A Miracle of Hope (The Amish Wonders Series) by Ruth Reid

letter once more. She missed Margaret. She wished she were home.

    Josiah hiked to the barn. He’d gotten into more than he’d bargained for with Lindie. She may have needed a fresh start, but he didn’t have the ability to offer her any more than that. He wasn’t in a stable state of mind to fix his own problems, let alone anyone else’s. Besides, he wasn’t sure what Lindie had run from—other than being an unwed mother.
    Had he prayed about it more, he most likely wouldn’t have made such an illogical decision. But he had panicked after finding Hannah dazed in the pond. He would have given anything to provide his daughter with a normal, balanced life. And a mother. He had only reached that desperate decision a few short hours before Eli had made his outrageous suggestion.
    “Your dochder needs a mother. Mei sister needs a husband. It only makes sense.” Even reciting Eli’s words aloud didn’t offer clarity. Now he was married to a woman who’d been hurt by another, and who would probably cry throughout her entire pregnancy. He didn’t like that she referred to herself as marred. She had made choices that changed the course of her life. But so had he.
    It didn’t matter now how distorted their reasoning was for rushing into marriage. They had both agreed.
    They took vows, made a covenant.
    Josiah reached the barn and yanked open the door. His chest tightened as he forced a breath, which brought on a coughing fit.
    Simon stopped hammering and looked up from his work. “You should have that cough looked at.”
    “Later.” He grabbed another hammer from the workbench.“I’ve got to fill these orders for the Christmas wreaths. We don’t want to lose our new customers or the city’s contract for next year.” Cedar Ridge’s city officials ordered cedar bough wreaths to hang from every lamppost on Main Street each year. Along with the regular accounts, this year he picked up several independent businesses as well, making this his busiest winter yet.
    As he unraveled the chicken wire, the jagged end snagged his finger and it started to bleed. It was a lot of blood for something that looked no deeper than a scrape. He jammed his finger in his mouth, then removed it. It continued to bleed. He pulled out his hankie and wrapped it around his finger. He would apply salve later to keep the area free from infection, but right now he needed to wrap the chicken wire around the wood-framed wreath.
    Simon stopped pounding. “Was that a buggy I heard earlier?”
    “ Jah , Ellen Yoder brought the laundry by and left a dish for supper.”
    Simon finished attaching the chicken wire, then looked up. “Did she meet your fraa ?”
    Josiah shook his head. He hoped he hadn’t been rude when he kept Ellen from going past the threshold, but he wasn’t up for introductions. As it was, he didn’t know Lindie and he wasn’t prepared to answer questions.
    “Don’t you usually pick up the laundry from her place?”
    “I’m sure she was on her way to a get-together.” Rebecca, the bishop’s wife, most likely spread the news of his unscheduled wedding. Knowing Ellen, she probably delivered the clothes so she could gather more information to feed to the women’s circle. Josiah loaded his arms with the cedar boughs that were piled on the floor, placed them on the worktable, then scratched his abdomen. The wood’s natural oils had caused him to itch ever since he cut and hauled the boughs out of the woods. The rash hadspread. Now it wasn’t just on his stomach and chest, but his sides, and part of his back. The areas he couldn’t reach were the worst. Sometimes he would rub against a post like a horse.
    Simon pounded the stubborn section of chicken wire into place. He pushed that one aside and grabbed another wood-framed wreath. “I wish you would have thought about what this stress would do to you.”
    Josiah shrugged off the comment, hoping his father-in-law wouldn’t dwell on what was done. Stress was part of the