Love Still Stands Read Online Free Page B

near an oven since her release
     from the hospital after nearly a month. She seemed to think Bethel would fall in or
     burn down the kitchen. “Put that box here, Deborah. I’ve already cleaned the cabinets
     along the bottom. We can put the pots there and save the top shelves for the plates
     and glasses.”
    Deborah plopped down the box. She slapped both hands on the counter as if she were
     holding herself up too. Her lips quivered. Bethel paused in her effort to rip the
     clear plastic packing tape from the top of the box. “What’s the matter?”
    “It’s silly. I try so hard to be strong. Mudder says we all have to be strong.”
    “You miss home?”
    “It’s only been two days, but I can hardly bear it.” Her shoulders heaved as she tried
     to stifle her sobs. “Don’t you miss Annie and Miriam and Helen and Josiah? And all
     the others?”
    “I do.” Emma set her broom aside and joined them at the counter. “But we’ll see them
     again when we go back for Helen and Gabriel’s wedding. And at Christmas. They’re less
     than a half day’s drive away. It gives us something to look forward to.”
    For Emma the glass was always half full. Bethel loved that about her.
    “I know. I know. But I can’t stop crying.” Deborah dabbed at her face with her apron.
     “Mudder says I can’t let the little ones see, but they don’t care. To them it’s a
     big adventure.”
    Bethel thought of Luke’s grin in the van the previous day. She too saw adventure here.
     She saw possibilities. The things that hadn’t worked out in Bliss Creek didn’t matter.
     Deborah was too young to understand about missed opportunities and new beginnings.
    Giving herself time to find the words to explain, Bethel struggled to lift a pitcher
     of lemonade at the far end of the counter. She knew from experience that a good swallow
     of cold liquid helped drown unwanted sobs and ease a throat that ached to let them
     out.
    Emma tugged the pitcher from her grip and poured for all three of them.
    “It’s not a big adventure to you, I take it.” Bethel focused on Deborah, who had been
     one of her students her first year as a teacher. She’d been a sweet, obedient girl
     with a knack for numbers. “Why didn’t you want to move?”
    “I don’t mind. Really, I don’t.” Deborah scooped up her apron and held it to her face,
     mopping up the tears. “It’s just…there’s…well, there’s…”
    “A man,” Emma finished for her. “You have a beau.”
    “Had. I had a beau. Abel Wagler.” The apron muffled the words. “He says he’ll come
     here when he can, but his daed needs him on his farm and he won’t let him come. Not
     yet, anyway. We were baptized in September and I thought we might get married, if
     not this November, the next.”
    “Abel’s a handsome man.” Emma smiled and Bethel knew she intended to cheer up Deborah.
     “All that curly red hair.”
    Deborah let the apron drop. “He is, isn’t he?” She sniffed and managed a watery smile
     in return. “He’s a hard worker too, and kind, and he listens to me when I talk.”
    “I taught Abel. He’s a good young man.” Bethel leaned against the counter so she could
     squeeze Deborah’s shoulder. “It’ll work out. It always does. Maybe not the way you
     thought it would, but it does work out.”
    Deborah nodded, but she looked dubious. It hadn’t worked out for Bethel. At least
     that’s what people in their community thought. That’s what Leah thought. And their
     mudder and daed. She hadn’t married. She didn’t know why, but she’d been content teaching.
     Now that dream had been taken from her too.
    “Doesn’t look like much work is getting done in here.”
    Leah’s entrance saved Bethel from having to respond to Deborah’s unasked question.
     Her sister carried another box, this one marked Dishes . There were dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes, and she looked exhausted. Her
     kapp had slid back a little. She might have cobwebs or