Read Online The Christmas Quilt by Patricia Davids - Free Book Online

looked straight at Gideon. “And who is this?”
    “This is Booker. He purchased my quilt at the auction yesterday.”
    “And paid a fine price for it, too, I hear.”
    “It was a fair price for a good cause.” Gideon answered in his hoarse whisper.
    The old man’s bushy eyebrows shot upward. “You are ill?”
    “I’ve lost my voice, that’s all.”
    Nodding wisely, Reuben said, “I will keep a lookout for it.”
    Gideon cracked a smile. Rebecca giggled and said, “Booker, this is my grandfather, Reuben Beachy.”
    “God will bless your generosity, Booker. I pray with my whole heart that my granddaughter’s vision may be restored.”
    “As do I,” Gideon replied, gazing intently at the woman beside him.
    She said, “ Aenti Vera has sent me to tell you she needs a new set of driving lines for Boppli.”
    “Did your mare break another pair?”
    “ Ja, she can be headstrong at times,” Rebecca admitted.
    “Like her owners. Does Vera want leather or nylon reins this time?” Reuben placed her hand on his arm and led her toward the front of the store. Gideon tagged after them.
    “ Aenti says the nylon lines are lighter and easier for her to hold.”
    While Rebecca and Reuben chatted, Gideon walked among the harnesses displayed on curved wooden racks that simulated a horse’s back. The quality of the workmanship was easy to see. As he stood admiring a leather horse collar, the front door opened and a man about Gideon’s age walked in. He was dressed plain with a dark hat and dark clothing, but he was clean-shaven. Only married men wore beards. Gideon scratched the stubble on his cheeks.
    “ Guder mariye, Reuben,” the stranger called out.
    Gideon took a closer look at the man. His greeting in Pennsylvanian Dutch was right, but his accent was all wrong.
    Reuben said, “Hello, Jonathan. What can I do for you today?”
    “I got a new horse in yesterday and I need a collar and harness for him. He’s a little fellow and none of mine will fit him. I have him outside. Is it all right if I try a couple on him?”
    “Sure. A poor-fitting collar has damaged many a good horse. Make sure it isn’t too big on him. Four fingers should fit snugly between his neck and the collar.”
    “I know. Danki. Hello, Rebecca.” The stranger smiled warmly at her.
    “Jonathan, how are you?”
    “Cold. And you?”
    “The same.”
    Gideon could tell by the tone of her voice that she was friends with this man. Close friends? How close?
    He turned his back to the group. He was an intruder in their circle. An outsider. He had no reason to be jealous of Rebecca’s friendship with this man, but annoyance pricked at him anyway.
    When Reuben and Jonathan took their collars outside, Gideon moved to stand by Rebecca. “Your friend looks Amish but he doesn’t sound Amish.”
    “He was Englisch, but he has chosen to live among us and become one of us.”
    “That is a rare thing.”
    “ Ja, it is. He has lived here for a year now and his Pennsylvania Dutch is pretty good. I think he will ask to be baptized soon.”
    “And then what?”
    She leaned toward Gideon and whispered, “Hopefully, there will be a wedding in the fall.”
    “Yours?”
    She straightened abruptly. “ Nee. Jonathan is not courting me. He has his eye on my friend, Karen Imhoff.”
    Gideon was hard put to explain the rush of relief that filled him. “And does she have her eye on Jonathan?”
    “Most definitely. Are you ready to go?”
    “Where to next?”
    “I am done with my errands, so it is back to the inn.”
    He didn’t want their morning to end. “Do we really have to go back?”
    He watched the uncertainty flit across her face. An instantlater, her uncertainty vanished. “There is no rush. Do you have any shopping you would like to do?”
    “I’ll think of something.”
    Suddenly, a loud scraping noise reverberated through the building. Rebecca took a step closer to him and grasped his jacket sleeve. “What was that?”
    “My guess? Snow and