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  Faith And Love Found

  Amish Romance

  Book 2

  By: Claudia Hope

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  Faith And Love Found

  Racheal, Rebecca, her sisters and Elijah had enjoyed the winter months. There was little work to be done and they were all able to spend time together. Racheal and her daughters were able to focus on healing from the death of their husband and father, Abe, while Rebecca and Elijah were able to spend more time together getting to know each other better.

  The women were also able to focus on the quilting business that their mother ran and Elijah spent a lot of his time planning the crop for the following spring. It was going to be a difficult year, both Elijah and Rebecca knew that. With Abe passing before the crop was harvested the previous year Elijah had stepped in to help Rebecca’s mother and sisters. He had struggled to keep up with the crop that Abe had planted and knew that the garden would have to be even bigger this year.

  He had already told Rebecca that he was going to ask her to marry him in the spring and knew that it would make things even more difficult for him. He would have to ensure that he was providing for his new wife while taking care of the crop and ensuring that Racheal and her daughters were taken care of as well. It was not the ideal situation, no man ever planned on taking care of the family of his wife, but it was something that had to be done.

  Elijah had cared for Rebecca long before her father had passed, but had been unable to show her because everyone thought she and Levi would be married. Elijah would never be thankful that Abe had passed, but he was thankful that the terrible circumstance had brought him and Rebecca together. He could not wait until they were able to have a home of their own and he could call her his wife.

  Elijah knew that there was much work for Rebecca to do in order to plan the wedding. The people in his community did not have elaborate weddings like those in the English world. The woman was in charge of making her own dress which was generally blue and not white like in English weddings. Once the wedding was over the dress would become her Sunday clothes and it would be what she would be buried in.

  Rebecca would have to spend time working on their wedding night quilt, the quilt that would lay on their bed for the rest of their lives, the couple's house would have to be built, a barn would need to be raised. Elijah would have to take care of getting all of the animals that Rebecca would need to help provide food for the two of them. There was so much to do that Elijah wondered if he could do it all.

  He knew that having a wife meant that he was going to have to work with his father in the construction business that his family owned and as he thought about all that he would have to accomplish he was thankful that his father had raised him to be a hardworking man.

  Rebecca knew that Elijah was going to be taking on a lot more than the average man took on when he asked a woman to marry him. She knew that their life would not be normal, but Elijah had promised her that they would not leave her family property that he would continue to help take care of her mother and sisters. Rebecca did not allow Elijah to see the concern that she had but she wondered if he could handle it. Each night when Rebecca went to bed, she prayed that God would give Elijah the strength he needed and that he would send her mother a husband and her sisters a father figure that would provide for them.

  Racheal looked as if she had aged 10 years and Rebecca could tell that she was worried about the future. Rebecca tried to reassure her that everything would be okay and that Elijah would take care of everyone but even she was beginning to wonder if that were possible. There were nights where she would lay down in her bed and wonder what life would be like if her father had not died. Rebecca would dream that she and Elijah were able to have a normal life, but each morning she would wake up and remember that it would never be that way. Rebecca felt as if she were cheating Elijah out of something that he deserved… a normal life. She decided that before she agreed to marry him she was going to have to talk to him and make sure that he understood what he was actually signing up for.

  Rebecca expected that Elijah would walk away, that he would tell her it was too much for him to handle and that he wanted a normal life but she prayed that was not the case. Whenever she was quilting she would find herself thinking about their wedding day and how wonderful it would be to call him her husband. She would get lost in dreams about their future and what their children would look like. Elijah did not know it, but Rebecca wanted a large family even bigger than the one her parents had.

  More than anything she wanted to get started on her family as soon as they were married, but she knew that would only cause more work for herself and Elijah. As Rebecca sat in her parent’s living room, she looked up at her mother and sighed. She had not yet told her mother that Elijah was going to propose. She hadn’t even told her that they were becoming close.

  Rebecca was afraid that it would upset her mother or make her feel lonely and that was the last thing that Rebecca wanted to do. Racheal looked up at Rebecca, “What is it,” she asked her daughter. “Nothing mamm,” Rebecca answered, looking back down to the quilt she was working on.

  “Don’t tell me that,” Racheal said, putting her work down, “You have been looking at me like that all week now tell me what is going on.”

  Racheal sat looking at her mother for a minute and sighed, “It’s Elijah.”

  Rebecca sat straight up in her chair, “Has he done something to upset you,” she asked her daughter.

  Racheal smiled at her mother. It did not matter how old she was it made her feel good when her mother became protective of her. “No mamm, he has not upset me,” Racheal said calmly. She knew she would have to control her nerves if she was going to tell her mother. “It is just that he intends to marry me,” she could not help but smile. She loved Elijah and she hoped that her mother would see that.

