Light Shines on Promise Lodge

Book 5: Promise Lodge

by Charlotte Hubbard

Genres: Amish & Mennonite; Christian Romance; General Fiction

Synopsis

With autumn in full brilliant color, the Amish of Promise Lodge celebrate a successful harvest—and a community rooted in deep friendship. But as cold winds of judgment cast doubt and fear, residents will need each other more than ever to weather the storm . . .

For abandoned wife Annabelle Beachey, Promise Lodge is a refuge where she's gained confidence and self-sufficiency. But she and others are dismayed when newly arrived Bishop Clayton King claims the community is too progressive and sets out to change its ways. Worse, her husband, Phineas returns, expecting her to give up her faith as he has. And he won't leave Promise Lodge without her . . .

But little by little, Annabelle's determination and new forthrightness make Phineas realize his mistakes—and truly hear his wife for the first time. Meanwhile, Annabelle finds herself feeling compassion—and even renewed love—for her newly humble, more caring husband. And as Bishop Clayton's attempt to control Promise Lodge threatens everything its residents have built, Phineas and Annabelle must work together with unshakeable courage to save their new home—and their opportunity for forever happiness.

Release date: March 31, 2020

Publisher: Zebra Books

Print pages: 339

Sample

As Annabelle Beachey gazed at the happy couple standing before Bishop Monroe Burkholder to exchange their wedding vows, she fought tears. During the four months she’d spent in an apartment at Promise Lodge, she’d become good friends with the bride, Frances Lehman, and she’d acquired a lot of respect for the groom, Preacher Marlin Kurtz. The love light on their faces shone as a testament to the devotion that had grown between them during their summertime courtship—a brilliant example of how God worked out His purpose through the lives of those who kept His faith, even after they’d been widowed.

Annabelle sighed with the rightness of it all. The women around her dabbed at their eyes as Preacher Marlin repeated his vows in an endearingly confident voice, gazing at Frances as though she were the only woman in the world. Folks here were still in awe because Marlin had bought back all the furnishings Frances had consigned to an auction in May, thinking she had to sell everything to get by because her first husband hadn’t left her with much.

My husband didn’t leave me with much, either. He just left me.

Annabelle sat straighter on the pew bench, trying not to let her troubles overshadow the day’s joy. God had surely guided her to come to Promise Lodge last May, where the friends gathered in this room had taken her in—had provided her an apartment and their unconditional encouragement after they’d heard that Phineas had abandoned both her and the Old Order faith.

“I, Marlin, take you, Frances, to be my lawfully wedded wife,” the handsome preacher repeated after Bishop Monroe.

Annabelle pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. She and Phineas had taken the same vows more than twenty years ago. It had wounded her deeply when her husband had declared—without any warning or apparent remorse—that he’d grown tired of the constraints of marriage and the Amish faith. It seemed Phineas had intended to leave without even telling her—except she’d caught him looking for her egg money in the pantry.

She had no idea where he’d gone. And because Amish couples weren’t allowed to divorce, her only chance at finding another husband would come after Phineas passed away. How would she even know when that happened? And meanwhile, how was she supposed to get by? Living as her brother-in-law’s dependent, beholden to him for every morsel she ate, hadn’t been a desirable option, so she’d taken a huge chance and found her way from Pennsylvania to Promise Lodge. She’d read in The Budget about this progressive Plain settlement in Missouri, where single women could live in comfortable apartments and make a fresh start among families who also sought brighter futures.

Best decision you ever made, too, Annabelle reminded herself. She’d found her niche here, sewing clothes for Frances’s widowed brother-in-law and three young men who hadn’t yet married. Living among Plain women who managed a cheese factory, a dairy, a produce stand, and a pie business had given her the incentive to figure out how to support herself, and she planned to expand her sewing business by advertising it in town.

Once this painfully romantic wedding is behind you, you can get on with the contentment and purpose you’ve settled into here.

Annabelle put on a smile, determined not to succumb to her personal problems while everyone around her was sharing the joy that Marlin and Frances exuded.

“Friends,” Bishop Monroe proclaimed with a wide smile, “it’s my honor and privilege to present Mr. and Mrs. Marlin Kurtz.”

As applause filled the lodge’s big meeting room, Annabelle rose with the women around her. The best cure for her blues was making herself useful, helping Beulah and Ruby Kuhn set out the wedding feast they’d prepared. The maidel Mennonite sisters were the queens of the kitchen when it came to cooking for large gatherings—and as Annabelle passed through the dining room, she inhaled deeply to soothe her frazzled soul.

