To Love and to Cherish Read Free Page A

children.”
    “Either we sell this farm and you all move in with Leah and me, or I sell the shop and our home and we move here.”
    Live with Leah. Emma tried to imagine that. Leah had been ahead of her at school. They’d never been close. When Luke and Leah married Emma had tried to be friendly, but her advances had been met with a reserve that she couldn’t seem to penetrate. Her brother’s wife was a taciturn woman who’d grown up in a family even more conservative than Emma’s. She always seemed to be frowning at Emma’s lighthearted approach to life. Emma couldn’t remember ever hearing her laugh, not even at the wedding.
    Emma glanced at Deacon Pierce and the uncles. Daed’s brothers. Mudder’s brothers. It surprised her that none had joined the discussion. She studied their faces. They were all looking at Luke. He was the head of the family now. The eldest son. The decision would be his. And she would have to live with it, even if that meant learning to live with Leah.
    She opened her mouth, then shut it. This was her home. All ofthem, including Luke, had grown up here. His home was small, too small for their combined broods. Luke cherished the home he’d made with Leah, too. He’d worked hard as an apprentice blacksmith. Now he owned the only place in town where horses could be shod. The brisk business supported his family. The decision should be his. “Luke, I don’t want to lose the farm, but I don’t want you to lose your shop, either. Whatever you decide, that’s what we’ll do.”
    Catherine inched into the room. “What about Josiah?”
    At seventeen, Josiah wasn’t old enough to run a farm by himself, but another set of hands and feet would help. Emma met Luke’s gaze. He nodded. “He’ll have to be told,” Luke said. “He’ll need to come home. Maybe this will…”
    Luke didn’t finish the sentence, but Emma finished his thought in her head. Maybe this would make Josiah see how important it was to end his
rumspringa
and be baptized. When the first year passed and he made no move to go to the baptism classes, they’d all been surprised. When he’d taken up with a New Order Mennonite family in Wichita, Emma’s parents had been devastated. Now they were gone and Josiah would never be able to make it right with them.
    Thomas shifted in his chair, his long legs sticking out almost to the sofa. “Josiah must be told. Now.” His brow furrowed. “Tonight. If the things I hear are true, he’s far into the fancy ways. He could see the story on the television. That’s no way for him to learn of your parents’ passing.”
    Luke stood. “I’ll make the decision on the…other matters…when I return.” He brushed past Emma and headed to the door. “I have to get him back here in time for the funeral.”
    “I’m going with you.” Emma couldn’t let Luke bear this burden alone. “He’s my brother, too.”

Chapter 4
    L uke hired his Englisch friend Michael to drive them to Wichita. Emma sank down into the soft upholstery of the backseat. It felt like a cocoon that kept her safe from the world streaking outside the windows. Darkness cloaked the car so she couldn’t see the passing scenery, but the rushing of the air outside made her feel as if she were flying.
    As a child, she’d loved the outings her parents had planned that involved hiring a car. The trip to the Wichita zoo. Visits to friends who’d left to start new districts. Eating chicken fried steak and French fries in a restaurant. And now this new memory, riding into unfamiliar territory to tell her little brother their parents were gone.
    And what would Josiah say? A conversation with Mudder replayed in Emma’s head. Her mother had blamed herself for Josiah’s prolonged running around. He should never have been allowed to go to Wichita. Of all the Shirack children, his will had been hardest to break from the time he was small and refused to sit still for the prayer before meals. At seventeen, he chose to stay with a