Light Shines on Promise Lodge
ANNABELLE WAS STEPPING TOWARD THE TABLE NEAREST THE ARCHWAY THAT LED TO THE LODGE’S LOBBY WHEN THE SIGHT OF A SOLITARY MAN IN BLACK FROZE HER IN PLACE
Phineas was watching her, as though he’d been following her progress along the outer edge of the dining room . . . waiting for her to notice him. He held her gaze with the pale, penetrating green eyes that had often made her heart thud in her chest as she anticipated his judgment—his criticism and correction.
The blood rushed from Annabelle’s head. She wasn’t aware that she’d dropped the two big pitchers until she heard the noisy clatter of plastic hitting the hardwood floor and felt ice water filling her shoes.
What’s Phineas doing here? How did he find me—and what does he want?
Don’t miss any of Charlotte Hubbard’s
other Amish romances
A Mother’s Gift
A Mother’s Love
Seasons of the Heart series
Summer of Secrets
Autumn Winds
Winter of Wishes
An Amish Country Christmas
Breath of Spring
Harvest of Blessings
The Christmas Cradle
An Amish Christmas Quilt
Promise Lodge series
Promise Lodge
Christmas at Promise Lodge
Weddings at Promise Lodge
New Beginnings at Promise Lodge
Simple Gifts series
A Simple Vow
A Simple Wish
A Simple Christmas
Light Shines on PROMISE LODGE
Charlotte Hubbard
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
ANNABELLE WAS STEPPING TOWARD THE TABLE NEAREST THE ARCHWAY THAT LED TO THE LODGE’S LOBBY WHEN THE SIGHT OF A SOLITARY MAN IN BLACK FROZE HER IN PLACE
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
From the Promise Lodge Kitchen
Teaser chapter
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2020 by Charlotte Hubbard
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
BOUQUET Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4511-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4514-4 (eBook)
ISBN-10: 1-4201-4514-2 (eBook)
For Neal, the light of my life these past 45 years—and the one who came up with the perfect twist in this tale!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to You, Lord, for leading me through the final book of this series!
Once again I’m deeply indebted to my editor, Alicia Condon, and to my agent Evan Marshall for helping me bring this series to a satisfying conclusion. Many thanks to both of you for helping me bring these Amish stories to readers—and thanks, as well, for the assurance that we’ll be doing more books now that this series is complete!
Blessings on you, Vicki Harding, my research assistant in Jamesport, Missouri, for answering my questions so quickly—and for keeping your finger on the pulse of Amish life there. Blessings on you and your family, as well, Joe Burkholder, as you pursue a faith path that has been more rewarding but hasn’t been easy.
Psalm 27:1 KJV
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Matthew 5:16 KJV
Let Your light so shine before men, that they may see Your good works, and glorify Your Father which is in heaven.
Chapter One
As Annabelle Beachey gazed at the happy couple standing before Bishop Monroe Burkholder to exchange their wedding vows, she fought tears. During the four months she’d spent in an apartment at Promise Lodge, she’d become good friends with the bride, Frances Lehman, and she’d acquired a lot of respect for the groom, Preacher Marlin Kurtz. The love light on their faces shone as a testament to the devotion that had grown between them during their summertime courtship—a brilliant example of how God worked out His purpose through the lives of those who kept His faith, even after they’d been widowed.
Annabelle sighed with the rightness of it all. The women around her dabbed at their eyes as Preacher Marlin repeated his vows in an endearingly confident voice, gazing at Frances as though she were the only woman in the world. Folks here were still in awe because Marlin had bought back all the furnishings Frances had consigned to an auction in May, thinking she had to sell everything to get by because her first husband hadn’t left her with much.
My husband didn’t leave me with much, either. He just left me.
Annabelle sat straighter on the pew bench, trying not to let her troubles overshadow the day’s joy. God had surely guided her to come to Promise Lodge last May, where the friends gathered in this room had taken her in—had provided her an apartment and their unconditional encouragement after they’d heard that Phineas had abandoned both her and the Old Order faith.
“I, Marlin, take you, Frances, to be my lawfully wedded wife,” the handsome preacher repeated after Bishop Monroe.
Annabelle pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. She and Phineas had taken the same vows more than twenty years ago. It had wounded her deeply when her husband had declared—without any warning or apparent remorse—that he’d grown tired of the constraints of marriage and the Amish faith. It seemed Phineas had intended to leave without even telling her—except she’d caught him looking for her egg money in the pantry.
