A Match Made at Christmas, page 1
Praise for the novels of Patricia Davids
“The Inn at Harts Haven is filled with delightful and complex characters that readers will adore. Hope, romance, and suspense combine perfectly in this heartfelt story from one of my favorite Amish fiction authors.”
—Jennifer Beckstrand, USA TODAY bestselling author of First Christmas on Huckleberry Hill
“Patricia Davids has done it again. The Inn at Harts Haven might just be my favorite of her books, and I’ve loved all of them. But a bit of suspense mixed with a romance full of conflict and torment had me reading long after I needed to get to bed! If you love Amish fiction, this one will go on your keeper shelf.”
—Lenora Worth, New York Times bestselling author
“Patricia Davids is one of the best writers in the Amish fiction genre. She’s now on my must-read list!”
—Shelley Shepard Gray, New York Times bestselling author
“Patricia writes with heart, integrity, and hope. Her stories both entertain and edify—the perfect combination.”
—Kim Vogel Sawyer, award-winning, bestselling author
USA TODAY bestselling author Patricia Davids was born in Kansas. After forty years as a NICU nurse, Pat switched careers to become an inspirational writer. She now enjoys laid-back life on a Kansas farm, spending time with her family and playing with her dog, Sugar, who thinks fetch should be a twenty-four-hour-a-day game. When not throwing a ball, Pat is happily dreaming up new stories where love and faith conquer all. Contact her at pat@patriciadavids.com.
Patriciadavids.com
Patricia Davids
A Match Made At Christmas
This book is lovingly dedicated to the memory of my mother, Joan Stroda.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
One
“Oh, Karl. Yoo-hoo!”
Karl Graber cringed at the sound of Rose Yoder calling his name. He was in no mood to deal with her this morning.
After burning the oatmeal at breakfast, he discovered his renter had moved out in the night without giving notice or paying his back rent. Now Karl was going to be late getting to the store because his buggy horse was limping.
He pretended he hadn’t heard Rose. Maybe the elderly Amish woman who claimed to be the most successful matchmaker in Harts Haven would go pester some other poor fellow.
Bent over Checker’s front foot, Karl noticed that a stone lodged between the horse’s steel shoe and his hoof was the gelding’s problem.
“Hallo, Karl! I must speak with you.”
The tenacity of the eighty-four-year-old romance peddler was another difficulty Karl had to face this morning.
“I’m not interested in meeting your latest hopeful,” he muttered under his breath.
If the stubborn stone would come out, he could be on his way before the elderly woman reached the end of the block and crossed the wide street.
“Daed, Granny Rose is calling you.” His six-year-old daughter, Rachel, stood up and waved. Rose wasn’t related to Karl, but due to her advanced age most of the children in Harts Haven called her Granny.
“She’s coming this way,” Clara informed him from the front seat of the open buggy. His ten-year-old daughter wasn’t any more excited to see Rose than Karl was. She suspected the same thing he did. Rose was on a matchmaking mission.
“Hallo, Granny Rose,” Rachel shouted happily. “We’re taking our puppies to the store so someone can buy them. Would you like to see them?”
The offending stone popped loose. Karl dropped Checker’s hoof. “Got to get the store open, Rose. Can’t take time to visit.”
When he spun around, it was already too late. She had reached the buggy ahead of him. How did someone her age move so fast? She didn’t even look winded.
“Guder mariye, Karl. I’m so glad I caught you. There is a chill in the air this morning, isn’t there?”
It was the second week of November. Of course the air was cool. Rose hadn’t intercepted him for idle chitchat. He moved to step around her since she was blocking the buggy door. “Customers will be waiting for me.”
Rose didn’t budge. Other than picking her up and setting her aside, he had no hope of leaving until she finished having her say. He resigned himself to hearing who she thought would be perfect for him this time. As if any woman could take the place of his Nora.
“Did you find us a new mother?” Rachel’s hopeful tone stabbed his heart. Rachel was too young to remember much about the mother who died when she was three. She only knew other children had both mothers and fathers, and she wanted the same thing.
Clara scowled at her sister. “We don’t need a new mother. Ours is in Heaven. No one can replace her.”
Clara understood. She was old enough to remember what Nora had been like. A sweet, gentle, bright and loving woman. The world was a darker place without her.
Rose’s cheerful expression softened with sympathy. “I’m still looking for someone special to join your family. Clara is right. She won’t be your mother. Instead, she will be your stepmother, but she will love you and take care of you as if you were her own.”
Rachel sighed. “I hope you find her soon.”
“That’s enough, Rachel,” Karl said. “What do you want, Rose?”
“I’m here to tell you about the new teacher. She arrived yesterday. She and her sister are staying at the inn for the time being. They are Grace Sutter’s nieces from the Amish side of her family.”
