Patricia Davids - Amish Christmas Joy

“Joy Lynn Perry.” A muffled sniff followed the tiny voice.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Joy Perry. Do you live around here?” Leah started walking in the direction the child had been running.

“I live at one...two...one...seven Hudson Place.”

There was no such address in the small village of Hope Springs. “That’s very good, Joy. I’m going to guess that you came to town in a car, right?”

“No.”

“Then you must have come on the bus. Did you ride the bus to Hope Springs?”

“No.”

“Don’t tell me you came in a buggy.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Joy lifted her face from Leah’s neck. “Can you find my daddy?”

Leah turned around slowly searching the quiet street. “I’d love to find him. Are you staying with someone in town? Are you staying at the inn?”

“No. How come you wear such a funny hat?”

“Is my bonnet funny?” Leah asked with a grin.

Joy nodded solemnly.

If she wasn’t familiar with Amish dress, she wasn’t staying with any of the Amish families in the area. That narrowed the number of possibilities. “If you didn’t come to Hope Springs in a buggy, or a car, or a bus, how did you get here?”

“In daddy’s truck.”

“Ah, a truck. How silly of me. Can you show me where the truck is parked?”

Joy looked around. “No. It’s lost.”

Suddenly, Leah heard a man franticly shouting for Joy. “That must be your daddy. Let’s go see him.”

She began walking back the way she had come. She rounded the corner of the building just as Joy’s daddy came running toward her. Leah said, “I have her. She’s okay.”

In the next instant, she was struck speechless as Caleb Mast pulled the child from her arms and held her close, his ragged gasps rising as white puffs in the cold air.

Looking straight at her, he said, “Thank you, Leah.”

He had recognized her, after all. Now what did she do?

Chapter Two

Leah stood rooted to the spot. Caleb had a child. That meant he had a wife, too. He had found happiness and love in the outside world after turning her life upside down. It was so unfair. She couldn’t stop the bitterness that welled up inside.

Caleb’s mother never mentioned he had married or that he had children. Maybe he hadn’t told her. Some outsiders were ashamed of a child who wasn’t normal. Had he become one of those?

Leah quickly pulled herself together. Caleb’s Englisch life was no concern of hers. “She’s fine, only a little frightened.”

Caleb set his daughter on the ground and took her by the shoulders. “What were you doing? Why did you run off?” he demanded.

“I got scared. I wanna go home.” She pushed away from him and covered her ears with her hands.

“Don’t do that! I’m not going to hit you.”

“I’m not bad. I’m not bad.” She flew back to Leah and wrapped her arms around her legs.

He pressed his fingers to his temples and exhaled sharply. “I give up. I don’t know what to do with you.”

Leah laid a protective hand on Joy’s head. “Patience and kindness are the keys to raising a special child. All children are gifts from God, but we believe a child such as Joy is one of His most cherished gifts.”

Caleb’s hands dropped to his sides. He looked...defeated. “I know what the Amish believe. That’s why I’m here. The only reason I’m here.”

She didn’t understand. He tipped his head slightly. A mocking smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “The prodigal son has returned. You don’t look happy to see me.”

She wasn’t. She didn’t care if he knew it. He had changed a great deal in the past nine years. The wild, handsome Amish boy she had known had matured into a tall, rugged-looking man with a muscular frame and deeply tanned skin. He wore his dark hair cut short in the Englisch way, not in the bowl-cut style the men of her community wore. She didn’t remember the small scar that cut through his right eyebrow. How had that happened? It was a faded white line now, not like the jagged red scar that still marred her sister Rhonda’s face.

An accident, caused by Caleb’s recklessness during their teenage years, had cruelly marked her beautiful sister, but it was his later actions that had truly scarred her.

Leah realized he was studying her, too. Watching her with hard, piercing gray eyes that gave away little of what he was thinking. A shiver of awareness raced through her and brought a rush of heat to her face.

His mocking smile widened. “It’s good to see you, Leah. Did you marry my brother, or did you come to your senses in time?”

She stiffened. The hurt was old, but it had never healed. “Your brother married Rhonda.”

“Wayne married your sister? Wow, I didn’t see that coming. Funny how things turn out, isn’t it?”

“Funny? It is far from funny.” She kept the rest of her angry reply bottled inside only because of the child. How dare he mock that terrible time? He’d left her sister unwed and pregnant when he ran off to start a new life among the Englisch.

“Bad choice of words. I’m sorry.”

“Your brother is a man of honor,” she said tartly.

He tensed. “And I’m not, is that what you’re saying? Oh, if only you knew the truth about my brother and his honor.”

“Your deeds speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“An Amish proverb for every occasion. I see your quick wit hasn’t changed. I do remember that about you.”

“And I have not forgotten the way you denied your own child. The way you called my sister a liar to her face. You shamed us all.”

* * *

Caleb had held only a faint hope that Rhonda Belier would have admitted the truth sometime during the past nine years. Clearly she hadn’t. He wasn’t the father of her child. They had dated, but they had never been intimate. He had no idea who the father might be.

That Wayne had fallen on the sword of family honor and married her came as a shock. Had his guilt driven him to it? Had Wayne owned up to his past sins, or was he still using Caleb as a handy scapegoat? From Leah’s reaction, Caleb figured he himself still bore all the blame. He struggled to suppress those unpleasant memories. Nothing hurt as much as knowing his family and friends had turned their collective backs on him. No one had believed his side of the story. Not his parents, not even his brother, and that hurt most of all.

Caleb had always been the wild one, the one in trouble, the one eager to rebel against the constraints of their closed community. He had badgered and baited his brother into going to a party where he knew there would be drinking that night. He’d thought Wayne deserved one night of fun before he settled down to marry. Caleb had owned a forbidden car. He’d goaded his brother into driving it. Hours later, when Caleb had learned that Wayne had crashed into Rhonda’s buggy, he had been sick with remorse.

Wayne had managed to make his way home, terrified, almost incoherent with fear and shame. He thought he had killed Rhonda. When Caleb realized that no one knew about the accident, he had quickly gone to the crash site. He’d discovered Rhonda was alive but injured and had summoned help for her. He’d allowed everyone to think he had been the one driving. He had stoically endured the shame heaped on him by his family and the community. He knew he deserved it even if he hadn’t been behind the wheel. He had done it to shield his big brother, the one who could do no wrong in their father’s eyes.

Months later, when Caleb begged Wayne to believe he hadn’t fathered Rhonda’s child, Wayne refused to accept Caleb’s word. It had been the final blow in their relationship.

Caleb shrugged off his resentment. He’d made a choice to come back. Now he had to face the consequences of that decision. Hopefully he wasn’t going to be here long. Leah’s brown eyes fairly snapped with anger. He could see she wanted to say a lot more. He figured the only reason she wasn’t reading him the riot act was because Joy was listening.