one he’d thought would last a lifetime. She wasn’t ready to take that chance again, and he shouldn’t be, either.
So why had images of them walking together or riding in his courting buggy never stopped filling his mind during the day and his dreams every night?
Life’s twists keep us on our toes, don’t they? Leanna and Gabriel never expected they’d meet again. However, they came to realize you can’t escape your past by fleeing it and that they needed to trust God was leading them back to each other.
In our lives, we may try to be like Leanna and Gabriel. We try to keep our pasts in our past and hold on to secret and not-so-secret hurts. It’s only when we face those fears that we can truly move forward.
Thank you for sharing the stories of the Amish Spinster Club. These books have been a special treat for me because they’re in my hometown. I hope you’ve had fun visiting Salem and Harmony Creek, too.
Visit me at www.joannbrownbooks.com. Look for my new Amish series, set in beautiful Vermont, coming soon.
Wishing you many blessings,
Jo Ann Brown
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.
—Lamentations 3:19–23
For Angela Mathews.
Thanks for being such a blessing in our lives.
Contents
Note to Readers
Harmony Creek Hollow, New York
“Do you sell the milch from your goats?”
Leanna Wagler raised her left hand to acknowledge the man’s question as she continued milking Faith. The brown-and-white doe was the herd’s leader and most days waited patiently while Leanna squirted milch into the small bucket on the raised platform. Today, the goat had taken it into her head that she didn’t want to stand still.
“Just a minute,” Leanna said without looking back. “I’m almost done.”
It took less time than that. Drawing the pail out from under the goat, she patted Faith on the haunches, the signal the goat should jump down. Leanna set the pail on the ground and smiled as Charity,
