Preacher's Daughter (Annie's People Book #1) , livre ebook

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164 pages

English

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Annie's People Book 1- A new series from The New York Times bestselling author of the ABRAM'S DAUGHTERS series! The Preacher's Daughter begins a remarkable journey of heartache and homespun delight--a series readers will find impossible to forget. Paradise, Pennsylvania, is likened to a little slice of heaven on earth...but for Annie Zook--the preacher's eldest daughter--it seems like a dead-end street. She is expected to join the Amish church, but at 20 she is "still deciding." Because of the strict rules that guide the Plain community, she must continually squelch her artistic passion, although it has become her solace. In her signature style, with character depth and unexpected plot twists, beloved novelist Beverly Lewis once again opens the door to the world of the Amish.

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 novembre 2005
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441203397
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0432€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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The Preacher s Daughter
BEVERLY LEWIS
The Preacher s Daughter
The Preacher s Daughter Copyright 2005 Beverly Lewis
Cover design by Dan Thornberg, Koechel Peterson Associates
Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-7642-0105-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lewis, Beverly.
The preacher s daughter / by Beverly Lewis.
p. cm. - (Annie s people ; 1)
Summary: Annie Zook-the preacher s eldest daughter-is expected to join the Amish church, but at 20 she is still deciding. Because of the strict rules that guide the Plain community, she must continually squelch her artistic passion, although it has become her solace -Provided by publisher.
ISBN 0-7642-0120-4 (alk. paper) - ISBN 0-7642-0105-0 (pbk.) - ISBN 0-7642-0121-2 (large print pbk.)
1. Children of clergy-Fiction. 2. Women artists-Fiction. 3. Amish- Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Lewis, Beverly. Annie s people ; 1.
PS3562.E9383 P74 2005
813 .54-dc22
2005018581
Dedication
To Madge S. Bowes, a preacher s daughter times two . . . and dear family friend.
By Beverly Lewis
S EASONS OF G RACE The Secret The Missing

A BRAM S D AUGHTERS The Covenant The Betrayal The Sacrifice The Prodigal The Revelation

