A Miracle of Hope (The Amish Wonders Series)
Acclaim for Ruth Reid
“Ruth Reid is skillful in portraying the Amish way of life as well as weaving together miracles with the everyday. In this book, she writes a beautiful tale of romance, redemption, and faith.”
—B
ETH
W
ISEMAN
,
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF THE
D
AUGHTERS OF THE
P
ROMISE SERIES
,
REGARDING
A M
IRACLE OF
H
OPE
“Ruth Reid pens a touching story of grace, love, and God’s mercy in the midst of uncertainty. A must-read for Amish fiction fans!”
—K
ATHLEEN
F
ULLER
,
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF THE
H
EARTS OF
M
IDDLEFIELD SERIES
,
REGARDING
A M
IRACLE OF
H
OPE
“Reid gives readers the hope to believe that there are angels with every one of us, both good and evil, and that the good angels will always win.”
—
R
OMANTIC
T
IMES
REVIEW OF
A
N
A
NGEL BY
H
ER
S
IDE
“
An Angel by Her Side
brings together not only a protagonist’s inner struggle, but the effect on the character from outside forces. In short, the reader rises, falls, grows, and learns alongside the story’s champion.”
—A
MISH
C
OUNTRY
N
EWS
R
EVIEW
“Reid has written a fine novel that provides, as its series title claims, a bit of ‘heaven on earth.’ ”
—P
UBLISHERS
W
EEKLY
REVIEW OF
T
HE
P
ROMISE OF AN
A
NGEL
“If
The Promise of an Angel
is anything to judge by, it looks like she’s going to become a favourite amongst Amish fans.”
—
C
HRISTIAN
M
ANIFESTO
“Ruth Reid captivates with a powerful new voice and vision.”
—K
ELLY
L
ONG
,
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
S
ARAH
’
S
G
ARDEN
AND
L
ILLY
’
S
W
EDDING
Q
UILT
“Ruth Reid’s
The Promise of an Angel
is a beautiful story of faith, hope, and second chances. It will captivate fans of Amish fiction and readers who love an endearing romance.”
—A
MY
C
LIPSTON
,
BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF THE
K
AUFFMAN
A
MISH
B
AKERY
S
ERIES
Also by Ruth Reid
A novella included in
An Amish Miracle
The Heaven on Earth series
The Promise of an Angel
Brush of Angel’s Wings
An Angel by Her Side
© 2013 by Ruth Reid
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 e-mail [email protected]
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version
®
, NIV
®
. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.
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.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reid, Ruth, 1963-
A Miracle of Hope / By Ruth Reid.
pages cm. -- (The Amish Wonders Series)
ISBN 978-1-4016-8829-5 (Trade Paper)
1. Amish--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3618.E5475M57 2013
813’.6--dc23
2013023672
Printed in the United States of America
13 14 15 16 17 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1
A Miracle of Hope
is dedicated to my brother, Paul Droste. Anytime I write about woodstoves or cutting wood, I can’t help but recall the winter you moved in with me. I couldn’t seem to get the woodstove to hold a fire or keep the pipes from freezing. Then you arrived and cut a different wood to burn. It was so hot inside the house I had to open the windows to get air. I love you! (Oh, and I’m sorry you came back from Colorado to learn I had sold your car for $15.)
Contents
ach
: oh
aemen
: amen
boppli
: baby
bruder
: brother
bu
:
boy
daed
: dad or father
denki
: thank you
dochder
: daughter
doktah
: doctor
dummkopp
: dummy
Englischer
: anyone who is not Amish
fraa
: wife
greenhaus
: greenhouse
grossdaadi haus
: a second house on the property where the grandparents live
grossdaadi
: grandfather
guder mariye
: good morning
gut nacht
: good night
gut
: good
hiya
: a greeting like hello
icehaus
: ice house, where food is kept frozen
jah
: yes
kaffi
: coffee
kalt
: cold
kapp
: a prayer covering worn by women
kinner
: children
kumm
: come
mamm
: mother or mom
mammi
: grandmother
maydel
: girl
mei
: my
nau
: now
nay
: no
nett
: not
onkel
: uncle
redd-up
: straighten
Schtecklimann
: a go-between; someone who acts as a messenger when a man wants to seek approval from a woman’s parents for their daughter’s hand in marriage
schul
: school
sohn
: son
wedder
: weather
wilkom
: welcome
wunderbaar
: wonderful
yummasetti
: a traditional Amish dish made with ground beef and noodles
I
promise my name—not my heart
.
Lindie Wyse recalled the words in Josiah’s letter that detailed the terms. Not that it mattered what the marital arrangements were. As her older brother, Eli, had pointed out, she couldn’t possibly expect more. All she had to offer any man was a marred life.
Eli leaned closer. “It’s going to be okay,” he said, repeating what he had said shortly after they boarded the bus last evening. Several hours later his tone still lacked certainty. “Cedar Ridge is a smaller district than ours. I think you’ll like the people.” He paused briefly, then continued when she failed to respond. “I met many of the members at Caroline Plank’s funeral. Josiah was out of sorts coping with his
fraa’s
unexpected death . . .” His voice droned on, sounding like a far-off woodpecker hammering away on a rotting tree trunk. “The winters are longer than ours. You did pack your wool socks,
jah
?”
Lindie nodded mechanically, a trait she’d only recently acquired. She lent an ear but remained silent. She hoped her brother’s assumptions were right. Eli had hardly mentioned
Josiah Plank in the three years since his wife’s death. It wasn’t until her brother returned last month from what he called “a business trip” that he spoke about his childhood friend again. When Eli and his wife, Margaret, talked about Josiah, it was as if they were trying to set Lindie up on a pen-pal courtship. She discovered a few short weeks later that they were arranging much more than a distant courtship. They were setting her up for marriage.
Over the past few months, Lindie had carried the weight of the members’ scornful stares. Nothing had hurt worse than when Moses, the man she loved, rejected her, or when his sister, Mary, openly rebuked her. Even after Lindie knelt in confession, the church members’ estrangement continued. So did the gossip. She was plagued with nightmares and shrouded in shame. Her life would never be the same, yet the looming question wouldn’t be pushed aside.
Could God’s mercy extend far enough to reach her?
Daylight crept over the horizon. She leaned forward to peer through the window. Since the majority of their travel had been during the night, she’d missed the change of scenery. Northern Michigan had plenty of trees. Snow too. The farther north they traveled on I-75, the more a snow-covered roadside replaced the brown carpet of grass. She sank back against the vinyl bus seat, pulled her cape tighter against her neck, and watched as the landscape passed in a blur.
A few hours later the bus rattled over the steel grates on the Mackinac Bridge and Lindie’s thoughts returned to their approaching destination. She’d overheard some of the other passengers chatting about the Great Lakes, but she hadn’t envisioned anything so vast as these open waters. Her settlement was near lakes, but nothing as massive as the Straits of Mackinac. As they reached the end of the bridge, entering the Upper Peninsula, she
craned her neck for a full view. The extensive distance that now separated her from her family took root in her mind.