Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3 (30 page)

Anna saw that someone had built a small wooden ramp onto the front doorstep so that it was easier for wheelchair access. She wanted to help Sarah Rose maneuver the chair, but it was obvious that the child wanted to do it herself so she stepped back and waited to see what happened next.

“I think what I said was someone had been cooped up for a while and needed to get outside for a while.”

“Maybe everyone would enjoy some fresh air,” Anna said, holding open the door and watching his progress down the wooden ramp.

“I can help
Daedi
,” Sarah Rose said, pushing the chair from behind.

“Careful, sweetheart, you’re going a little fast,” her father told her.

Anna noted his face paled and moved quickly to his side, prepared to stop the child if necessary.

“Here,
Daedi
, this is a nice sunny spot.” Sarah Rose stopped in the corner of the porch, and Anna helped her set the brake. “My grandmother says he’s looking awful white from being inside so much. He can get a tan here.”

He still looked pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His left arm and leg still wore casts, but oh, he looked wonderful to her.

“I’m thinking you’re looking a little green around the gills myself,” she told Gideon quietly as Sarah Rose hopped from one foot to the other. It was obvious that the two of them had come outside so that she could burn off some energy.

“Sarah Rose, I think there’s something in that box over there for you,” she told her, gesturing at where it sat in the corner of the porch.

The little girl raced over to it, pulled back the flaps, and out popped the head of the kitten she’d fallen in love with at Anna’s house.

Anna wasn’t sure who was more surprised—Sarah Rose or the kitten. Sarah Rose screamed and clapped her hands. The kitten jumped straight up and when it landed, it ran to Anna and tried scaling her skirts.

Laughing, she disentangled the pet and stroked it until it calmed before handing it to Sarah Rose. “Sit down with her and help her calm down,” she urged.

“Are you talking to my daughter or the kitten?” Gideon asked, leaning back in his chair and watching.

“Can I keep her? Please,
Daedi
, can I keep her?”

“What was this about me deciding things?” he asked Anna, his brow raised in irony.

“See how it feels?” she asked him with a touch of mischief. “I know, I shouldn’t have. But she needs a new home.”

“What’s wrong with the one she has now?”

“Sarah Rose, your
daedi
and I need to talk for a few minutes. I put a carton of milk and a bowl in the box. Do you think you could take her inside and give her some?”

The little girl looked from one to the other. Then she must have decided it would be more fun to feed the kitten. She nodded and scampered off with the kitten slung over her arm, the bowl and milk in her hands. The screen door slammed behind her.

Anna walked over to a rocking chair, sat, and fanned herself with her hand. “Getting warmer.”

He nodded, watching her.

“How are you feeling?”

“As good as a man can when he can’t take care of himself, let alone his farm.”

She looked out at the fields and nodded.

“Everyone turned out to finish the planting,” he told her, his gaze going with hers, seeming to look at the fields. But there was a faraway expression in his eyes, as if he were looking beyond the fields. “But you know. You were here to help feed the men on more than one occasion.”

He turned to her suddenly. “Grace doing all right? And the baby?”

“Eli, too.” Grace had gone into labor, and Eli had to leave to take her to his parents’ house where they’d planned a home birth.

“I passed them on the way coming home from the hospital that day,” he told her.

Anna found herself blinking hard against the hot tears that crowded the backs of her eyelids. “It could have been so different. I—” she stopped. She couldn’t say the words—
I could have lost you
.

He moved forward awkwardly in his chair. “But it didn’t. Obviously that wasn’t in God’s plan . . . although I’m not certain what God’s plan is yet.”

“Me, either.” She twisted her hands in her lap.

He reached out with his free hand. “There’s one thing I know, though. I’ve had a lot of time to think, being laid up. I don’t want to lose you. I want us to work things out. I need you to tell me if you’ll give me another chance.”

Anna bit her lip. “Will you give me another one, too?”

“You? Why do you think you need to ask that?”

“Because I’ve had a lot of time to think, too, and I realized that I might have overreacted. I looked for a reason to think we weren’t suited, that you’d overwhelm me, instead of trying to work out a way of us working together instead of against each other. A way so I wouldn’t just think I had to walk away.”

She took his free hand and lifted it, pressing one of hers against it. “This is what I should have done. Pushed back more.”

The screen door creaked. “Anna? Did you bring kitty any food?”

“I did. I’ll bring it in soon.”

“ ’Kay.” The door slammed again.

“So why does the kitten need a new home?” Gideon asked her, staring at her intently.

She turned back to him. “I’m thinking of moving. Of selling my farm.”

“Really?”

Nodding, she took a deep breath. “Samuel and I worked hard to start a life there, and it’s time to let someone else do it. I want to sell it to Eli and Grace. They’ll continue what Samuel and I started—in their own way, of course. Raise children there and fill the house with them and their laughter and their noise.”

She realized that he’d used his good foot to pull the chair closer to her. “And where will you live, Anna?”

“Here, if you’ll ask me to marry you again,” she said, feeling the butterflies in her stomach and trying to breathe. “With my heart in hand, I’m ready to give you all of it and not hold back.”

