Homecoming Reunion
John Amman left his Amish community and sweetheart Lydia Goodloe to make his fortune in the outside world, while Lydia stayed behind to devote herself to teaching. She can accept spinsterhood, and even face the closure of her beloved school. But Johnâs return after eight years tests her faith anew. Lydia hasnât forgotten a single thing about John Ammanâincluding the way he broke her heart.
John risked becoming an outcast to give Lydia everything she deserved. He couldnât see that what she really wanted was a simple lifeâwith him. Lydia is no longer the girl he knew. Now sheâs the woman who can help him reclaim their long-ago dream of home and familyâ¦if he can only win her trust once more
âDo not say things you will regret,â Lydia whispered.
âPlease. You are too soon trying to set things the way you remember themâthe way you want them to be. But you are not the boy who left here, John. And I am not that girl. We cannot go back in this worldâonly forward.â
She pulled away from him and continued walking back to her houseâher house, her school, her life.
âWe could be if youâre willing to work things out with me,â John said and was gratified to see her step falter. âWe could find a way toâ¦â
She turned around, but her features remained in shadow. âI am glad that youâve come home, John. Is that not enough for now?â
âItâs a beginning,â he admitted. âButââ
âAnd thatâs the point, John Amman. We are beginning again, and you must allow time for things to develop according to Godâs will.â She took half a step toward him, but stopped. âYou must think of me as someone you are just getting to know, John.â
âIs that how you see me? As some stranger?â
âNot a stranger exactly. Just notâ¦â Her voice trailed off.
âJust not the same person you once loved?â
ANNA SCHMIDT
is an award-winning author of more than twenty-five works of historical and contemporary fiction. She is a two-time finalist for a coveted RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America, as well as a four-time finalist for an RT Book Reviews Reviewerâs Choice Award. Her most recent RT Book Reviews Reviewerâs Choice nomination was for her 2008 Love Inspired Historical novel, Seaside Cinderella, which is the first of a series of four historical novels set on the romantic island of Nantucket. Critics have called Anna âa natural writer, spinning tales reminiscent of old favorites like Miracle on 34th Street. class="roman">â Her characters have been called ârealisticâ and âendearingâ and one reviewer raved, âI love Anna Schmidtâs style of writing!â
Show me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
âPsalms 25:4
To all who have believed in the power of love.
Chapter One
Celery Fields, Florida
January 1938
L ydia Goodloe. Was he seeing things?
Sweet Liddy.
John Amman closed his eyes, which were crusty with lack of sleep and the dust of days heâd spent making his way west across Florida from one coast to the other. Surely this was nothing more than a mirage born of exhaustion and the need for a solid meal.
But no, there could be no doubt. There she was walking across a fallow field from her fatherâs house to the school. He watched as she entered the school and then a minute later came outside again. She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders and began stacking firewood in her arms. They might be in Florida, but it was January and an unseasonably cold one at that. John pulled up the collar of his canvas jacket to block the wind that swept across the open fields.
Lydia went back inside the school and shut the door, and after a few minutes John saw a stream of smoke rising from the chimney. He closed his eyes, savoring the memory of that warm classroom anchored by a potbellied stove in one corner and the teacherâs desk in the other. He tried to picture Lydia at that desk, but he could only see her as the girl heâd knownâthe laughing child with the curly dark hair that flew out behind her as she gathered the skirt of her dark cotton dress and raced with him along the path. The teenagerâa quiet beauty, the luxurious hair tamed into braided submission under her bonnet and the black prayer covering girls her age wore after joining the church, as he and Liddy had done when they were both sixteen.
He started running across the field, his heart pounding in anticipation of the reunion with this woman he had loved his whole life. This woman he had come back to find after eight long yearsâto ask why she had not answered his letters, why she had not believed him when he told her that it had all been for her. He had risked everything even to the point of becoming an outcast from their Amish community and indeed his own family so they could have the life they had planned.