Barbara Cameron - A Time to Heal

A Time to Heal
"Barbara Cameron weaves a lovely tale featuring characters who will steal your heart. A must-read for all Amish fiction fans." K ATHLEEN F ULLER , author of A Summer Secret, A Hand to Hold, & The Secrets Beneath
Other books by the author
A Time to Love, book one in the Quilts of Lancaster County series
and coming in Fall 2011 from Barbara Cameron and Abingdon Press A Time for Peace, book three in The Quilts of Lancaster County series
A TIME TO HEAL Quilts of Lancaster County Series
Barbara Cameron

A Time to Heal Copyright 2011 Barbara Cameron ISBN-13: 978-1-4267-0764-3 Published by Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202 www.abingdonpress.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form,
stored in any retrieval system, posted on any website,
or transmitted in any form or by any meansdigital, electronic, scanning, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout
written permission from the publisher, except for brief
quotations in printed reviews and articles. The persons and events portrayed in this work of fiction
are the creations of the author, and any resemblance
to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Cover design by Anderson Design Group, Nashville, TN Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cameron, Barbara, 1949- A time to heal / Barbara Cameron. p. cm. (Quilts of Lancaster County series ; 2) ISBN 978-1-4267-0764-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Amish--Ficton. 2. Lancaster County (Pa.)Fiction. I. Title. PS3603.A4473T54 2011 813'.6dc22 2010051907
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 / 16 15 14 13 12 11
For my family

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my family and friends who are so supportive of my writing. I know it can't be easy to listen to me talking on and on about characters who feel like real people to me! Barbara Scott, my wonderful editor, deserves a BIG thank you for her enthusiasm for the series and for her intuitive comments to improve it. Thank you so much, Barbara. I can always count on Judy Rehm, friend and Bible scholar, for her support and for helping me to express a biblical truth better. I so appreciate Linda Byler who takes time away from her own writing to read my manuscripts and help me make my stories authentic. Linda, I wish you the best of luck as your books enter the market. I know you will enjoy great success! Each day when I sit down to write I think about the people who encouraged me when the dream God planted in me started to bloom... the high school English teacher who moved up to a higher grade each year as I did so that we had four wonderful years together. At the time I wondered what that was about, God. Now I know that it was for the day Mrs. White would read something I wrote and encourage me to write a short story for extra credit. Then there was Charlie LaPoint, the very cranky but gifted newspaper editor who alternately terrified me (I was just out of high school!) and pushed me to be a better writer, insisting to the managing editor that I should be promoted to intern reporter and when I messed up, stuck up for me. And finally, Vivian Stephens, the editor who bought my first novel and set me on this path. As always, God, the master author of the book of my life, gets the biggest thanks. And the glory. Thank You!

F ree. They couldn't keep him caged up any more. He took a deep breath of the summer air, warm and fragrant with the scents of earth and the crops growing in the fields on each side of the road. A man could get to feeling dead inside living in the place he'd been, trapped in a prison of despair and pain, shut away from the rest of the world. He'd gotten out and he would never go back. He had enough scars to last a lifetime. His surroundings were so different from the small rural town in Kansas where he'd grown up. But there was a similar feel to this landscape with the crops ripening in the fields and, most of all, the huge barns that cast shadows over neat farmhouses, as if asserting their importance. Work came first. The old-time farm equipment looked weird. Modern-day efficiency ruled the fields back home. And the buggieswell, they were the biggest surprise. He knew the Amish drove buggies.He'd seen photos. But the reality made him feel as if he'd stepped back in time, not just stepped out of the prison he'd been in for so long. Dusk began falling as his military boots marched toward their goal. He set his backpack down and pulled a wrinkled map from his pocket, studying it for the hundredth time.Excitement quickened his step even though he felt exhausted and hungry. She wouldn't be expecting him. Might not even appreciate the surprise. But he'd felt compelled to come here.It might mean trouble, but he'd never backed down from a problem before. He heard the sound of horse hooves clip-clopping behind him, interrupting his thoughts. "Need a ride there, sohn?" He turned and looked up into the friendly face of an Amish man whose grizzled beard blew in the cooling late summer breeze. "No, thanks," he said. "I don't have much farther to go." He watched as the Amish man nodded and called to his horse, and the buggy moved on down the road. Forced to rest a short while later, he ate the jerky strips and apple he'd bought at a convenience store earlier. A meager meal but he'd had worsesometimes none at all. The ability to enjoy God's country outside made it a banquet. He pitched the apple core into the nearby cornfield. It'd make a meal for some mouse or other tiny animal. He tucked the jerky package into his backpack and stood. Pain shot through his knee. He winced and then worked out the kinks before he tried walking. Not far now. The farmhouse perched on a small hill ahead.He recognized it without even looking at the number on the mailbox. She'd described it so well. He didn't know if he'd get a welcome. After all, they hadn't met under the best of conditions. Perhaps he should have written and asked if he could come visit. But he hadn't wanted to know she didn't want him to. If she refused to see him, he'd find a place and see for himself what she'd talked about. But as he looked around him, as he breathed the air of freedom and walked alone and unfettered, he knew that he'd found what he'd been searching for all these years. Paradise.

