Risking Her Amish Heart by Jackie Stef

Author:Jackie Stef
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-05-01T18:50:53+00:00

Chapter Ten

The following Sunday was a church Sunday for the Bird-in-Hand church district, and much to Aaron’s chagrin, the biweekly service was scheduled to be held at his family’s farm. Normally Aaron didn’t mind the twice-yearly duty of hosting and all the responsibilities that came with it. However, all of the extra work and preparations meant that he had precious little time to spend with Grace, and for sorting out his emotions.

Aaron asked Eli if he could work half days that week so he could hurry home and assist with the preparations for hosting church. Eli agreed without hesitation, having hosted their district’s church services dozens of times throughout his life, and understanding all that went into preparing a temporary house of worship. So promptly at noon each day, Aaron hurried his horse home where Mamm or Daed always had some project waiting for him. His parents weren’t prideful people, yet they took great care in cleaning every nook and cranny of their house and barn.

“Why do we gotta clean our bedrooms too?” Annie asked before evening prayer one night. “Nobody’s gonna look for dust bunnies or even go upstairs on Sunday.”

“Our friends and neighbors might not look into every room, but Gott can see all, and it’s best to have a tidy place to worship on the Lord’s Day,” Mamm responded with deep conviction.

So, it was settled. The entire King family worked together, making sure that absolutely everything was in order. Every inch of the floor was scrubbed clean. The window panes were washed, both inside and out, and were so clean that it nearly appeared as if they weren’t there. Gas lamps were filled with oil, should the coming Sunday turn out to be cloudy. Every area rug was taken outdoors, beaten, then left to air out. Each piece of furniture was dusted and polished. The lawn was mown and the flower beds were weeded. Even the barn was cleaned spic and span, with Annie joking that Aaron knocked down the cobwebs before the spiders even had a chance to spin them.

On Saturday morning, the removable partitions that separated the kitchen and the living room were taken away to create one enormous space. The bench wagon arrived shortly after, and Aaron and his younger brothers made quick work of assembling the backless wooden benches while Daed arranged them in neat rows, half on one side of the huge open space and half on the other.

After an exhausting week, Aaron should have been glad for the three-hour service, a time in which he would sit instead of scurrying around and find comfort in God’s word. Instead, he felt stressed and deeply uncomfortable. With so many bodies in the house on a late August morning, it had become incredibly stuffy. The mugginess, though, wasn’t the true reason for his discomfort.

What am I going to do about Grace? he silently pondered, tuning out Bishop Lapp’s singsong sermon. His interest in her grew with each day that passed, yet his relentless self-doubt remained steady.

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