The Harvest of Grace Read Online Free Page A

young.”
    “Nonsense. Most brides marry much younger than that … Amish ones anyway. I don’t think you really love him.”
    “That’s ridiculous. What would you know about it?” Sylvia’s world tilted. Why was she having this conversation with Beckie? None of it made sense.
    Beckie placed a clean towel on the ironing board and gently laid her prayer Kapp on it. “He’s … he’s here for me.”
    “Oh, honey.” Trying to think of the most gentle way to correct her sister, Sylvia stepped closer. “You must have something mixed up. I—”
    Beckie’s face turned red, and she shook a finger at Sylvia. “Of course you’d think that! No way could he be interested in a pipsqueak like me, right? Well, he’s asked me to marry him, and I wasn’t stupid enough to tell him to wait!”
    “Elam did what? No!” Her sister’s betrayal burned through her, charring everything she held dear.
    Beckie’s face softened. “I shouldn’t have blurted it out. I’m sorry.”
    “You … you’ve been seeing Elam?”
    “Ya.”
    Hurt and confusion churned within her, and Sylvia couldn’t catch her breath. “I have to talk to him. This is all wrong. He loves me. Wants me.”
    “Sylvia, no.” Beckie moved in front of her, an unfamiliar steeliness in her eyes. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
    Sylvia stepped around her sister, ran out of the wash house, and headed for the barn. Rolling clouds moved quickly across the sky, shrouding the land in winter’s gray.

    Surely Elam wouldn’t … Beckie had to be wrong. The idea of her sister being disloyal hurt too much to bear. And Elam’s betrayal? Impossible.
    Sylvia hurried into the barn and stopped short. Neither man noticed her.
    “Elam.”
    When his eyes met hers, she was no longer confident that Beckie was mistaken.
    “It’s not true, is it?” Tears threatened, and she swallowed hard. “Tell me you didn’t ask Beckie to marry you.”
    Her Daed studied her for a moment before he lowered his head and went to the milk house, giving them privacy. Her Daed’s reaction made her head spin, and she longed to wake from this nightmare.
    Elam walked over to her but fixed his eyes on the floor. “I told you I’m ready to marry this next wedding season.”
    Part of her felt numb, and part of her burned as if someone had dumped scalding water on her. “You sound as if you don’t care who you marry. I thought you loved me.”
    “I wasn’t the one who sounded sick at the idea of getting married this fall.” He lifted his eyes, and she could see his contempt. “And the truth is, I don’t think you’re ever going to be ready.”
    “That’s not true.” How had the feelings between them soured so quickly?
    “Do you love me?”
    “If I said yes, what difference would that make now? You’ve betrayed me with my sister.”
    “Let’s assume the answer is yes. That means you turned me down in spite of how you feel. Why? That’s all I want you to answer—for yourself, Sylvia. Why?”
    Dozens of thoughts ran through her, and she didn’t know which to voice first. “She’s my sister, Elam. How could you do this?”
    “If I wait, will you marry me?”

    Was he setting her up so he could make more points in his argument, or was he proposing again? Her head pounded. “Are you … asking?”
    “I—”
    “Stop it,” Beckie hissed, interrupting his response. She moved between them, facing Sylvia.
    Elam seemed perfectly content to hide behind her sister. Who was this man? Obviously a disloyal liar. As if piecing together a quilt, she began to see a new pattern forming.
    On the weekends, after she and Elam finished milking the herd, he’d go into the living room while she showered and put on fresh clothes. How many of those nights had she come downstairs and found him and Beckie cackling over some line in a book or a game of some sort? Often he’d sit between the two of them as they took turns reading aloud. She never once had challenged Beckie