Lydia's Hope Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE PLEASANT VALLEY NOVELS

  Hannah’s Joy

  “An enjoyable Mennonite romance starring two fascinating individuals . . . Fans will enjoy this warm tale of love and belonging.”

  —Genre Go Round Reviews

  “Amish book lovers . . . you are ferhoodled if you don’t go out and pick up a copy of Hannah’s Joy RIGHT NOW!”

  —The Mary Reader

  “Refreshing.”

  —Romance Novel News

  “The characters in this book are great . . . As usual, I loved my visit to Pleasant Valley.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  Katie’s Way

  “Superb . . . Magnificent Marta Perry provides another engaging Pleasant Valley tale.”

  —Genre Go Round Reviews

  “Katie’s Way stands alone, but readers will love . . . all of the novels in the order they were published . . . Great characters and a bit of mystery . . . A delightful novel!”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “A great story of friendship, second chances, and faith . . . Wonderful.”

  —Reviews from the Heart

  “While this is a love story, it’s also a very complex story . . . I highly recommend this book and this series to anyone who loves Amish romances.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  Sarah’s Gift

  “Perry’s fourth Pleasant Valley book places her well-rounded characters in a sweet, entertaining romance.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Perry’s narrative keeps a nice pace as things develop credibly . . . between Aaron and Sarah; the legal challenge makes for more than merely romantic tension. Minor characters are also clearly sketched and differentiated.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “The latest Pleasant Valley inspirational Amish romance is a superb contemporary that focuses on the role of a midwife in modern America . . . Another powerful Pleasant Valley tale.”

  —Genre Go Round Reviews

  Anna’s Return

  “Those who enjoyed the first two series titles will eagerly await this third entry, which does not disappoint. It will also appeal to fans of Amy Clipston and Shelley Shepard Gray.”

  —Library Journal

  “Perry crafts characters with compassion yet with insecurities that make them relatable.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “A story of forgiveness, redemption, and mistaken ideas . . . Full of wonderful characters . . . A wonderful book!”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “In today’s fast-paced society, it’s a joy to sit back and enjoy a book that can combine romance, faith, and a bit of a thriller . . . I look forward to reading more of Ms. Perry’s books.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  Rachel’s Garden

  “Sure to appeal to fans of Beverly Lewis.”

  —Library Journal

  “A large part of the pleasure of this book is in watching Rachel be Amish, as she sells snapdragons and pansies to both Amish and ‘English’ at an outdoor market, taking in snatches of Pennsylvania Dutch.”

  —The Philadelphia Inquirer

  Leah’s Choice

  “What a joy it is to read Marta Perry’s novels! Leah’s Choice has everything a reader could want—strong, well-defined characters; beautiful, realistic settings; and a thought-provoking plot. Readers of Amish fiction will surely be waiting anxiously for her next book.”

  —Shelley Shepard Gray,

  New York Times bestselling author of Ray of Light

  “A knowing, careful look into Amish culture and faith. A truly enjoyable reading experience.”

  —Angela Hunt,

  New York Times bestselling author of The Offering

  “Marta Perry has done an exceptional job describing the tradition of the Amish community . . . A wonderful start to what is sure to be a very memorable series.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “I loved Leah’s Choice by Marta Perry! More than just a sweet Amish love story, it is a complex mix of volatile relationships and hard choices. I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it!”

  —Colleen Coble, author of Safe in His Arms

  Other Pleasant Valley novels by Marta Perry

  LEAH’S CHOICE

  RACHEL’S GARDEN

  ANNA’S RETURN

  SARAH’S GIFT

  KATIE’S WAY

  HANNAH’S JOY

  NAOMI’S CHRISTMAS

  LYDIA’S HOPE

  The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley

  BOOK ONE

  MARTA PERRY

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  For more information about the Penguin Group, visit penguin.com.

  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  Copyright © 2013 by Martha Johnson.

  Excerpt from Susanna’s Dream by Marta Perry copyright © 2013 by Martha Johnson.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-62391-6

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Perry, Marta.

  Lydia’s Hope : the Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley book one / Marta Perry. —

  Berkley trade paperback edition.

  pages cm. — (The Lost Sisters of Pleasant Valley ; book one)

  ISBN 978-0-425-25356-4 (alk. paper)

  1. Amish—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Family secrets—Fiction. 4. Christian fiction. I. Title.

  PS3616.E7933L94 2013

  813'.6—dc23

  2013000223

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley trade paperback edition / June 2013

  Cover art by Shane Rebenschied.

