Butterfly Garden (35 page)

When he’d looked for Miriam, three years after leaving her, and found his motherless babies instead, he’d considered the best place to raise them and thought this might be it. Now, with Rachel holding them, he was certain of it. But already he knew it would be much harder to watch her and Simon together than he had imagined.

Nevertheless, he was staying … unless he got tossed out.

Simon must have read his resolve, for the Deacon rocked on his heels, clasped his hands behind his back and turned from such a rotten-apple brother as he to gaze at the men about him.

“Who do you think has the most important role in the Amish Church?” Simon asked with great interest. “Is it the Preacher? The Deacon? Is it the Bishop?” He paused to build expectation, searched the men’s faces.

Simon raised an arm to signal the power in his words. “I will tell you who,” he shouted. “It is the women with babies on their laps who have the most important role in our church.”

Jacob sat straighter. Swift and bright, understanding came. Rachel was barren. And Simon was up to his old tricks. His sanctimonious judgment, dispensed now through sermon, would emerge as God’s words. Coated in pretty sentiment, the new Deacon had just shamed his wife before the entire church district.

‘Lift not the sword,’ they’d been taught from birth. Not that the English lived it, and neither had he. But he was Amish again, for good or ill … and he wanted more than ever to plant his fist in his brother’s face.

Good beginning.

Jacob sighed. This was not going to be easy.

Then he saw the tic in Simon’s cheek, the color reddening his neck, signs of discomposure, most likely anger. And Jacob’s heart lightened, for Simon was gaping at Rachel, two tiny two-year-olds to her heart, looking for all the world like an angel, her attention not on him but on the babies in her lap.

Jacob suppressed his chuckle and grinned. She probably hadn’t heard a word her husband said.

With a struggle, likely only visible to this rotten-apple brother, Simon composed himself and turned his sermon toward repentance and the like … until a child’s wail split the air, and the Deacon’s voice was silenced once more.

Everyone craned their necks to see whose child dared interrupt. But Jacob knew. Emma was awake.

Simon glared at Rachel.

Jacob stood to go to her, knowing how difficult it could be to maneuver two heavy babies.

She implored him with her eyes as he came from the back.

I’m coming, Mudpie
, he said with his look.

Hurry,
she begged with hers.

Aaron, awakened by his sister’s screams, scrambled to the floor, allowing Rachel to carry Emma to the kitchen, shushing her and kissing her tears.

The crowd tittered and a few men chuckled as Aaron stood in the middle of the room looking up at Simon, the uncle he did not know, and pulled on his trouser leg. “Pee pee,” his boy said.

“Ach,” Jacob said as he scooped his son into his arms. “First time he asks to go. I have waited for this day.”

A round of hearty laughter followed them outside. “Good boy, Aaron,” Jacob said, rolling his eyes. And then he began to laugh.

Author’s Biography

Edward Tenczar Studios

Former prep-school administrator and award-winning author Annette Blair owes her theme of "Magic with Heart," to Salem, Massachusetts. The
national bestseller writes
single titles for Berkley Sensations and Vintage Magic Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. And thanks to Lachesis Publishing, her historical backlist can soon be found on an e-reader near you.

I
n her thirty plus books, she’s explored nineteenth-century Amish Country; Regency and Victorian Britain; and madcap, modern Salem Mass, where bold women follow the Celtic faith with heart. There, she fought dragons, and fell in love with an angel. More recently, she’s solved mysteries beside Connecticut’s Mystic River. Wherever Annette landed, she thrived. An adventurer and storyteller at heart, she’s proud to be a second generation American with French Canadian roots.

Annette's work has garnered multiple Romantic Times TOP PICKS, Reviewers’ Choice Awards, and HOLT Medallion nominations. A triple Golden Heart Finalist, she's also finaled in the Golden Leaf, the Lauries, the Golden Quill, and the National Readers' Choice Awards. She’s won multiple Booksellers Best Awards, LORIES Awards, Laurel Wreath, Blue Boa, Aspen Gold, RIO, Southern Magic, More than Magic, Orange Rose, Winter Rose, PRISM, Beacon, Colorado Awards of Excellence, Write Touch Readers' Choice Awards and an Orange County Book Buyer's Best Award. With
Sex and the Psychic Witch
, Annette took home three Anne-Bonney Readers’ Choice Awards out of four.
Vampire Dragon
, her third Works Like Magick novel, a "B&N Jules's Pick Must Read" and a "Night Owl 5 star TOP PICK" hit stores in April 2011.
Skirting the Grave
,
her fourth Vintage Magic Mystery, arrived in July 2011.