Read The Forbidden for Free Online Page B

tense and colicky, tucking her tiny knees up close to her tummy.
    She remembered how elated she and Elias had been at the babies’ birth—how much more would her mother have delighted in having these unexpected grandchildren, Rosanna’s blood cousins. She’d spent hours studying the set of their eyes and the shape of their earlobes, seeking any resemblance to herself and her many brothers . . . longing for even the slightest connection.
    She continued working the dough, adding the remaining flour until the mixture was soft and no longer sticky. Now she would let it rise for a couple hours or so.
    Moving into the front room, she sat for a time, enjoying the quiet before Kate’s arrival, knowing it would soon come to an end. Maybe today’s visit will be more comfortable for all of us. With that hope in mind, Rosanna began to talk to the Lord, her very own Savior, according to the Good Book. She had Linda Fisher to thank for opening her eyes to this most priceless truth.
    It was past ten o’clock when Reuben finished rubbing liniment on several of his older horses’ legs. He thought ahead to writing out detailed feeding regimens for his growing colts as he moseyed out to the road to mail a feed payment. Observing the graying sky, he wished for the piece of blue over toward the south to spread this way. The days had been too long dreary. Some steady sunshine would undoubtedly lift the spirits.
    Having son James’s wife and little ones visit there that morning might be precisely what he needed, though he knew Betsy would enjoy the visit, as well. Thankfully his wife didn’t seem so much blue anymore as mighty busy. And a busy person—as opposed to a busybody—was a wonderful-good thing.
    Truth was, he was miffed at Cousin Jonathan, getting this whole car-buying thing started. The man who’d been the first among them to talk openly of salvation was now a believer with a car, of all things.
    Just what was Jonathan thinking? Didn’t he know others would follow? The idea of his own cousin driving a car gave Reuben the heebie-jeebies as he lifted the flag and opened the mailbox. He would have slid his envelope right in but stopped when he noticed a piece of mail already inside. Has the postman arrived? He looked down the road a ways, to the neighbors’ mailbox. Their flag was still up.
    That’s odd.
    Reuben pulled the envelope out before placing his own letter in the box. He saw what looked to be a personally delivered letter to Nellie Mae. C. Yoder was boldly written in the corner, yet there was no return address.
    David’s boy’s courtin’ our Nellie?
    The idea peeved him. David Yoder was one of the most outspoken, bullheaded men he knew, and although Reuben had shown kindness toward those in his former church, he struggled now with the notion that Caleb might be pursuing Nellie Mae. Surely Caleb hadn’t bargained on the letter’s being discovered by anyone but Nellie, her being home alone yesterday for no-Preaching Sunday.
    He glanced again at the lackluster sky. Disheartened, he decided to let Betsy be the one to deliver the letter to Nellie Mae, tempted as he was to destroy it or return it to the boy. Still, he would not fall prey to David’s own tactics. He’d heard from Deacon Lapp himself that David was encouraging an arrangement between one of the deacon’s daughters and Caleb, all to the end of keeping the youngest Yoder boy firmly planted in the old church.
    Seems David might be a bit late, Reuben thought wryly.

C HAPTER 7
    “I hope you and Rhoda don’t get this awful bug,” Nellie said softly. Nan had come upstairs again after Martha and the children left, and Nellie was glad for the company. The silence of the house now was a stark contrast to the playful noises of her little niece and nephews.
    “Ah, well, the flu’s missed me the past several years,” Nan was quick to say. “I’m ever so lucky, really.”
    Nellie looked at her slender brunette sister—so obedient and loyal to attend