He took her hand in his, caressing the palm with his thumb. “I’ll take it and cherish it, Anna. And give you mine as well.” Leaning forward, he kissed her until she was breathless.

Lost in the kiss, they didn’t hear the sound of the screen door opening. When they broke apart, they were startled to see Sarah Rose standing there, the kitten clutched to her chest, grinning at them.

“Are you gonna come live with
Daedi
and the kitten and me here?”

Gideon laughed. “I don’t think you get to say no,” he told Anna. “Or at least, you may have trouble getting the kitten back.”

“Yes, I’m going to come live here, when your
daedi
and I get married after the harvest,” she said, stroking her hand over the girl’s head.

Sarah Rose grinned. “
Gut
.”

She hugged Anna’s neck, and the kitten squealed at being smooshed too closely between them.

Then she stood back. “Now can I feed the kitten?”

Anna and Gideon exchanged a bemused look.

“Get the box and we’ll open it for you,” he told his daughter. “Priorities,” he told Anna with a shake of his head.

Anna pulled the can, a spoon, and a dish from the box. She quickly opened the can and put a few spoonfuls in the bowl. “There you go,” she said, handing it to Sarah Rose.

She watched the girl set the bowl on the porch floor and hunch down to watch the kitten eat.

“Do you know what made me think we belonged together?” she asked Gideon.

“Aside from the fact that we love each other?”

Anna smiled. “Aside from that. Because love isn’t always enough. It was something the bishop said. He told me that he’d watched how we behaved with Sarah Rose when he saw us at church and such. Gideon, he said we were already behaving like parents and working things out as a family.”

Gideon’s eyes were warm and full of love—and more. “And there’ll be more,” he promised and she felt herself blush.

“If God wills,” she whispered.

“If God wills,” he agreed.

But somehow, deep in her heart, she knew he was right.

RECIPES

Creamed Celery

4 cups finely chopped celery

½ tsp. salt

½ c. sugar

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon flour

½ c. milk

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Cover celery with water in saucepan, add salt, sugar, and vinegar, and cook until tender. Drain. Combine flour and milk and bring to a boil. Stir in mayonnaise. Add cooked celery and mix until blended. Serve hot.

Snickerdoodles

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using mixer, beat butter for 30 seconds, then add sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar, and beat until combined. Add egg and vanilla, then slowly add flour until all is used. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for an hour. In small bowl combine the 4 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into one-inch balls, roll in cinnamon sugar mixture, and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

White Hot Chocolate

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

4 cups half-and-half

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peppermint sticks or candy canes, optional

Place chips in a saucepan over medium heat, add cream and stir until chips are melted. Add half-and-half and extract. Serve warm with peppermint sticks or candy canes as stirrers.

Three Bear Soup

(great for sick kids)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 pound stew meat or lean hamburger

2 large carrots, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 16-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables

1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, juice included

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp dried parsley

2 quarts beef or vegetable broth

Sauté onion, meat, carrots, and celery until meat is no longer pink. Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour (two hours are even better). Serve at a temperature that is not too hot, not too cool, but just right and see sick kids perk up.

Soup is even better the next day.

Alphabet macaroni or seashell macaroni may be added.

Glossary

allrecht
—all right

boppli
—baby

bruder
—brother

daedi
—daddy

danki
—thank you

dat
—father

dawdi haus
—addition to a house where elderly parents can live and be cared for, similar to an
Englisch
mother-in-law apartment.

Der Hochmut kummt vor dem Fall
. “Pride goeth before the fall.”

Englisch, Englischer
—Non-Amish person

fraa
—wife

guder mariye
—good morning

gut
—good

hungerich
—hungry

kaffe—coffee

kapp
—prayer covering or cap worn by girls and women

kich
—kitchen

kind, kinner
—child, children

kumm
—come

liebschen
—dearest or dear one

maedel
—young woman (maid)

mamm
—mother

mann
—husband

nee
—no

Ordnung
—The rules of the Amish, both written and unwritten. Certain behavior has been expected within the Amish community for many, many years. These rules vary from community to community, but the most common are not to have electricity in the home, not to own or drive an automobile, and to dress a certain way.

Pennsylvania Deitsch
—Pennsylvania German

rumschpringe
—time period when teenagers are allowed to experience the
Englisch
world while deciding if they should join the church. It is not the wild period so many
Englisch
imagine, according to Amish sources.

schul
—school

schur
—sure

schweschder
—sister

sohn
—son

wilkumm
—welcome

wunderbaar
—wonderful

ya
—yes

zwillingbopplin
—twins

Discussion Questions

Caution: Please don’t read before completing the book because the questions contain spoilers!

1. Anna and Gideon have been widowed at a young age. Why do you think God would put two people together only to take one away?

2. Have you lost someone you loved? How did you deal with the loss?

3. Some people would think that Anna and Gideon have a lot in common. What do you think they have in common? What were their challenges to their relationship?

4. How did Anna help Sarah Rose deal with the loss of her mother?

5. What do you think parents can learn from the Amish?