Grace was another elderly widow, Old Order Mennonite, and co-owner of the Harts Haven Inn along with Rose and Rose’s widowed daughter, Susanna King. The trio were all fond of meddling. A single man stood little chance of remaining unattached in this Amish community unless he avoided the widows. Rose’s knowing smile put Karl on his guard.
Rachel clapped her hands. “Yay, the new teacher is here. Now I can go back to school and be in the Christmas program. I hope I get to be an angel like Thea and Miriam Bachman last year. Their mother made the most beautiful wings for them.”
Rose grinned. “Your teacher’s name is Sophie Eicher. Her sister is Joanna. They are lovely young women.”
“Also single and hoping to find husbands in Harts Haven. I know what you’re doing, Rose. Not interested!” If his cutting tone didn’t drive his point home, maybe his scowl would.
Rose puffed up like an angry little hen. “Don’t take that tone with me, Karl Graber. For shame.”
He was thirty-two years old, but she made him feel like an errant toddler. “I’m sorry.”
She inclined her head. “You are forgiven. I stopped to tell you we are hosting a welcome party at the inn on Saturday so folks can meet Sophie and her sister. Would you kindly spread the word?”
He eyed her suspiciously. Where was the catch? “Sure. What time?”
“We’ll start at noon, but folks can come and go as they please.” She turned to his daughters. “I know you girls must be excited to go back to school.”
“Teacher Becky had to leave to take care of her mother because she got sick,” Rachel said. “I only went to school for one week. I don’t think I learned much.”
“I taught you letters and numbers,” Karl said.
Rachel’s lower lip jutted out. “Only so I could help at the store. Not to read a book.”
There weren’t enough hours in the day to run the hardware store, manage the farm work, cook, keep house and still find time to instruct his daughters. Most days, he struggled just to get out of bed. He was doing the best he could.
“How soon will school resume?” he asked Rose.
“The bishop and the school board haven’t decided.” She leveled her gaze at him. “I know you’ll be at the welcome party.”
That was the catch. Grimacing, he shook his head. “Social gatherings aren’t something I enjoy.”
Her eyes narrowed. “It is common courtesy to introduce yourself and your kinder to the new teacher. You remember what courtesy is, don’t you, Karl?” Rose turned on her heels and strode away.
His conscience smote him. It wasn’t right to be rude to anyone, yet alone an elder. He caught up with her in a few steps. “Rose, wait. I’m sorry.”
Glancing over his shoulder to make sure the girls couldn’t overhear; he lowered his voice. “It hasn’t been easy for me. Nora was the one who loved company. It doesn’t feel right to do things without her. It just makes me miss her more.”
Instantly, he was sorry he had shared that much.
Rose’s expression softened. “You have your daughters to consider. Nora wouldn’t want them shut up in the store all day. Nor would she approve of you taking them home straight after church services instead of letting them play with their friends
He focused on his feet. Maybe Rose was right. In his struggle to get through each day, he hadn’t always put his children’s welfare first. “I reckon I could close early for once. I’ll bring the girls to meet their new teacher.”
He looked up with a hard stare. “But don’t get the idea that I’ll go along with any of your matchmaking schemes.”
She shook her head. “Sophie needs someone special. You are completely wrong for her. I’m afraid the two of you would be at each other’s throats within a week.”
He drew back. “If she’s hard to get along with, should she be teaching?”
Rose poked her finger into his chest. “You are the problem, not Sophie.”
“Me? What’s wrong with me?”
“Plenty. You figure it out. Relax. You aren’t on my list of potential suitors.”
That made him smile. “You have a list already? I thought she only arrived yesterday.”
Rose grinned and winked. “There aren’t that many single Amish fellows in this area.”
Karl watched her walk away with a sense of relief that was quickly followed by an unsettling question. What did Rose think was wrong with him?
He kept to himself, but who could blame him? Losing his wife, his childhood sweetheart, had nearly broken him. Standing by helplessly as cancer sucked the life from her despite everything the doctors tried had devastated him.
His beautiful Nora had endured terrible pain. In her last days, he had stopped praying for her to be healed and only asked that God end her suffering and take her home. The guilt from those anguished thoughts never left him. He couldn’t love another woman. He was better off alone. He had his daughters. That was enough.
“Daed, we’re going to be late,” Clara called out.
Clara was trying hard to be his helper at home and in the business the way her mother had been. She worked hard. Perhaps too hard for a child her age. He returned to the buggy and got in. At least he didn’t have to worry about Rose trying to set him up with the new teacher. He wasn’t on her list.
* * *
Her sister, Joanna, barged into Sophie Eicher’s room and threw open the curtains. Bright sunlight streamed in. Sophie closed her eyes against the sudden glare. Sometimes Joanna’s eagerness to embrace life was annoying. “Will you shut those?”
“In a minute. I’m ready to see this new town of ours, aren’t you?”
