Jude gazed at Leah, his throat tight with emotion. “I’m sorry about all of this, sweetheart. I had no idea the girls were treating you so badly.”
Leah’s shrug was lopsided. “I should’ve spoken up sooner. I just didn’t know how.”
Jude nodded. “I know the feeling. I don’t know how any of this blew up in our faces—and I don’t know how we’re going to patch our family back together now that Adeline and Alice have ripped such a hole in it.”
Leah smiled. She already looked weary, and she still had to get through a tough day with the kids. “We’ll have to trust that God knows the answers, and have the patience to recognize them—to grab on to them—when He brings us the help we need.”
How could she speak with such simple confidence, after the way his girls had scorned her? Jude grasped her hand and kissed it. “You’re right, Leah. Let’s hope God provides some gut ideas sooner rather than later,” he murmured. “Denki for your faith, and for sticking with me. I love you.”
Don’t miss any of Charlotte Hubbard’s Amish romances:
Seasons of the Heart series
Summer of Secrets
Autumn Winds
Winter of Wishes
An Amish Country Christmas
Breath of Spring
Harvest of Blessings
The Christmas Cradle
An Amish Christmas Quilt
Promise Lodge series
Promise Lodge
Christmas at Promise Lodge
Weddings at Promise Lodge
Simple Gifts series
A Simple Vow
A Simple Wish
Mother’s Day books
A Mother’s Love
A Mother’s Gift
CHARLOTTE HUBBARD
KENSINGTON BOOKS
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
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Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Teaser chapter
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2018 by Charlotte Hubbard
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
BOUTIQUE Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
eISBN-13: 978-1-4967-1219-6
eISBN-10: 1-4967-1219-6
First Kensington Electronic Edition: April 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1218-9
In loving memory of Ioma Hubbard,
my wonderful mother-in-law.
We miss you.
Acknowledgments
Heartfelt thanks to Alicia Condon for your editorial instinct and insight, which improved this book so much! Many thanks to my agent, Evan Marshall, for your career guidance and friendship! Most of all I thank God for words and ideas I couldn’t have come up with on my own.
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
—Proverbs 22:6
Chapter 1
As Lenore Otto sat on the bed with Leah, wistfully watching the dusk of late November fill her daughter’s room, her heart was torn. The two of them had shared this evening ritual of talking and praying since Lenore’s husband, Raymond, had died last year. It had always brought her a comforting sense of peace, along with the certainty that she and her daughter would move forward with the plans God had for them. After all the cleaning they’d done and the preparations they’d made to host Leah’s wedding festivities the next day, she was ready to relax—but she needed to speak the words that weighed so heavily on her heart.
Tomorrow, when Leah got married, their lives would follow separate paths. Lenore knew she would be fine remaining on the small farm alone, making and selling her specialty quilts. She supposed some of her qualms about her daughter’s marriage plagued every mother. . . .
Lord, I wish I could believe my Leah’s reaching toward happiness rather than heartache.
Before God’s still, small voice could respond to Lenore, Leah let out an ecstatic sigh. “Oh, Mama, it’s a dream come true,” she whispered. “Starting tomorrow, when I marry Jude, my life will finally be the way I’ve always wanted it. My waiting is over!”
Not for the first time, Lenore sighed inwardly at her daughter’s fantasy. As she returned Leah’s hug, savoring these precious moments in the room where her little girl had matured into a woman of twenty-eight, she didn’t have it in her to shatter Leah’s dreams. No mother wanted her daughter to forever remain a maidel, yet during these final hours before the wedding, Lenore thought she should try once again to point out the realities of marrying Jude Shetler. Jude was a fine, upstanding man any parent would be pleased to welcome as a son-in-law, but as a widower he carried a certain amount of . . . baggage.
“Leah, your life will change in ways you can’t anticipate when you marry,” Lenore began softly. She rested her head against the headboard, grasping her daughter’s hand. “When you move into a man’s home—”
“Oh, Mama, you’ve already told me what to expect in the bedroom,” Leah interrupted with a nervous giggle. “It’s not as though I haven’t seen the cows and the horses mating.”
Lenore closed her eyes, praying for words that would gently pierce the balloon of maidenly naïveté in which Leah seemed to live. “There’s more to marriage than mating,” she whispered earnestly. “You’ll be moving into a home where Jude and his kids have established their routine. We’ve both heard the rumors about how Alice and Adeline might be behaving inappropriately during their rumspringa—”
“They’re sixteen, and they’re very pretty,” Leah quickly pointed out. “Twins are inclined to get
