A Simple Hope: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel by Rosalind Lauer Read Free Book Online Page A

got plenty of money and cows and horses. Look at all the land they got. Now get in the car, before I throw you in the trunk, along with the flowers.”
    This time, Gary was not laughing.
    Her jaw dropped as she stared at him. Did he mean that? He wouldn’t hurt her, would he? She didn’t think so, but then again, she hadn’t thought he was a thief when they’d left Baltimore three days ago.
    “Get in the car.”
    Biting back tears, Shandell got into the car and began to plot her escape.

T he lavender light of sunrise filtered through the curtains in the attic room as Rachel put the finishing touches on her painting. Wanting to bring James a little gift today, she had risen early and crept upstairs to her old bedroom to finish this small canvas, a close view of a ripe peach still hanging in a tree.
    As this was the only space in the house suitable for painting, she had to work quietly while Rose slept in the single bed against the wall. The steady whisper of her sister’s breath reassured Rachel as she sat at her homemade easel, a pyramid of wood sticks her dat had built for her last year as a birthday gift. She hoped that the soapy paint smell and stirring noises didn’t disturb Rose, but so far there’d been no complaints from the lump curled under the patchwork quilt.
    Rachel swished her brush in water and added a dab of cerulean blue to the palette of bright colors. She had finished painting the peach in a combination of magenta, cadmium orange, burnt umber,and sienna, and she had to admit, the sight of the fat fruit made her mouth water. Usually her work wasn’t so realistic. Most of her paintings focused on the colors of Amish life: a patchwork quilt, gem-toned dresses swaying from a clothesline, flowers blooming beside a bright blue watering can, a dark horse and buggy silhouetted against an orange sky and autumn gold fields. But today, for James, she had tried something different—a close still-life. She had worked hard to make the peach look real and delicious, with sundappled rose streaks and dewdrops on the skin. Even a bit of peach fuzz.
    Now as she layered on a cloudless, bright blue sky, she hoped that James would like the reminder of the orchard he so loved. These days he was able to move through the wide aisles between trees, but he wasn’t able to help much with the mulching and spraying. When it came time to prune or harvest … Well, no one could say if James would be able to run the orchard in the coming seasons. Only Gott in heaven knew if he would ever be able to rise from his chair and climb the fruit trees like the monkey he once was.
    A tender smile softened her lips as she painted, circling the brush to create round texture in the sky. How easy it was to lose herself in her art! James sometimes teased her about it, telling her to return to the farm, but she found such contentment in re-creating the stillness of Amish life. And the bright colors of life brought her such joy! The temptation to paint the day away was strong, but Amish life was not a life to be spent alone. Although her parents enjoyed her artwork as a gift from Gott, they often reminded her not to spend too much time on her hobby. And many Amish thought that things like art and music were an indulgence—a way to show that you were special and superior, which was never a good thing for a person.
    “It’s good to have a little something on the side,” Mamm always said, “but the center of life is your family and your community.Family is among Gott’s greatest blessings—the unbroken chain of life.”
    Before the accident, Rachel hadn’t really seen their noisy, boisterous family as such a blessing. Her tall, muscular brothers who swiped the last of the bacon or spiked the ball right at her in a volleyball match? And her sisters, who seemed glued to their beds nearly every morning? One look at the kitchen after a meal, and any person in his right mind would run in the opposite direction. Her siblings teased one another