She had no idea where he’d gone. And because Amish couples weren’t allowed to divorce, her only chance at finding
another husband would come after Phineas passed away. How would she even know when that happened? And meanwhile, how was she supposed to get by? Living as her brother-in-law’s dependent, beholden to him for every morsel she ate, hadn’t been a desirable option, so she’d taken a huge chance and found her way from Pennsylvania to Promise Lodge. She’d read in The Budget about this progressive Plain settlement in Missouri, where single women could live in comfortable apartments and make a fresh start among families who also sought brighter futures.
Best decision you ever made, too, Annabelle reminded herself. She’d found her niche here, sewing clothes for Frances’s widowed brother-in-law and three young men who hadn’t yet married. Living among Plain women who managed a cheese factory, a dairy, a produce stand, and a pie business had given her the incentive to figure out how to support herself, and she planned to expand her sewing business by advertising it in town.
Once this painfully romantic wedding is behind you, you can get on with the contentment and purpose you’ve settled into here.
Annabelle put on a smile, determined not to succumb to her personal problems while everyone around her was sharing the joy that Marlin and Frances exuded.
“Friends,” Bishop Monroe proclaimed with a wide smile, “it’s my honor and privilege to present Mr. and Mrs. Marlin Kurtz.”
As applause filled the lodge’s big meeting room, Annabelle rose with the women around her. The best cure for her blues was making herself useful, helping Beulah and Ruby Kuhn set out the wedding feast they’d prepared. The maidel Mennonite sisters were the queens of the kitchen when it came to cooking for large gatherings—and as Annabelle passed through the dining room, she inhaled deeply to soothe her frazzled soul.
“Your ham and brisket smell so gut it was all I could do to stay seated during the wedding,” she teased as she entered the kitchen. “I was trying to think up an excuse for slipping back here to sample some of it—to be sure it was fit for our guests, of course.”
Ruby and Beulah laughed as they headed toward the ovens. Their bright floral-print dresses fluttered with their quick, efficient movements as Beulah slipped her hands into mitts while Ruby lowered the oven doors. The hair tucked up under their small, round Mennonite kapps was silvery, but nobody could call them old.
“I was pleased that Marlin asked for ham,” Beulah remarked, deftly lifting the blue graniteware roasters onto the nearest butcher-block countertops. “It’s a tasty way to feed a lot of folks with a minimum of fuss—”
“And the pineapple rings and maraschino cherries make it look pretty from the get-go,” Ruby put in. “Chicken and stuffing might be the traditional wedding dish, but it looks awfully bland. And who says you have to have that for your second wedding just because you served it the first time?”
“Tickles me pink that Frances and Marlin have finally tied the knot—even if Frances cut the usual mourning period a little short,” Beulah said. “Seems to me that pining on and on for Floyd might’ve been a slap in the face to God anyway, if we believe Floyd has gone to his reward with Jesus. We should be joyful about that, even as we acknowledge that Frances misses him.”
Annabelle considered this new slant on mourning as she sliced the ham and placed it into a metal steam table pan. Did she have it all wrong, feeling sorry for herself because Phineas had abandoned her? After all, she’d done nothing to provoke his departure, so surely God didn’t hold her accountable for her husband’s misdeeds. Maybe He’d offered her a chance at a whole new life when Phineas had gone his own way, even if her options for remarriage were severely limited.
God’s ways are not our ways, and they’re often mysterious to us, she reminded herself. I’ve felt humiliated and depressed about being abandoned, but maybe I should look at it from another angle. None of these other women have allowed their troubles to get them down.
Annabelle felt as though a heavy cloak of sadness was being lifted from her shoulders. As she sliced a second large ham, a genuine smile lit up her face. She had friends back in Bird-in-Hand who would secretly love the freedom of living without the overbearing men they’d married.
Freedom. Mattie, Christine, and Rosetta Bender, the original founders of Promise Lodge, had pooled their resources to buy an abandoned church camp so they’d be free from an oppressive bishop—and they’d been able to do that because they were widowed or single at the time. All three of them had gotten married this past year, to wonderful men who allowed them to make their own choices, so maybe there’d be another chance for Annabelle to find that same sort of happiness someday. At Promise Lodge, the bright blue sky was the limit.
