Summer Promise Read Free

spy, an intruder. But she could not seem to turn away or avert her eyes.
    And so she had seen Daniel shake his head. Seen Sarah grip him by the shoulders. And then, as Miriam still watched, Sarah had reached up and Daniel had reached down until the two were in each other’s arms. Miriam could see the urgency of the embrace, even from far off. Then Daniel released Sarah, spun on one heel, and walked away. He did not look back, and in the weeks between Sarah’s announcement and her departure, Daniel did not visit the Lapp farm. Not even once.
    A month to the day after Miriam and Jacob watched Sarah’s plane lift off for San Francisco, Daniel asked Miriam to be his wife.
    They had been married that winter. Sarah had not come to the wedding. She wrote to say the date fell right in the middle of something called finals week, a series of tests that would prove she had mastered what she had been taught. If she came home then, all her hard work at school would be lost.
    I am sorry not to be with you on your wedding day,
Sarah had written.
But I wish you happiness with all my heart.
    The six years since then had been both the happiest and the most troubled of Miriam’s life. Every day, she awoke to the gift of being Daniel’s wife, so full of love for him that it sometimes seemed impossible her heart could contain it all. But every night when she lay down beside him and closed her eyes, the image of that long-ago embrace flickered for a fraction of an instant inside Miriam’s eyelids. Nothing she did could ever banish it entirely. And as the years passed and still she and Daniel had no children, that image of her husband and sister together, the image of what might have been, had slowly eaten a hole into Miriam’s heart until fear and love resided there side by side.
    Was Daniel sorry he had chosen her instead of Sarah? Did he still love Sarah, even after all this time?
    â€œMiriam?” a quiet voice behind her said.
    Miriam spun around. A figure was outlined against the block of light that was the open back door.
How bright it is outside!
Miriam thought. Full day. She had been in the farm stand much longer than she realized.
    â€œI thought that I might find you here,” Daniel said. He did not come into the farm stand, but stayed right where he was. “Are you well? Do you want me to turn on the light?”
    â€œNo,” Miriam said at once, answering the second question first. “And I am fine. I just—”
    â€œI understand,” Daniel said. “This place will always be your father’s, won’t it?”
    â€œ
Ja,
” Miriam said, as her heart flooded with love for this good man who was her husband. Even in the dark, he saw so much. So why was it that he could not see the one thing Miriam hoped for the most? How very much she needed to know he loved her, that she was first in his heart.
    â€œAre you ready to go up to the house?” Daniel asked. “The others will begin arriving soon. Bishop John and his wife are already there. Leah, their niece, baked you the coffee cake you liked so much at the last worship Sunday.”
    â€œThat is kind of her.”
    She moved toward the open door. Daniel stepped outside and Miriam followed, blinking against the sudden light. While Daniel waited patiently, Miriam closed and locked the farm stand door. As she turned toward him, Daniel extended one hand, the faintest question in his blue eyes. Miriam hesitated just a moment, and then linked her fingers with her husband’s. Daniel’s grip was sure and strong. Miriam’s love for him rose like a great flood inside her heart.
    Please, God,
she thought.
If it is Your will, let Daniel and I walk heart in heart as we now walk side by side.
    And what if that isn’t His will?
a voice inside her asked.
    â€œAre you ready?” Daniel asked softly.
    â€œI am ready,” Miriam said, temporarily banishing the voice of doubt.
    Together they walked up the hill