God's Gift of Love Read Free

same.
    She was surprised he hadn’t married yet. He was so handsome, so kind, and he had his parents’ old farm. There had to be girls interested.
    He would find someone eventually. But it wouldn’t be her.
    She could tell he still felt something for her. The way he looked at her, it set her stomach aflutter. Like she was the only thing in the world.
    Even now, after two years.
    If only he knew that no one could truly love her. Nor should they.
    Back inside, she helped Aunt May get ready for bed.
    “Gabe’s such a nice man, jah ?” May asked as she pulled back her covers.
    Katie smiled. “He is. It’s very kind of him to help with the porch.”
    May tsked. “I told him he needn’t help, but he insisted! I know Klaus would have done it had I asked. . . I didn’t even notice.”
    Katie stoked the fire in May’s wood stove. “Did you get cold last night? When I woke up, the fire had almost died.”
    “No, I was fine.” May sat on the bed and undid her kapp . Her gray hair was pinned back at the base of her neck. When she took out the pins, it fell down below her waist. Like all Amish women it had never been cut and it was still luxurious even though it was completely gray. Her eyes were so kind as she looked over at Katie. “What about you, my dear? How are you doing?”
    “ Gut .”
    May stood and walked over to her. She took Katie’s hands in her own wrinkled, soft fingers. “Truly?”
    Katie nodded, looking down at their clasped hands. Her young, pale skin against May’s age spots. Every morning when Katie awoke in her new bed, safe and far from Mark and his family, a relief flooded over her, fresh and just as sweet as the day before. Then guilt settled in for feeling so free after her husband’s death. For praying, for deliverance from his cruelty. She never could have imagined that her deliverance would come from his death.
    May squeezed Katie’s fingers. “You say so little, but I know there is much going on in your mind.”
    “ Jah ,” Katie whispered. “I don’t know how to say any of it.”
    “When you do, you can come to me. I love you.”
    “I love you, too. Thank you so much for letting me stay here.”
    “You will always have a home with me.”
    It’s something she’d said before, many times, but only in the last few weeks did she realize how true it was. She could have gone back to her home to be with her parents, but her precious Aunt May was all alone in this house, even though her children weren’t far.
    And Gabe was here.
    That hadn’t been the main factor in Katie’s decision. Just a tiny nugget that pushed her toward this village instead of her own. A friend, someone she had known before she married Mark and her life changed forever.
    Already he was making her feel like this place could become home.
    She worried she’d said too much tonight when she mentioned Mark’s family. She didn’t want those dark times to affect what she had now. May, her child, their future together. Mark was out of her life forever.
    She hugged May and led her back to the bed. “ Gut night, Auntie.”
    “ Gut night, my sweet.”
     
    * * *
     
    He was yelling again. “Why do you have to be so stupid? Can’t you ever listen?”
    Katie’s hands were trembling in her lap. She clenched them together, trying to still them. She should say something to him, but she wasn’t sure what. She stumbled over her words. “I’m sorry, I--”
    “I told you, I told you so many times, and you ignore me and disrespect me.”
    “ Nee , I--”
    “ Nee ?” His voice rose even more and she winced. He bent down, grabbed her arm, and shook her. “You don’t say ‘Nee’ to me. You say ‘Jah,' always ‘Jah,' nothing but ‘Jah.'”
    “Jah,” she whispered. Her eyes stung from tears, and she furiously blinked them back. A few escaped, though, trickling down her cheeks. She raised a hand to wipe them away, but he grabbed her other arm.
    “Are you crying?” His fingers were digging into her arms painfully,