The Prodigal Son Returns

by Jan Drexler

  “What do you think?”

  Ellie looked around. The place was quiet and secluded, even though it was still close to the farmhouse. “It’s nice, I guess. Why?”

  He let go of her hand and paced along an imaginary line. “This is the front, and the door will be right here. The front porch will go around the corner—” he turned and paced along another line between her and the creek “—this way, so you can look out on the creek in the evening.”

  “You’re building a house here? Why do you need another house?”

  Bram acted as if she hadn’t spoken. He turned another right angle and paced along a third side of the square.

  “The back door will be here, with a walk going to the privy.” He gestured toward the outhouse that sat at an equal distance between his imaginary house and the farmhouse up the slope. “And then on this side, there’ll be space for a garden.”

  A garden? He was planning a house here, but that garden space looked too small for a family. “Bram, you already have a garden.”

  He walked back to her and took her hand again.

  “Ja, I already have a garden, but Miriam likes to plant flowers, doesn’t she?”

  Ellie stopped, smiling at his sly grin. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

  “I’ve already talked to Hezekiah and Miriam, and they’re pleased about it.”

  “About what?”

  “This.” He swept his hand around them to take in the proposed house he had laid out for her. “This will be their Dawdi Haus. They’re going to move in as soon as we can get it built.”

  Ellie’s eyes blurred. He was doing this for a couple he wasn’t related to? Why would he do that? But if they lived here, with Bram, she wouldn’t have any more worries about them. They would be so close, only a couple miles away, and she’d be able to see them more often. Every day if she wanted to.

  Bram’s finger slipped under her chin and lifted it so she looked into his eyes. “Miriam can’t wait to live next door to you and the children.”

  He moved his hand to the side of her face, and she felt him tuck the strand of hair behind her ear. Her breath caught as she realized what he had said. “What do you mean, next door?”

  “Ellie,” he said, his voice soft, intimate. He leaned closer to her. “I love you, and I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?”

  He smiled his crooked grin, but this time it was unsure, hopeful. She hadn’t noticed the way his beard hid his dimple until now. He had stopped shaving again after the shooting, and his beard was getting so long he looked like a married man, but that dimple was still there. A secret they shared.

  Just the first of all the secrets they would share. A wave swept over her, leaving her breathless. Bram wanted her to be his. How could she bear this joy?

  “Ja, Bram, ja. I’ll marry you.”

  He pulled her close to him, and she molded her body to his, pressing her ear against his chest to listen to his heartbeat.

  Bram was kissing her forehead, her nose, nudging her face up with each kiss until he caught her lips with his. She lifted her hand to pull him closer as she let herself drown in his kiss. This was her Bram.

  Epilogue

  “Are you nervous?” Mandy’s question after the family’s morning prayers were over made Ellie laugh.

  “Why should I be nervous? This is my second wedding day.”

  “Ellie won’t have to be worried about anything,” Mam said as she finished washing the dishes. “Everything is ready, thanks to all the willing helpers we’ve had.”

  Mam dried her hands and started the day’s work with her usual brisk enthusiasm.

  “Rebecca, remember, you and your friends are in charge of the little ones today. And, Mandy, will you please keep an eye out to give them a hand if they need it?”

  “Ja, Mam, you can count on it.”

  Mam smiled at both girls. “I know I can. Now, let’s bring up the jars of chow-chow from the cellar and start the chicken frying....”

  Mam shooed the girls down the cellar steps in front of her, but turned to Ellie before following them.

  “I have prayed for this day, daughter. Gott’s blessings will go with you.”

  “I know, Memmi. He is blessing our family already.”

  Ellie was alone in the kitchen—alone for the last time before her sisters and aunts started arriving to help with the wedding dinner. She looked around the spacious room. More than anywhere else in the world, this kitchen meant home and family. She had missed the significance of the kitchen before her first wedding. Perhaps she had taken it for granted, but she never would again. It was the center of the home.

  She smoothed her hand along the grain of the old table and then rested it on the back of Dat’s chair. Dat had made this chair a place of humility, mercy and grace. She had learned about Gott as she listened to Dat read from the Bible as he sat here, and as he read their morning and evening prayers while they each knelt at their chairs.

  Her whole life had been bracketed by Dat’s prayers at the beginning and end of every day. Even when she and Daniel had been married, he had included their names in his prayers just as he included Zac, Lovina, Sally and their families as they married one by one. Tomorrow he would start including Bram and their family in those same prayers.

  Bram had taken her with him last night as they moved her things into their new house. The new table in the kitchen was as big as this one. His grin when she had protested that the table was much too large for the five of them still made her smile. They both hoped it wouldn’t be too large for long.

