The Amish Christmas Secret by Vannetta Chapman

Author:Vannetta Chapman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-07-06T16:37:31+00:00

* * *

Becca tried not to laugh as Daniel climbed the steps of his front porch. Of course, he’d insisted on moving Constance and stabling her first. The mare looked quite content, if a horse could look satisfied, pleased and happy to be home.

Now he stood staring in disbelief at his house.

“How did they manage to do all of this?”

“Surely you’ve been to a barn raising before.”

“This wasn’t a barn, though.”

“We do the same for houses all the time.” Becca thought the place looked fantastic. There was no longer any danger of falling through the porch’s floor. The railing was solid. The new paint gleamed in the bright November sunshine.

Daniel opened the screen door—then closed and opened it again. “Works better.”

“Because it’s a new door. I thought the workers would be better off tearing down your old place and building a new one, but Silas King—he’s usually the foreman of our work crews—said your place has good bones.”

“He told me the same when he stopped by, and he described the work, but...”

“But what?”

“I didn’t envision this, couldn’t imagine it at all.”

They walked into the house and Daniel stopped in the middle of the sitting room. He turned in a circle, looked up at the ceiling, went over and tapped the window frame, then dropped his bag on the floor and put his hands on his hips. “Where did the furniture come from?”

“That old couch?”

“Doesn’t look that old.”

“It was somebody’s who didn’t need it anymore. You know how it is with Plain people. We rarely throw things away.”

He clomped into the kitchen, turned and looked at her with his mouth slightly ajar, then strode to the pantry and jerked the door open. Becca knew what he was going to see. She’d helped to stock the shelves. Rows and rows of canned goods that people had donated from their own harvest, plus paper goods and staples they’d purchased with money from the benevolence fund.

“This is terrible.”

“What? That you can eat something besides oatmeal?”

Daniel sank into a chair at the table he hadn’t owned before he was sick. “I knew they were going to rebuild the place, and I didn’t see a way to stop them.”

“Why would you?”

“But they’ve furnished it, given me enough food to see me through the winter...”

“You’ll still need meat, fresh eggs and dairy.” Becca opened the refrigerator and scanned it, then removed a small pitcher of milk. She set the kettle on the used stove that had been placed in the corner of the kitchen. “There’s only enough for a couple of weeks.”

Daniel’s reply was a groan. When she glanced over at him, he was sitting at the table with his head in his hands.

“This tea will fix you right up. You’re probably just tired.”

“You don’t get it. You don’t understand.”

She sat across from him. “Then explain it to me. Why is all of this bad?”

“Because they’re giving out of what they don’t have.”

“Many in our community have more than enough.”

“And many don’t.” Daniel scrubbed his hands over his face, then finally looked at her.

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