They need her help. She needs them...
An Amish bachelor. A motherless child.
Can she turn them into a real family?
Schoolteacher Patience Flaud longs for a family of her own—but knows it can never happen. At least she can help Amish bachelor Thomas Wiebe with his small Englisher daughter. As she settles the child into Amish life, Patience begins falling for the bewildered new father and his heartbroken little girl. But is love enough to make them a permanent family?
“I don’t know anything about Englisher children...”
Thomas smiled sadly. “Me neither.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Patience said.
“I’d hoped to make a Plain girl of her faster than this,” he admitted ruefully. “But God teaches patience with children. Isn’t that what they say?”
“It is.” She smiled. “And I’m about to have a whole schoolhouse full of them, so maybe you should feel grateful for just one.”
Thomas cracked a smile then, and laughed softly. “Maybe I should.” He jutted his chin toward the door. “I’m going to go hitch up the buggy.”
Patience watched as he headed out the side door, and she put a hand over her pattering heart. She wasn’t blind to his broad shoulders and warm smile—it would be easier if she were, because it wasn’t that she didn’t want to marry...she did. But she was going to be a disappointment to whoever tried to court her.
Patience was a teacher and a helpful neighbor. Nothing else. She’d best remember it. Strong hands and broad shoulders didn’t change that she wasn’t the wife for Thomas.
Patricia Johns writes from Alberta, Canada. She has her Hon. BA in English literature and currently writes for Harlequin’s Love Inspired and Heartwarming lines. You can find her at patriciajohnsromance.com.
Books by Patricia Johns
Love Inspired
Redemption’s Amish Legacies
The Nanny’s Amish Family
Montana Twins
Her Cowboy’s Twin Blessings
Her Twins’ Cowboy Dad
A Rancher to Remember
Comfort Creek Lawmen
Deputy Daddy
The Lawman’s Runaway Bride
The Deputy’s Unexpected Family
Harlequin Heartwarming
The Second Chance Club
Their Mountain Reunion
Home to Eagle’s Rest
Her Lawman Protector
Falling for the Cowboy Dad
The Lawman’s Baby
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
THE NANNY’S AMISH FAMILY
Patricia Johns
A father of the fatherless...
God setteth the solitary in families.
—Psalm 68:5–6
To my husband—
you’re the best choice I ever made! I love you.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Excerpt from Starting Over in Texas by Jessica Keller
Chapter One
Thomas Wiebe pushed himself to his feet and headed toward the side door to look out at the warm August evening. Low, golden sunlight washed over the grass, and birds twittered their evening songs. His jittery nerves didn’t match the peaceful scene. The social services agent who had come by the night before had said that they’d be here by seven, and it was a quarter past already.
“Stop fussing, Thomas,” Mammi said, pulling a boiling kettle from the woodstove. Her crisp, white kapp was a shade brighter than her white hair. “She’ll come.”
Thomas glanced back at his family in the kitchen. They weren’t all blood relatives, but this was as close to family as he had left in the community of Redemption, Pennsylvania. His older brother, Noah, sat with a glass of lemonade in front of him, his straw hat on the table. Thomas and Noah were both old enough to be married with families of their own by now, but not having found the right wife meant that they stayed here with Uncle Amos—an honorary uncle, not a biological one—and his elderly grandmother. It was a house filled with men, as Mammi described it.
And any minute now, Thomas’s daughter would be joining them... His daughter. He’d known about her, but he’d never been given the option to be in her life. Thomas had made a mistake with an Englisher girl on his lengthy Rumspringa, and the breakup had been messy. Tina wanted nothing more to do with him. It wasn’t that he forgot about his daughter, but he’d accepted that heartbreak as part of the consequences for his mistakes. Coming back home to Redemption four years ago was supposed to be his new start. But when a social services agent came to his house last night and told him of a fatal car accident that killed his daughter’s mother, everything had changed.
His daughter, Rue, was now coming to live with him after never having met him even once in her young life. Would she hate him just a little? He wouldn’t blame her. But at the age of four, he wasn’t sure how much she’d even understand about her new situation.
Outside, a car rumbled up the drive, and Thomas pulled open the screen door and stepped out onto the raised patio next to the house. A clothesline full of men’s pants and shirts flapped in a warm breeze.
Thomas waited while the car stopped, the door opened and the social services agent from yesterday got out. She shot Thomas a smile and waved. She was an older woman, plump and pleasant. Tanya Davis, she’d said.
“Good evening, Mr. Wiebe!” Tanya called.
Thomas would do just fine, but he didn’t trust himself to speak just yet. He came down the steps toward the car and glanced back to see Noah and Amos in the door. Tanya opened the back door to the car and leaned in, undoing the buckles from a children’s car seat. Then she backed out again, followed by a small, frail child.
The little girl stood there, a teddy bear clutched in front of her. She wore a pair of pink pants and a ruffled purple T-shirt. Her hair was stringy and blond, and she looked around herself with large, frightened blue eyes. She reminded him of a bedraggled bird.
Thomas came closer, unsure if he’d scare her or not.
“Hello,” he said in English. He wasn’t very eloquent in English... But then he wasn’t very eloquent in German, either.
The little girl looked at him, silent.
“I’m your daet, it would seem,” he said slowly. Then he realized she might not know the word. “I’m your...father.”
“Hello, Mr. Wiebe.” Tanya held
