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kerosene lamp, he passed her a paper with a drawing on it.
    “It’s a sketch of a floor plan, right?”
    “Ya. Plans for our new house.”
    “Ours? But you already own one.”
    “ We ,” Ephraim corrected and then waited.
    Her throat felt dry, but she made herself say it. “ We own one.”
    “Ya, but it has one bedroom, two if we make that storage space into a room for Lori. Plus, I thought we might want to build elsewhere on the property, maybe not so close to my Daed and stepmother.”
    Her hurt from moments earlier shrank, and feathery-light contentment filled the gap. She didn’t have much in the way of good memories from her past, but she had a future. “But I like your…” She cleared her throat. “ Our house. You built it yourself. Just those hardwood floors you put in from some old barn are too much a part of you to leave behind.”
    He gave that ‘I understand’ smile of his. “But it’s awfully small.”
    “If we make the living room into bedrooms, it’ll work.”
    “You’re going to be a demanding wife, aren’t you?”
    She studied him for a moment, wanting to know if he was teasing her. His eyes reflected amusement and love, and she felt his pleasure with her thaw a little more of her heart.
    “I could probably build a set of stairs and add a couple of rooms above the main floor if living there is what you really want.”

    What she ached for more than anything else was for them to marry … soon. But Amish rules said that she couldn’t go through instruction until spring and that they couldn’t marry until next year’s wedding season. Because she’d been raised an outsider and had only been living as an Amish woman for a short while, the bishop had the power to make them wait several years, if he wanted to.
    Ephraim laid the sketch on his desk. “Your plan will cost us a lot less money and keep me close to the shop, so it’s great for me. I was thinking it might not be so wonderful for you. You’re not used to having a large, somewhat intrusive family living next-door.”
    She shrugged. “I can hold my own without you having to build us a new house.”
    “Okay. We’ll wait on building a place. In a few years we’ll both be ready for a bigger one.”
    Longing to feel his lips against hers, she settled for giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m not interested in where we live or how big and comfy the house is. I just want to be your wife.”

Four
    Lena knelt and dug her bare hands into the dirt, loosening the ground around her aster plants. Nicky lay near her, stretched out in the warm sun while dozing contentedly. The sight of blossoms and petals renewed and connected her to hope.
    She scooped her own concoction of mulch, fertilizer, and potting soil out of a bucket and onto the needed areas. The feel and smell of the earth, along with the beauty of the flowers—the delicate blooms and the rich shades of the purples, blues, and pinks—soothed her frazzled nerves.
    While trying to get over the hurt, she looked for some answers for Peter. But even if she did discover a way for him to learn, would he accept her help? He discounted her as a worthy being. Getting past that wouldn’t be easy, especially as he constantly made it easier for her to want little to do with him.
    If she didn’t need to go see Aaron later tonight, she’d visit her friend Samantha. She and Samantha had met while Lena attended public school for a few years. Despite getting together only a couple of times a year and Samantha’s Englischer lifestyle, the women had a lot in common. In her work as a school counselor, Samantha always had a trick or two for dealing with difficult schoolchildren. Surely Samantha could help Lena push past Peter’s stinging remarks and find a way to reach him.
    “Lennie?”

    Her brother Allen called to her. His rather craggy voice sounded just like her other brothers, but without a glance she always knew when it was him. Only a handful of people called her Lennie—Allen and