Love Bears All Things Read online

  ACCLAIM FOR BETH WISEMAN

  Her Brother’s Keeper

  “Wiseman has created a series in which the readers have a chance to peel back all the layers of the Amish secrets.”

  —Romantic Times, 4 1/2 stars and July 2015 Top Pick!

  “Wiseman’s new launch is edgier, taking on the tough issues of mental illness and suicide. Amish fiction fans seeking something a bit more thought-provoking and challenging than the usual fare will find this series debut a solid choice.”

  —Library Journal

  The Promise

  “The story of Mallory in The Promise uncovers the harsh reality American women can experience when they follow their hearts into a very different culture. Her story sheds light on how Islamic society is totally different from the Christian marriage covenant between one man and one woman. This novel is based on actual events, and Beth reached out to me during that time. It was heartbreaking to watch those real-life events unfolding. I salute the author’s courage, persistence, and final triumph in writing a revealing and inspiring story.”

  —Nonie Darwish, author of The Devil We Don’t Know, Cruel and Usual Punishment, and Now They Call Me Infidel

  “The Promise is an only too realistic depiction of an American young woman motivated by the best humanitarian impulses and naïve trust facing instead betrayal, kidnapping, and life-threatening danger in Pakistan’s lawless Pashtun tribal regions. But the story offers as well a reminder just as realistic that love and sacrifice are never wasted and that the hope of a loving heavenly Father is never absent in the most hopeless of situations.”

  —Jeanette Windle, author of Veiled Freedom (2010 ECPA Christian Book Award/Christy Award finalist), Freedom’s Stand (2012 ECPA Christian Book Award/Carol Award finalist), and Congo Dawn (2013 Golden Scroll Novel of the Year)

  The House that Love Built

  “This sweet story with a hint of mystery is touching and emotional. Humor sprinkled throughout balances the occasional seriousness. The development of the love story is paced perfectly so that the reader gets a real sense of the characters.”

  —Romantic Times, 4-star review

  “[The House that Love Built] is a warm, sweet tale of faith renewed and families restored.”

  —BookPage

  Need You Now

  “Wiseman, best known for her series of Amish novels, branches out into a wider world in this story of family, dependence, faith, and small-town Texas, offering a character for every reader to relate to . . . With an enjoyable cast of outside characters, Need You Now breaks the molds of small-town stereotypes. With issues ranging from special education and teen cutting to what makes a marriage strong, this is a compelling and worthy read.”

  —Booklist

  “Wiseman gets to the heart of marriage and family interests in a way that will resonate with readers, with an intricately written plot featuring elements that seem to be ripped from current headlines. God provides hope for Wiseman’s characters even in the most desperate situations.”

  —Romantic Times, 4-star review

  “You may think you are familiar with Beth’s wonderful story-telling gift but this is something new! This is a story that will stay with you for a long, long time. It’s a story of hope when life seems hopeless. It’s a story of how God can redeem the seemingly unredeemable. It’s a message the Church, the world needs to hear.”

  —Sheila Walsh, author of God Loves Broken People

  “Beth Wiseman tackles these difficult subjects with courage and grace. She reminds us that true healing can only come by being vulnerable and honest before our God who loves us more than anything.”

  —Deborah Bedford, bestselling author of His Other Wife, A Rose by the Door, and The Penny (coauthored with Joyce Meyer)

  THE LAND OF CANAAN NOVELS

  “Wiseman’s voice is consistently compassionate and her words flow smoothly.”

  —Publishers Weekly review of Seek Me with All Your Heart

  “Wiseman’s third Land of Canaan novel overflows with romance, broken promises, a modern knight in shining armor, and hope at the end of the rainbow.”

  —Romantic Times

  “In Seek Me with All Your Heart, Beth Wiseman offers readers a heartwarming story filled with complex characters and deep emotion. I instantly loved Emily, and eagerly turned each page, anxious to learn more about her past—and what future the Lord had in store for her.”

  —Shelley Shepard Gray, bestselling author of the Seasons of Sugarcreek series

  “Wiseman has done it again! Beautifully compelling, Seek Me with All Your Heart is a heartwarming story of faith, family, and renewal. Her characters and descriptions are captivating, bringing the story to life with the turn of every page.”

  —Amy Clipston, bestselling author of A Gift of Grace

  THE DAUGHTERS OF THE PROMISE NOVELS

  “Well-defined characters and story make for an enjoyable read.”

  —Romantic Times review of Plain Pursuit

  “A touching, heartwarming story. Wiseman does a particularly great job of dealing with shunning, a controversial Amish practice that seems cruel and unnecessary to outsiders . . . If you’re a fan of Amish fiction, don’t miss Plain Pursuit!”