  Cover design by Annette Fiore DeFex.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

  This story is dedicated to the memory of my beloved sister, Patricia Perry Drotos. And, as always, to Brian.

  Contents

  Praise

  Also by Marta Perry

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  List of Characters

  Glossary

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVEr />
  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  EPILOGUE

  Recipes

  Reader Letter

  Special Excerpt from Susanna’s Dream

  LIST OF CHARACTERS

  Lydia Weaver Beachy, wife of Adam Beachy; their sons: Daniel, eight, David, six

  Diane Wentworth Weaver, Lydia’s deceased mother; Eli Weaver, Lydia’s father, also deceased

  Joseph and Anna Weaver, Lydia’s adoptive parents; their sons: Andrew, Joshua, and Matthew

  Susanna Bitler, Lydia’s birth sister, adopted by Jonah and Elizabeth Bitler

  Chloe Wentworth, Lydia’s birth sister, raised by their Englisch grandmother, Margaret Wentworth

  Paula Schatz, Mennonite, runs Pleasant Valley’s bakery

  Bishop Mose, spiritual leader of the Pleasant Valley Amish

  Kendra Phillips, Chloe’s friend and colleague

  Seth Miller, Englisch, son of Lydia’s Amish neighbor

  Emma Miller, Seth’s mother

  Jessie Miller, Seth’s younger sister

  Bradley Maitland, family friend of Chloe and her grandmother

  GLOSSARY OF PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH WORDS AND PHRASES

  ach. oh; used as an exclamation

  agasinish. stubborn; self-willed

  ain’t so. A phrase commonly used at the end of a sentence to invite agreement.

  alter. old man

  anymore. Used as a substitute for “nowadays.”

  Ausbund. Amish hymnal. Used in the worship services, it contains traditional hymns, words only, to be sung without accompaniment. Many of the hymns date from the sixteenth century.

  befuddled. mixed up

  blabbermaul. talkative one

  blaid. bashful

  boppli. baby

  bruder. brother

  bu. boy

  buwe. boys

  daadi. daddy

  Da Herr sei mit du. The Lord be with you.

  denke. thanks (or danki)

  Englischer. one who is not Plain

  ferhoodled. upset; distracted

  ferleicht. perhaps

  frau. wife

  fress. eat

  gross. big

  grossdaadi. grandfather

  grossdaadi haus. An addition to the farmhouse, built for the grandparents to live in once they’ve “retired” from actively running the farm.

  grossmutter. grandmother

  gut. good

  hatt. hard; difficult

  haus. house

  hinnersich. backward

  ich. I

  ja. yes

  kapp. Prayer covering, worn in obedience to the Biblical injunction that women should pray with their heads covered. Kapps are made of Swiss organdy and are white. (In some Amish communities, unmarried girls thirteen and older wear black kapps during worship service.)

  kinder. kids (or kinner)

  komm. come

  komm schnell. come quick

  Leit. the people; the Amish

  lippy. sassy

  maidal. old maid; spinster

  mamm. mother

  middaagesse. lunch

  mind. remember

  onkel. uncle

  Ordnung. The agreed-upon rules by which the Amish community lives. When new practices become an issue, they are discussed at length among the leadership. The decision for or against innovation is generally made on the basis of maintaining the home and family as separate from the world. For instance, a telephone might be necessary in a shop in order to conduct business but would be banned from the home because it would intrude on family time.

  Pennsylvania Dutch. The language is actually German in origin and is primarily a spoken language. Most Amish write in English, which results in many variations in spelling when the dialect is put into writing! The language probably originated in the south of Germany but is common also among the Swiss Mennonite and French Huguenot immigrants to Pennsylvania. The language was brought to America prior to the Revolution and is still in use today. High German is used for Scripture and church documents, while English is the language of commerce.

  rumspringa. Running-around time. The late teen years when Amish youth taste some aspects of the outside world before deciding to be baptized into the church.

  schnickelfritz. mischievous child

  ser gut. very good

  tastes like more. delicious

  Was ist letz? What’s the matter?

  Wie bist du heit. how are you; said in greeting

  wilkom. welcome

  Wo bist du? Where are you?

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lydia Beachy continued to tuck the log cabin quilt over her great-aunt, hands moving gently but automatically as she struggled to make sense of what the elderly woman had just said. Great-aunt Sara’s mind must be wandering, for sure.

  I still remember your mammi playing with you and your two little sisters in the apple orchard.

