Where Grace Abides by BJ Hoff Read Free Book Online Page A

and more money than he needed. He had enough to help the Sawyers and others like them who lacked material goods and even the most tenuous means of security, and for that he was truly grateful.
    But wouldn’t they be surprised if they knew how quickly he would trade places with them if he could have Rachel at his side.

  6  
G ATHERING OF D ARKNESS
    Dear refuge of my weary soul,
On thee, when sorrows rise,
On thee, when waves of trouble roll,
My fainting hope relies.
    A NNE S TEELE
    September
    E ven though the day had been warm and still summer-sweet, a chill came on the air when evening gathered.
    Susan Kanagy stood staring out the kitchen window, her gaze settling for a moment on her youngest daughter still playing happily on her tree swing, then traveling to her oldest, sitting at the kitchen table as she iced the last sheet of cookies they’d baked earlier that afternoon. Rachel’s movements were slow and distracted, her features drawn in the all too familiar expression of sadness she often wore these days. Obviously icing cookies was the last thing on her mind.
    Susan thought she knew what was on her daughter’s mind.
    Jeremiah Gant.
    Rachel wore that look most of the time now, had worn it ever since Bishop Graber refused to consent to the captain’s conversion to their Amish faith. The bishop’s refusal, of course, meant that Rachel and Gant couldn’t marry. Moreover, it meant they were to stay completely away from each other.
    Susan hadn’t seen her daughter so broken since Eli died. Her young husband’s death, so untimely, so brutal, had left Rachel drowning in years of pain and sadness before she’d finally found a measure of healing. Jeremiah Gant’s arrival in Riverhaven and their growing affection for each other had helped to further that healing, but now here she was again, her heart grieving, her spirit struggling.
    Oh, she put a good face on things, Rachel did. With Susan and with her little sister, Rachel managed to pretend her days were full, her life good. Never one to burden another, even her closest friends would not see Rachel weep.
    But Susan had. She had held her sweet daughter when Rachel sobbed out her accounting of the attack that had left her husband dead and her life in shambles. And she had held her again after the bishop passed down his decision about Gant, along with his stern admonition that the two could not marry and must not see each other again.
    Although a couple’s relationship wasn’t to be discussed, there had never been many secrets between her and Rachel. The Amish did keep such things private, even among family members. Truth be told, she wasn’t even supposed to know about the affection her daughter and Captain Gant shared. But she and Rachel had always been close, friends as well as mother and daughter, and when Rachel had sought comfort from her, Susan would no more have turned her away than she would have refused to tend to her wounds if she’d been physically injured.
    In her heart of hearts, there were some things about living Amish she found difficult to accept. To pretend no relationship had existed between Rachel and the man she loved and then to know her daughter was in pain and not offer solace—this, she could not do.
    She went to her now. “Your thoughts seem far away, daughter,” she said, putting a light hand on Rachel’s shoulder.
    Rachel turned, looked up, and gave a small quirk of her lips—a smile that wasn’t really a smile. “Not all that far, Mamma. I wasthinking that the fall will soon be upon us. Summer is almost gone, ja ?”
    Susan sighed. “It is. I don’t much like seeing the cold settle in, but we take what God gives.”
    â€œYes,” Rachel said, her voice so soft Susan had to lean forward a little to hear. “We take what He gives.”
    Susan waited a moment, then sat down next to her and took her hand. “I wish I could take away your