  —Kathleen Fuller, author of The Middlefield Family novels

  ALSO BY BETH WISEMAN

  THE AMISH SECRETS NOVELS

  Her Brother’s Keeper

  THE DAUGHTERS OF THE PROMISE NOVELS

  Plain Perfect

  Plain Pursuit

  Plain Promise

  Plain Paradise

  Plain Proposal

  Plain Peace

  THE LAND OF CANAAN NOVELS

  Seek Me with All Your Heart

  The Wonder of Your Love

  His Love Endures Forever

  OTHER NOVELS

  Need You Now

  The House that Love Built

  The Promise

  NOVELLAS

  A Choice to Forgive included in An Amish Christmas

  A Change of Heart included in An Amish Gathering

  Healing Hearts included in An Amish Love

  A Perfect Plan included in An Amish Wedding

  A Recipe for Hope included in An Amish Kitchen

  Always Beautiful included in An Amish Miracle

  Rooted in Love included in An Amish Garden

  When Christmas Comes Again included

  in An Amish Second Christmas

  In His Father’s Arms included in An Amish Cradle

  A Love for Irma Rose included in An Amish Year

  Patchwork Perfect included in An Amish Year

  A Cup Half Full included in An Amish

  Home (Available February 2017)

  Copyright © 2016 by Elizabeth Wiseman Mackey

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-0-5291-19
77-3 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Wiseman, Beth, 1962-author.

  Title: Love bears all things / Beth Wiseman.

  Description: Nashville: Thomas Nelson, [2016] | Series: Amish secrets; book 2

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016001454 | ISBN 9780529118721 (softcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Amish—Fiction. | Family secrets—Fiction. | Man-woman relationships—Fiction. | GSAFD: Christian fiction. | Love stories.

  Classification: LCC PS3623.I83 L69 2016 | DDC 813/.6—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001454

  16 17 18 19 20 21 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To Terry Newcomer

  Contents

  Pennsylvania Dutch Glossary

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Epilogue

  Discussion Questions

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  P

  ENNSYLVANIA DUTCH GLOSSARY

  ab im kopp—off in the head; crazy

  ach—oh

  aenti—aunt

  boppli—baby or babies

  bruder—brother

  daed—dad

  danki—thank you

  die Botschaft—an Amish newspaper; translated, it means “the Message”

  Englisch—non-Amish

  fraa—wife

  gut—good

  haus—house

  kapp—prayer covering or cap

  kinner—children

  maedel—girl

  mamm—mom

  mei—my

  mudder—mother

  nee—no

  onkel—uncle

  Pennsylvania Deitsch—the language most commonly used by the Amish. Although commonly known as Pennsylvania Dutch, the language is actually a form of German (Deutsch).

  rumschpringe—running-around period when a teenager turns sixteen years old

  sohn—son

  Wie bischt—How are you? or Hi there.

  ya—yes

  One

  Charlotte leaned her head against the high-back chair in Dr. Levin’s office. She closed her eyes, breathed in the familiar scent of lavender, and forced herself to relax the way Dr. Levin had taught her. She wondered why relaxation should take so much effort.

  “Tell me again about this vision you keep having.” Maureen Levin was good at peeling back the layers of Charlotte’s psyche, and most of the counseling sessions had been helpful. But one thing continued to niggle at Charlotte. She slowly exhaled, then opened her eyes.

  “I’ve told you everything I can remember. And it’s not really a vision. More like a secret. A secret that I’m hiding from myself.” She shrugged. “Maybe I dreamed it and just can’t shake the images.”

  “Do you think you dreamed it?” Dr. Levin took off a pair of red reading glasses and rested her hands on a stack of files.

  “No. But every time I try to focus on it, I get a headache and my chest hurts.”

  Dr. Levin gazed across her desk at Charlotte. “Do you think the child in the vision is a younger version of yourself?”

  Charlotte had already put herself through a vigorous round of diagnostics without success. “Maybe.”

  “What do you think younger Charlotte may be trying to tell you?”

  Sighing, Charlotte searched her mind, trying to bring forth something that might help her understand why a midnight trip to the store for ice cream had left her with such an unsettled, anxious feeling the past few weeks. She’d already told Dr. Levin all this, but she suspected her therapist was hoping she’d recall something else by retelling it. “I was still upset about the breakup with Ryan, and I couldn’t sleep, so I went to get some ice cream.” She paused as the weight of the vision, memory—whatever it was—settled into her chest, sending waves of thunder to her temples. “I saw the little girl and the woman.”

  “And you said the woman resembled your mother?”

  Charlotte nodded. “Yeah. Maybe. From what I remember of her.” She cringed, wanting to stop but knowing Dr. Levin would keep pushing. “I just don’t know if remembering is good. Maybe I should work at forgetting instead.”

  Dr. Levin put her glasses back on and stared down at a yellow pad in her lap. “You told me a couple of weeks ago that this woman and child at the store reminded you of something, but that you didn’t know what. You also said that the woman was wearing a dark green dress and the little girl was wearing a purple dress, correct?”

