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FROM AMISH NANNY TO BRIDE?
After her sweetheart’s betrayal, Ruthy Mummert leaves behind the small-town gossip of her Amish community for the first opportunity she can find: a housekeeper position in faraway LaGrange County, Indiana. Ruthy didn’t realize the job meant caring for ten children—and for their handsome widowed father.
To Levi Zook’s mind, Ruthy is too young and too pretty to be anyone’s housekeeper. A marriage of convenience will protect her reputation and give his children the security they dearly need. But it could also give them the courage to grasp a new chance at happiness—if Ruthy is willing to risk her wounded heart once more.
“Why, Levi Zook? Why do you need me to stay? Why would you marry me to keep me from leaving?”
What could he tell her? He liked her, but more than that, he needed her to keep his family together. He cast about in his mind for reasons—what could he say that would convince her?
“I… Well, there’s Eliza. She still wants me to send Nellie and Nancy to her.”
“It would break their hearts to leave you.”
Levi nodded. “With you here, they have a mother, do you see?”
Ruth turned back to the stove, her shoulders slumped. “Ja, I see. That’s a good reason, I suppose.”
A thrill of hope ran through Levi. Would she agree to be his wife?
“We would make a good family—you and I…”
“And the children.”
“Ja, of course.” Levi sighed. This conversation wasn’t going the way he had wanted it to, not
at all. Why couldn’t he tell her how she made him feel?
JAN DREXLER
A recent graduate from Homeschool Mom-hood, Jan Drexler devotes her time to the voices in her head who have been clamoring for attention during the past few decades. Instead of declining Latin nouns and reviewing rhetorical devices, her days are now spent at the computer, where she gives her characters free rein.
She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband of thirty years, their four adult children, an extremely furry Husky, and Maggie, the cat who thinks she’s a dog. If she isn’t sitting at her computer living the lives of her characters, she’s probably hiking in the Hills or the Badlands, enjoying the spectacular scenery.
A Mother for His Children
Jan Drexler
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
—Mark 11:25
For my aunts: Martha, Waneta and Nancy.
You taught me what a joy it would be to have sisters!
And with special thanks to Dawn Field, DVM, who was willing to discuss the details of calves and cows over lunch.
Soli Deo Gloria
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Shipshewana, Indiana
January, 1937
“She’s