“Your ham and brisket smell so gut it was all I could do to stay seated during the wedding,” she teased as she entered the kitchen. “I was trying to think up an excuse for slipping back here to sample some of it—to be sure it was fit for our guests, of course.”

Ruby and Beulah laughed as they headed toward the ovens. Their bright floral-print dresses fluttered with their quick, efficient movements as Beulah slipped her hands into mitts while Ruby lowered the oven doors. The hair tucked up under their small, round Mennonite kapps was silvery, but nobody could call them old.

“I was pleased that Marlin asked for ham,” Beulah remarked, deftly lifting the blue graniteware roasters onto the nearest butcher-block countertops. “It’s a tasty way to feed a lot of folks with a minimum of fuss—”

“And the pineapple rings and maraschino cherries make it look pretty from the get-go,” Ruby put in. “Chicken and stuffing might be the traditional wedding dish, but it looks awfully bland. And who says you have to have that for your second wedding just because you served it the first time?”

“Tickles me pink that Frances and Marlin have finally tied the knot—even if Frances cut the usual mourning period a little short,” Beulah said. “Seems to me that pining on and on for Floyd might’ve been a slap in the face to God anyway, if we believe Floyd has gone to his reward with Jesus. We should be joyful about that, even as we acknowledge that Frances misses him.”

Annabelle considered this new slant on mourning as she sliced the ham and placed it into a metal steam table pan. Did she have it all wrong, feeling sorry for herself because Phineas had abandoned her? After all, she’d done nothing to provoke his departure, so surely God didn’t hold her accountable for her husband’s misdeeds. Maybe He’d offered her a chance at a whole new life when Phineas had gone his own way, even if her options for remarriage were severely limited.

God’s ways are not our ways, and they’re often mysterious to us, she reminded herself. I’ve felt humiliated and depressed about being abandoned, but maybe I should look at it from another angle. None of these other women have allowed their troubles to get them down.

Annabelle felt as though a heavy cloak of sadness was being lifted from her shoulders. As she sliced a second large ham, a genuine smile lit up her face. She had friends back in Bird-in-Hand who would secretly love the freedom of living without the overbearing men they’d married.

Freedom. Mattie, Christine, and Rosetta Bender, the original founders of Promise Lodge, had pooled their resources to buy an abandoned church camp so they’d be free from an oppressive bishop—and they’d been able to do that because they were widowed or single at the time. All three of them had gotten married this past year, to wonderful men who allowed them to make their own choices, so maybe there’d be another chance for Annabelle to find that same sort of happiness someday. At Promise Lodge, the bright blue sky was the limit.

“It’s gut to see that smile on your face, Annabelle,” Ruby said softly. She took up a sharp knife and began carving a beef brisket into thin slices as several other women came in to help them set out the meal. “At one point during the wedding, I was wondering if you’d bitten into a sour pickle—but then, I suppose weddings can heap a lot of difficult memories on some folks. Not that I’m prying, understand.”

Annabelle placed another stack of ham slices in the metal pan. “You’ve pegged it right, Ruby. But it’s occurred to me that nobody else is making me feel down and out about my situation. My own thoughts are to blame, and I’ve decided to give thanks for the life I have now. God is gut.”

“All the time,” Beulah and Ruby chorused.

Ruby smiled wistfully. “My sister and I act as though we have no regrets about remaining maidels, but deep down, every young girl has her dreams of a happily ever after, ain’t so?”

“Jah, when I think about the chances I’ve missed to hound a husband to distraction, I feel sort of sad,” Beulah teased. “But God knew what He was doing, steering away the fellows I would’ve made miserable with my smart mouth and demanding ways. Not many men would’ve tolerated Ruby’s and my independent streaks. Things are better all around because we stuck together and made our own way.”

“And we did our brother, Delbert, and his family a favor by coming here, too,” Ruby put in. “He felt he was doing his duty, letting us live in his crowded house with his wife and her mamm and their eight kids—”

“And only one bathroom,” Beulah interjected.

“—but our whole family’s better off because Beulah and I left the nest,” Ruby finished. “And now that we’re not expected to watch those kids all the time, we’ve found a life with a purpose that truly suits us. Maybe to most folks, that sounds selfish, but that’s their opinion—and we’ve held on to ours.”

