Free Amish Circle Letters II: The Second Circle of Letters by Sarah Price

faith and hope in writing it.
    Now, her mind was racing, trying to understand what could possibly have transpired in order to bring the private note that she had written for her husband to the bedroom of her niece, Katie Fisher. Images of the note in the coffee mug that she had left on the hay bale suddenly mixed with an image of Melvin wandering outside to help his daed with morning chores. Surely the child had seen the note, read it, and took it to send to Katie. The color flooded to Mary Ruth’s cheeks as she realized that not only had Menno never seen her note but, Melvin had. Why would he steal it , she couldn’t help but wonder.
    “Appears my Katie has a secret admirer,” Anna said, a look of disapproval on her face. “Yet, the handwriting concerns me. That ’s not a child’s writing, not like what is on the envelope.”
    Mary Ruth caught her breath, wondering how to tell Anna without revealing too much private information about her situation with Menno or the fact that Melvin had stolen the note. “I…I…”
    Anna nodded her head. “Ja, me, too! Completely speechless when I saw it.”
    “That ’s not it,” Mary Ruth started to say. What would Anna think? How could she possibly explain? “It’s just that…” She looked up at her sister-in-law and tried to think of a way to say just enough without disclosing the extent of the problem. “It’s mine,” she finally admitted, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. “Melvin must have found the note.”
    Anna gasped. “Yours?”
    Nodding her head, Mary Ruth gulped. She didn ’t want to lie; that would be a sin. But she didn’t want to admit to the problems she was having with Menno. If she had wanted to talk to Anna before, she was more than thankful now that she had not. Perhaps the problems were not what she had originally thought. “I like this verse and wrote it on a piece of paper the other day. He must have found it and sent it to Katie.” There , she thought. The truth told in a way that masked the underlying reason why I wrote it.
    A frown crossed Anna ’s face. “I wondered about that,” she said softly and handed the paper back to Mary Ruth. “I reckon you’ll want this back.”
    Mary Ruth reached out and reached for the folded piece of paper. Her hands trembled as she realized that Menno had never seen it. That was the reason why he hadn ’t responded to her peace offering. Yet, she wondered about the other note…the one she had left on his pillow. Surely he had seen that one.
    “I…” Mary Ruth looked down at the paper, the words jumping off the page at her: Faith. Hope. Love. She had to find Menno. She had to confront him and tell him what Melvin had done. She had to find out whether or not he had seen the other note. “I have to go, Anna.”
    She was halfway down the stairs when she heard Anna calling her. Mary Ruth turned around, the piece of paper still clutched in her hand, and looked up the stairs. Anna hurried after her, waving the blue sweater. “You forgot Emma ’s sweater,” Anna said, a funny look on her face as she handed the piece of clothing to Mary Ruth.
    Sweater? For a moment, Mary Ruth looked confused. What was Anna talking about? And then it dawned on her that the sweater was the reason she had come to visit. She tried to laugh off her forgetfulness as she reached for the sweater. “Ja, right,” she said and tucked it under her arm. “Almost forgot!”
    Anna tilted her head and watched Mary Ruth as she dashed down the remaining steps and hurried outside toward the barn.
     
     
    Steve tied the horse and hauling wagon to the hitching rail outside of the Hostetler’s Store. He was hoping to catch Mimi alone, perhaps even spend an hour or so together. He had been working on the grossdaadihaus and needed to order some more supplies. The sheetrock and insulation had been delivered earlier that morning and, in-between milkings, Steve had managed to get the insulation put up between the beams in the kitchen. And