Hannah stepped out of the buggy, reached back inside to lift the covered tray, and smiled. She couldn't believe they'd be celebrating Joshua's birthday again. Time seemed to fly by.Parents often said that. She hadn't believed them before now.But Joshua was eight already. Balancing the tray on her hip, she opened the door to the schoolhouse and stepped inside. Joshua turned and waved before he resumed working with another scholar. Several other children smiled and waved shyly but they, like Joshua, returned to their work without needing a reminder from Leah, the teacher. "I thought I'd come a little early to see if you could use some help," Hannah said as Leah walked over to greet her. "I knew you would. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all the time you volunteer here." Hannah glanced around the room. Nothing had changed since she'd attended this very schul. She'd sat at that desk over there by the west window, done her sums and written sentences on the blackboard, and heated her sandwich on the radiator as they all did in the winter. She'd celebrated birthdays here, performed in little plays with the other scholars, and fallen in love with Samuel Lapp. She had been in seventh grade; he, in eighth. Unfortunately, Samuel hadn't known she existed even though he sat just two rows away. Leah held out her hands. "Let me set this down for you.What kind did you make?" "Half yellow, half chocolate. I put in two chocolate cupcakes just for you." Leah's eyes lit up. "You know me so well." Hannah laughed. "I should. You always bargained with me for anything chocolate if I brought it in my lunch." She glanced around. "What can I do?" "Daniel and Jacob could use some help with their addition and subtraction lesson." Hannah walked over to the table where Daniel and Jacob were hunched over their tablets. "Can I help you with your addition and subtraction?" "Could we have a cupcake first?" Daniel responded, his grin full of charm. She shook her head and tried to look stern. "Not until it's time. And besides, Joshua's mamm and daedi aren't here yet." Jacob looked up at her and frowned. "Jenny isn't his real mamm. She died." Daniel smacked his arm. "Hannah knows that. Don't be a schtummer! Jenny's his new mamm." "I'm not a dummy!" Jacob said. He hit Daniel on the arm, and the two glared at each other. "That's enough," Hannah said. "Time to get to work or the two of you will sit here while the rest of us eat cupcakes." Groaning, they hunched over their lesson again. Hannah hid her smile while she watched Daniel, tongue caught between his teeth, worry over a problem. When he held up the paper and showed her his answer, she nodded with approval. The door opened and Jenny walked in. Hannah watched as her schwei made her way across the room. Sometimes she still couldn't believe that this glowing, healthy woman was the same one who'd come home a pale, shattered version of herself just two years ago. Now, only those who knew what Jenny had been through could detect the slight limp in her walk and the small scar that lingered on her face, evidence of the injuries she'd suffered. But everyone could see how she radiated happiness and could feel the aura of peace that surrounded her. Some of it came, Hannah knew, from Jenny working so hard to overcome her injuries. Some of it came from her deepening faith and her love of the Plain community into which she'd been accepted.And some of it came from the man she'd marriedHannah's widowed bruder, Matthew. Praise God for that. Matthew had changed for the better after he and Jenny had married. Hannah remembered how Jenny had once asked her what she looked for in a man. Had she made up a wish list? Jenny had wanted to know. Hannah, having never heard of such a thing, shook her head and laughed a little at the thought. But Hannah had no interest in any of the men here in Paradise, and she'd started to wonder whether she would ever marry and start a family of her own. She feared that she'd become en alt maedel an old maid. Hannah joked with this sister of her heart that the man who would become her husband would just have to show up if she were ever to become a wife and mother. Now, as Hannah glanced around at all the sweet faces of the children who surrounded her, she felt a small pang. If she wanted kinner of her ownand she realized more and more these days that she didmaybe she would have to settle for one of the men who'd tried to court her.Next page