  Charlotte took another deep breath. “I hate the color purple.” Her bottom lip trembled as a chill ran up her spine.

  Dr. Levin lifted her eyes to Charlotte’s. “This is the first time you’ve mentioned this, that you dislike the color purple. Perhaps you associate that color with something unpleasant that happened when you were young, and seeing those people triggered a memory.”

  “I think I would like to stuff that memory back where it came from if it’s going to cause me this much aggravation.”

  “What upsets you more, the recollection itself or the frustration that you can’t remember the details?”

  Charlotte wanted to curse Ryan for setting up these sessions with his aunt, but she had to admit she liked Dr. Levin. A lot more than she liked Ryan these days. “Both,” she finally said. “It scares me that something I don’t even remember has this kind of effect on me.”

  “Charlotte, you’ve been through a lot. Your brother’s suicide, the breakup with Ryan, and . . . didn’t you say money was an issue right now?”

  Charlotte felt her cheeks flush, wishing she hadn’t mentioned her finances during a prior visit. “I lost some clients, and several are behind in paying me. But I feel like it will get better soon.”

  “I know that your situation with Ryan has changed, but he offered to keep paying for you to come see me weekly.” Dr. Levin was writing on the pad in her lap. Charlotte wondered what level of crazy Dr. Levin had assigned her. “And I hope you know, his being my nephew has no bearing on anything,” she added without looking up.

  “I know.” Charlotte believed her, but she didn’t want Ryan’s charity. She’d already decided that this would be her last session, but she nodded anyway. Dr. Levin had served her purpose. She’d helped Charlotte work through some straggling issues about her childhood and her brother’s death. This recent and unexpected recollection had come out of nowhere, and Charlotte hoped it would scurry back to where it came from soon. “I remember something else.” Charlotte’s voice hitched in her throat as she recalled another detail. “They—the lady and the girl—were barefoot.”

  Dr. Levin continued to write for a few moments before she looked up at Charlotte. “Okay. To summarize, you’ve said that you ran into a woman and child while on a random trip to the convenience store for ice cream. The woman looked like your mother, from what you can recall, and she was wearing a dark green dress. The little girl had on a purple dress with white trim. And they weren’t wearing any shoes.” Dr. Levin glanced at her pad. “And this scene was somehow familiar to you and has left you feeling unsettled since then.”

  “We’ve been through all this,” Charlotte said softly. “Maybe it means nothing. It’s just a vague memory or something that isn’t pertinent to my life.”

  Dr. Levin stared long and hard at Charlotte, even though her eyes shone with a kindness Charlotte had noticed on her first visit. “Do you believe that?”

  Not for a minute. She thought about the promise she’d made to herself—and God—awhile back. That she would never tell another lie. But as much as she’d meant to keep that promise, she looked directly at Dr. Levin and said, “Yes, I do.” Maybe if she convinced herse
lf that the memory was unimportant, that would trump a potential lie.

  Dr. Levin locked eyes with Charlotte, and in that moment, she could see the resemblance between her and Ryan. Those seemingly transparent, grayish-blue eyes that blazed the distance between two people, searching, wondering, trying to understand Charlotte.

  “You told me you spent time with the Amish people in Pennsylvania not too long ago.” Dr. Levin lightly tapped her pen against the pad of paper. “Don’t the Amish people go barefoot a lot? Have you associated this recollection with your time in Pennsylvania in any way?”

  Charlotte let the thought swim around for a few moments. “No.”

  Not until now.

  Following a Sonic drive-through lunch, Charlotte couldn’t shrug the feeling that maybe her session with Dr. Levin had peeled back another layer. She’d blocked out so many things about her parents and her time in foster care. In her effort to be normal, maybe she’d dreamed up this woman and child in Amish clothes as a way of self-comfort—a way to live the peaceful life she’d never had, where a loving mother and daughter stepped out for ice cream. But at midnight?

  She slurped the last of her chocolate shake as she walked the long corridor to her apartment, slowing her steps when she noticed an envelope taped to the door. It was the third one this month. The first two were warnings that her rent was past due, which she was acutely aware of. She stuffed it in her purse and hurried back to her mailbox downstairs, disappointed that the only thing inside was an electric bill. On her way back up to her apartment, she called the client she’d done the big editing project for—the lady who owed Charlotte the most. No answer—again.

  She’d barely opened her front door when Buddy made his way across the living room and squatted on all fours next to her. “Hi, baby.” She scratched the Chihuahua’s ears as she slipped out of her flip-flops, tossing her purse on the couch. Then she padded across the carpet to her bedroom, returning with a shoe box tucked under one arm. She set it right inside the entryway and stared at it on the floor.

  After a few moments, she held her left hand at arm’s length and admired the two-carat tennis bracelet Ryan had given her. It would be the last time she’d see the gorgeous piece of jewelry. A token of his love for her, he’d said.