Leah's Choice by Marta Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

lately. She took a breath. “Well, we can get through it. Somehow.”
    Rachel shot her a sidelong glance. “I saw you talking to Daniel. It looked as if you were finding a lot to say to each other.”
    “Don’t matchmake,” Leah warned. Was everyone in the community trying to team her up with Daniel?
    “Well, don’t you dismiss the idea too quickly.” Her expression was serious. “I know it’s early to be thinking this, but wouldn’t it be better to be living in your own house with a family to love, rather than feel like a boarder in your sister-in-law’s house?”
    “I don’t plan to marry.” And even if she did, it wouldn’t be to Daniel Glick. She valued her independence too much for that. “Never mind about Daniel. What shall I tell John?”
    “Say I love him. Say he must give me more time. That’s all I can tell him now.”
    John wouldn’t like that, any more than she’d like telling him, but there was nothing she could do about it.
     
     
     
    Daniel found his gaze straying to Leah Beiler, even while he talked with her father about the best place to buy a buggy horse. Teacher Leah was an interesting mixture of gentleness and spirit. He just hoped that spirit wasn’t leading her toward trouble.
    Did her father know about the return of his daughter’s onetime sweetheart? The older man’s face was placid as he puffed on his pipe, but he suspected Elias Beiler wasn’t one to show his feelings easily.
    “Your young ones settling down in school all right?” Elias nodded toward Matthew, who was helping Elizabeth knock a croquet ball through a wicket.
    “They seem to be doing fine. Teacher Leah has made them feel right at home already.”
    A faint smile creased Elias’s weathered face. “Our Leah is a gut teacher, she is. Not that I wouldn’t rather see her married and with young ones of her own, but we must take what the Lord sends.”
    Daniel nodded. At the moment, Leah was in close conversation with Rachel, probably about the return of John Kile. Sooner, rather than later, it would be public knowledge, but despite his concerns, he was just as glad the spreading of it hadn’t come from him.
    “Will you be missing lots of kin back there in Lancaster County, Daniel?”
    Elias only meant to express kindly interest, but even so, Daniel felt himself stiffen. Talking about his life there would lead inevitably to the reasons he’d left, and he wasn’t ready to discuss that with strangers. Not yet, anyway.
    “My parents hope to come for a visit later in the summer, once we’re settled in. Maybe help with the harvest.”
    “Good to have extra hands around when the crops start to come in, especially for a man without a wife to help him.”
    Was that meant to be a question about his wife, or was it a hint as to whether he might be looking for a new helpmate now that he was settling in Pleasant Valley? That was how an Amish father’s thoughts would go, for sure. Daniel managed a meaningless smile.
    “It’ll be wonderful gut to have them come for a visit. Now I’d best get Jonah. He’s probably getting tired.”
    His younger son, who had just run across the lawn to throw himself at Teacher Leah, didn’t look in the least tired, but it was a way to end a conversation that was cutting too near the bone.
    He couldn’t fool himself any more than he could anyone else. Most folks here had kin back in Lancaster County, and sooner or later someone would receive a letter with all the details about what had happened to his wife. To his children.
    Time. That was what he wanted now, time for the children to settle down and feel at home. Then it would hurt less to have everyone know about them.
    Leah smiled, bending over Jonah to say something that made him giggle, and a flicker of concern went through Daniel. Leah said she wasn’t yearning for her fence-jumper fiancé, but maybe she was. He didn’t want his children getting too close to a woman who could be tempted by the life outside their