Second Chances Read Online Free PDF Page A

anxieties. Clearly this was one of those.
    William took a short breath and lifted his chin. “ Ja vell , I won’t be letting that
Willis get his hands on it, that’s for sure and certain!”
    “ Daed !” The anger in her father’s expression caught Anna off-guard. As soon as the
word slipped from her lips, she covered her mouth. She hadn’t meant to reprimand him; however, his display of anger, especially so pointedly at one particular individual—and
family at that!—upset her. She was thankful that no one else paid attention to her
outburst.
    William turned toward Anna. Lifting his hand in the air, he pointed toward the heavens.
“God is my witness, I don’t care whether or not he’s my nephew’s son! The injustice
he did to this family!” His anger dissipated just enough so that, when he looked
at Elizabeth, there was less fire in his eyes. “ Ach , the humiliation! It’s unthinkable
that his banns were read after he came calling on you!” He reached out to pat her
hand, a gesture of comfort to his oldest daughter. “Why, the entire church district
whispered for months, and not even John David would invite me to play checkers that
winter!”
    Anna looked away, the color flooding to her cheeks, but not before she saw Elizabeth’s
jaw muscles tighten.
    Despite her own discomfort with her father’s rebuke, Anna felt even more shame as
she remembered her sister’s stoic response when it was announced after worship service
that Willis Eicher and Barbie King were to marry. At that time, seven years ago,
there were plenty of unmarried young women in the g ’ may , five of whom sat between
Anna and Elizabeth on the hard pine bench, since the single women always entered
the room in chronological order. Even though she hadn’t been able to comfort her
sister, Anna felt the sting of the announcement. Elizabeth, on the other hand, never
once mentioned his name nor the four times that he had come calling at their house.
    The intention had been clear and, frankly, presumed by all.
    Instead Willis Eicher chose to marry a woman from a faraway church district. That
decision always brought out the fire in William’s eyes, for the woman was the only
daughter of that g ’ may ’s bishop. Besides the whispers about Willis snubbing Elizabeth,
there had also been scuttlebutt over the motives behind his surprisingly sudden decision:
the King family owned a rather large farm in another church district in a neighboring
county.
    Anna had never truly decided which one of them had felt more disgraced: Daed or Elizabeth.
Even today, she couldn’t decide. The one thing she did know was that the wounds remained
fresh for them both and reminded her far too much of the pain that she too had once
caused.
    Her thoughts were interrupted when Lydia reached out and, with a calm hand, touched
William’s sleeve. “William, that’s pride speaking.”
    He ruffled at her words and shifted his weight in his chair.
    “Besides, maybe you won’t have to sell the haus . Not yet, anyway.” Her eyes brightened
from behind her glasses. “I have another possible, perfectly reasonable solution!”
    “The only perfectly reasonable solution,” he grumbled, “is staying in my own haus .”
    Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and rested her head against the cushion. “I just
hate the thought of all those people talking about us.”
    “Speculating . . . ,” he added.
    “I knew we shouldn’t have donated so much money last year!” Elizabeth clicked her
tongue disapprovingly. “You know that the amount we donated was shared to others
by Bishop Troyer’s fraa ! Everyone knows and now speculates about our situation!”
    “Scandalous!” William cried.
    Anna felt as if the two of them were playing volleyball.
    The kitchen clock chimed six times. Lydia glanced at it, for she needed to leave
in less than thirty minutes. Certainly she had her own work to do, Anna thought.
Already, Lydia had spent almost an hour with William and his daughters