“It’s gut to see that smile on your face, Annabelle,” Ruby said softly. She took up a sharp knife and began carving a beef brisket into thin slices as several other women came in to help them set out the meal. “At one point during the wedding, I was wondering if you’d bitten into a sour pickle—but then, I suppose weddings can heap a lot of difficult memories on some folks. Not that I’m prying, understand.”
Annabelle placed another stack of ham slices in the metal pan. “You’ve pegged it right, Ruby. But it’s occurred to me that nobody else is making me feel down and out about my situation. My own thoughts are to blame, and I’ve decided to give thanks for the life I have now. God is gut.”
“All the time,” Beulah and Ruby chorused.
Ruby smiled wistfully. “My sister and I act as though we have no regrets about remaining maidels, but deep down, every young girl has her dreams of a happily ever after, ain’t so?”
“Jah, when I think about the chances I’ve missed to hound a husband to distraction, I feel sort of sad,” Beulah teased. “But God knew what He was doing, steering away the fellows I would’ve made miserable with my smart mouth and demanding ways. Not many men would’ve tolerated Ruby’s and my independent streaks. Things are better all around because we stuck together and made our own way.”
“And we did our brother, Delbert, and his family a favor by coming here, too,” Ruby put in. “He felt he was doing his duty, letting us live in his crowded house with his wife and her mamm and their eight kids—”
“And only one bathroom,” Beulah interjected.
“—but our whole family’s better off because Beulah and I left the nest,” Ruby finished. “And now that we’re not expected to watch those kids all the time, we’ve found a life with a purpose that truly suits us. Maybe to most folks, that sounds selfish, but that’s their opinion—and we’ve held on to ours.”
Annabelle had done some mental math as she sliced the last of the ham. “Thirteen people and one bathroom,” she murmured. “Your apartments upstairs must feel like paradise by comparison. But don’t you miss your family? And the kids?”
Beulah smiled, stacking the empty roasting pans to get them out of the way. “They weren’t our kids,” she pointed out. “Ruby and I wondered if Delbert’s wife would’ve been happier without so many of them—but that’s a prickly subject we maidels knew better than to mention.”
“And it was none of our beeswax anyway,” Ruby added with a laugh.
Annabelle pondered this while she arranged the pineapple rings and cherries over the ham slices. The Lord hadn’t blessed her and Phineas with children, so she knew about keeping her opinions to herself concerning other couples’ parenting. God had His reasons for leaving them childless . . . and maybe He’d foreseen the day when Phineas would take off. Maybe He’d been watching out for her all along, not burdening her with dependent mouths to feed as He prepared her for a time when she’d need to make her own way.
When she carried the pan of ham to the steam table, Frances and Marlin were entering the lodge’s big dining room ahead of their guests. “Annabelle, that looks so pretty!” Frances exclaimed. “It’s a party in a pan!”
“Denki for the effort you ladies have put into making our dinner so special,” Preacher Marlin said. “I’ve eaten a lot of wedding meals here of late, but now that it’s our big day, the food looks even more glorious than usual!”
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“We’re all happy to be a part of your celebration,” Annabelle said. And she meant it. She was happy, now that she’d reconsidered her situation.
As the dining room filled with wedding guests, Annabelle looked around. Folks who lived at Promise Lodge, as well as family and friends of the Kurtzes from Iowa and some far-flung relatives of the Lehmans, ambled between long tables that were draped in white tablecloths. Christine Burkholder and her daughters were filling water glasses while Mattie Troyer and Rosetta Wickey were at the dessert table, cutting slices of pie and arranging cookies on platters.
Frances’s daughter Gloria and Marlin’s daughter-in-law, Minerva, wheeled out a metal cart loaded with steaming pans of brisket, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Bishop Monroe, who towered above most of the other folks, brought up the rear of the crowd, coming into the dining room along with Preachers Amos Troyer and Eli Peterscheim. His smile was warm as he raised his hands.
“Let’s give thanks for the food,” he called out over the crowd’s chatter. “Then the party can really get started!”
Annabelle bowed her head along with everyone else. In the hush of the large room, folks stood reverently as Bishop Monroe led them in prayer.
“Gracious God, we thank You for every gut and perfect gift You give us, every day of our lives,” he said in his rich baritone voice. “Bless this food to our use, bless the hands that prepared it, and bless us all to Your purpose. Amen.”
As folks found places at the long tables, Beulah addressed the wedding party, who were seated at the raised eck table in the corner of the room. “Frances and Marlin, we’re ready for you to fill your plates and enjoy your special day,” she called out. “Congratulations from every one of us!”