  Rebecca looked down at her quilt that she was working on, “And how do you feel about that,” she asked her daughter.

  “Mamm,” Racheal began, “I know that since Dat’s passing you need me. I know that you need my help with the chores and the younger girls but I love him and I want to marry him.”

  There was nothing but silence and Racheal knew that her mother felt as if she were losing her daughter right after losing her husband. Racheal put the quilt down that she had been working on and walked over to her mother. She knelt down in the floor at her mother’s feet and looked up at her.

  “Mamm,” Racheal whispered, “We want to stay on your land. We can build a house and I will always be close to you. I can help you with everything and Elijah can still tend to Dat’s fields. You and the girls will not go without no matter what we have to do.”

  Rebecca felt a twinge of guilt at her daughter’s last statement. She had no idea that Racheal felt so responsible for taking care of the family or that she had put so much pressure on her daughter.

  “Now that doesn’t seem very fair does it,” Rebecca looked up at her daughter smiling. She knew that she would need help to take care of her other daughters and that she could not tend to the fields on her own, but she was not going to let her daughter feel responsible for taking care of her. “I don’t mind if you take part of the land, we have more than enough,” Rebecca continued, “That was one of the reasons your Dat
wanted so much land.” Rebecca paused and smiled as she thought about her late husband.

  “What he would not want,” Rebecca said, “is for his daughter to feel responsible for his family. I am glad that you have found love with Elijah and so happy that the two of you want to be married and that will happen. I will take care of things around here.”

  Racheal had no idea what to say. She knew her mother could be stubborn, but did not understand how she would be willing to risk the future of her own daughters just so one could have a normal life.

  “I don’t understand,” Racheal said, knowing that she should not argue with her mother but still needing to know what the answers were, “how can you take care of everything? You cannot sell your quilts and provide the girls with an education and take care of the chores as well as the fields and animals.”

  “No,” Rebecca said, looking overwhelmed, “But I will have help. I did not want to bring this up to you, but I myself have been talking to someone and we get along quite well.”

  Racheal’s mouth gaped open. She stared at her mother as she tried to regain her composure. “What do you mean talking to someone? Someone as in a man?”

  Rebecca giggled at her daughter’s response. She had wanted to keep it a secret a bit longer and he completely understood why, but she was quite interested in a man from outside of the community. He had bought several of her quilts and they had begun talking a few months prior.

  Rebecca had explained to the man whose name was William that she had recently lost her husband and that she had been left to take care of her daughters. She found that William was very easy to talk to and that he had experienced his own troubles in life. William had been married, but his wife had left him and their two children years before. He had spent his life raising his kids as best as he could by himself, but he had never really found happiness.

  When the two of them were together they both seemed to forget about their troubles and the two of them had been meeting in secret several times a week for a while. Rebecca knew that it would be frowned upon, but she did not want her daughters to feel as if she was replacing their father.

  Rebecca had even talked to William about joining the community and he had expressed a lot of interest. It was not often that someone in the Amish community married an outsider, but it was not forbidden. The only rule was that the outsider had to be baptized into the church and follow the Amish customs. William had asked Rebecca a lot of questions when it came to the Amish customs and had done plenty of research on his own. Rebecca knew that William understood their way of life and that whatever decision he made it would be what he wanted.

  “Yes Racheal someone as in a man,” Rebecca said, smiling down at her daughter.

  “Well, who is it mamm,” Racheal wanted to know who her mother had been talking to more than anything, “And why has he not come to help Elijah around here?”

  Rebecca knew that she was going to have to tell her daughter more about William but now was not the time for that. She wanted to focus on Racheal. “We can talk about all that later,” Rebecca said, trying to change the subject, “Let’s talk about your wedding to Elijah. When is it going to be?”

  Racheal stood up and walked back to her quilt. She did not understand why her mother would not tell her who this mystery man was and why she had not told her about him before. More than anything Racheal wanted to know why this man whom her mother was so interested in was not helping the family. If he wanted to be part of Rebecca’s family, he should have been there making sure they were taken care of just like Elijah had done.

  Once Racheal was seated, she picked up her quilt and looked at her mother. “He is not going to ask me until the crops are planted. He wanted to give me time to figure out what I wanted,” Racheal said. Rebecca could hear the anger in her voice, but chose to ignore it. Normally she would have scolded her daughter for having that tone, but emotions were still running high in the family and she did not want to take her daughters joy away.

  “And you are going to say yes of course,” Rebecca said, looking at her daughter, “So when do you want the wedding to be?”

  The community only held weddings twice per year, once in the spring before the crops were planted and once in the fall after the crops were harvested. Racheal knew that she would not be able to prepare to have a spring wedding no matter how much she wanted to marry Elijah.

