Cindy Woodsmall - The Christmas Singing: A Romance from the Heart of Amish Country

Books by Cindy Woodsmall
A DAS H OUSE SERIES
The Hope of Refuge
The Bridge of Peace
The Harvest of Grace The Sound of Sleigh Bells
The Christmas Singing S ISTERS OF THE Q UILT SERIES
When the Heart Cries
When the Morning Comes
When the Soul Mends N ONFICTION
Plain Wisdom

T HE C HRISTMAS S INGING
P UBLISHED BY W ATER B ROOK P RESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental.

eISBN: 978-0-307-45921-3

Copyright 2011 by Cindy Woodsmall

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

W ATER B ROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

v3.1

To Shannon Marchese, my editor and friend

With each book the road before us unfolds
with a few sharp turns and jolting potholes,
but whatever challenges arise,
you remain on my top-ten list of people
Im thankful to have in my life .
Even though youre a new mom
and my first grandchild is on her way,
time and again you give wise counsel I can depend on .
Sometimes in life we know a relationship was meant to be,
and we are one of those . You surprise me, challenge me, encourage me, bail me out,
and on an occasion or two, youve driven me nuts
and I couldnt be more grateful .

Contents

C old darkness and the sugary aroma from the cake shop below surrounded Mattie as she slid a solid-colored dress over her head and tied her white apron in place. The Old Order Amish here in Ohio didnt wear the black apronsa difference she enjoyedand only those involved with baking wore the white apron from the waist down. After brushing her hair, she fastened it up properly and donned her prayer Kapp . Who needed a light or a mirror to get ready for the day? Shed been wearing similar clothes her whole life, and the Ohio Amish pinned up their hair in much the same way as she had back in Pennsylvania.

Now, cake decoratingthat required good lighting and great attention to detail. And her favorite season for making specialty cakesChristmaswas right around the corner.

Ready to take on a new day, she hurried down the roughhewn steps that led into her shop, lit a kerosene lantern, and pulled on her coat while going out the back door. Before getting to the woodpile, she paused a moment, enjoying Berlins lights. Illuminated white bulbs hung like beacons against the dark night. Although she missed her Mamm and Daed , this was home now, not Pennsylvania.

She scanned the silhouettes and shadows of nearby homes and shops. The golden full moon had a silky glow around it, a ring almost as clear and defined as the moon itself. What would it look like if she designed a cake with a halo?

Eager to make notes, she loaded wood into the crook of her arm and went inside. She dumped the logs in the bin and then stirred the embers in the potbelly stove and added kindling. Before her first customer arrived, shed have the place toasty warm.

The shop was old and narrow, but Mattie loved it. When the previous owner, a man who sold saddles and such, decided to sell his place a few weeks before she moved here, her brother James had helped her buy and remodel it. Theyd torn out all the old counters, workbenches, and shelving.

The ceiling, floors, and walls were made of unfinished, exposed wood. Shed put in a huge display case along the left wall, and a couple of small tables sat to the right. Stainless-steel sinks and a gas-powered commercial oven and refrigerator filled the back wall. Her work station, where she pieced together and decorated her cakes, sat a few feet away. Even in cooler weather, keeping the place warm without electricity wasnt much of an issue with the heat radiating from the oven and the wood stove. Hot summer weather was a little more problematic, but the many windows helped.

She began searching for her spiral notebook, which she often referred to as her brain. The pages of her combination sketch pad, scrapbook, and journal were covered with drawings, doodles, and pictures from magazines and newspapers. Itd been a gift for her twelfth birthday, and although the gift giver had broken her heart seven years later, she still appreciated the book. Her day planner was in the back of it, with the types of cakes she needed to make, due dates, and all her clients names and phone numbers. Without it she wouldnt know how to run her store.

She knelt and looked under her work station. It was there, maybe two feet away. Reaching as far as she could, she touched the edge of the thick binder and grabbed it. Now where did she leave her pencil?

Is it behind your ear, Mattie Lane? Gideons voice washed over her.

She shuddered, detesting hearing him inside her head, especially with the added use of the pet name Mattie Lane. Lane was not a part of her given name or her surname. When they first broke up, his voice had played constantly in her mind, but after three years these whispers from the past were rare.

Theyd been good friends most of their lives. He was three years older than she, and it had stung when he began dating at sixteen. But worse than seeing him with other Amish girls was seeing him with Englischer girls. At eighteen, hed stopped seeing others and told her that hed decided to wait for her.

Their first date had taken place on her birthday, Christmas Eve, and shed attended her first singing with Gideon. The magic of Christmas seemed to surround both of them as their voices rose in celebration of Christs birth and the blessing of being together. Nothing in her life had ever compared to the emotion of that night, not even owning her own shop. For the next three years, they enjoyed the glorious Christmas singings together.

And then she caught him.

Her heartbreak had been compounded by confusion. Nothing had prepared her for his betrayal.

Pushing those thoughts away, she found a pencil lying next to the sink and jotted down notes about the halo. Then she made herself a quick breakfast. Before shed swallowed the last of her coffee, she had four dozen muffins and four dozen cupcakes in the oven.

The cowbells hanging on the door chimed numerous times throughout the morning, and by noon she had sold the usual amount of baked goods for this time of year and had taken three new cake ordersfor a birthday, a bridal shower, and a summer wedding. She couldnt think of anything more exciting than running Mattie Cakes.

She went to the phone and dialed her Mamm. One of the things she loved most about owning a shop was the permission to have a phone handy. She called her Mamm at least once a day.

Few women were as remarkable as her mother. Shed been forty-seven when she got pregnant with Mattie. But Mamms health issues progressed from inconvenient at the time of Matties birth to life threatening by the time Mattie turned sixteen. Mattie had spent much of her life fearing shed lose her mother. But when Mattie hesitated to move from Pennsylvania to Ohio, her mother had refused to let her stay in Apple Ridge.

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