
“There is a beautiful love story that unfolds within the pages . . . I was vested in the lives of these characters.”
—Beth Wiseman, best-selling author of
The Wonder of Your Love
regarding
Arms of Love
“[In
Sarah’s Garden
] Long writes with a polished style that puts her in the same category as the top Christian authors.”
—Romantic Times
, 4 stars
“Long’s easy style creates a richly detailed, charming tale. The sweetly developed romance illustrates how love can grow from friendship.”
—Romantic Times
, 4 stars, regarding
Lilly’s Wedding Quilt
“Kelly Long has hit it out of the park,
Sarah’s Garden
is rich with Amish detail and an endearing romance. I highly recommend!”
—Beth Wiseman, best-selling author of
The Wonder of Your Love
A Marriage of
the Heart
Also by Kelly Long
Arms of Love
T
HE
P
ATCH OF
H
EAVEN
S
ERIES
Sarah’s Garden
Lilly’s Wedding Quilt
Threads of Grace
(Available February 2013)
N
OVELLAS FOUND IN
An Amish Christmas
An Amish Love
An Amish Wedding
An Amish Kitchen
A Marriage of
the Heart
T
HREE
A
MISH
N
OVELLAS
K
ELLY
L
ONG
“A Perfect Secret” originally in
An Amish Wedding
© 2011 by Kelly Long
“Christmas Cradles” originally in
An Amish Christmas
© 2009, 2010 by Kelly Long
“A Marriage of the Heart” originally in
An Amish Love
© 2010 by Kelly Long
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected]
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
ISBN 978-1-40168-756-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available
Printed in the United States of America
12 13 14 15 16 17 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1
Pennsylvania Dutch Glossary
ach
—oh
aenti
—aunt
bensel
—hard to handle; a handful
Budget, The
—a weekly newspaper serving Amish and Mennonite communities everywhere
bruder
—brother
daed
—dad
danki
—thank you
Derr Herr
—God
Englisch
or
Englischer
—a non-Amish person
gut
—good
hiya
—hello
kapp
—prayer covering or cap
kumme
—come
milch
—milk
narrisch
—crazy
nee
—no
Pennsylvania Deitsch
—Pennsylvania German, the language most commonly used by the Amish
rumschpringe
—running-around period when a teenager turns sixteen years old
sohn
—son
was in der welt
—what in the world
wunderbaar
—wonderful
ya
—yes
Contents
For my girl, Gracie
In Hebrew,
perfect
means “whole or complete.” It is God’s
desire for our lives that we become perfect or whole in Him.
He is slowly revealing His perfect secret for each of our lives.
Prologue
“T
HAT’S IT
? T
HAT’S MY WEDDING PROPOSAL
?” N
INETEEN
-year-old Rose Bender stared at her best friend in the waning light of the cool summer evening.
Luke Lantz’s dark blue eyes held steady as always. “
Ya
, what more do you expect?”
Rose half bounced in the buggy seat, trying not to let Luke’s typical calmness rile her into a temper that would match the unruly black curls tucked beneath her
kapp
. What more did she expect? It was a fair question.
She’d known Luke for all of her young life, and he was right—a marriage was something that would please both of their families and have the strong foundation of their friendship at its base. It would also unite two lands, the rich soil that ran parallel in property. And, perhaps most importantly, it would bring a woman’s touch to the motherless Lantz household. But it might have helped if Luke could have conjured up a few romantic
words to add to the moment. Yet, at twenty-three, he was what he was: Placid. Faithful. Secure. And when Rose was with him, it was rather like skating on a pond that had been deep-frozen for months—no chance for a crack in the ice. Perfectly safe. Not that she should desire anything more.
“I accept,” she said with determination and not a little defiance. She wanted to silence the doubts that echoed inside—that suggested she knew him too well to have a romantic marriage. And the realistic fears that she could never live up to the legacy of domesticity and kindness his mother had left behind just two short years ago. She told herself that it had to be more than enough to fulfill the expectations of Luke’s father and her parents and to find a strong base in a wealth of memories—school days, sledding and ice-skating together, long walks and throwing horse chestnuts into the pond, and serious conversations about life—though not necessarily about love.
“
Gut
. I thank you, Rose. I believe, with
Derr Herr
’s blessing, that it will be a successful match.”
She nodded, then slid closer to his lean form, reaching to trail her fingers in the brown hair at the nape of his neck. She felt him tense, but she ignored it.
“Luke,” she whispered, “now that we’re engaged, maybe we could kiss a bit more?”
His strong jaw tightened, and he turned to peck neatly at her lips, moving away before she could even close her eyes. He disentangled her hand from his hair and gave it a cool squeeze, then picked up the reins. “We’d best move on,” he said. “It’s getting late.”
And that’s that
, she thought ruefully, comforting herself
with the knowledge that he would be too dutiful to maintain such distance once the marriage ceremony was over. She stifled a sigh at the unusually irreverent thought and focused on the dim road ahead.
Chapter One
