Acclaim for Amish Novella Collections
“[T]riple the enjoyment here thanks to this gathering of novellas in one book. The trio of stories . . . create a tight braid of friendship and love as three young women follow their hearts despite bumps in the road.”
—Publishers Weekly review of An Amish Wedding
“Three of the top authors in Christian literature collaborate on these three Amish-themed novellas. Characters overlap in the stories, which brings unity to the book. These heartwarming tales focus on finding oneself and finding love.”
—Romantic Times, 4-star review of An Amish Love
“Perfect for the holiday season, this trilogy also makes good reading for fans of Amish fiction.”
—Library Journal review of An Amish Christmas
“While the Amish maintain a plain lifestyle, that doesn’t mean they’re strangers to love or loss. In this captivating anthology, the characters keep readers engaged. The stories are authentic, inspiring and positive. Also included are some Amish recipes and a handy glossary of words and phrases.”
—Romantic Times 4.5-star review of An Amish Gathering
“[T]hese three warm, entertaining stories are sure to please readers curious about the world of the Plain People as well as fans of Beverly Lewis, Cindy Woodsmall, and other authors of Amish fiction.”
—Library Journal review of An Amish Gathering
ADDITIONAL COLLECTIONS FROM THESE AUTHORS
An Amish Christmas
An Amish Gathering
An Amish Love
OTHER NOVELS BY KELLY LONG
A Patch of Heaven series
Sarah’s Garden
Lilly’s Wedding Quilt
OTHER NOVELS BY KATHLEEN FULLER
The Hearts of Middlefield series
A Man of His Word
An Honest Love
A Hand to Hold
The Middlefield Family series
Treasuring Emma
The Mysteries of Middlefield series for young readers
A Summer Secret
The Secrets Beneath
Hide and Secret
OTHER NOVELS BY BETH WISEMAN
The Daughters of the Promise series
Plain Perfect
Plain Pursuit
Plain Promise
Plain Paradise
Plain Proposal
The Land of Canaan series
Seek Me with All Your Heart
The Wonder of Your Love
An Amish Wedding
KELLY LONG
KATHLEEN FULLER
BETH WISEMAN
© 2011 by Kathleen Fuller, Kelly Long, and Elizabeth Wiseman Mackey
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Long, Kelly.
An Amish wedding / Kelly Long, Kathleen Fuller, Beth Wiseman.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-921-1 (trade paper)
1. Amish—Fiction. 2. Christian fiction, American. 3. Love stories, American.
I. Fuller, Kathleen. II. Wiseman, Beth, 1962- III. Title.
PS648.A45L68 2011
813'.6—dc23
2011035347
Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 QG 5 4 3 2 1
KELLY: For my girl, Gracie
KATHLEEN: To my family
BETH: To Pat Mackey, my fabulous mother-in-law
GLOSSARY
ab im kopp—off in the head, crazy
ach—oh
aenti—aunt
appeditlich—delicious
bensel—hard to handle; a handful
bruder—brother
daadi haus—a small house built onto or near the main house for grandparents to live in
daag—day
daed—dad
danki—thanks
Derr Herr—God
dochder—daughter
dumm—dumb
dummkopf—dummy
eck—special place for bride and groom at the corner of the wedding table
Englisch—non-Amish
Englischer—a non-Amish person
familye—family
frau—wife
freind—friend
geh—go
gut—good
haus—house
hiya—hello
kaffee—coffee
kapp—prayer covering or cap
kinn, kinner—child, children
kumme—come
lieb—love
maedel or maed—girl or girls
mamm—mom
mann—man, men
mei—my
milch—milk
mudder—mother
narrisch—crazy
nee—no
nix—nothing
onkel—uncle
roascht—bread stuffing and chicken baked in a casserole
rumschpringe—running-around period when a teenager
turns sixteen years old
schee—handsome
schwester—sister
seltsam—weird
sohn—son
was in der welt—what in the world
wunderbaar—wonderful
ya—yes
Yankee—non-Amish person, term used in Middlefield, Ohio
CONTENTS
A PERFECT SECRET
Prologue
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
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
A PERFECT MATCH
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
A PERFECT PLAN
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
; Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Reading Group Guide
Amish Recipes
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
A PERFECT
SECRET
KELLY LONG
In Hebrew, perfect means “whole or complete.” It is God’s desire for our lives that we become perfect or whole in Him. He is slowly revealing His perfect secret for each of our lives.
