A Simple Faith: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel (47 page)

“Dylan?” Elsie called.

“Mmm?” Dylan turned as the small girl appeared with Ruben by her side. “Hey, guys.”

“You two lovebirds look like tourists,” Ruben teased. “Zook’s barn is a family place, you know.”

“You’re right.” Dylan bit back a grin as Haley sidled away from him. “I apologize. We just lost our senses for a minute. Spring fever, I guess.”

Elsie’s bright smile told Haley that she understood, and Elsie was glad to see her friend side by side with the man she loved. If they hadn’t worked things out, Haley was confident that they would find their way together sometime soon. With the blessing of God’s love, Elsie and Ruben would marry and have a large brood of children.

Just like us
, Haley thought, smiling up at the man she loved.
All with God’s blessing
.

I
t is a true joy to write about the kind, caring people of Halfway, and I’m grateful to the people who help me make that happen.

Abundant thanks to Dr. Violet Dutcher, who helps me keep the details and spirit of the Amish culture authentic. Your anecdotes touch my heart, and it makes my day when you tell me I got it right!

It’s rare to find an editor who worries about my characters as much as I do, but Junessa Viloria is a master at squeezing the dramatic potential from every character, every moment. Many thanks to Junessa and the fabulous staff at Ballantine.

To my agent Robin Rue, who is always bringing me brand-new seeds to sow, it’s all good. Isn’t it fun to watch them grow?

Read on for an exciting preview of

A Simple Hope

THE NEXT LANCASTER CROSSROADS NOVEL

BY ROSALIND LAUER

1

A
PRIL

T
he gentle spring breeze sent cherry blossoms floating through the air, pink petals settling over Rachel King and James Lapp as they walked hand in hand through the orchard.

Rachel stepped away from James and held her arms out, wanting to breathe in the beauty of the blossom shower. “It’s like falling snow!”

James planted his legs apart and tipped back his hat. A slight smile appeared as he watched her reach out to catch falling petals. “That’s the difference between us, Rachel. You see a shower of flowers. I see early blooms that’ll wither if we get a late frost.”

“So practical.”

“That’s what I like about living off the land. It keeps a man down to earth.”

“I know you’re used to this wonderful sight, working in the orchard every day, but there’s something about blossoming trees that makes the heart burst with joy.”

“Ya, if you don’t have to prune them.” The warmth in his dark eyes told her he was teasing.

“Is it a chore when you love what you do? You’ve told me yourself that your dat used to call you a tree monkey. When it was time to pick peaches, he couldn’t get you to use the ladder.”

James chuckled. “That was me.” He took a flying leap and grabbed on to an overhead branch and hung there a moment, before doing an easy chin-up.

“You’re still a tree monkey!” she said, glorying in the cascade of petals loosened by the jolt to the tree limb.

With dark hair that framed his handsome face and smoky eyes that warmed for Rachel, James was solid and well-grounded. His steady calm was one of the things that had won Rachel over a year ago when he’d started driving her home from singings and youth gatherings. At a time when other Amish fellas were putting boom boxes in their buggies and tossing back beers, James followed a simple path, choosing baptism and the management of the Lapp family orchards. Rachel liked to picture him as the root system that anchored her to the earth.

James dropped to the ground and leaned down to pick up a fallen bud. “Here’s one for you.”

Rachel held her breath as he came close, brushing back the edge of her prayer kapp to tuck the pale pink bud over her left ear. His touch sent shimmers rippling down her spine even as the gesture warmed her from head to toe. Ya, he kept her feet on the ground, but he let her heart soar.

“There.” His dark eyes held her as his broad hands dropped to her shoulders. “You’re the finest blossom in the Lapp orchards.” His
arms encircled her, and she melted in his embrace. Rachel loved the way he made her feel small and delicate against his strong, solid body.

“We should go to the sugar shack,” she murmured. “Out here in the orchard … people can see. Your parents might be watching.”

“With these trees in full bloom? I think we’re well hidden.” He caught her in his dark gaze. The flicker in his eyes let her know that he was feeling the same love that stirred her heart. Could he feel the quiet tremble of her limbs? Or the wooziness that overtook her when his lips nuzzled her jaw, leaving a trail of tingling sensation that became heated by his warm breath?

“Besides,” he whispered, “I don’t care if they see us. I don’t care if they know that I love you, Rachel.”

I love you, Rachel
.

His words swelled and blossomed inside her, filling her heart with goodness and light. But just when they were about to kiss, the sweet moment faded, slipping away like sugar sifting between her fingers.

A dream … it was all a dream.

In the pink light of early morning, Rachel opened her eyes to blots of color that made up the large bedroom shared by the King girls.

Just a dream.

Rachel closed her eyes and clung to the sweetness, holding tight to the scent of cherry blossoms and the sureness of love. James loved her! And James was strong, standing and walking and swinging from a tree, as healthy and hearty as ever!

She tried to hold on to the goodness of the dream, but reality tapped on her mind like falling raindrops.

The reality of the accident was just as vivid, with the sickening screech of tires on the road, the grind of metal. Although Rachel
had been able to walk away from the wrecked van, James had not. He was still recovering from spinal injuries, confined to a wheelchair for now. Maybe forever.

