Beth Wiseman - Seek Me with All Your Heart

PRAISE FOR BETH WISEMAN

Wisemans voice is consistently compassionate and her words flow smoothly.

Publishers Weekly review of Seek Me

With All Your Heart

In Seek Me With All Your Heart, Beth Wiseman offers readers a heartwarming story fil ed with complex characters and deep emotion. I instantly loved Emily and eagerly turned each page, anxious to learn more about her pastand what future the Lord had in store for her.

Shel ey Shepard Gray, best-sel ing

author of the Seasons of Sugarcreek

series

Wiseman has done it again! Beautiful y compel ing, Seek Me With All Your Heart, is a heart-warming story of faith, family, and renewal. Her characters and descriptions are captivating, bringing the story to life with the turn of every page.

Amy Clipston, best-sel ing author of

A Gift of Grace

Seek Me With All Your Heart by Beth Wiseman is a heart-stirring story of second chances and learning to trust God in difficult circumstances. You wont want to miss the start to this new Amish series!

Col een Coble, best-sel ing author of

The Lightkeepers Bride and the

Rock Harbor series

OTHER BOOKS BY BETH WISEMAN

The Daughters of the Promise series

Plain Paradise

Plain Promise

Plain Pursuit

Plain Perfect

Novel as found in:

An Amish Christmas

An Amish Gathering

Seek Me

With All Your Heart

A Land of Canaan Novel

Beth Wiseman

2010 by Beth Wiseman

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONALVERSION. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Publishers Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wiseman, Beth, 1962

Seek me with all your heart : a land of Canaan novel / Beth Wiseman.

p. cm. (Land of Canaan ; 1)

ISBN 978-1-59554-824-5 (pbk.)

1. AmishFiction. 2. ColoradoFiction. I. Title.

PS3623.I83S44 2010

813'.6dc22

2010033439

Printed in the United States of America

10 11 12 13 14 RRD 5 4 3 2 1

To Natalie Hanemann

Pennsylvania Dutch Glossary

ab im koppoff in the head

AamenAmen

achoh

aentiaunt

bopplibaby or babies

The Budgeta weekly newspaper serving Amish and Mennonite

communities everywhere

dummdumb

daadigrandfather

daeddad

dankithanks

dochderdaughter

Englischa non-Amish person

fraawife

Frehlicher Grischtdaag Merry Christmas

gutgood

guder mariyegood morning

hatthard

haushouse

kafficoffee

kappprayer covering or cap

kinnerchildren or grandchildren

lieblove

maedelgirl

mammmom

mammigrandmother

meimy

muddermother

neeno

onkeluncle

Ordnungthe written and unwritten rules of the Amish; the understood behavior by which the Amish are expected to live, passed down from generation to generation. Most Amish know the rules by heart.

Pennsylvania DeitschPennsylvania German, the language most commonly used by the Amish rumschpringe running around period when a teenager turns sixteen years old

schtinkichstinks

wunderbaar wonderful

yayes

Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

One

EMILY STOOD BEHIND THE COUNTER OF HER FAMILYS country store, watching as the tal man walked down each aisle, the top of his black felt hat visible above the gray metal shelving. First thing that morning, hed strol ed in and shot her a slow, easy smile, white teeth dazzling against bronzed skin. He moved slowly, sometimes glimpsing in her direction.

Emily twisted the strings on her apron with both hands and tried to slow down her breathing. Her heart pulsed against her chest as she glanced out the window toward her familys farmhouse in the distance. Where is Jacob? Her brother knew she didnt like to be left alone in the store, and hed promised to be right back.

Their community was smal , and al the members in the district knew each other, which was the only reason Emily agreed to work in the shop. But this Amish man was a stranger. And Amish or not, he was stil a man.

Emily jumped when the man rounded the bread aisle toting a box of noodles in one hand and a can in the other. With the back of one hand, he tipped back his hat so that sapphire blue eyes blazed down on her. As he approached the counter, Emily clung to her apron strings and took a step backward.

How come everything in this store is messed up? Tiny lines creased his forehead as he held up a can of green beans with a large dent in one side.

Then he held up the box of noodles. And this looks like its been stepped on. Its mashed on one side. He dropped them on the counter, then folded his arms across his chest and waited for her to answer.

He towered over her. Emily stared straight ahead, not looking him in the eye. The outline of his shoulders strained against a black jacket that was too smal . Her bottom lip trembled as she turned her head to look out the window again. When she didnt see any sign of Jacob, she turned back to face the stranger, who looked to be about her agemaybe nineteen or twentywhich didnt make him any less threatening. His handsome looks could be a convenient cover up for what lay beneath. She knew he was not a married man since he didnt have a beard covering his square jaw, and his dark hair was in need of a trim.

He arched his brows, waiting for her to respond, looking anything but amused. Emily felt goose bumps on her arms, and chil s began to run the length of her spine, even though Jacob had fired up the propane heaters long before the shop opened that morning.

This isis a salvage store. Her fingers ached as she twisted the strings of her apron tighter. We sel freight and warehouse damaged groceries.

She bit her lip, but didnt take her eyes from him.