Was she? What if coming to Harts Haven had been a mistake? She would meet all new people while keeping her secret. Could she pretend she was fine, and that everything was normal? “I think I’d rather rest for another day.”
Joanna spun around with her hands on her hips. “Honestly, Sophie, if you’re just going to sit in a dark room and contemplate your own death, why did we move a thousand miles to the middle of nowhere?”
“You didn’t have to come, and I’m not contemplating my death.”
Maybe she thought about dying more than most people, but she had good reason. She had survived breast cancer for now, but it would be back. How many weeks or months would she have? She took her kapp from the nightstand, put it on and pinned it in place as she prayed.
Please, Gott, let my sister return to Ohio before then and if she won’t, let me live long enough to see her settled.
Joanna left the window to kneel in front of Sophie. “I came with you because I wasn’t about to let you have an adventure without me. I’m sorry if I upset you.”
“You didn’t.” Sophie couldn’t stay annoyed with her sister for long. They weren’t related by blood, but they were sisters of the heart. Joanna had been adopted as an infant when Sophie was nine. They looked nothing alike. Sophie was slender, blond, with sky blue eyes and an ordinary face. Joanna was full-figured with abundant dark curly hair that she hated, coffee-colored eyes and adorable dimples. Sophie always felt plain beside her, but she wasn’t jealous of her sister’s beauty. It was a gift from God.
Joanna grasped the ribbons of Sophie’s kapp and tugged gently. “You need to start enjoying your new life.”
“Please don’t pull on my kapp.” Sophie’s hair had finally grown long enough to part in the middle and tuck behind her ears allowing her to look like a normal Amish woman. Losing her hip-length hair during her chemotherapy had been devastating. She checked to make sure her bobby pins were secure.
“You look fine. Let’s get out there and discover the best place to have coffee and shoofly pie. And a post office. I want to mail a letter to Daed. I need stamps.”
Their father had recently married a widow with three young children. It was another reason Sophie had taken the job in Harts Haven. She didn’t want to be a burden to the new family when her illness returned. Joanna had refused to stay behind. Perhaps because she knew in her heart that Sophie would need her at the end, even if she would never admit that. Joanna believed Sophie was cured.
“We should go house hunting soon,” Joanna announced. “It’s wonderful that Aenti Grace is letting us stay at her inn, but don’t you want your own home?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “You can’t know how eagerly I look forward to picking up after you, cooking for you and doing all the chores, including your laundry again.”
Joanna’s infectious grin widened. “Goot. That’s the spirit. We are going to love living here. Just to show you I have matured, I will do my own laundry in our new home. Can we go now? I want to see what Harts Haven has to offer.”
Her sister’s unflagging optimism had supported Sophie through the devastation of her diagnosis and the worst of her treatments. She couldn’t love her more. “Unless I miss my guess, you are more interested in checking out the local bachelors rather than real estate.”
Joanna giggled. It was a sweet sound that always made Sophie smile. “We girls never know when the right fellow will come along. It could happen today.”
“For you maybe.” Sophie looked away. Marriage was out of the question for her. How could she burden any man with what she knew waited for her?
Joanna gripped Sophie’s hand. “You can’t give up on love because Nate turned out to be a coward.”
Sophie flinched at the painful reminder. “Nate was simply being practical when he broke our engagement. He didn’t want to be tied to a dying wife.” She had hoped for his support, but she couldn’t blame him for his decision.
Everyone in their small Ohio community knew Sophie Eicher was a walking dead woman. Breast cancer had killed her mother and her grandmother. The pitying looks, the way people chose their words so carefully around her, had been stifling. It had been like living in a coffin waiting for the funeral to begin, but it had been even harder on Joanna, who didn’t share the community’s outlook. She railed against it until the bishop reprimanded her for not accepting God’s will.
Joanna grabbed Sophie’s shoulders and shook her. “You didn’t die. Your last scan was negative. You beat your cancer.”
Her little sister was still railing against the inevitable.
“You can’t say that with any confidence,” Sophie said gently.
“Bah! Only Gott knows our fate. Until then, live life to the fullest. Have faith in Gott’s goodness and mercy. I believe my stodgy older sister will scold me and love me for a hundred years.”
“That is unlikely.”
Joanna sighed and sat beside Sophie. “You don’t want anyone here to know about your illness. I understand that. We came to Harts Haven so you could start over. Here people will see a kind, generous, intelligent woman, not someone who is sick, but only if you go out and meet them. Now, get rid of that anxious frown and let’s go.”
Sophie might not have years to live, but dwelling on the fact wouldn’t change the outcome. Joanna pulled her to her feet. Once she was upright, Sophie pushed aside her reservations about their move. She had made her decision and would stick to it. This was the right thing for her, but more importantly for Joanna. If Joanna refused to return home, then before Sophie left this earth, she would do everything in her power to see her sister happily married and settled. She would need someone to lean on when the time came.
