A Simple Faith: A Lancaster Crossroads Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

something, he noticed Elsie looking down, her cheeks flushing. The conversation embarrassed her. Of course it did. He had read that Amish women did not discuss pregnancies in public; sort of a throwback to the days when babies were delivered by storks.
    “Anna visits a few times a week. And Sarah comes along.”
    “Good.” As Henry opened his wallet and paid for his purchase, Dylan handed a ten to Elsie Lapp and exited the store, wanting to escape the memory of Kris that had crept up on him.
    Climbing into the Jeep, Dylan asked about Elsie Lapp’s small stature, and Henry confirmed that it was EVC.
    “I’ve come across some unusual cases here,” Henry said. “Maple syrup disease and hemophilia. And glutaric aciduria, a metabolic disorder that requires a fairly complex treatment. Remember Susie King, back at the tea shop? She has GA, but her family has worked with me and she’s navigated through it. It’s her family we’re visiting first, the Kings.”
    “The Kings …” Dylan found his list. “And who is Susie’s father?”
    “That was Levi King, but he’s dead now. Both parents are gone. Her brother Adam is now the head of the household, alongside his wife, Remy.”
    Dylan made the notes. “What happened to the parents?”
    “A double murder, around two years ago. It was a tragedy.”
    The details were vaguely familiar. “I think I read a few news stories about it.”
    Henry nodded. “Levi and Esther King. You can imagine the trauma suffered by their family.”
    “I can.” He could imagine it, feel it, taste it. He’d lived trauma, though Dr. Trueherz was probably not aware of his history.
    Dylan wrote down names, trying to piece together families as the Jeep traveled on the road dividing broad expanses of open fields. Stoltzfus … Zook … Lapp … King … Not so many surnames, but lots of people.
    “When did you decide to make it your specialty, studying ailments specific to the Amish?” Dylan inquired.
    “I saw myself as a country doctor at first. A few months out here, I began seeing cases among the Old Order Amish that doctors back in the city weren’t encountering.”
    “And you’ve made some real progress in helping these people.” Henry Trueherz’s dedication to helping the Amish was an inspiration to Dylan. In many ways, Dylan wanted to model his outreach program after Henry’s clinic in Paradise. He would have told Henry that, but the doctor was not a man who enjoyed praise.
    “I don’t suppose you’ve ever made a house call before?” Henry asked.
    “Can’t say that I have.”
    “Have you ever been inside an Amish home?”
    Dylan shook his head. “I did my research, but this is my first clinical experience. Actually, this is a first for me in many ways.”
    Henry grunted. “You don’t look nervous at all. Nerves of steel?”
    After what I’ve been through, I don’t have any nerves left at all
, Dylan thought. “Not that.” The expanse of winter blue skies and rolling purple hills that surrounded them reminded him of passages from the Bible. The land of milk and honey. Canaan. Or Paradise, as thenearby town was aptly named. “I’ve learned that people are people. Inside, we all have the same essential needs. Shelter, food, drink … love.”
    “For a young man, that’s downright philosophical.” The Jeep slowed as Henry turned into a lane at the top of a hill. “But then again, you are a psychologist.”
    “I’m not that young. Pushing thirty. And though you think of yourself as a general practitioner, I see that you haven’t forgotten Psych 101,” Dylan teased as the silos and outbuildings of the King dairy farm came into view.
    “The human being is a complex thing, a marriage of body and mind,” Henry said. “I treat the body, but I respect what you’re doing, Doctor. I just hope you’re not disappointed when the Amish decline your services. They’ve got a complicated social system that provides a certain therapy of its own.”
    “So I’ve