Prologue
“THAT’S IT? THAT’S MY WEDDING PROPOSAL?” NINETEEN-year-old Rose Bender stared at her best friend in the waning light of the cool summer evening.
Luke Lantz’s dark blue eyes held steady as always. “Ya, what more do you expect?”
Rose half bounced in the buggy seat, trying not to let Luke’s typical calmness rile her into a temper that would match the unruly black curls tucked beneath her kapp. What more did she expect? It was a fair question.
She’d known Luke for all of her young life, and he was right—a marriage was something that would please both of their families and have the strong foundation of their friendship at its base. It would also unite two lands, the rich soil that ran parallel in property. And, perhaps most importantly, it would bring a woman’s touch to the motherless Lantz household. But it might have helped if Luke could have conjured up a few romantic words to add to the moment. Yet, at twenty-three, he was what he was: Placid. Faithful. Secure. And when Rose was with him, it was rather like skating on a pond that had been deep-frozen for months—no chance for a crack in the ice. Perfectly safe. Not that she should desire anything more.
“I accept,” she said with determination and not a little defiance. She wanted to silence the doubts that echoed inside—that suggested she knew him too well to have a romantic marriage. And the realistic fears that she could never live up to the legacy of domesticity and kindness his mother had left behind just two short years ago. She told herself that it had to be more than enough to fulfill the expectations of Luke’s father and her parents and to find a strong base in a wealth of memories—school days, sledding and ice-skating together, long walks and throwing horse chestnuts into the pond, and serious conversations about life—though not necessarily about love.
“Gut. I thank you, Rose. I believe, with Derr Herr’s blessing, that it will be a successful match.”
She nodded, then slid closer to his lean form, reaching to trail her fingers in the brown hair at the nape of his neck. She felt him tense, but she ignored it.
“Luke,” she whispered, “now that we’re engaged, maybe we could kiss a bit more?”
His strong jaw tightened, and he turned to peck neatly at her lips, moving away before she could even close her eyes. He disentangled her hand from his hair and gave it a cool squeeze, then picked up the reins. “We’d best move on,” he said. “It’s getting late.”
And that’s that, she thought ruefully, comforting herself with the knowledge that he would be too dutiful to maintain such distance once the marriage ceremony was over. She stifled a sigh at the unusually irreverent thought and focused on the dim road ahead.
Chapter One
TWO MONTHS LATER . . .
THE SUNLIGHT OF EARLY AUTUMN FILTERED THROUGH the clear windowpanes and made passing shadows on the wide fir floor of the Bender farmhouse. The family was gathered for a hearty meal, and the gut smells of cooking mingled with robust conversation.
“I tell you that it’s downright odd, that’s what.” Rose’s father gestured with his fork to the lunch table at large. “Two of our hens—our best layers, mind you—a goat from the Lamberts’, and the sheets from old Esther Mast’s clothesline. All of it missing, and dozens of other things from the community over the past few months. I say there’s a thief hereabouts, and that’s the truth.”
Rose’s mother calmly passed the platter of sauerkraut and kielbasa to Rose’s two older brothers to take seconds. Then she offered the fresh platter of airy biscuits to Aenti Tabitha, Father’s sister, and nodded her head as her husband sputtered himself out.
“Maybe it’s a Robin Hood type of thief,” Aenti Tabitha ventured, her brown eyes shining. At fifty, she often seemed as young as a girl to Rose with all of her romantic ideas and flights of fancy. Yet her suggestion stilled Rose’s hand for a moment over the saltshaker. What would it be like to meet such a romantic figure of a man? Dark and mysterious in nature . . .
Abram Bender shook his head at Aenti Tabitha. “Tabby, you always have had a heart of gold—looking for the best in others. But Rob in the Hood, like the Englisch folktale? Taking from the rich to give to the poor? Who’s poor in our community? Don’t we all see to each other? Nee, this is just a thief, plain and simple. And I don’t like it one bit.”
“The weather’ll change over the next month or so,” Ben remarked over a forkful of boiled potatoes. “Any thief is likely to drop off in his ways once there’s snow on the ground to track him.”
“Or her,” Rose said, for some reason wanting to provoke.
“What?” her father asked.
