Landchester Amish Love: Ruth (Amish Romance) (Landchester Amish Love Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

most people think I do.”
    That may be so. Joseph hugged her.
    “You’ll understand why I have to go one day,” he said, though he wasn’t sure it was true. As an Amish mann , he shouldn’t lie. But then, he wasn’t going to be an Amish mann anymore.
    “But you don’t have to!” Miriam said with a sudden outburst of emotion. “It was Katie that did it! She started the rumor. She can fix it!”
    Joseph’s heart dropped. How was it possible that he could feel so betrayed and hopeful at the same time?
    He kissed Miriam on her forehead, and thanked her. Then he headed upstairs with his suitcase in tow, to see his other schweschder.
    He found her in her room, sitting on her bed. She was combing her hair with a brush, over and over and over. When he came in the door, he could tell that she already knew he knew.
    The time of packing, and the choice to leave couldn’t cool Joseph’s anger. But the sight of his schweschder , deeply regretful, began to.
    He sat down at the foot of her bed. Neither spoke at first. He didn’t ask her if it was true. He could tell by her attitude that it couldn’t be false.
    “Why did you do it?” he asked at last, and tears began to form in Katie’s eyes.
    “I didn’t mean for it to get this out of hand. I didn’t mean for anything to happen. I was just annoyed at her, and I didn’t want you two to be together. And I know you, and I know her, and I knew what would happen.”
    Even in the midst of this heavy conversation, Joseph still couldn’t help but feel a little thrill at that. The girl who knew them both best, probably in the world, thought that they would make a good pair. What better confirmation of was there of what he had felt before than that?
    “And why would you not want that for us?” he asked Katie. “Why would you not want us to be happy?”
    Katie was fully crying now.
    “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” she said, over and over. And seeing her now, Joseph remembered when she was a little girl, and she’d broken one of their father’s tools playing pretend with it in his workshop. It was the same regret. And the same little girl that he would always love underneath it.
    He moved closer to her, and put his arm around her, until she was calmer and could speak for herself.
    “It just felt too weird to me,” she said at last. “You’re my bruder , and for a lot of the time she felt like my schweschder . And we share everything here. I share everything with everyone. But I’m the only one Ruth talks to. She’s just mine. And I’m happy with it like that. But she’s not, and she wants it to change, and I’m afraid of it changing.”
    Joseph was a bit far off of completely forgiving her, yet. But he was also now far off from leaving. He sat with her a while, and made up his mind that he would forgive her, and soon.
    “You’ll fix it, won’t you? You’ll tell people that you made it up and take full responsibility?”
    Katie nodded, and that was enough for Joseph.
    He took his suitcase back to his room. He wanted to go right over and talk to Ruth. But there was no reason to think he’d see her now, when she hadn’t been willing to see him before. So he decided to let the matter rest until the next day.
    And he let himself hope, again. If this could be fixed, then they could be together, still. If she could forgive him for not knowing what his schweschder was up to, and move on enough to consider him again. As he lay in bed, falling asleep, he prayed to Gott that she would.

Chapter 7
    Ruth wouldn’t come out of her room. It was safer here, she felt, now. What a difference one night made! Before she could not wait to get out of a room alone. And now, as she sat absentmindedly working on a doll, she wished she could only stay in here forever.
    How was it fair that she should feel shame for something she hadn’t even done? Why should a lie make it so that she no longer even wanted to talk to others, or listen to what they’d had to say?