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Book: Lamb to the Slaughter (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 1) by Karen Ann Hopkins
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Authors: Karen Ann Hopkins
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from, but they flowed from her mouth as if someone was whispering them into her ear.
Mamma’s wrathful face calmed a bit. She lowered the broom to the floor. Naomi was still ready to bolt, her weight on the balls of her feet.
“I see,” she said. Her eyes narrowed and she pointed a chubby finger at her daughter. “You best be watching what you do, Naomi Mae Beiler. I will not have you flirting with any outsiders. You have a fine young man interested in you. Better be careful not to do anything to mess it up.”
“Jah, Mamma, I know how fine Eli is. I love him more than anything. I wouldn’t be making eyes at a stupid English boy. I wouldn’t.” Naomi hoped Mamma believed her.
Mamma’s face hardened and her emotions swung angry again. “I’ve been meaning to have a talk with you about Eli anyhow. Now is as good a time as any. Especially, since he’s fixing to come over for dinner tonight.”
Her words shocked Naomi. She’d completely forgotten that Eli was visiting that evening. She was immediately torn from feeling excitement to see him, to major guilt at the way she’d been acting with Will.
Naomi wanted to get the conversation over with. She needed to wash the sweat and grime from the butcher’s shop off of her before Eli arrived. Carefully, she said, “What about?”
Mamma breathed out uncomfortably before pulling a chair away from the table and sitting her plump backside onto it.
“I’m giving you a warning young Naomi that you would heed if you had any sense in that stubborn brain of yours. Don’t be sneaking off with Eli to be touching each other, and worse. You already know that our community has the rule of hands-off courting, but I’m not a dolt. I know what goes on behind the barns and in the sheds. I was young and prettylike you once and I remember those days. And how I didn’t heed my mamma’s advice and ended up pregnant by your father when I was a year younger than you are now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I don’t love your father, but back in those days I was trapped, with only one thing to do. What little choices I had in life were taken from me in a flash. You don’t want to end up like that. Trust me, you don’t.”
With that, Mamma rose and crossed the kitchen floor to descend into the basement without another word or glance at Naomi. It was probably the most that Mamma had ever said to her oldest child at one time. Naomi was at a loss about what to think.
Mamma had been pregnant when she’d married Dat?
That was news to Naomi. She could hardly even imagine the uptight, crazy woman ever being a teenager, let alone playing with Dat and getting her belly full of a child. Naomi reasoned that she and Eli were more careful than that.
The disgusting thoughts made her feel even more unclean, and she pushed them from her mind. She didn’t have much time if she was going to bathe before Eli arrived. As Naomi jogged up the steps, her thoughts wandered back to Will. She began thinking again about what it would be like to kiss him.
7
----
SERENITY
----
November 11 th
A s I approached the barn-like school house that was surrounded by a mix of Amish people and non-Amish ones, I felt a sudden wave of nervousness. I’d already been dealing with a fit of embarrassing shyness ever since Daniel had picked me up in his hard bodied Jeep and told me how nice I looked. What did he mean? Normally, such a compliment could be taken at face value, but with the former Amish man things weren’t so clear. I could admit that I probably did look pretty good. I was wearing hipster denim jeans with a wide belt and a fitted, black leather jacket. I’d taken Todd’s advice and left my hair down, although I’d never tell him that. My long, blond layers were now billowing around my face in the cool wind. With annoyance, I brushed the hair back so I could see where I was going. I wished that I’d worn a pony-tail, but there was no way that I was pulling it up now. The way Daniel’s
Mamma’s wrathful face calmed a bit. She lowered the broom to the floor. Naomi was still ready to bolt, her weight on the balls of her feet.
“I see,” she said. Her eyes narrowed and she pointed a chubby finger at her daughter. “You best be watching what you do, Naomi Mae Beiler. I will not have you flirting with any outsiders. You have a fine young man interested in you. Better be careful not to do anything to mess it up.”
“Jah, Mamma, I know how fine Eli is. I love him more than anything. I wouldn’t be making eyes at a stupid English boy. I wouldn’t.” Naomi hoped Mamma believed her.
Mamma’s face hardened and her emotions swung angry again. “I’ve been meaning to have a talk with you about Eli anyhow. Now is as good a time as any. Especially, since he’s fixing to come over for dinner tonight.”
Her words shocked Naomi. She’d completely forgotten that Eli was visiting that evening. She was immediately torn from feeling excitement to see him, to major guilt at the way she’d been acting with Will.
Naomi wanted to get the conversation over with. She needed to wash the sweat and grime from the butcher’s shop off of her before Eli arrived. Carefully, she said, “What about?”
Mamma breathed out uncomfortably before pulling a chair away from the table and sitting her plump backside onto it.
“I’m giving you a warning young Naomi that you would heed if you had any sense in that stubborn brain of yours. Don’t be sneaking off with Eli to be touching each other, and worse. You already know that our community has the rule of hands-off courting, but I’m not a dolt. I know what goes on behind the barns and in the sheds. I was young and prettylike you once and I remember those days. And how I didn’t heed my mamma’s advice and ended up pregnant by your father when I was a year younger than you are now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I don’t love your father, but back in those days I was trapped, with only one thing to do. What little choices I had in life were taken from me in a flash. You don’t want to end up like that. Trust me, you don’t.”
With that, Mamma rose and crossed the kitchen floor to descend into the basement without another word or glance at Naomi. It was probably the most that Mamma had ever said to her oldest child at one time. Naomi was at a loss about what to think.
Mamma had been pregnant when she’d married Dat?
That was news to Naomi. She could hardly even imagine the uptight, crazy woman ever being a teenager, let alone playing with Dat and getting her belly full of a child. Naomi reasoned that she and Eli were more careful than that.
The disgusting thoughts made her feel even more unclean, and she pushed them from her mind. She didn’t have much time if she was going to bathe before Eli arrived. As Naomi jogged up the steps, her thoughts wandered back to Will. She began thinking again about what it would be like to kiss him.
7
----
SERENITY
----
November 11 th
A s I approached the barn-like school house that was surrounded by a mix of Amish people and non-Amish ones, I felt a sudden wave of nervousness. I’d already been dealing with a fit of embarrassing shyness ever since Daniel had picked me up in his hard bodied Jeep and told me how nice I looked. What did he mean? Normally, such a compliment could be taken at face value, but with the former Amish man things weren’t so clear. I could admit that I probably did look pretty good. I was wearing hipster denim jeans with a wide belt and a fitted, black leather jacket. I’d taken Todd’s advice and left my hair down, although I’d never tell him that. My long, blond layers were now billowing around my face in the cool wind. With annoyance, I brushed the hair back so I could see where I was going. I wished that I’d worn a pony-tail, but there was no way that I was pulling it up now. The way Daniel’s
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