A NNIE S P EOPLE The Preacher s Daughter The Englisher The Brethren

T HE C OURTSHIP OF N ELLIE F ISHER The Parting The Forbidden The Longing

T HE H ERITAGE OF L ANCASTER C OUNTY The Shunning The Confession The Reckoning

The Postcard The Crossroad

The Redemption of Sarah Cain October Song Sanctuary * The Sunroom

The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook
www.beverlylewis.com
* with David Lewis
BEVERLY LEWIS, born in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, fondly recalls her growing-up years. A keen interest in her mother s Plain family heritage has led Beverly to set many of her popular stories in Lancaster County.
A former schoolteacher and accomplished pianist, Beverly is a member of the National League of American Pen Women (the Pikes Peak branch). She is the 2003 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award at Evangel University, Springfield, Missouri. Her blockbuster novels, The Shunning, The Confession, and The Reckoning, have each received the Gold Book Award. Her bestselling novel October Song won the Silver Seal in the Benjamin Franklin Awards, and The Postcard and Sanctuary (a collaboration with her husband, David) received Silver Angel Awards, as did her delightful picture book for all ages, Annika s Secret Wish. Beverly and her husband make their home in the Colorado foothills.
M oonlight created a silken halo around two small figures as they emerged from the dark covered bridge. The younger boy dragged a shovel, while the older carried a handmade wooden box carefully so as not to tip it, having sanded the miniature coffin smooth with his own hands.
They hurried around the north side of the bridge and down the grassy slope to a grove of black locust trees. Near the creek bed, they determined the location for burial-eight long steps past the first tree, then a sharp turn and four short ones to the soil most pliable from recent autumn rains. The box laden with the beloved pup was placed on the grass, and the older boy took up the shovel and began to dig.
When the hole was deep enough, the box was laid gently inside. The little boy inched back, sobbing at the grievous sound of dirt hitting the small coffin. Big brother worked the shovel faster, and with each heave and thud, the younger boy winced, squeezing hard a peach stone in his tiny palm.
Farther he crept back, away . . . away from the shadowy grave.
Soon the hole was filled. A proper burial. The boy responsible for his small brother peered into the darkness, calling repeatedly. When there was no answer, he scurried along the creek, then out to the road, seeking but not finding.
In short order, the People began to comb the area by horse and buggy, and on foot they joined stalwart arms in an unending thread to search for the wee child who had vanished into the silvery twilight. . . .
Ever let the fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
- J OHN K EATS
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Prologue
A gnawing sense of guilt defines my life, yet I am too obstinate to fess up to the sin which so easily besets me. What I want to do and what I ought to do get ferhoodled in my head and in my heart. This is especially trying when it comes to my twice-weekly visits to Cousin Julia Ranck s, where I am hired to help with her two young children and do some light housekeeping . . . and where I spend time working alone in the little attic room created just for me, my undisclosed haven. There, I take a measure of joy in the world of forbidden color-paint, canvas, and brushes-this secret place known only to my Mennonite kinfolk, and to the Lord God himself.
Deep on the inside, though, where it matters most, my heart is torn. I have striven to follow in the Old Ways since childhood, to match the expectations of my parents and the church, only to fail.
It annoys me no end that some Amish bishops allow for artistic expression, permitting their people to create and sell art, while our bishop does not.
I was just six when my preacher-father s probing brown eyes did all the reprimanding necessary to stir up shame in my soul when I was caught wistfully drawing a sleek black kitty, high in the haymow. From then on, I learned to hide my art from prying eyes, even though I wished for a way to put a stop to it altogether.
Usually Daed had only to read out loud the Fifty-first Psalm for me to see the folly of my ways: Have mercy upon me, O God . . . blot out my transgressions. . . . King David s words rang ceaselessly in my ears until the next holy scolding for other acts of childish immaturity, though not again related to my pencil drawings . . . till I was caught again at age fourteen.
Have mercy, indeed .
There were times as a girl when I would sooner have welcomed a lickin than the righteous gaze of my lanky, bearded father. It seemed he could see straight through to my heart. He had an uncanny way about him when it came to that, as well as the way his sermons stuck in my head for months on end. More times than I can count, I endured his deliberate silence, followed by his deeply drawn sigh and then a belabored reading from the Scriptures.
Unlike my six brothers-three older and already married, and three younger and looking to get hitched-I have never had the switch applied to my seat of learning. Seeing as how some mules round these parts are less stubborn, it sure says a lot for the patience of my father, at least toward me.
Here lately, I have been urged to join the communion of earthly saints-our local Amish district. And since I marked my twentieth birthday back the end of April, I am keenly aware of concerned faces at nearly every gathering. Daed is doubly responsible under God on my behalf, Mamm says frequently, beseeching me to heed the warning. If I keep putting off my decision, well, that alone will become a choice, and in due time, I will have to leave the community of the People. I don t see how I could ever up and leave behind my family and all that I know and love.
But what gets my goat is the intense expectation regarding my upcoming decision. Joining church won t make me a good person. I know that. I live in this community; I know what makes most of these folk tick. Some live double lives, just as I m living now-teen boys who take advantage of tipsy girls behind the bushes at corn-husking bees, and young women who parade around in pious cape dresses but whose hearts do not measure up to the Holy Scriptures. Most of this comes from our unbaptized youth, during rumschpringe . Still there is plenty of two-facedness. We re all human after all.
Alas, another sin has embedded itself within my soul: loving Rudy Esh and leading him to think I would marry him one day. Rudy formerly held the number one spot in my heart, even ahead of the Good Lord. But now, after three solid years of courting me, he has found a new sweetheart-girl. I m obliged to show kindness where they re concerned, the utmost tolerance, too . . . things expected of me but increasingly difficult to demonstrate with any amount of sincerity. Handsome Rudy is soon to become a baptized church member and, no doubt, husband to his new sweetheart. Although I cared deeply for him, and he for me, I never shared with him my obsession with fine art. And since I wasn t ready to put any of that aside to join church, which is required before a wedding can take place, I am largely at fault for our breakup. He must surely be relieved, having pulled his hair out, so to speak, because of my resistance. Heaven sakes, Annie, Rudy would say time and again, why can t you just make the church vow and be done with it? My answer always exasperated him: I m not ready. But I couldn t say why.
So I