Sighing, she rolled over to see her younger sisters asleep in the double bed. Twelve-year-old Bethany’s bare foot hung out from under the quilt, and nine-year-old Molly’s sweet lips were pursed like a rosebud. Sleep was the only time Molly’s lips were still, but Rachel didn’t mind her chatterbox little sister. In fact, her sister’s gabbing was just the sort of reassuring company Rachel had sought when she had given up her room in the attic to move down here with the younger girls. Rachel had hoped to spend more time with her sister Rose, too, but Rose, now sixteen, had other notions. Eager to leap into rumspringa, Rose had missed the point of companionship and moved up to Rachel’s room, sure that a young man would soon come courting at her window. Oh, Rose, so full of dreams!

Still, Rachel was grateful for the chance to talk more with the other girls, whose steady breathing in the bed across from her was reassuring. Let Rose have the room upstairs; no young man would be calling for Rachel anytime soon, not with James still unable to walk.

Rachel closed her eyes in the hopes of recapturing the sweet dream—reliving the time when James had moved freely and managed the family orchard without fail. With a deep breath, she tried to bring back the scent of blossoms and the warm strength of James’s arms around her.

But the dream was gone, and so was the James she had fallen in love with. The accident had pulled him away from her … so far away. Many things changed when a vehicle had hit the van Rachel and James had been riding in back in January. The other driver, a young Englisher girl, had been killed, and James’s uncle Tom Lapp had died later in the hospital. So much heartbreak for two families,
Englisher and Amish alike. The accident had sent old Jacob Fisher into a fit of terrible breathing, but he seemed to be recovering, thank the good Lord. And James, her James, had hurt his back, really bad.

The golden wash of light told Rachel that it would be time to get out of bed soon. Time to wake her sisters and roust them from bed. There would be the morning chores to do, breakfast to prepare. Cows to milk, and a house and barns to clean. All tasks that went against Rachel’s grain. But now, she would do the stinkiest chores gladly if it meant that James could get better.

She slid out of bed, pulled the quilt over her shoulders and padded barefoot to the window seat Dat had built. Outside, sunshine shot over the green and purple hills in the distance. The morning air was cold, but the sun promised a warmth to the day—Gott’s promise of springtime and light and hope. Rachel thought of the colors in the paint kit her Englisher friend Haley had given her and wished she had time to paint right now. How she would enjoy mixing colors to come up with spring-green field, daffodil yellow, crocus purple, and the rich blots of pink and purple and orange and red that made up a sunrise. But these days, she didn’t have time to paint if she wanted to see James and attend counseling sessions with the other accident victims.

She kneeled beside the window seat and clasped her hands together for a silent prayer.
Dear Gott, please heal James. Teach him to walk again. Please, don’t let my selfish dreams get in his way
.

Long before the terrible accident, Rachel had thought of marrying James, and their relationship had been moving in that direction. But Rachel had secretly dreamed of a life away from the work of a farm or orchard. Her paintings sold well at the Country Store in Halfway—so well that she had been invited to sell them in a gallery in Philadelphia. In the back of her mind, she had always wanted to leave farm life behind and live in a small house in Halfway. With
her love of peace and quiet and her yearning to paint all day and all night, Rachel longed to break free of the bonds of milking cows twice a day, tending to the chickens, and weeding the family vegetable garden.

Plenty of Amish had moved away from tending the land. Her cousin Market Joe traveled to Philadelphia six days a week to run the family cheese shop in the city’s market. James’s cousin Elsie Lapp ran their family’s store in Halfway. Why couldn’t she be among those who left the farm behind for a job or craft? She knew the bishop would allow it. The only fly in the ointment had been James. He loved working the orchard, a life of sunshine, he said. Before the accident, he would not have considered living in town.

And now? She wasn’t sure what James was planning for the future. The James she loved, the man in her dream, was so hard to reach these days. And how she missed him! Without his sure, steady footing, she felt unsure and scared, like a seed blowing in the wind with no say in its direction, no idea where she might land.

Dear Gott, please bring James back to me
.

“Rachel?” Molly’s voice chirped from the bed. “Are you praying for James?”

“Ya, always.”

“Me, too. Every morning and every night, and sometimes in between, I pray for Gott to heal his legs so that he can walk again. Bethany says I shouldn’t tell Gott what to do, but Bishop Sam says we can pray for anything. Bishop says that Gott always listens, but he doesn’t always give us the answer we want.”

“I’ve heard Bishop Samuel say that, too.” Rachel turned back toward the bed, where her little sister was sitting up, twisting one of her long blond braids around one hand. Little sprigs of Molly’s wheat-gold hair had worked loose along her hairline, and the fluffy hair and shiny eyes made her resemble a baby chick.

“Thank you for praying, Molly,” Rachel said. “Right now, I think James needs every prayer he can get.”

“Do his legs hurt him really bad?” the younger girl asked.

“I don’t think it’s pain that’s the problem.” Although James had not offered to discuss his medical condition with Rachel, from what she’d overheard during her visits, it was the lack of sensation in James’s legs that left him unable to walk. A few times a week, therapists visited the Lapp house to help James through his exercises so that his muscles wouldn’t weaken and atrophy. The doctors were still not sure about his future—about whether or not he would walk again. No, pain wasn’t what was bothering James. It was fear that he wouldn’t recover.