“I said her. Your thief could be a female, Daed.” She didn’t really think the thief was female, yet she had a strange urge to enter the suggestion into her father’s mind.
Her daed gave a shout of laughter, then resumed eating. Ben turned to her with a smile while her other brother, James, just rolled his eyes.
“Rose, no woman in her right mind is going to go thieving about,” Daed said. “It’s a gut thing you’re marrying Luke come December. Maybe he’ll settle down some of your wild ideas.”
“Perhaps.” She smiled, her green eyes flashing heat for a brief second.
“Well,” Ben interjected, “Rose’s narrisch thoughts aside—there’s a storm due tonight, supposed to be a doozy.”
“Ya, I heard.” Father rose from the table and hitched up his suspenders. “Come on, boys. We’d best tighten down a few things.” He bent to pat Mamm’s shoulder. “Danki for lunch.” Then he pinched Rose’s cheek fondly. “And no more foolish thoughts from you, my miss. Remember, you’re to be a married woman soon.”
Rose didn’t respond. She toyed with her fork instead, making a mash of the potato as an idea began to take shape in her head.
AS ROSE CLEARED THE LUNCH TABLE MECHANICALLY, SHE avoided her aenti’s eagle eyes. Ever since she’d been little, she’d felt as though Aenti Tabby could see the subdued thoughts churning inside her head, and just for a moment she wanted to debate the merits of her plan undisturbed. Still, she knew the intent look on her aunt’s face and had to admit that the older woman’s intuition had fended off trouble for her many a time. But today—something was different. Today Rose wanted trouble. She drew a sharp breath at the hazardous thought, but the idea fit with her nature of late. It seemed as though her spirit had grown more restless, less satisfied with life, ever since she’d accepted Luke’s proposal. She’d tried to pray about it, stretching her feelings out before the Lord for guidance, but nothing had come to her.
Aenti Tabby caught her eye in an unguarded moment as they washed and wiped the dishes. “I’d like to see you in my room, Rose, after we clean up a bit. If you don’t mind?”
“Um . . . sure, Aenti Tabby, but I have to hurry. I’m going to bake some pies this afternoon.”
“Bake? Pies?” Her aunt and mamm uttered the questions in unison, and Rose concentrated on dabbing at a nonexistent spot on a dish. The whole family knew that she was a hard worker, to be sure, but baking was not a skill that she possessed or an activity she particularly enjoyed.
“Ya.” She nodded vigorously, forcing a soft curl to spring loose from the back of her kapp. “I need to practice, you know? Luke likes a gut apple pie, or perhaps blueberry.” She stretched to put the plate away in the cupboard. “But I’ll be glad to come and talk with you before I start.”
AUNT TABBY, WHO HAD NEVER MARRIED, LIVED WITH THE Benders and was a cherished part of the home and family. Rose and her brothers often sought the sanctu
ary of their aunt’s room for advice, comfort, or a smuggled sweet long after supper. But Rose knew that she had been distinctly absent lately from any visits with her beloved aenti and mentally prepared to face what might be some pointed, but truth-provoking, questions about herself and Luke.
Aunt Tabby sank down onto the comfortable maple bed with its patchwork quilt and patted a space next to her. “Kumme and sit, Rosie.”
Rose blew out a breath, then came forward to relax into the age-old comfort of the well-turned mattress. She half smiled at her aenti, remembering times she’d jumped on the same bed and had once taken a header that nearly landed her in the windowsill. But that was childhood past—long past, or so it seemed to her heart.
“I’ll not keep you long, Rose, but I want to ask—why did you agree to marry Luke?”
“What?”
The question was even more probing than she’d braced for, and a thousand answers swirled in her mind.
“Luke. Why did you accept his proposal?”
“Well . . . because he’s . . . we’re . . . we’ve always been best friends.”
Aunt Tabby frowned. “I’ve never married, child, but I do wonder if that is reason enough to build a life together.”
Rose said, “It’s made both of the families happy.”
“That’s true, but what about you? Are you happy?”
There was a long, disconsolate silence that wrung Rose’s heart as her aunt touched her shoulder.
“I’m supposed to be happy,” Rose said, thinking hard.
“Ya, that’s true.”
“I just—I expect too much, I guess. Like wanting some kind of—I don’t know.”
“Like wanting someone mysterious and romantic?”
Rose gazed in surprise at her aenti, who laughed out loud.