Read Online Rebecca's Promise by Jerry S. Eicher - Free Book Online Page A

driveway. Visions of what some of the other local Amish farmers were no doubt using this morning flashed in her mind. Bishop Mose himself, his oldest son-in-law in charge of his farm, had a well-used, though still smart-looking, New Holland front-end loader on the place. Seated in such a contraption, a man could clean out a driveway in mere minutes. Such a machine would leave straight lines behind him in the snow and eliminate the need for hand shoveling. But that took money, which they did not have.
    Rachel sighed, forcing her eyes away. It would just have to be theway it was for now, but by God’s help and her own willingness to help Him, that would all change.
    Luke would be going to work as Emma’s hired hand later in the morning. Rachel knew she shouldn’t dislike Emma so much—after all, they certainly could use the money Emma paid Luke, which was more than the usual going rate for hired help on farms. Yet even so, Rachel couldn’t get past the fact that Emma was living on the farm that should have been hers. Even the money Luke was paid might have been from her father’s wealth.
    They,
not Emma, should be living on that farm. Reuben and Luke should be running it. She belonged inside, cooking and taking care of the house. That beautiful house, with its fireplace in the bedroom, was really hers. And Luke ought to be looking forward to owning the place some day instead of working as a hired hand.
    She looked back at Reuben and Luke, now making their last round with the tractor, then disappearing into the barn with snow swirling around them. Moments later, Luke reappeared by himself, heading for the house. Reuben was nowhere in sight.
    Good,
she thought,
he’s coming in to get ready to go to Emma’s. Reuben won’t be in right away.
    When Luke opened the utility room door and stamped the snow off his boots, Rachel stuck her head and asked, “You going to Emma’s?”
    “Yes,” he replied, not looking up.
    “I want to talk to you first.”
    “How long will it take?” he asked, opening his coat, half taking it off. “With this snow, Emma will be expecting me to check on the cattle right away.”
    “This won’t take long,” she said.
    He finished taking his coat off, dropping it on the utility room floor. “So what do you want?” he asked, stepping inside and onto the rug.
    “Sit down,” she said.
    “Then I have to take my boots off,” he protested. “I don’t have time.”
    “Look,” she said sternly, “You have time for this. It involves your future.”
    Luke pulled his boots off and crossed the kitchen floor to take a chair. He waited there impatiently.
    “You know the story of how my father left his estate to Emma? All of it,” she began.
    “Of course,” he said. “Everyone knows that.”
    “I think she’s getting ready to do the same thing,” she told him flatly.
    “To us?” His face brightened.
    “No! To someone else.”
    “Has she told you?” he asked.
    “No! Of course not!” she snapped. “I wouldn’t be talking to you if she had. I think she’s doing the same thing my father did. She will cut us out…again.”
    He raised his eyebrows.
    “Do you remember telling me that a strange car was at Emma’s house the other day?”
    He nodded. “I couldn’t see much from the back field, but the gray car was parked in front of the house for at least an hour.”
    “I think she’s talking to a lawyer,” she said solemnly.
    “Emma wouldn’t need a lawyer,” Luke said. “Surely she’s leaving the money to us. Who else would she leave it to?”
    “I don’t know,” Rachel said. “But before Dad died, he talked to a lawyer too. We found that out afterward. We didn’t know what to look for then. Maybe we would have noticed. Now,” she paused to look at him and then continued, “we know what to look for. There’s no reason to miss the signs.”
    “So what am I supposed to do about it?” Luke muttered, not convinced. “Ask her who it was? I don’t think she likes me