Sarah's Christmas Miracle Read Online Free PDF Page B

trot off toward the barn. If lack of comfort and convenience was what it took for assurance of heaven, the Sidley family had an easy path. But discussing salvation would be better left to the bishop or deacon. “Maybe so, but I’d still like to talk to him.”
    Albert stared at her while scraping his boot toe in the dirt. “Can’t help ya.”
    “Did he ever contact you after he left?” The question hung in the brittle cold air. Sarah could almost see his mind whirring with possible answers or ways to evade the question, yet somehow she knew he wouldn’t lie.
    “ Jah , I heard from him once or twice. He sent letters to our post office box in town.” Albert crossed his arms over his tattered jacket. Sarah felt a barrier was being raised. “But I never wrote back. What would I have to talk about with an Englischer ? ’Cause that’s what he was. Making that kind of money, driving around in his pickup truck, living in a place where you could look out and see some big lake. He’d said in the letter he was joining the carpenters’ union. You got any idea what kind of money they make?” Jealousy flashed in his dull gray eyes.
    Sarah shook her head. “Nope. I don’t have a clue about union wages.” What she found more unsettling was that Albert knew these details. He’d known things about Caleb that his family hadn’t for all these years.
    “That much money just makes it easier to get into trouble.” He lifted his chin. “You go on home now, Sarah. Your bruder is better off forgotten.” Albert turned his back on her and marched toward the house.
    Sarah’s belly churned as her only chance slipped away. “Wait!” she demanded in an unfamiliar voice.
    He stopped and glanced over his shoulder.
    “Please, Albert. Give me another minute.” He turned around but didn’t come back. “Those letters,” she continued. “Do you still have them?”
    “Sarah Beachy, there’s no sense in—”
    “Do you still have them?”
    “ Jah , I’ve got them. Couldn’t bring myself to throw them in the woodstove like I should have. I never had that many friends.” He met her gaze and then focused on the frozen ground.
    His hollow eyes had bored a hole through her heart. Tomorrow she would talk to her parents or the bishop about ways to help the Sidley family, but today she had her own agenda. “May I see them, please? I would like the return address if there is one.”
    “It’s been four years.”
    “I know that, but it’s all I have.”
    Albert stomped into the house and slammed the door. The aura of abandonment returned to the farmstead. He was gone so long she began to think he wasn’t coming back. Then the door creaked open and he reappeared. Sarah ran up the porch steps without hesitation.
    He held up a hand. “Wait, girl. Caleb said in his letters that he didn’t want anybody knowing his whereabouts. I don’t owe him any loyalty, but I do want to know why you’re so interested all of a sudden.”
    Sarah stood paralyzed. Now it was her turn to consider possible reasons and excuses, yet she knew only the truth would get her what she wanted. She sucked in a breath. “I’m thinking about getting married. It’d never bothered me much that he took off and broke my mamm’ s heart until now. I want to know why he left before I start having my own kinner .” She looked into his eyes, and he stared back for a long moment.
    Then he slowly extracted two folded envelopes from his coat pocket. They were wrinkled and smudged, but Sarah spotted handwriting she recognized in the upper left-hand corner: Cal Beachy, followed by the information she had come for.

     
    Adam’s trip home from work took twice as long as usual. His boss let him go two hours early in exchange for making a delivery on his way home. Two hand-carved oak doors had been finished that afternoon and were needed for Christmas. As the buggy rolled down a township back road, he had time to ponder possible gifts for Sarah. He could buy a quilt she’d