A Hope Springs Christmas. Patricia Davids

took him aback. “Me?”

      “Ja. Why haven’t you?”

      Heat rushed to his face. He cleared his throat. “Reckon I haven’t met the woman God has in mind for me.”

      “God wants each of us to find the person who makes us happy, doesn’t He?” Grace fell silent.

      Levi glanced up from his work to find her staring out the window at Sarah’s house. Because her question so closely mirrored his thoughts about Sarah, he gathered his courage and asked, “Why do you think Sarah Wyse hasn’t remarried?”

      “Because she loved one man with her whole heart and her whole soul and she knows no one can replace him,” Grace declared with a passion that astounded him.

      She suddenly rushed toward the door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Your supper is on the table.”

      “Where are you going?”

      “I need to talk to Sarah about something.”

      When the door banged shut behind her, he sighed. It was just like his sister to leave him in the dark about what was going on. He hoped Sarah could help because the last thing he wanted was a home in turmoil, and unless Grace was happy, that was exactly what was going to happen.

      * * *

      After her aunt had gone, Sarah stared at the snow piled on the sill of her kitchen window. Dismal. There was no other word for it. Christmas would be here in less than a month, but there wasn’t any joy in the knowledge. The Christmas seasons of the past had brought her only heartache and the long winter nights left her too much time to remember. At least this year her only loss was her job. So far.

      She closed her eyes and folded her hands. “Please, Lord, keep everyone I love safe and well this year.”

      Second thoughts about inviting her brother for a visit crowded into her mind. He was all she had left of her immediate family. At times, it seemed that everyone she loved suffered and died before their time. What if something should befall Vernon or his wife or children while they were here? How would she forgive herself?

      No, such thinking only showed her lack of faith. It is not in my hands, but in Your hands, Lord.

      Still, she couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding.

      She opened her eyes and propped her chin on her hand as she stared at the notebook page in front of her. The kerosene lamp overhead cast a warm glow on the mending pile and the sheet of paper where she had compiled a list of things to do.

      Clean the house.

      Mend everything torn or frayed.

      Make two new kapps.

      Stitch the border on my new quilt.

      She had already finished the first item and was on to the second. They were all things she could do in a week or less and she had a lot more time on her hands than a mere week. Spring seemed a long way off. Inviting Vernon and his family was one way to help fill the days.

      She added three more items to her list.

      Don’t be bored.

      Don’t be sad.

      Don’t go insane.

      Six days a week for nearly five years she had gone in early to open the fabric store and closed up after seven in the evening. Without her job to keep her busy, what was she going to do? Work had been her salvation after her husband’s passing.

      Had it really been five years? Sometimes it seemed as if he’d only gone out of town and he would be back any minute. Of course, he wouldn’t be.

      She had tried to convince Janet to let her run the shop until spring, but Janet wouldn’t hear of it. Instead, her boss said, “Enjoy the time off, Sarah. You work too hard. Have a carefree Christmas season for a change.”

      Janet didn’t understand. Time off wouldn’t make the holidays brighter. Six years ago Sarah and Jonas learned he had cancer only a week before Christmas. He battled the disease for months longer than the doctors thought he could. He died on Christmas Eve the following year. A month later, her sister ran away, leaving Sarah, her parents and her brother to grieve and worry. Their father died of pneumonia the following Thanksgiving. Her mother passed away barely a year later. Vernon said they died of a broken heart after Bethany left.

      Bethany had been the light of the family. Her daring sense of humor and love of life were too big for Hope Springs and the simple life of the Amish. It had been two years ago at Christmas when Jonathan Dresher came to tell Sarah that Bethany was dead, too. Since that day, Sarah faced the Christmas season with intense dread, waiting and wondering what the next blow would be.

      She sat up straight. She wasn’t going to spend this winter cooped up in the house, staring at the walls and dreading Christmas. She had to find something to keep the bleak depression at bay. To her list, she quickly added Find Another Job! She circled it a half dozen times.

      The sound of her front door opening made her look up. Like most Amish people, she never locked her doors. Knocking was an English habit the Amish ignored for they knew they were always welcome in another Amish home. A brief gust of winter wind came in with her visitor. Sarah’s mood rose when she recognized her friend and neighbor, Grace Ann Beachy.

      “Gut-n-owed,” Sarah called out a cheerfully good evening in Pennsylvania Deitsch, sometimes called Pennsylvania Dutch, the German dialect spoken by the Amish.

      “Sarah, I must speak to you.”

      Sarah was stunned to see tears in Grace’s eyes. Fearing something serious had happened, Sarah shot to her feet. “Are you okay?”

      “Nee, I’m not. I love him so much.” Grace promptly buried her face in her hands and began sobbing.

      Sarah gathered the weeping girl in her arms. Matters of the heart were often painful, but never more so than when it was first love.

      “There, there, child. It will be all right.” Sarah led Grace to the living room and sat beside her on the sofa. The two women had been friends for years. They were as close as sisters.

      Between sobs, Grace managed to recount her evening with Henry Zook from the time they left the singing party. The whole thing boiled down to the fact that Henry had grown tired of waiting for Grace to accept his offer of marriage. The conversation soon turned to a quarrel. Henry, in a fit of anger, said Esta Barkman had been making eyes at him all evening. Maybe she was ready to settle down and marry.

      Sarah lifted her young neighbor’s face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “If you love him, why don’t you accept him? Is there someone else?”

      Grace rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “There’s Levi and the twins and the business. How can I leave my brothers? Levi can’t manage the business alone. He can barely speak to people he knows. He’s terrible at taking care of new customers. They’ll go elsewhere with their business and where will that leave him? You depend on the income from the shop, too.”

      “Your brother could hire someone to replace you. I know Mary Shetler would welcome the chance to have a job in an Amish business.”

      “I’m not sure she would want to work with the twins, knowing what they did.”

      Grace was probably right about that. Mary Shetler had left the Amish and wound up living with an English fellow who turned out to be a scoundrel. Just fifteen and pregnant at the time, Mary had been terrified to learn her boyfriend planned to sell her baby. She had the child alone one night while he was gone. Planning to leave her boyfriend for good as soon as she was able, she hid her infant daughter in an Amish buggy along with a note promising that she would return for her.

      The buggy belonged to Levi Beachy. The twins had taken it without permission and sneaked out to see a movie in another town. It wasn’t until they were on their way home that they discovered the baby. Afraid their midnight romp would get them in trouble if they brought the infant home, they stopped at the nearest farmhouse and left the child on the