  Tears of thanksgiving came to Ellie’s eyes as she thought of Bram’s chair at the head of that long table. He had built a shelf on the wall behind his chair and placed his Bible there, along with the copy of Die Ernsthafte Christenpflicht, the prayer book Dat had given him and the copy of the Ausbund hymnal that had been her gift to him. Bram was going to be a wonderful husband and father, leading his family as well as her Dat ever had.

  Even as early as it was, the community would soon start arriving. First the women who would help prepare the huge amounts of food they would need to feed dinner and supper to two hundred people, and then the other families.

  Then at nine o’clock the service would begin. She and Bram would miss the singing, as they would spend that time with Bishop Yoder, receiving the final counsel before taking their vows. Then the sermons would begin, the sermons that would lead the entire church in reflecting on the meaning of marriage and the solemnity and permanence of the vows she and Bram would soon take.

  Ellie peeked in the doorway of the front room. All the walls had been pushed back to make room for the benches for the service, as if it were a Sunday meeting. She leaned her head on the door frame, her mind filling the benches with her family and loved ones of the community.

  After the sermons, she and Bram would stand before the church with their witnesses—Matthew, Annie, Lovina and Noah—and then they would say their simple vows, promising to love and bear and be patient with each other until death.

  Could she love Bram?

  Ach, ja. She already loved him with all her heart.

  Could she be patient with him?

  Ja. Her love would provide the patience she would need.

  Could she bear him? Bear his bad moods as well as his good? Bear his sorrows as well as his joys? Bear his failures as well as his successes?

  Ja. She could bear anything at Bram’s side.

  The back door opened with a sharp squeak of the hinges, and Ellie turned to see Bram filling the doorway. His face broke into a grin when he saw her. “I hoped I’d find you here.”

  “Couldn’t you wait until the wedding?”

  “Ne, not today. I wanted to be alone with you for just a minute, before everyone else gets here. You know we won’t have a chance
until late tonight.”

  “A chance for what?”

  Bram’s crooked grin twitched, and he crossed the room to her. “A chance for one more kiss before you become my wife.”

  Ellie rose on tiptoe to peck him on the cheek. “There you go.”

  Bram growled as he pulled her into his arms. “You know I want more of a kiss than that.”

  And then he kissed her with a passion she had never felt before.

  Ach, ja. She could bear even this.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this story by Jan Drexler,

  be sure to check out the other books this month

  from Love Inspired Historical!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Cowboy's Surprise Bride by Linda Ford

  Dear Readers,

  Thank you for choosing The Prodigal Son Returns. Ellie’s story grew out of my grandmother’s memories of raising her five children in northern Indiana during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

  While not Amish, my grandparents were Plain people—Brethren—and lived in much the same way as Ellie’s Englisch tenants, the Brennemans. My grandfather worked at whatever job he could find, from helping out on a neighbor’s farm, to butchering, to working in the rubber factories in Goshen. My grandmother raised the children, planted gardens, preserved jars and jars of vegetables, fought to keep the family horses from eating the garden and fed her family from the leftovers my grandfather brought home from his butchering jobs. She also spent hours sewing—not only for her own family, but for families in need.

  The 1930s were hard times, but also good times, as families relied on God and their neighbors to survive. May we learn to do the same in our own time.

  I would love to hear from you. You can contact me on my website, www.JanDrexler.com, or on Facebook at Jan Drexler, Author.

  Blessings to you and yours,

  Jan Drexler

  Questions for Discussion

  In the opening of the story, Bram has returned to his Amish roots. Have you ever tried to move back home after being away for several years? What changes did you see in your home? What changes had happened in your life during those years?

  Ellie is reluctant to accept Bram into her life at first because he dresses and acts like an outsider. Was she right to keep her distance from him? How have you let first impressions determine how you treated a new acquaintance?

  Bram grew up in an Amish family, but one that doesn’t fit our modern stereotypes. What is your impression of the Amish? Do you assume every Amish family is the same?

  Ellie tries to assuage the guilt she feels over her husband’s death by doing the right thing—she obeys the church teachings, tries to be the perfect mother and daughter—but none of those things help ease her guilty conscience. Have you ever felt a similar way? What did you do about it?

  Ellie’s big step comes when she turns toward God in trust. Has something happened in your past that keeps you from trusting Him in some area of your life?

  As Bram and Ellie grow closer, many barriers stand in their way, but the biggest is his reluctance to join the church. Do you think it’s important for couples to be united in their beliefs?

  Bram fills a hole in the hearts of Ellie’s children. If she hadn’t met Bram, do you think Ellie could have provided everything her children needed without marrying again?

  Levi Zook has tried to court Ellie, but she has turned him down because she doesn’t love him. Was she right to wait for love, even when her family and church were urging her to marry for the sake of her children?

