Patience by Ruth Hartzler

Author:Ruth Hartzler [Hartzler, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781925689792
Publisher: Amish Romance Books

Chapter 11

There was a knock on the door and Patience jumped in surprise. It was late; the sun had gone down, and Patience was sure that her familye was not expecting company. Her daed needed his rest, and the community knew that. She was wearing her warm nightgown and was lying on the couch, eating popcorn, and reading the Christenpflicht prayer book.

As Patience stood, she reached up to her head and ran her fingers through her long hair. There was no time to put on her prayer kapp. Besides, who could be knocking this close to bedtime?

Patience paused by the front door and prepared to open it, after throwing her coat around her. She took a deep breath, and then pulled the door open.

There stood Simon’s dochders, Sarah and Katie. The two little girls were holding hands, and both of them were dressed in their nightgowns. Tears were rolling down Katie’s cheeks.

Sarah stepped forward, letting go of her schweschder’s hand and wrapping her arms around Patience’s leg. “We want to live with you,” she said, as she too began to cry.

Patience bent down and hugged the girl, and then reached for Katie and pulled her into a hug as well.

“What’s going on with you two? Where is your vadder?”

“Home,” Sarah sniffed. Katie appeared to be crying too hard to speak.

“Hurry girls; you’re frozen. Come inside by the fire.” Patience soon had the girls sitting by the fire, and she wrapped warm blankets around them. She took off their soaked boots and placed them by the fire.

“Does your vadder know you’re here?” she asked, and at once thought it was a silly question - of course Simon wouldn’t let his dochders leave the haus alone and especially not at night. “I’m going to go to the barn and call your vadder and tell him that you’re here, so he doesn’t worry about you. Then I’ll come back and make you both a nice cocoa, okay?”

The girls nodded. As Patience started for the barn, she was suddenly anxious that the girls might run away again, so gave them her bowl of popcorn.

“Popcorn!” Katie said excitedly as she sniffed loudly, working to fight off the tears.

“Now, the two of you stay here and eat while I call.”

The girls stuck their stubby fingers into the bowl and pulled handfuls of popcorn to their mouths, dropping most of the kernels onto the front of their nightgowns and the couch.

Patience hurried to the barn, and called Simon. She figured he would be waiting by the phone in his barn for news of the girls. She was correct; he answered at once. He sounded harried, his voice louder than usual, his tone sharp.

“Hullo?” he said.

“The girls are here,” Patience said, figuring that was a good thing to lead with.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Simon said. “What? How? Are they okay?”

“Jah, jah, don’t worry; they’re fine, but they’re very upset,” Patience said. “Why don’t you let them stay here tonight, and I’ll find out why they’re upset. I don’t think they need to be in trouble right now.

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