The Forbidden Read Online Free PDF Page B

he’d heard tell of others roaming around used-car lots, asking English neighbors for advice and whatnot. All of them wasting time running helter-skelter.
    “What we’ve got is a split within a split, seems to me.” Benjamin moved toward the back of the house. “How many will there be, when all’s said and done?”
    Reuben recognized the truth in his words and was worried about his own family, and not merely his married sons. Even Rhoda was giving him cause for concern, since she was the only unmarried daughter outside the protection of his roof, spending more time at her employers’ place than she did at home anymore.
    He paused to take in the landscape, white and crisp. Winter was a time for resting the land, but his body needed some rest, too, thanks to several new foals here lately and three older horses in need of veterinary attention. Come to think of it, his brain could use something of a respite, as well. He pondered now several recent lengthy discussions he’d had with Elias King, just twenty-four. Young, for certain, but what a good head on his shoulders. The young man seemed hungry to talk of the Lord, but not in the way one might expect of a staunch Amishman. Clearly, Elias was searching, much as Reuben himself had been. Longing for the meat of the Word, as Preacher Manny sometimes referred to spiritual sustenance.
    Just then Reuben caught sight of his cousin Manny—the Lord’s appointed—coming up the lane with his family, all of them waving now, squeezed into the enclosed gray buggy.
    “Lord, bless him abundantly for stickin’ his neck out,” he whispered, waiting to greet Manny and grip his firm hand yet again.
    What’s Manny think of all the car talk?
    Preacher Manny was not a judgmental sort, though he liked to follow the rules. He had not lightly dismissed the teachings of the Ordnung on salvation, and he was putting much care and thought into the new ordinance being discussed now. Soon they’d all be back to square one on that as the new church worked to incorporate God’s Word, their primary guidebook for living, into the new Ordnung. Meanwhile, those yearning for cars and electricity were already joining up with a nearby Beachy group, whose church met at a separate meetinghouse instead of in houses, and where services were held in English, of all things.
    Nellie Mae huddled under her quilts, staring at the bedroom ceiling. When have I ever been so ill? She found it ironic that she’d wondered if Caleb was sick, and now here she was, too feverish to get out of bed.
    She closed her eyes, well aware she was the only one home on this particular Sunday. For the fast-dwindling Old Order group, today remained a no-Preaching Lord’s Day. Her family, of course, had made their way to Manny’s church after Mamma had once again invited Nellie to join them. Even if she’d wanted to, there was no way she could go today.
    Honestly she was so weak she couldn’t think of getting up early to bake tomorrow, as she always did on washday before helping Mamma and Nan with the laundry.
    Maybe none of the regulars would notice if the bakery shop was closed. She felt sure she would still be lying there flat on her back come morning, so hot was her brow . . . and nauseated her stomach.
    Is it the flu? Or did I eat something bad?
    Oh, she wished Mamma had stayed home to warm up some chicken broth or brew a pot of chamomile tea. In her haze of intermittent discomfort and rest, Nellie missed Caleb even more.
    When she did at last fall into fitful slumber, she dreamed they were walking along the millstream, only she was on one side and he was on the other, the water rushing between them.
    Caleb was telling her she was old enough to make a stand for or against the old church . . . and her family. “What will you do, Nellie?” he asked.
    She wanted to say that while she was an obedient daughter, she was also ready to be out from under the control of her father. Ready, too, to make a life with her husband someday