Annabelle had done some mental math as she sliced the last of the ham. “Thirteen people and one bathroom,” she murmured. “Your apartments upstairs must feel like paradise by comparison. But don’t you miss your family? And the kids?”

Beulah smiled, stacking the empty roasting pans to get them out of the way. “They weren’t our kids,” she pointed out. “Ruby and I wondered if Delbert’s wife would’ve been happier without so many of them—but that’s a prickly subject we maidels knew better than to mention.”

“And it was none of our beeswax anyway,” Ruby added with a laugh.

Annabelle pondered this while she arranged the pineapple rings and cherries over the ham slices. The Lord hadn’t blessed her and Phineas with children, so she knew about keeping her opinions to herself concerning other couples’ parenting. God had His reasons for leaving them childless . . . and maybe He’d foreseen the day when Phineas would take off. Maybe He’d been watching out for her all along, not burdening her with dependent mouths to feed as He prepared her for a time when she’d need to make her own way.

When she carried the pan of ham to the steam table, Frances and Marlin were entering the lodge’s big dining room ahead of their guests. “Annabelle, that looks so pretty!” Frances exclaimed. “It’s a party in a pan!”

“Denki for the effort you ladies have put into making our dinner so special,” Preacher Marlin said. “I’ve eaten a lot of wedding meals here of late, but now that it’s our big day, the food looks even more glorious than usual!”

“We’re all happy to be a part of your celebration,” Annabelle said. And she meant it. She was happy, now that she’d reconsidered her situation.

As the dining room filled with wedding guests, Annabelle looked around. Folks who lived at Promise Lodge, as well as family and friends of the Kurtzes from Iowa and some far-flung relatives of the Lehmans, ambled between long tables that were draped in white tablecloths. Christine Burkholder and her daughters were filling water glasses while Mattie Troyer and Rosetta Wickey were at the dessert table, cutting slices of pie and arranging cookies on platters.

Frances’s daughter Gloria and Marlin’s daughter-in-law, Minerva, wheeled out a metal cart loaded with steaming pans of brisket, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Bishop Monroe, who towered above most of the other folks, brought up the rear of the crowd, coming into the dining room along with Preachers Amos Troyer and Eli Peterscheim. His smile was warm as he raised his hands.

“Let’s give thanks for the food,” he called out over the crowd’s chatter. “Then the party can really get started!”

Annabelle bowed her head along with everyone else. In the hush of the large room, folks stood reverently as Bishop Monroe led them in prayer.

“Gracious God, we thank You for every gut and perfect gift You give us, every day of our lives,” he said in his rich baritone voice. “Bless this food to our use, bless the hands that prepared it, and bless us all to Your purpose. Amen.”

As folks found places at the long tables, Beulah addressed the wedding party, who were seated at the raised eck table in the corner of the room. “Frances and Marlin, we’re ready for you to fill your plates and enjoy your special day,” she called out. “Congratulations from every one of us!”

People applauded briefly as Marlin grasped Frances’s hand and started toward the buffet table. His teenage children, Fannie and Lowell, followed them while Frances’s younger daughter, Mary Kate, and her son-in-law, Roman, fell into place behind them. Baby David squawked excitedly in Roman’s arm, as though he thought all the fuss was being made for him. Marlin’s son, Harley, waited while Minerva and Gloria came from the kitchen to join the others in the line.

Annabelle smiled at the blended family that had been formed by Frances and Marlin’s union. Harley and Gloria had objected long and loudly to their parents’ courtship, yet they’d come to an understanding about his dat and her mamm needing the love and companionship a second marriage would bring them.

Annabelle returned Gloria’s little wave, pleased that this young woman had matured so much over the summer. Gloria had once been flighty and boy crazy, but Rosetta had hired her to manage the upstairs apartments and the ten cabins that sat behind the lodge. Gloria had also started writing the community’s weekly article for The Budget, thereby accepting a lot of responsibility and gaining people’s respect. At twenty-three, she was a shining example of how a life could be transformed by the encouragement of a fine role model like Rosetta.

It’s all about finding a worthwhile purpose, Annabelle mused as she returned to the kitchen. The Kuhn sisters were pulling more pans of hot food from the oven, to be ready when the first pans ran out.

