A Mother's Love by Charlotte Hubbard

Author:Charlotte Hubbard [Hubbard, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-01-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Matthias sipped gratefully from his glass of lemonade as he sat at one end of the swing, a respectful distance from Rose. He felt as nervous as a kid asking the girl of his dreams if he could give her a ride home from a singing, knowing that the topic he wanted to discuss carried a lot more weight than asking a pretty girl for a date. He was still floating from the idyllic time he’d spent tucking Gracie into bed, bathed in her sweet, clean aroma as she gazed so lovingly into his eyes. The child he and Sadie were expecting would’ve been a few years younger than Gracie, had Sadie lived, and Matthias still ached for both of them.

But the ache was ebbing now . . . and Matthias knew he was wading into a relationship that might either suck him down with the undertow or leave him high and dry, lonely again. He sensed Rose was waiting for him to open the conversation, so he cleared his throat.

“I, uh, met Saul Hartzler and his wife this past week,” he began in a tight voice. “Saul has offered me a full partnership in his carriage business, and I accepted.”

When Matthias stole a glance at Rose, the darkness couldn’t camouflage her shock. Her mouth was an O, but no sound came out as she stared at him. “Well, now,” she finally said, “I met Anne—and Martha Maude—Hartzler this week, too. And I don’t know how to tell her who I am—or how I’ll be able to act as though I don’t know who she is,” Rose continued hoarsely. “Anne and her mother-in-law bring their crocheted and quilted items to the senior center every now and again. Gracie has already wrapped Martha Maude around her little finger, so that complicates matters even more.”

It was Matthias’s turn to stare. “They just walked in?” he asked. Then the more obvious question came to him. “Did Anne realize who you were, Rose?”

“I—I don’t think so. But it was all I could do not to blurt out my maiden name,” she confessed. “I had to go hide in the kitchen, to settle myself down.”

“Wow. I can’t imagine how tough that must’ve been.” Matthias thought hard for a moment, considering whether Rose’s revelation would affect the way he told her the rest of his story. “After all the talking Bishop Vernon and I did, telling you not to go looking for Anne, it’s quite a coincidence that she found you. But I still—”

“I’m not so sure it was a coincidence,” Rose murmured. “I believe God always knows what He’s doing.”

Matthias blinked. “There’s that,” he said with a sigh, “but when I went to the Hartzlers’ for dinner last week, I became even more certain that you shouldn’t pursue a reunion with Anne. Saul’s a big, bold fellow who’s used to having things go his way—no doubt the wealthiest Amish fellow in Morning Star, by the looks of the assembly line and all the employees in his carriage shop.

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