A Marriage for Meghan
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Scripture quotations are taken from the
Holy Bible,
New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved; and from the King James Version of the Bible.
Cover by Garborg Design Works, Savage, Minnesota
Cover photos © Chris Garborg; iStockphoto / ParkerDeen
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to events or locales, is entirely coincidental.
A MARRIAGE FOR MEGHAN
Copyright © 2011 by Mary Ellis
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ellis, Mary
A marriage for meghan / Mary Ellis.
p. cm.—(The Wayne County series ; bk. 2)
ISBN 978-0-7369-3010-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-4165-5 (eBook)
1. Amish—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3626.E36M37 2011
813’.6—dc22
2011010489
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 / LB-NI / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Love Blooms in Unexpected Places
Can a Young Amish Widow Find Love?
What Happens When an Amish Girl’s Prince Charming Is an Englischer?
Can a Loving Amish Woman Be a Refuge for a Wounded Soul?
For who can know the L
ORD
’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory.
All glory to him forever!
Amen.
R
OMANS
11:34-36
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thank-you to Matthew Linnscott of the Medina County Sheriff’s Department, who patiently answered my questions about crimes against the Amish and hate crimes in general.
Thanks to the schoolteachers of Wayne County, and all my own former students who provided a wealth of background information.
Thanks to Carol Lee Shevlin for welcoming me and providing my home away from home, Simple Pleasures Bed & Breakfast.
Thanks to Peggy Svoboda for inspired brainstorming.
Thanks to my agent, Mary Sue Seymour, who had faith in me from the beginning and to my lovely proofreader, Mrs. Joycelyn Sullivan.
Finally, thanks to my editor, Kim Moore, and the wonderful staff at Harvest House Publishers.
And thanks be to God—all things in this world are by His hand.
The day after Christmas
M
eghan Yost gazed out a frosty window on a world rapidly changing from earth brown to pure white.
“If this snow keeps up, nobody will be going anywhere tomorrow,” said her
mamm
. With her glasses perched at the tip of her nose, Ruth remained intent on finishing her basket of mending before bedtime.
“James heard on the radio that the snow should let up by midnight. If I can walk to the Wrights’ to babysit their two little ones, then surely I can reach the schoolhouse. It’s barely a half mile farther,” Meghan replied, rubbing a dry patch in the condensation with her sleeve.
Gideon Yost released a weary sigh, indicative of a hundred-year-old man rather than a middle-aged husband, father, and bishop of their Old Order district. “Stop smearing up that glass and tell me what is so wrong with working for the Wright family.” He closed his well-worn Bible in his lap to concentrate on the matter at hand. “They’re nice enough folks for
Englischers
.”
“Nothing at all,
daed
.” Meghan stared out into the growing darkness.
“They pay you well, they give you most Saturdays off, and they would never ask you to work on the Lord’s Day. Plus they let you snack on all the junk food and soda pop you want.”
Her mother clucked her tongue with disapproval. “I can’t believe you haven’t fattened up like a brood sow, considering the things I see in Jennifer Wright’s shopping cart at the IGA.”
“I eat enough pickled cauliflower and smoked turkey breast at home to offset the sweets eaten over there.” Meghan perched a hand on one of her still bony hips. “I have a ways to go before someone thinks of taking
me
to the market.”
Gideon rose to his feet to stoke the wood stove. “Please don’t change the subject,
fraa
. I want Meghan to put aside these foolish notions and be grateful for the good position she already has.”
“Foolish notions?” Meghan’s tone lifted with unusual pique. “I have wanted to become a schoolteacher since I was a
kinner
myself. And I have told you that many times before. Now that Mrs. Kauffman has found herself in a family way, the perfect opportunity has opened up.” She abandoned her vigil by the window as the snowfall increased to near blizzard conditions.
“Don’t speak of such things in mixed company, daughter,” scolded
mamm
as her face blushed to a shade of bright pink.
Meghan chuckled inwardly. Speaking about on-the-way babies in front of
daed
had embarrassed her
mamm
, despite her having borne five of her own. “Beg your pardon,” Meghan murmured.
“I hardly would describe this as the ‘perfect opportunity.’ You’re too young to handle a roomful of boisterous youngsters.” Gideon added more split wood, closed the door, and slowly straightened. “Joanna Kauffman’s husband has mentioned more than once that the students are a handful this year. Two-thirds of them are male instead of an even fifty-fifty split as one would expect.”
Meghan laughed with abandon. “I’m not afraid of a few little boys. Look how I’ve managed to wrap James and John around my finger.”
“
Bruders
are a different matter altogether. I’m sure the district can find someone else to finish out this school year. Then we’ll have all next summer to find a permanent replacement—perhaps a gal who has resigned herself to spinsterhood and would welcome a steady income. We would have to replace you, daughter, before we knew it.”
Meghan sighed. Sometimes her father’s assumptions were exasperatingly old-fashioned, even for someone Amish. “What makes you think I won’t remain single?”
The bishop laughed as he settled back into his vinyl recliner. “Because I’ve noticed the way Jacob Shultz stares at you at every preaching service. I doubt it will be long before you two are officially courting. After all, you are nineteen already, soon to be twenty.”
Meghan shook her head at his logic. “Let me see if I follow this. I’m too young to teach school but not too young to get married? I happen to know that Joanna Kauffman took over that classroom when she was only eighteen years old—almost two years younger than me.”
“Joanna has a completely different temperament than you, daughter. We can’t compare apples to oranges.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but Ruth held up two hands like a crossing guard stopping both lanes of traffic. “Hold on, Meghan. Why don’t you go outside to see if James needs help getting the cows into the barn for the night? We don’t want them out if this snow continues. Let me talk to your
daed
alone for a while.”