Threads of Grace
Threads of Grace
ALSO BY KELLY LONG
T
HE
P
ATCH OF
H
EAVEN NOVELS
Sarah’s Garden
Lilly’s Wedding Quilt
Arms of Love
N
OVELLAS INCLUDED IN
An Amish Christmas
An Amish Love
An Amish Wedding
An Amish Kitchen
Threads of Grace
ATCH OF
H
EAVEN
N
OVEL
KELLY LONG
© 2013 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 e-mail [email protected]
Scripture quotations are 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.
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
Long, Kelly.
Threads of Grace : A Patch of Heaven Novel / Kelly Long.
pages cm. — (A Patch of Heaven Novel ; 3)
ISBN 978-1-59554-872-6 (trade paper)
1. Amish—Fiction. 2. Love stories. 3. Christian fiction. I. Title.
PS3612.O497T48 2013
813'.6—dc23
2012040488
Printed in the United States of America
13 14 15 16 17 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1
FOR MY FATHER
CONTENTS
G
LOSSARY OF
P
ENNSYLVANIA
D
UTCH
W
ORDS AND
P
HRASES
P
ROLOGUE
C
HAPTER
1
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HAPTER
2
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HAPTER
3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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11
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12
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13
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14
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15
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16
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17
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18
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19
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20
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21
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22
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23
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24
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25
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26
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27
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28
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29
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30
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31
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32
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33
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34
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35
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36
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37
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38
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39
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40
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41
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42
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43
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44
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45
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46
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47
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48
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49
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50
C
HAPTER
51
R
EADING
G
ROUP
G
UIDE
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
GLOSSARY OF PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH WORDS AND PHRASES
ach
—an exclamation like
oh
or
my
aentis
—aunts
boppli
—baby/infant
bruder
—brother
daed
—dad/father
danki
—thank you
daudi haus
—small house in back of the main house where the parents live after their children are grown and married
der Herr
—God
eck
—bridal table
Englisch
—non-Amish people and their ways
es dutt mir leed
—I am sorry
fater
—father
fraa
—wife
Gott—
God
gut
—good
hiya!
—hi
hund
—dog
jah
—yes
kapp
—prayer cap
kindskind
—grandchild
kuche
—cake
kinner
—children
kumme
—come
mamm
—mother
munn
—moon
narrisch
—crazy
nee—
no
redd-up
—clean up
sei so gut
—please
was en de welt
—what in the world
wunderbaar
—wonderful
M
IDDLE
H
OLLOW
, O
HIO
A
late summer breeze caught the scent of the wild roses that spilled over the crumbling stone wall and filled Grace Raber’s apron. Grace was eighteen, but because of her sunny disposition, those around her always thought of her as a much younger child. There was nothing she loved so much as the time after her chores, when she was at liberty to wander about the fields and trees near the family farm. She often brought things back to decorate the supper table under her
mamm’s
approving eye.