  “We will have it in the fall,” Racheal answered her mother without looking up from her quilt, “We need time to plan, I have to make my dress and quilt as well as Elijah’s clothing.”

  “But you will have plenty of help,” her mother said in an upbeat tone, “I am sure that if we wanted we could plan it for the spring.”

  “Mamm,” Racheal said, taking a deep breath, “I want to be married in the fall and that is how it is going to be. Our house will have to be built and I don’t want to feel like I am rushing everything.”

  Rebecca put her head down. She only wanted to make her daughter happy, but felt as if she was failing. She already regretted telling Racheal about William.

  “I do not want you telling your sisters of William,” Rebecca said to her daughter, “There is no reason to upset them.”

  “Of course not,” Racheal said, “I’m sure they would have the same questions that I have. The same questions that you do not want to answer.”

  Racheal could not take anymore. She laid down her quilt and walked out of the house.

  There was no more talk of William for the rest of the winter and as spring came Racheal’s anticipation grew. She waited each day for Elijah to propose to her. It was no more than a week before the crops were to be planted and Racheal had all but given up on Elijah proposing. She saw Elijah walking the fields and decided that she would talk to him.

  Elijah looked up and smiled as she walked up to him. He reached out to take her hand, knowing that something was on her mind, “What is it Racheal,” he asked her with a worried look on his face.

  Racheal looked up at the man that she wanted more than anything to marry, “Have you changed your mind about me,” she asked, doing her best not to cry.

  William smiled down at her, “What do you mean,” he asked teasing her.

  “William, I am serious. You know what I mean. You have not asked me to marry you. Have you changed your mind about me,” Racheal hated being so blunt, but she wanted to know what her future held.

  William released Racheal’s hand, which caused her heart to race. She thought she saw doubt in his eyes and it broke her heart. “Dear Racheal,” Elijah began, “I would never change my mind about you. I wondered if you had changed your mind about me. You are the only one that I would ever want to marry. I was afraid that with all of the tension between you and your mother that you were having second thoughts, maybe she was forcing you to marry me.”

  Racheal threw her arms around Elijah’s neck and held on to him tightly. Her heart pounded with excitement.

  “I saved all of the money that I earned while working with my dat so that we can purchase what we will need for the house as well as some animals of our own,” Elijah said looking down at her. It meant a lot to Racheal that he was thinking about their future.

  “I need to talk to my mamm,” Racheal said looking at Elijah. He knew that there had been tension between the two of them for weeks, but he was not sure why. Racheal told him about William and how her mother had refused to answer any questions about him. She told Elijah that she did not think that it was right that he was doing all of the work while this man William did not offer to help Rebecca out at all.

  Elijah agreed but told Racheal that she probably did not have all of the information that there was probably a reason that Rebecca was keeping this man away. He explained that if for no other reason she probably did not want the younger girls getting upset because their mother was showing interest in a man that was not their father.

  Racheal agreed with him and felt bad about her previous behavior. She knew that the way she had acted probably added to
her mother’s fears. She had to sit down and talk with her mother. She knew she had to apologize. She knew her mother would understand because none of them had been in this situation before and there was no way for any of them prepare for it.

  That evening as the two women prepared dinner for the family Racheal asked her mother if they could talk.

  “Of course,” Rebecca answered her daughter, “You can always talk to me.”

  Racheal knew that Rebecca would not be expecting her to bring up William as the topic of the conversation and she wanted to be careful with her words. She did not want her mother shutting down on her again.

  “I know that you do not want the younger girls to know about your friend William as of yet, but I wanted to talk to you about him,” Racheal began. She could feel the tension in the air as her mother looked at her. Rebecca was falling for William and they had discussed him joining the Amish community several times, but they were waiting until Racheal was married and things settled down with the other girls. Rebecca was not the type of mother who put her own needs before that of her children and she was thankful that William understood how she felt about the situation.

  “What is it that you want to talk about exactly,” Rebecca said looking at her daughter.

  “Well,” Racheal began, “I wanted to apologize for being so rude and not understanding when you told me about him. I spoke to Elijah about it and now I understand that the reason he has not come to help you or Elijah is because you do not want to make the other girls feel uncomfortable and I probably made it worse for you.”

  “Racheal,” Rebecca said smiling, “William not coming here to help has nothing to do with you or the other girls. There is so much more to it than that.”

  Rebecca preceded to tell her daughter more about William. She told Racheal that William was an English man and that she wanted him to join the community just as soon as he was ready. She explained to her daughter that William had children of his own to take care of as well as a job that he could not just drop all of his responsibilities and come help out on the farm. Racheal felt torn. She wanted to know more about this mysterious man, but she also felt as if she were being disloyal to her own father.