“Wonder what Daisy’s barking about?” Ruby asked as she removed the foil from a pan of green bean casserole. “She must’ve left Harley’s sheep to see about the excitement here at the lodge—”

“Jah, she’s been on Noah’s porch across the road this morning, watching for wedding guests to herd. Border collies are like that,” Beulah remarked as she covered the green bean casserole with French fried onions. She turned to Annabelle. “Go fill a plate now—before the guests gobble up all the food,” she teased. “If we take turns eating, we’ll have helpers to replenish the food all during the meal.”

Spotting some large plastic pitchers of ice water, Annabelle reached for them. “I’ll eat as soon as I refill the pitchers on the tables,” she said. “It’s a warm day for the sixth of October, and folks are thirsty.”

With a pitcher in each hand, she made her way into the crowded dining room. The tables were close together to accommodate the large crowd, so Annabelle walked along the tables’ ends and had someone pass her the pitchers that needed refilling. She was stepping toward the table nearest the archway that led to the lodge’s lobby when the sight of a solitary man in black froze her in place.

Phineas was watching her, as though he’d been following her progress along the outer edge of the dining room . . . waiting for her to notice him. He held her gaze with the pale, penetrating green eyes that had often made her heart thud in her chest as she anticipated his judgment—his criticism and correction.

The blood rushed from Annabelle’s head. She wasn’t aware that she’d dropped the two big pitchers until she heard the noisy clatter of plastic hitting the hardwood floor and felt ice water filling her shoes.

What’s Phineas doing here? How did he find me—and what does he want?

As Phineas stepped toward her, Annabelle lost all track of the crowd’s presence. She was too stunned by her runaway husband’s unexpected reappearance to be cognizant of anything other than his questioning gaze and the voice that could always make her feel guilty, even when she wasn’t.

“I came back for you, Annabelle, and you weren’t home,” he said softly.

Annabelle blinked. “You must’ve noticed that your brother’s taken over the farm,” she blurted. “He constantly reminded me that I was his duty—a burden you’d left him to bear. So I packed up and left.”

Phineas frowned, but then he flashed his most charming smile. “Let’s forget about Eldon,” he said with a shrug. “I’ve reestablished my business in Ohio, so we can take up where we left off, Annabelle. Just you and me, free to live a better life without the church telling us what we can’t do.”

Red flags shot up like fiery antennae, reminding Annabelle of Phineas’s way of glossing over mistakes. It suddenly seemed ironic that a man who made his living remodeling and restoring houses had torn their home apart several months ago without any apparent remorse.

“I have no interest in living English,” she stated. She took a deep breath to fortify herself. “My salvation is in the Lord—and in the Old Order, which has stood by me after you left me without two nickels to rub together. I’ve reestablished myself, too, Phineas, and I’m staying right here.”

Where had this show of backbone come from? Annabelle surprised herself, so quickly defying the man she’d obeyed for more than twenty years. Her husband’s expression told her that he, too, was shocked by her refusal to do his bidding.

“Annabelle, are you all right?” Ruby asked in a concerned voice.

“When we heard the pitchers hit the floor, we got worried.” Beulah placed a warm hand on Annabelle’s shoulder, bringing her out of her daze. “Do you know this man, Annabelle? Or is he asking about coming here to live at Promise Lodge?”

Annabelle felt extremely grateful to the Kuhn sisters for showing up with towels and true concern as she ran out of things to say to her absentee husband. She broke the gaze with which he’d been holding her captive, aware that Ruby was mopping the water from the floor around her feet while Beulah remained beside her, lending support.

“This is Phineas,” Annabelle murmured, thankful that the guests around them were resuming their conversations. “He says he’s come back for me.”

The Kuhns’ raised eyebrows and wary expressions said what Annabelle hadn’t yet been able to put into words. Phineas would surely realize that she’d painted a dark, unflattering picture of him—but before he could protest, Bishop Monroe strode over to join them.

“Hello there,” he said as he extended his hand to Phineas. “Welcome to Promise Lodge and the wedding dinner that’s in progress. I’m Bishop Monroe Burkholder—”

“And I’m Annabelle’s husband, Phineas Beachey,” he replied. As he shook the bishop’s hand, he sounded pleased to meet a man who would surely restore order and support his rightful role in Annabelle’s life. “Imagine my surprise when I returned to our home in Pennsylvania to find that my wife had left—”

“But you’ve found her now,” Bishop Monroe interrupted smoothly, “and you both have a lot of talking to do. How about if you fill a plate and we’ll find you a place to sit, Phineas? Plenty of time for you and Annabelle to discuss your differences after our wedding guests have gone home.”

