Lydia's Hope by Marta Perry

down.
    “Thank Lydia for letting you sleep on her lap,” Anna prompted, touching her daughter’s
     silky blond hair.
    “Denke,” Gracie whispered, and then hid her face in her mother’s skirt.
    A chuckle escaped Lydia, and Anna grinned. “And denke from me, as well,” Anna said.
     “Sometimes I think I don’t have enough hands.”
    “I remember the feeling.” Those early years when the children were so dependent passed
     very quickly, even though it didn’t seem like it at the time. “How are Myra and the
     new boppli?”
    Myra was Anna’s sister-in-law, and the mother of a baby boy, come to join the two
     little girls in the family.
    “Myra’s doing very well, as is the fine healthy baby. As for my brother—you’d think
     no man ever had a son before to hear him tell it.”
    “Give them our best wishes. I would have taken supper over to them this week, but . . .”
     She let that trail off, thinking she shouldn’t have let her own troubles make her
     forgetful of the needs of others.
    “They’ve had enough food brought in to last a month,” Anna declared. “Don’t think
     a thing about it.”
    Anna’s teenage niece, Elizabeth, came hurrying over just then, relieving Lydia of
     the need to respond. Probably just as well. No doubt Anna knew all about what had
     been going on with them, like the rest of the church.
    “I’ll take the kinder, Aunt Anna.” Elizabeth took the baby in her arms and held out
     her hand to little Gracie. “Komm, let’s go and play a bit, ja?” She led them off to
     join some other young ones on the sunny lawn.
    Anna watched her, smiling a little. “Elizabeth has grown into such a sweet young woman.
     She’ll have the boys flocking around her soon.”
    Lydia nodded, the comment making her think again of Chloe, who seemed never far from
     her thoughts. Seth had said she wasn’t engaged or married, but surely, pretty as she
     was, there were men in her life, maybe even one special man.
    She glanced at Anna, wondering just how much Anna had heard about her sisters. The
     whole story, she’d guess, since the Amish grapevine worked better than most anything
     at getting news around.
    Anna had spent nearly three years in the Englisch world before coming home to Pleasant
     Valley. It could be that Anna might help her understand Chloe, if only she actually
     got a chance to meet her.
    “Shall we go and see if there’s any help needed in the kitchen?” Anna asked.
    “I’ll join you in just a minute,” Lydia said. “First I’d better ask my mamm to keep
     an eye on the boys. Adam is still helping set up tables, and you know how the men
     are when they get to talking.”
    “Ja, for sure.” Smiling, Anna headed for the kitchen, the spring breeze making her
     kapp strings and apron flutter.
    Mamm was deep in conversation with a small group of older women, but the talk cut
     off quickly when Lydia approached, and Lydia could guess what they’d been talking
     about. Her cheeks flamed, but she managed to keep a smile pinned to her face.
    “Mamm, will you watch David and Daniel for a few minutes? I’ll go and see if I can
     be some help in the kitchen.”
    “Ja, of course.” Mamm’s smile eased the worry lines from her face, at least for a
     moment. “Go along.”
    It probably helped Mamm to talk with her friends about the subject on which she’d
     been silent for so long. Lydia ought to be happy it made things easier for her mother,
     instead of feeling even more betrayed. But she couldn’t prevent a bit of resentment
     that at least the female half of the church was talking about her this morning.
    She’d just stepped up on the porch when a voice rose from the group of men clustered
     just around the corner of the house.
    “All I’m saying is that the Scripture says, ‘Be not unequally yoked with an unbeliever.’”
    The male voice was very decided, and Lydia suspected it was that of Isaac Brand, who
     seemed to have an opinion on everything.
    “Eli