Planted with Hope Read Online Free PDF

just in time to prepare the ground and to plant.
    Please write back and let me know if you could use my help. A small salary and room and board would be all I’d require.
    Your loving cousin,
    Hope
    Hope leaned back in her chair. She expected to feel better after writing the letter, but even as she wrote the words something nagged at her heart. Maybe God does have something for me in Pinecraft. Maybe His plans are different from mine. But how could that be? Pinecraft had nothing to offer her—and definitely not a garden.
    Even as she tore the letter from the notebook, folded it up, and placed it in an envelope, an unexplained ache touched her heart. It made all the sense in the world to return to Ohio. It just had to work. Even though she racked her mind, she couldn’t think of anything working out better.
    I’ll just send the letter and see where it leads, Hope thought. At least it would get her started on her plan.
    She sealed and addressed the letter and set it on the desk. She’d mail it Monday, and then she’d wait for Eleanor’s response.
    Hope heard the front door open and voices filled the living room. Her parents and sisters were finally returning from the New Year’s fund-raiser at the park. Her stomach growled, and she realized she hadn’t eaten much all day. After arriving home she’d changed and then taken a quick nap.
    Hope stood and attempted to freshen up her hair and kapp, but her arms felt as if they were made of lead. The events at the creek had drained her. She couldn’t get the image of Emma’s wide eyes or the memory of her soft whimpering out of her mind.
    Now, as she hurried to the kitchen, she hoped that no one would make a big deal out of what she’d done. Each of them would have done the same if they were in the same situation. Yet she didn’t have to worry. As Hope paused at the threshold to the kitchen, her sisters barely even gave her a glance. Instead they continued, deep in conversation.
    â€œIt’s just the saddest thing, don’t you think?” Mem sat down atthe kitchen table. A network of wrinkles crisscrossed her forehead and a heaviness seemed to weigh on her heart.
    â€œI heard that no one guessed anything was wrong with her,” Grace chimed in.
    Grace was a fair-skinned beauty with a sprinkling of freckles over the rim of her nose. Hope always envied Grace’s ease with people and the effortless way she connected with others. “They say she was just lovely, with a sweet spirit. She loved to sew, just like Joy, and she doted on her little girl.”
    Lovina pulled a cherry pie from the refrigerator and began slicing it. Her mournful look nearly brought Hope to tears. Hope wasn’t sure who her sisters were talking about, but of course Lovina thought pie would solve everything.
    Lovina sighed as she slid a piece of pie onto a plate. “I can’t imagine the guilt. Regina said that he was away. He’d taken his little girl to an ice cream social. She lay on the ground nearly eight hours before he found her. I don’t think finding her sooner would have changed anything, but still… ”
    Hope entered the room and walked to the table. She placed her hand on Grace’s shoulder. “Who are you talking about? What happened?”
    Grace’s cheeks were pink from the walk in the heat. “Oh Hope, it’s the most horrible story. Regina told us. She’s friends with the Sutters, and she didn’t realize that Jonas had come to Pinecraft. He’s just been here two days.”
    Hope’s brow furrowed. “Jonas Sutter?” She sat down in the chair in front of the window next to Mem. The sun poured through the glass, touching her neck, her shoulders. Anger warmed inside her, too, yet she shivered to consider how he’d looked at her.
    â€œ Ja , it was his little girl you saved from the creek today.” Memclicked her tongue. “Oh, I don’t want to think what