Gratitude welled up inside Annabelle, for who would dare defy the burly, positive-minded bishop? Even though Phineas no longer followed the Old Order’s ways, he kept the rest of his rant to himself—perhaps because Monroe was head and shoulders taller than he was.

“Thank you, Monroe,” Phineas said as he released the bishop’s hand. “I appreciate your hospitality—and we will talk later,” he added with a purposeful look at Annabelle.

“Jah, we will,” she agreed. “You go right ahead and eat while I see to things in the kitchen. That much hasn’t changed, anyway.”

Aware of the crowd’s curious glances, Annabelle grabbed the wet towels from the floor and followed Ruby around the outer edge of the dining room. Beulah came right behind her with the empty pitchers. By the time they’d reached the kitchen, Christine and Mattie had joined them, along with Rosetta and a few of the other women. Annabelle appreciated their support, but before she answered the questions on their faces, she sat down on a chair to remove her saturated black shoes.

“Ladies,” Beulah said in a low voice, “the fellow in the doorway was Phineas Beachey, Annabelle’s runaway husband. That must be who the dog was barking at.”

“What does he want?” Mattie demanded suspiciously.

Annabelle shook her head. “Truth be told, I was so startled to see him that the room started to spin—and then I dropped those pitchers,” she replied breathlessly. “Somehow he’s found me. Says he’s reestablished his remodeling business in Ohio, and he figures we’ll take up where we left off before he abandoned me.”

“And what do you want, Annabelle?” Ruby put in quickly. “It’s not our place to pry into your personal business—”

“But we won’t let Phineas waltz in here and expect you to dance to his tune if you don’t want to,” Beulah added with a decisive nod. “Not after the way he left you and the Old Order.”

“Jah, forsaking his vows to the church is the one unforgivable sin, the way most bishops see it,” Christine remarked. “He’s got some consequences to face. Lots of Amish districts believe he’s forfeited any chance for reconciliation, let alone salvation.”

After she’d removed her wet, black stockings, Annabelle shook her head. “From what I could tell, he doesn’t give two hoots about what the Amish church believes anymore. He was upset because I wasn’t at home where he’d left me—and he seems to think I’ll go blithely along with whatever he wants, and that I’ll leave the church, too.”

The kitchen rang with a stunned silence as the ladies surrounding her considered the seriousness of what she’d said. Annabelle gazed at each of their faces, grateful for the friendship and support she saw. “No matter what happens, I want you all to know how much I appreciate the way you’ve stood by me from the moment I showed up at Promise Lodge,” she murmured. “It’s an honor to call you my friends.”

“And your friends intend to stick with you,” Rosetta insisted. She squeezed Annabelle’s shoulder. “I suspect Phineas will be here for a while as you iron out this difficult situation. I’ll ask Gloria to speak with him about renting one of the cabins—”

“Unless you’d rather tell him to find a place in Forest Grove or Cloverdale,” Ruby put in. “Maybe we don’t want him around, considering what you’ve told us about him.”

Annabelle blinked at the rancor in Ruby’s voice. Had she made Phineas out to be a total villain these past few months? Or was her maidel friend merely trying to make her feel better? “Maybe Phineas should stay in a cabin, so we don’t keep Monroe and the preachers waiting on his comings and goings while we iron this out,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t even know if he hired a driver or drove himself all the way out here in a buggy. It was a short conversation, partly because I was too stunned to hold up my end of it.”

“We’re blessed to have levelheaded leaders in our congregation,” Christine said, “and those four men will determine where Phineas stands, as far as the Old Order is concerned. But don’t forget how far you’ve come, Annabelle. It would be a shame to give up your sewing business—not to mention the independence you’ve found here.”

“That’ll be a sticking point for Phineas,” she murmured. “He’s already appalled at the way I’ve answered his questions—rather than tucking my tail between my legs and lowering my eyes.”

“You’ll figure it out, dear,” Mattie assured her gently.

“Jah, all things work to the gut for those who love the Lord,” Beulah said with a nod. “Meanwhile, I suspect we need to check the buffet table.”

“Why don’t you fix a plate and let the rest of us handle the dinner details?” Ruby suggested kindly. “I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be out there with Phineas watching your every move.”

After her friends headed back to the dining room, Annabelle si. . .