God's Gift of Love Read Free Page A

and she gasped as she shook her head. “You’re always crying! So stupid!”
    He let go of her and stepped back.
    The dream morphed as he stumbled on something on the ground. He fell back, crying out her name, and he kept falling, falling, and Katie was falling with him, down into darkness--
    Katie awoke with a gasp, sitting up in her bed. Her heart pounded in her chest and blood rushed in ears, and a thin layer of sweat covered her body. She put a hand to her chest and felt her beating heart against her skin.
    Just a dream.
    Just another memory she’d tried to bury. During the day, she succeeded, helping May around the house, visiting with Klaus and Jane, meeting others in the district. But at night, her memories became nightmares, demanding her to remember, to relive every horrible moment.
    Katie tried to recall good moments with Mark. The few times he could be kind. When they discovered she was pregnant, he had never looked so happy. He took her face in his hands and she winced, but he didn’t notice. He kissed her and said he loved her. He touched her stomach gently, the way he might touch someone he loved.
    She rubbed her swollen belly, closing her eyes. He hadn’t loved her. He said it, more than once, but she knew. No one could love her.
    She couldn’t get back to sleep, so she decided to rise early. She worked around the house tidying up, and then stepped outside. Fog clouded near the ground, blocking her view of the fields ahead of her. The sun was rising, its rays of light barely piercing the fog. She could see her breath in the air. Everything was still and calm, nothing like how she felt inside.
    She had trouble praying ever since Mark’s death, but the beauty around her made her whisper, “ Denke , Father. It’s beautiful.”
    She pulled her shawl closer as she stood on the porch Gabe was almost finished repairing the porch. He’d been working on it all week, and she would bring him warm coffee and sometimes hot chocolate and speak with him. But soon, she would say she was distracting him from work and he would try to convince her to stay because he wanted company.
    Katie smiled, shaking her head.
    He wouldn’t be by today since it was a busy day on the farm with deliveries and a new calf. But she hoped to see him soon.
    She went to take care of the chickens. May’s children had milk cows, but May only had five chickens that produced her eggs. She would be getting another goat soon, now that Katie was here to help her tend to it.
    She’d only been here nine days and it already felt more like home than Mark’s district had. Mark’s family accepted her, but they turned their eyes when they saw him mistreat her. The rest of the village was, on the surface, kind, but she never had time to fully get to know people. Mark would say she shouldn’t leave the house without him; shouldn’t see Sarah because she was a bad influence; should just focus on the house and on the Word. As though she couldn’t do those and make friends.
    Katie shook her head again. Enough. It was daytime now, and she needed to dispel thoughts of Mark. That was in the past.
    She was about to go inside when a few women walked by her house. One of them waved, and the group slowed down.
    She hadn’t been to a service yet, but she knew the faces of some of these women. One of them, Rosella, came over with her daughter Isobel to introduce themselves.
    As Rosella broke away from the group to come towards the porch, Katie smoothed down her skirt self-consciously. Rosella smiled brightly at her. “ Gut morning, Katie.”
    “ Gut morning,” Katie said. “It’s a beautiful one.” The sun had risen, and the fog was dissipating, revealing the beautiful green fields and distant rolling hills.
    “ Jah , praise be to Gott !” Rosella clasped her hands in front of her. “I wonder if you would join us for dinner tonight.”
    “Oh?” Katie asked, smiling.
    “ Jah , Abel’s brother, will be over, as well.” Rosella’s eyes brightened,