Read Online Gabriel's Bride by Amy Lillard - Free Book Online Page A

with her every day, but since then . . . well, the new teacher isn’t sure that she can give him the attention that he needs.”
    Nonsense. That was the first word that popped into her head, but Rachel managed to bite it back. It’d do no good to get off on bad footing with Gabriel or the teacher. Really, what concern of it was hers if Samuel went to school or stayed at home? He was quiet and gentle. It wasn’t like he would be in her way.
    She shrugged. “I guess I should start on . . . the dishes.” She glanced around the room which seemed to have soiled kitchenware of one kind or another piled up on every available surface.
    “Samuel,” Gabriel said in that deep voice of his. “Do you want to go to the field with me or stay here with Rachel?”
    The bu chewed on his lower lip, looking from one of them to the other as if weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each decision. Finally he asked, “If I stay here can I have a cookie?”
    “Of course,” Rachel said on top of Gabriel’s “Absolutely not.”
    She looked to the man who stood, hands propped on hips, as he stared at her like she had just grown a donkey’s tail. Or rather he glared at her, green eyes biting in their intensity.
    Gut himmel! She hadn’t even been there half an hour and already Gabriel looked like he wanted to toss her out with the breakfast scraps.
    “I mean,” she stammered. “After lunch, maybe.” She turned on her heel, but not before she saw the flash of disappointment cross young Samuel’s freckled face.
    “Come on, Samuel. We have work to do.” Gabriel clasped the young boy on the shoulder and steered him from the house.
    Rachel shook her head at her own hasty mistakes and twisted on the water handle. Thankfully the water turned warm at the tap, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Not all the districts were allowed to have indoor plumbing and water heated before it reached the pipes. She doubted that this district would be any different from her own, nor did she think Ohio would be so conservative, but she wasn’t about to take these things for granted. With the mounds of dirty dishes she now faced, she was glad for the convenience.
    She ran some water into the sink, added some dish soap, and got down to work.

    In what seemed like half the day later, but in truth was only a couple of hours, she heard the dogs start barking from the front yard. They had visitors. Most likely the truck with her goats. Excitement zinged through her.
    For the most part, she had settled into her new room. After washing the dishes, drying them, and putting them away, she had gone back to her buggy to retrieve her things.
    She had always been one for simple living, but to see all of her worldly goods packed into one carrying case and a cardboard box seemed sad somehow. She reminded herself that her earthly treasure was in her goats and all the potential they had. So she had hung up her few dresses, her winter coat, and her bonnet and waited for her other “possessions” to arrive.
    She ran out onto the porch just as the driver swung down from the truck, a clipboard in his hand.
    “Rachel Yoder?” the man asked.
    “Jah.” She nodded.
    “I believe I have your goats.”
    She clapped her hands in excitement, like she hadn’t just seen the creatures a few hours before when she left her aenti’s house. Well, the bank’s house.
    “Gut, gut,” she said, taking the clipboard and signing her name by the X .
    Good, except she didn’t know where to put them. She and Gabriel hadn’t talked about that. She bit her lip and gazed around the outbuildings trying to figure the best place for her goats. She couldn’t leave them in the trailer for long. Sadie was bound to lose her spirited temper soon and there was no telling what would happen after that.
    Then she spotted the perfect place, just on the other side of the chicken coop. A pen filled with bright green grass for them to eat and just enough room for her seven does and one buck. For a while at