The Christmas Cradle Read Online Free PDF Page B

yourself forgiven here. Mamma believes Jesus wipes our slates clean, and nobody—not even Nora’s strict old preacher of a dad—can hold a grudge in this town. So relax. You’re in.”
    Rebecca’s earnest words sounded too good to be true, yet Lena clung to the hope they gave her. “Wow,” she murmured.
    â€œPicture me with spiky black hair, black fingernails, a lot of metal and piercings—and an attitude to match,” Rebecca continued with a nod. “That’s how I looked when I showed up here, after my English mom died and I’d found out she and Dad weren’t my birth parents. I wanted nothing to do with Miriam and her Old Order faith, but I was her long-lost daughter and she refused to let me go. You can’t tell that woman no , so you might as well accept the love she’s offering.”
    This wasn’t Sunday, yet Rebecca’s words moved Lena more than any sermon. Jesus’s love suddenly felt real— something present-day folks could rely upon instead of just a story from centuries ago. It was the same unconditional love Lena had felt when she and Josiah had been eating the supper Miriam had cooked last night. Miriam and Ben had known they weren’t married—and probably weren’t suited to be—yet she’d sensed no judgment or disgust. She and Josiah had received love instead of lectures.
    â€œThis all feels too gut to be true,” Lena murmured as she took another bite of the delicious sticky bun.
    Rebecca chuckled. “I know exactly how you feel. I figured Miriam for a goody-goody when I first met her,” she went on. “But my mother is the most genuine person I know—a doer instead of a talker. Mamma saw through my hard-core attitude and appearance to the lonely, confused young woman I was inside.”
    Lena nodded, hanging on Rebecca’s every word. What would it be like to have a mother who loved you as completely—as fiercely—as Miriam had loved her lost daughter?
    â€œI hate to think about what might’ve become of me had she not welcomed me back,” Rebecca went on. “She was a widow then, getting the Sweet Seasons going while she was planning my sister Rachel’s wedding. Hiram Knepp was harassing her, insisting she needed to marry him, so we were all glad when Ben Hooley showed up from Lancaster County. It was love at first sight for them.”
    Lena sensed Rebecca, like the Hooleys, was advising her to steer clear of this Hiram character. And she longed to believe that a true, romantic love like the one Ben and Miriam shared would someday be hers.
    â€œHere’s an egg and some bacon to get your day off to a gut start,” Miriam said as she interrupted Lena’s woolgathering. “And since ya offered to help, I’ve got some veggies that need scrubbin’ for the lunch menu—but not until you’ve cleaned your plate.”
    â€œ Denki so much,” Lena replied gratefully. “You and your girls are taking such gut care of me, I don’t know how to act!”
    When Lena went into the kitchen, she immediately sensed an industrious cheerfulness. Miriam’s partner, Naomi Brenneman, stood at the stove combining cooked hamburger and onions with a mixture of tomatoes and beans to make a chili that already smelled heavenly. Naomi’s teenage daughter, Hannah, was slicing pies at the back counter to replenish the glass bakery case.
    â€œIf ya could scrub these spuds,” Miriam said, pointing toward a large bag of russets, “we’ll have loaded baked potatoes on the lunch menu.”
    Lena sat on a small chair beside a dishpan of warm water, a stiff-bristled brush, and a vegetable peeler. She set to work, chatting with Rhoda and Rebecca as well as the two Brennemans. Her thoughts wandered briefly back to Bloomfield. If she were there, she’d be cooking or cleaning alongside her tight-lipped aunt—
    An outcast from your own