  The apple orchard part made sense. The orchard was still there, still producing apples for Lydia and her husband and little boys. But she didn’t have any sisters.

  “You must be thinking of someone else, Aunt Sara.” She patted her shoulder, just as she’d have patted Daniel or David when they lay down for a nap. “Rest now. A nap every afternoon, that’s what the doctor said, ain’t so?”

  Aunt Sara flapped her hand as if to chase away the doctor’s words. “I’ll just close my eyes for a minute or two. You and your sisters, ja, and the apple trees with blossoms like clouds. Three sweet girls Diane had, that’s certain-sure.” She smiled, veined lids drooping over her china blue eyes, and in an instant her even breathing told Lydia that she was asleep.

  Sharp as a tack, she is. Mamm’s voice seemed to echo in Lydia’s ears. She and Daad had brought Great-aunt Sara to stay with them after she’d been hospitalized with pneumonia, even though she continued to insist that she’d be fine in her own little place.

  Stubborn, that was the word for her great-aunt. She was always wanting to be the one who helped out, not the one who received help.

  Great-aunt Sara had another role as well . . . that of family historian. She could tell the children family stories going back many generations and never miss a name or a date. But why would she say something so obviously wrong about Lydia’s own family?

  Lydia’s forehead furrowed as she slipped quietly across the wide wooden floorboards of the house where she had grown up. Her great-aunt was confused, surely. Illness and age could do that to the sharpest mind.

  But she’d said Diane. Lydia’s birth mother was Diane, and she’d always known the name even though she didn’t remember her. Diane had been married to Daad’s brother, Eli, and Daad and Mamm had adopted Lydia when Diane and Eli had both died in an accident.

  Those birth parents had always been misty figures in her mind, like a pair of Amish dolls with features she couldn’t see. She saw them as young and happy one minute and gone the next in the accident Lydia didn’t remember, even though she’d been involved as well and five at the time.

  When she’d fretted at not remembering, Mamm had always soothed the worry away. It is God’s way of making it easier for you, Mamm would say. The accident was a terrible thing, and it’s better for you not to remember.

  The memory kept Lydia company down the bare, narrow stairs of the old farmhouse where she’d grown up. Coming back here was like returning to her childhood, but home was where her husband and children were now. She turned left at the bottom as she always did, her steps taking her into the kitchen, the heart of any Amish home.

  The square farmhouse kitchen was as spotless as it always was, the long wooden table maybe a bit empty-looking now that all of them were grown and mostly out of the house. April sunshine streamed through the window, laying a path across linoleum faded from so
many scrubbings.

  Mamm always had a calendar on the wall over the table for decoration as well as use, and this year’s had pictures of frolicking kittens. A few violets had been tucked into a water glass on the windowsill, a reminder that spring had come to Pleasant Valley at last.

  Mamm was bending over the oven door of the gas range, pulling out a cookie sheet. The aroma of snickerdoodles mixed with that of the beef pot roast that was stewing in the Dutch oven on top of the stove. Mamm looked up, her cheeks red from the warmth of the oven, and slid the tray onto a waiting cooling rack.

  “Cookies for you to take to Daniel and David,” she said, probably needlessly. The boys would be dumbfounded if Lydia came home from Grossmammi’s house without some treat she’d made for them. It was a thing that never happened.

  “Denke, Mamm. That will be their snack after they get home from school.”

  Lydia hesitated, wondering if she should speak. Her great-aunt’s words kept going round and round in her mind. They made no sense. And yet, Aunt Sara had sounded perfectly rational.

  Mamm glanced at her, face questioning, and closed the oven door. She dropped a crocheted pot holder on the counter.

  “Was ist letz? Is something wrong with Aunt Sara?” She took a step toward the stairs, as if ready to fly up and deal with any emergency in her usual capable manner.

  “No, no, she’s fine,” Lydia said quickly. “She’s sleeping already.”

  “Ach, that’s gut. Rest is what she needs most now, even though she doesn’t want to admit it.” Mamm reached for the coffeepot. “Do you have time for a cup before the boys get home from school?”

  Lydia shook her head. The words seemed to press against her lips, demanding to be let out, even though she felt a reluctance that was surely odd. She could talk to her mamm about anything.

  “Aunt Sara said something I didn’t understand.”

  “Ja? Was she fretting about the hospital bill again?”

  Mamm’s brown eyes, magnified by her glasses, showed concern. Hospital bills were nothing to take lightly when, like the Amish, a person didn’t have insurance. Still, the church would provide what was needed when the family couldn’t manage. That was the Amish way.