Rebecca's Choice (40 page)

Ezra did the chores in the morning, while Elizabeth fixed breakfast and served Rachel in bed. They left with a final promise to keep tabs on her, after Elizabeth cleaned the kitchen and Ezra made one final check on the goats.

So began her existence again. Rachel would always remember those days, especially because of what came a few weeks later. A fancy
Englisha
car drove up the driveway late one Thursday evening. The day had been like most of her days, filled with goats, goat troubles, and goat chores. Rachel brushed her apron off and went out to see what this old man wanted. He came out of the car, moving slowly, as if he wanted to get a good look at the place.

“Are you Rachel Byler?” he asked as she approached.

“Yes,” she said, her face puzzled.

“Emma Miller your aunt? The Emma who never married?”

“Yes. And who are you?”

“The executor of Emma’s will, Manny Troyer,” he said. “This is now yours.”

She looked at the papers in his hand but made no attempt to take them.

“Why would you have something for me? Rebecca married Amish.”

“Yes,” he said looking pleased, a smile playing on his face. “She knows what to do with money. She’s a good girl, a great catch for that John of hers. This is your share.”

He held the papers out again, and she took them this time.

“All of it, except what the lawyer and I got paid. The rest is divided equally among the four of you. Hope you enjoy it.” And then he got back in his car and, without a backward glance, drove out the driveway.

Numbly she walked into the house and sat at her desk. The papers fell open in front of her—a deed to the old home place and a checkbook, which contained an account balance with commas in it.

She expected joy to leap in her heart. Many times she had imagined what the light of this day would be like, had thought this worth anything her life contained. Now the numbers on the checkbook swam before her eyes, and her arms trembled. With the goal in front of her, her hands around the prize, she laid her head on the desk and wept bitterly.

B
OOK
G
ROUP
D
ISCUSSION
Q
UESTIONS

1. How does John handle his fears? For those who have read the first two books in The Adams County Trilogy, describe how John’s attitudes have changed since his accident.
   
2. Why do you think Rachel’s brothers’ opinions about the inheritance had no effect on her?
   
3. Do you think the exuberance with which Ruth wrote the article for
   The Budget
   is typical of the average person writing about a personal cause?
   
4. What reasons did Manny Troyer give for never marrying? Do you think those reasons were genuine? Justifiable?
   
5. Did Isaac, as John’s father, do everything he should have to protect John and Rebecca from the accusation—that Rebecca is marrying John for money—noted in the card John received?
   
6. What do you think drove Rachel to such extremes in her quest for the inheritance?
   
7. Do you think Manny Troyer should have contacted Emma during their latter years?
   
8. Was John being loyal to Rebecca when he threatened to leave his faith and join the Mennonites?
   
9. Do you think Rebecca’s wedding day was all she had hoped for?
   
10. Did Rachel change her ways in the end?
    

About Jerry Eicher
…

As a boy,
Jerry Eicher
spent eight years in Honduras where his grandfather helped found an Amish community outreach. As an adult, Jerry taught for two terms in parochial Amish and Mennonite schools in Ohio and Illinois. He has also been involved in church renewal for 14 years, and has preached in churches and conducted weekend meetings of in-depth Bible teaching. Jerry lives with his wife, Tina, and their four children in Virginia.

To learn more about books by Jerry Eicher
or to read sample chapters, log on to our website:
www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Acknowledgments

Thanks, first of all, to the good people at Harvest House, who I am still getting to know. They are the ones who took the risk and welcomed me into the real world of publishing.

Thanks to the editors I work with, Nick Harrison and Peggy Wright. Terry Glaspey—the great mediator extraordinaire—you are good.

In the world outside Harvest House, there is a man to whom I cannot fully express my gratitude—Mr. John Gerber, the executive director of Choice Books of Midwest. It is no exaggeration to say that without him there would be no Jerry Eicher who writes Amish fiction. The dream would have died with the self-published memoirs of my childhood memories.

On that Saturday afternoon in the summer of 2005, I visited with Lavina Hostetler at her home, where I had boarded some twenty-three years prior as a parochial school teacher. That meeting was the last stop on what my wife, Tina, called my “book tour.” A sort of pitiful affair, but I was trying. I had by then given up on the book but showed it to Lavina anyway.

She said, “You have to talk to John Gerber from Choice Books. You know him from your school teaching days.”

I said, “Ja, I know him, but I also know Choice Books. They turned me down at the main office.”

“You have to talk to him,” she insisted and picked up the phone. Fifteen minutes later Mr. Gerber walked into her living room, sat down across from me, and cast his steely eye on my book.

“We need this kind of literature,” he said, “but this is all done wrong.”

“Okay,” I said. At least the man seemed willing to give me information.

What followed was rapid-fire information about the world of publishing, all highly classified and not to be disclosed here . . . just kidding. He took me down to the local Choice Books offices at Metamora and gave me the full tour.

I left with his promise that if I changed the cover he would test market ten copies. I did, and he kept his promise. On such a small thread hung my destiny as a writer. I think I sold six copies in two weeks—and I was in. From there he pushed me into writing romance, a place I would never have gone on my own. I only had mystery, suspense, and that sort of thing in mind.

Thanks, John. You have been a friend indeed.

Other books by the Author

T
HE
A
DAMS
C
OUNTY
T
RILOGY

By Jerry Eicher

R
EBECCA’S
P
ROMISE

The Adams County Trilogy, book one

Rebecca Keim has just declared her love to John Miller and agreed to become his wife. But she’s haunted by her schoolgirl memories of a long-ago love—and a promise made and a ring given. Is that memory just a fantasy come back to destroy the beautiful present… or was it real?

When Rebecca’s mother sends her back to the old home community in Milroy to be with her aunt during and after her childbirth, Rebecca determines to find answers that will resolve her conflicted feelings. Faith, love, and tradition all play a part in Rebecca’s divine destiny.

R
EBECCA’S
R
ETURN

The Adams County Trilogy, book two

Rebecca Keim returns to Wheat Ridge full of resolve to make her relationship with John Miller work. But in her absence, John has become suspicious of the woman he loves. Before their conflict can be resolved, John is badly injured and Rebecca is sent back to Milroy to aid her seriously ill aunt Leona.

In Milroy, Rebecca once again visits the old covered bridge over the Flatrock River, the source of her past memories and of her promise made so long ago.