Gabriel's Bride Read Online Free PDF

adventure. A reluctant, misguided, unwanted adventure. Such was her lot in life. She was unmarried, orphaned, and had very little extended family. Even the community that, under normal circumstances, would have been like a family in her life, had been kept at a distance by her maiden aunt.
    When she had first moved to Clover Ridge, injured and grieving the loss of her family, she hadn’t minded the seclusion. Now she could see the repercussions, and there were many.
    “Here we are.” Kevin appeared behind the counter holding an official-looking letter with red, white, and blue stickers and bearing the name and address of the attorney her Aenti Katherine had used to finalize all the mortgage details.
    Rachel’s heart gave a hard thump at the sight of it.
    Kevin pushed a small card across the counter toward her. “Sign here by the X , and we’re all done.”
    She hated that her hand shook as she penned her name on the line he indicated. She could pretend that moving wasn’t a reality as long as she didn’t have that paper in her possession. Now, pretending wasn’t an option.
    “This just came in for you as well.” Kevin handed her another letter, this one not as official looking and bearing the return address of her distant cousin in Ohio. Or at least from his eldest daughter who was about to get married and start her own family away from her father’s house. That was why Albert Byler needed her help.
    You should be thankful that you have a place to go, and family, however distant, that needs you and is willing to take you in. Yet she wasn’t. She only felt sadness that she was about to be forced to leave Clover Ridge, as well as a twinge of jealousy that she would remain an old maid, never to have children of her own and the family that she’d desired for as long as she could remember.
    She blinked back sudden tears and nodded her thanks to Kevin before hurrying out of the post office and into the bright morning sun. She still had to stop at the general store and pick up a loaf of bread. Of all the accomplishments of most Amish women, bread was not among Rachel’s. Baking just took up so much time. Time that could be spent tending her goats, making her cheese. Really, doing anything else.
    First she had to see what Albert’s oldest daughter, Amanda, had to say.
    Rachel stopped at the bench just outside the post office and sat down, tearing into the letter like a starving man tears through a snitz pie.
    With trembling hands, she held the letter as steady as possible and began to read.
Dearest Cousin,
I suppose we are cousins even if four times removed. What a joy to learn that you are alive and well in Oklahoma. Everyone lost touch with you after the terrible accident that killed your mamm and dat and your bruders as well. And what a blessing for us that you are coming here to live after all these years. Even though I am saddened at the passing of Katherine, I am so looking forward to meeting you at last.
Our farm is not the largest in these parts, but Vatter does have a goodly amount of land to till and livestock to care for. It is for this reason that he regrets you will not be allowed to bring your goats here to Ohio. I’m confident that you can find a suitable buyer there in Clover Ridge who will be willing to give them a good home and surely at a fine price as well.
    Rachel felt her heart drop a little more. Her precious goats. And Sugar was just about to give birth. Oh, she knew she could find someone to buy them, but they were her goats. She had bought them at auction, saved her own money for their purchase. Getting rid of them would be like selling the closest things she’d ever had to children.
    She pushed the thought away lest her tears grow until she could no longer contain them. The bishop, the elders, most likely even most of the district would think her beyond foolish to give so much credit to critters such as goats, but she loved them with her entire heart.
    She blinked hard and continued to