  The growing romantic love between Ellie and Bram isn’t the only kind of love in this story. What other kinds of love do you see displayed in Ellie’s life?

  Bram has had to give up many modern conveniences to go back to living the Amish life. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to live as an Amish person? What would be the hardest thing for you to give up?

  When Bram faces the question of joining the church, his first reaction is that he doesn’t want to give up his freedom and independence to become part of this close-knit community. But after John Stoltzfus visits him in the hospital, he changes his mind. Is there someone who has been a mentor for you? Is there someone you know who is looking for a mentor?

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Historical title.

  You find illumination in days gone by. Love Inspired Historical stories lift the spirit as heroines tackle the challenges of life in another era with hope, faith and a focus on family.

  Enjoy four new stories from Love Inspired Historical every month!

  Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.

  We like you—why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  Read our blog for all the latest news on our authors and books: HarlequinBlog.com

  Subscribe to our newsletter for special offers, new releases, and more!

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Chapter One

  Northwest Territories, Canada

  October 1881

  For the first time she was about to meet Eddie Gardiner. The man she intended to marry. The answer to her prayers.

  Linette Edwards parted the curtains on the stagecoach—meant to keep out the dust and cold. The first few days of their trip, dust had filtered through them, and now cold with the bite of a wild beast filled every inch of the tiny coach. Four adults and a child huddled against the elements.

  “You’re letting in the cold,” her traveling companion complained.

  “I fear we are in for an early snowstorm,” one of the male passengers said.

  Linette murmured an apology but she managed to see the rolling hills and the majestic mountains before she dropped the curtain back in place. Since they’d left Fort Benton, headed for the ranch lands of the Northwest Territories of Canada, she’d peered out as much as she could. The mountains, jagged and bold, grew larger and larger. A song filled her heart and soul each time she saw them. This was a new country. She could start over. Be a different person than she’d been forced to be in England. Here she would be allowed to prove she had value as a person. She ignored the ache at how her parents viewed her—as a commodity to be traded for business favors.

  She shifted her thoughts to the letter of invitation hidden safely in the cavernous pocket of the coat she’d acquired in Fort Benton. She longed to pull it out and read it again though she had memorized every word. Come before winter.

  “I expect more than a shack,” her friend Margaret had fumed when she’d read an earlier letter from the same writer. “After all, he comes from a very respectable family.” With bitterness edging each word, Margaret read the letters describing the cabin Eddie assured her was only temporary quarters. “Temporary? I’m sure he doesn’t know the meaning of the word. A year and a half he’s been there and he still lives in this hovel.”

  “It sounds like an adventure.” Linette could imagine a woman working side by side with her man, being a necessary asset to establishing a home in the new world. It sounded a lot more appealing to her than sitting and smiling vacantly as a female spectator. She’d been raised to be the lady of the manor but she wanted more. So much more.

  Margaret had sniffed with such disdain that Linette giggled.

  “I have made up my mind,” Margaret said. “I cannot marry him and join him in the wilds of the Canadian West. I expected far more when he asked for my hand before he left to start a Gardiner ranch out in that—” she fluttered her hand weakly “—in that savage land.” Her shudder was delicate and likely deliberate.

  “Oh, Margaret, surely you don’t mean it.”

  “Indeed I do. I’ve written this letter.”

  Seated in the overstuffed pa
rlor of Margaret’s family home in London, Linette had read each word kindly but firmly informing Eddie that Margaret had changed her mind and would not be joining him now or anytime in the future. I expect it makes me sound small and selfish, but I can’t imagine living in a tiny house, nor being a woman of the West.

  “But what about your feelings for him? His for you?”

  Margaret had given her a smile smacking of pity. “I enjoyed his company. He was a suitable candidate for marriage. There are plenty other suitable men.”

  How often she’d envied Margaret the opportunity to head to a new world with so much possibility simply for the eager taking of it. “But he’s counting on you. Why would you want to stay here when the whole world beckons?” Wouldn’t he be dreadfully hurt by Margaret’s rejection?

  “You should marry him. You’re the one who thinks it would be a lark.” Margaret was clearly annoyed with Linette’s enthusiasm. “In fact, write him and I’ll enclose your letter with mine.”

  “Write him? And say what?”

  “That you’re willing to be his wife.”

  “I don’t know him.” A trickle of something that felt suspiciously like excitement hurried up her limbs to her heart. But it couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible. “My father would never allow it.”

  Margaret laughed. “I think the Gardiner name would make even your father consider it a good idea. And would it not provide an escape from the marriage your father has planned?”

  Linette shuddered. “I will not marry that old—” Her father had chosen a man in his fifties with a jangling purse of money and a drooling leer. His look made Linette feel soiled. She would do anything to avoid such a fate. She’d been praying for a reprieve. Perhaps this was an answer to her heartfelt petition.