Love Blooms in Morning Star by Charlotte Hubbard

Author:Charlotte Hubbard [Hubbard, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zebra Books
Published: 2022-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Jo sensed the tension in the Hartzlers’ front room was ramping up as she and her friends filed into their row for the Sunday morning service. News of Bishop Jeremiah’s absence had circulated quickly among the women as they’d carried their food for the common meal into Martha Maude’s and Anne’s kitchen earlier—not that folks seemed to feel anything was amiss. It was normal procedure for the preachers and the deacon to conduct worship in the bishop’s absence, so most ladies were expressing their concern over Margaret losing her cousin sooner than she’d expected to.

Jo, however, couldn’t forget the furtive air that had cloaked the table where Deacon Saul, Preacher Ammon, and Preacher Clarence had huddled on Saturday. Their black hats had almost touched, hiding their guarded expressions—which had only confirmed her uneasiness.

“Is it me, or do the Hartzlers have their furnace cranked up?” Marietta murmured. After she’d led her four friends into their usual row, she handed her new stepson, baby Levi, to her sister so she could remove her shawl.

Jo’s lips curved. Marietta, still extremely thin from last winter’s chemo, was usually pulling her wrap more closely around her shoulders rather than taking it off.

Molly wore a grave expression, as well, as she bounced her little nephew on her knee. “Hang on to your kapps, girls,” she whispered. “When the cat’s away, the mice will play. Let’s hope they play nice.”

As Jo took her seat between Molly and Lydianne, she leaned close to the bishop’s fiancée. “What have you heard from Jeremiah? Any clue about his bishops’ meeting or our service this morning?”

The blond schoolteacher shook her head. “The last phone message I got was on Friday, saying he’d be staying in Carrollton for the funeral he was to conduct yesterday,” she murmured. “I think he’ll be back tomorrow.”

When everyone was seated, Gabe Flaud sang out the first phrase of the opening hymn from the men’s side. His wife, Regina, seated at Lydianne’s right, was focused on her Ausbund as she joined in the hymn. Rather than radiating her usual cheerfulness, her freckled face looked pale and drawn.

Was Regina dealing with morning sickness? Or did she, too, worry that the day might bring difficult decisions for the five friends who’d worked so hard to make The Marketplace a thriving enterprise?

Near the end of the second hymn, Saul and the two preachers emerged from the deacon’s office, where they’d been deciding who would preach the morning’s sermons. Was it her imagination, or were the three leaders sharing a smug secret as they removed their black, broad-brimmed hats in one accord to signal the beginning of worship? Jo tried not to overthink their motives as Preacher Ammon opened the service by reading one of the prayers from his service book.

When Deacon Saul stood up with the Bible, however, his gaze lingered on Jo and her four friends before he opened the large book to one of his markers. “Our first Scripture reading today is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter five, verses twenty-two through twenty-four.

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