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

It had poisoned everything.
    She’d refused breakfast. She was hungry, but she felt that if she ate she would only be sick, so what would be the point? And the worst part of everything, the worst of it all, was when Joseph had come to see her. Even though there had been this awful rumor, and it would doubtless affect him, he still would risk further rumor of impropriety by coming to see her. Even then, he wanted to know if she was ok.
    At least, that was what she assumed he had come for. She couldn’t imagine he would blame her, or think it was her fault somehow.
    Not that Ruth hadn’t wracked her own brain, trying to figure out if it were her fault. But she couldn’t think of anything she could have said or done to Katie to make her do such a thing. She knew that the last time they’d talked, she’d been morose. And that had annoyed Katie, sure. But to do something like this?
    Ruth thought she must have done or said something else that had upset Katie enough to make up lies about her, but for the life of her, she couldn’t think what it was.
    Not long after the breakfast that she denied, there was a knock on the door. Ruth wanted to tell whoever was there to go away, but didn’t have the heart to. Let them come, whoever they were. She just hoped they weren’t looking for someone with answers.
    To her surprise, it was Sarah who entered. Ruth smiled despite her situation.
    “I was hoping I would see you last week, when I came with the crates of crafts,” she said. “But you weren’t there.”
    “ Jah, I know,” Sarah said. “I’m sorry I haven’t seen much of you since I married and took over the shop with Jacob.” She spoke gently to Ruth, she noticed, the way you would to a child or someone who was sick. And why not? She was sick at heart. “I heard what’s happened,” she said, and Ruth could help but respond bitterly.
    “ Jah, but did you hear who started it?” she asked.
    To Ruth’s surprise, Sarah nodded.
    “Katie Plank has been telling everyone who would listen all morning that she made it up, and it isn’t true.”
    Ruth wasn’t sure how to feel. On the one hand, this was real, true, unassailable evidence that it had been Katie who had done this to her. But on the other hand, it was also evidence that she was sorry.
    “Has she said why she did it?” Ruth asked, unsure whether she’d find out the answer, but hopeful that she would.
    “I’m afraid not,” Sarah said.
    There was a pause as Ruth tried to sort through her thoughts, and Sarah waited patiently.
    “And I’m supposed to just forgive her now, am I?” she said, at last. There was a bitterness to her words that surprised her schweschder , even though she knew her well. Perhaps especially because she knew her well.
    “What gut will not forgiving her do?”
    Ruth considered. She knew Sarah was right, of course. And she also knew, that the hope that was starting to grow again in her was only possible if she could first find her way to forgiveness.
    “Take your time,” Sarah said, when Ruth didn’t speak again. “When you’re ready, I’ll tell them to come around.
    “Them?” Ruth asked, and Sarah only smiled.
    Ruth went to her bed and laid on it. She should be more upset. She’d been wronged by someone she trusted deeply. Her welfare, and reputation, and that of her familye , had been seriously threatened.
    And yet, the hope in her was growing, and it would leave no room for anger, or for resentment. It was mostly pride, now, that kept her in her room. She was holding out until she felt enough time had passed that Katie wouldn’t think she’d given in and forgiven her too easily. But the longer she held off, the less angry she found she was, and the giddier she became at the thought of seeing Joseph again.
    And on top of that, the more ashamed she became of herself for letting her keep her friend suffering and putting off her own happiness for the sake of pride.

Chapter 8
    When Katie and Joseph came over, and stood side