Read Online A Quilt for Jenna by Patrick E. Craig - Free Book Online Page B

began to form in her stomach, a pain that began to swell and throb and overwhelm her. The feeling became so powerful that Jerusha wanted to scream. But then, when she was just about to lose control, she felt something rising up in her heart. It was the melody to her beloved Loblied. Without even thinking she took a deep breath and began to sing softly, “ Loben wir ihn von ganzem Herzen! Denn er allein ist würdig. ” A deep peace began to steal over her as she sang the hymn for the first time in almost a year. “Let us praise Him with all our hearts! For He alone is worthy.”
    Even as she sang she fought against Him. No! I don’t want to praise You anymore.
    And then her eyes filled with tears.

    The summer of 1941 had been a dark time for Jerusha. Her father had firmly refused to let Reuben come to the house. Jerusha wanted to honor her father, but the day she had confessed her feelings to Reuben, she had crossed a line. She knew without question that her love and her life belonged to Reuben forever.
    She drifted through the days, trying to focus on her work, but even quilting couldn’t hold her attention, and after a while she would sigh and set the work aside. Reuben filled her thoughts and her moments. He was a part of her now. She saw his face in shadowed clouds and heard his voice speaking to her. Once when she was in town she started after a man, thinking it was Reuben. The man had looked at her when he saw her following him and smiled invitingly, but he wasn’t Reuben, so she had turned and walked quickly away, red faced and shamed at her boldness. She started a dozen letters to him but tore up each one because the words seemed so small compared to the enormity of her feelings.
    Then had come the day when Reuben asked her to make a decision. He had waited for her as she walked along the path into town. She had gasped at first, he had approached so quietly. He stood beside her, staring at her with those deep blue eyes, her emotions raging like a storm, her face turning bright red.
    â€œI can still make you blush, eh, Miss Hershberger?” he said, and his eyes smiled at her.
    â€œReuben, you mustn’t do this,” she said softly. “My daed ...”
    â€œJerusha, don’t worry about your daed right now,” he said as he took her hand. “I just want to see you for a moment. I want to tell you that nothing has changed for me. All I think about is finding a way for us to be together.”
    â€œThere is a way, Reuben. If you’ll just get baptized and join the church, my father would welcome you into our family.”
    â€œI can’t join the church just because I’m in love with you,” Reuben said. “If I join the church, it will be because I want God and His ways more than anything, because I’m in love with Him even more than I am with you. And the truth is I want you and I want other things more than I want Him.”
    â€œWhat do you want so badly that it could keep you from loving Him?” Jerusha asked.
    â€œThere are so many things to do—places to see, music to hear, books to read...” Reuben’s face became animated as he talked.
    He took both her hands in his. “I want to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and devour the paintings with my eyes. I want to ride through the Rocky Mountains in the back of a pickup truck. I want to see whales swimming along the coast of California. Jerusha, I want to get out of Apple Creek, and I want you to come with me.”
    â€œ Leave Apple Creek! But Reuben, this is my life, this is all I know. My family has lived here almost a hundred years. I don’t want the things you want. I want normal things, things that will keep us here at home, where we can be happy and content with our way of life. I want you to marry me and be a farmer like our people have always been. I want the simple ways. I want an Amish husband. I want—”
    â€œJerusha, do