Treasuring Emma
A
CCLAIM FOR
K
ATHLEEN
F
ULLER
“
Treasuring Emma
is a heartwarming story filled with real-life situations and well-developed characters. I rooted for Emma and Adam until the very last page. Fans of Amish fiction and those seeking an endearing romance will enjoy this love story. Highly recommended.”
—B
ETH
W
ISEMAN, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
T
HE
D
AUGHTERS OF THE
P
ROMISE SERIES
“
Treasuring Emma
is a charming, emotionally layered story of the value of friendship in love and discovering the truth of the heart. A true treasure of a read!”
—K
ELLY
L
ONG, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
L
ILLY’S
W
EDDING
Q
UILT
“A fresh and captivating voice in the Amish genre, Kathleen Fuller weaves a richly patterned story [in
A Man of His Word
] that explores not only the depths of the Amish faith but also the most intimate struggles of the heart.”
—T
AMERA
A
LEXANDER, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
T
HE
I
NHERITANCE
,
B
EYOND
T
HIS
M
OMENT
,
AND
F
ROM A
D
ISTANCE
“
A Man of His Word
by Kathleen Fuller is a heartwarming story of how faith and commitment can overcome betrayal. Highly recommended!”
—C
OLLEEN
C
OBLE, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
T
HE
L
IGHTKEEPER’S
B
ALL
“Terrific! I was totally engaged in the characters and the families in this lovely story. With Gabriel as the hero, the title is certainly well chosen. His faith, along with Moriah’s, represents a steady, underlying conviction and peacefulness despite the very real struggles they face within the pages. [
A Man of His Word
] is a story . . . I didn’t want to leave.”
—M
AUREEN
L
ANG, AUTHOR OF
M
Y
S
ISTER
D
ILLY
“Kathleen Fuller has done it again. [
An Honest Love
is a] wonderful tale of love, friendship, and loss that kept me up late just to see how it would end.”
—J
ENNY
B. J
ONES, AUTHOR OF
S
AVE THE
D
ATE
Treasuring Emma
A
LSO BY
K
ATHLEEN
F
ULLER
The Hearts of Middlefield series
A Man of His Word
An Honest Love
A Hand to Hold
Novellas found in
An Amish Christmas
An Amish Gathering
An Amish Love
An Amish Wedding
– Available December 2011
The Mysteries of Middlefield series for young readers
A Summer Secret
The Secrets Beneath
Hide and Secret
Treasuring Emma
A
MIDDLEFIELD
FAMILY
Novel
K
ATHLEEN
F
ULLER
© 2011 by Kathleen Fuller
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., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
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
Fuller, Kathleen.
Treasuring Emma : a Middlefield family novel / by Kathleen Fuller.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-775-0 (trade paper)
1. Amish—Fiction. 2. Middlefield (Ohio)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3606.U553T74 2011
813’.6—dc22
2011013655
Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 16 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Eleanora Daly—thank you for everything.
C
ONTENTS
ab im kopp
: addled in the head
aenti
: aunt
appeditlich
: delicious
bann
: excommunicatin from the Amish church
boppli
: baby
bu, buwe
: boy, boys
daed
: dad, father
danki
: thank you
Dietsch
: Pennsylvania Dutch, the language spoken by the Amish
dummkopf
: dummy
Dutch Blitz
: Amish card game
familye
: family
fraa
: wife, woman
freind
: friend
geh
: go
grosskinskind
: great-grandchild
grossmammi, grossmudder
: grandmother
grossvadder
: grandfather
gude mariye
: good morning
gut daag
: good day
gut nacht
: good night
haus
: house
hungerich
: hungry
kapp
: prayer covering worn by women
kinn
: child
kinner
: children
kumme
: come
leib
: love
maedel
: girl
mammi, mamm
: mom, mother
mann
: man
mariye-esse
: breakfast
mei
: my
meidung
: shunning
menner
: men
mudder
: mother
onkel
: uncle
Ordnung
: the unwritten Amish rule of life
rumspringa
: the period between ages sixteen and twenty-four, loosely translated as “running around time.” For Amish young adults,
rumspringa
ends when they join the church.
schee
: pretty, handsome
schwester
: sister
seltsam
: strange, unnatural
sohn
: son
vadder
: father
verboten
: forbidden
willkum
: welcome
ya
: yes
yung
: young
“Emma, I’m so sorry.”
Emma Shetler lifted her gaze to meet Moriah Miller’s eyes. Moriah had been a good friend to her over the past year, and Emma had never noticed until now how blue her eyes were. Blue like the summer sky, and at this moment, full of compassion.
Emma tried to swallow down the thorn of grief that blocked her throat. “I appreciate you and your
familye
coming by this afternoon.”
“Your
mammi
was a very special
fraa
.” Moriah laid a hand on Emma’s shoulder. The warmth of the gentle touch seeped through the thin fabric of Emma’s black dress.
The color of mourning. Of death.
Despite Moriah’s comfort, that’s what Emma felt inside. Dead.
She glanced around the living room. As expected, most members of the church district were here to pay their respects and show their support. Dark dresses and white
kapps
for the women, black pants and hats for the men—all of them in mourning clothes. They milled around the living room. Conversation and movement blurred into a meaningless cacophony of sound and motion.
Emma tapped her toe against the polished wood floor of the old farmhouse, her nerves strung tight as a barbed wire fence. She should have been in the kitchen, preparing and serving the traditional meal. But her sister, Clara, had taken over the cooking and banished her to the living room. This was supposed to make her feel better—stuck here, doing nothing?
She spied her grandmother Leona across the room. Clara must have chased her out of the kitchen too. Several women between the ages of fifty and seventy created a circle of support around
Grossmammi
. Emma smiled to herself as she noticed the women’s ample hips drooping over the seats of creaking wooden folding chairs. They spoke in low tones, nodding and shaking their heads. The thin ribbons of their white prayer
kapps
swayed against the stiff white aprons covering their dresses. Emma had no doubt they were offering comforting passages of Scripture and words of encouragement to their old friend.
During the seventy-five years God had granted her, Leona Shetler had loved her family deeply. But that love came with a cost. Three years ago her son—Emma’s father, James—had passed away. Now she had to deal with the death of a daughter-in-law she loved as her own.
Emma felt the grief stab at her. First her father, then her mother. It didn’t seem fair. She wished she could muster even a small measure of the grace and peace her grandmother demonstrated. But instead she simply felt bereft, abandoned, and confused.
“Emma?”
She turned her attention back to Moriah. “Sorry. Did you say something?”
“I asked if you needed anything else.”
“Oh,
ya
. I did hear you say that.” The words clanged around in her head, empty noise. “
Nee
, I’m fine.”
“All right.” Moriah lifted an eyebrow. Her concern echoed that of her sisters, Elisabeth and Ruth, along with everyone else who had passed by Emma’s chair. The same question over and over:
How are you holding up?
How did they think she was holding up? She had nursed her mother through a painful, deadly cancer. She buried her today.
Emma fought to contain her emotions: Anger. Resentment. Guilt. The community’s heartfelt concern didn’t deserve such rudeness. But nothing anyone said could penetrate the emotional wall that was growing around her, inch by excruciating inch.
Throughout the rest of the afternoon, people paused to talk. Relived special moments they’d shared with Emma’s mother and father. Assured Emma of God’s will, His plan. Phrase after empty phrase about God’s comfort and mercy.