Free The Amish Christmas Sleigh by Kelly Long Page B

moment’s reflection. “I’ll try.”
    Tim whooped and clapped his hands, but Sebastian remained sober, praying that Kate would give him a chance and let go of the past.
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    â€œThere’s an elephant in my shoe,” Martha Umble declared upon seeing Kate.
    Kate paused in undoing her cloak and stared at the older woman. “Did she hit her head when she fell?” Kate asked in an undertone to the bishop.
    â€œ Nee, I forgot to tell you that the tea Sarah King brewed her for pain seemed a mite potent and didn’t really agree with the missus. Sarah said the oddities would wear off in a few hours.”
    â€œOkaay,” Kate said, hanging up her cloak and slipping off her boots . At least it should be an entertaining few hours.... Maybe it will make the time pass more quickly.
    â€œI’ve got several sick calls to make,” Bishop Umble announced. “A few of the community are down with the flu. I’ll leave you here, Kate, and I’ll make sure to be back in time to swing past the school and get Ben.”
    He was gone before Kate could reply, so she went over to Martha Umble, who was sitting in a cozy kitchen chair with her right foot elevated on a square stool.
    â€œCan I get you anything, Martha?” Kate asked.
    â€œThe Christmas tree needs decorating, and there’s a beaver in the closet. Move the beaver first.” Martha indicated the kitchen pantry with a wrinkled finger, and Kate sighed to herself as she went to remove the imaginary pest. “Now, that’s not the way,” Martha chirped as Kate bent and tried to judge how big a beaver would be with the span of her empty arms. “You left his tail there. Pick it up!”
    Kate obeyed, thinking that surely Der Herr must have a sense of humor. She disposed of the invisible pest outside, then came back to the kitchen, wondering where the bread dough decorations were for the nice little fir that had been set up on a living room side table. The Mountain Amisch usually kept the same simple ornaments made of bread or applesauce and cinnamon dough from year to year. The women would form simple shapes or twists with the dough and then apply several layers of shellac to the finished pieces to keep the mice away and to put a sheen on the ornament.
    She found herself realizing that Christmas was not that far away, and though her community didn’t usually exchange gifts until Second Christmas, she always wrote a special card out for Ben for First Christmas. Now I might be able to write one out for Sebastian, as well, if . . .
    â€œStampede!” Martha bellowed and Kate glanced over in time to discover where the Umbles’ ornaments were; Martha had the tin open and was apparently shattering the simple ornaments in an effort to combat oncoming cows. Kate rushed to her side and tried to take the tin from her without getting hit in the head by the fast-disappearing flying dough.
    â€œMartha, please! We’ll have to make all new ornaments. . . .” A pretzel-shaped piece of hardened dough klonked Kate in the forehead and she gave up, moving out of the line of fire to take a look in the kitchen cabinets for dough ingredients. The Umbles seemed to have only a little of the glue that was usually mixed with the applesauce and cinnamon, and Kate wondered if she dared to run over to Ben Kauffman’s store for some, but one look at Martha’s wild eyes convinced her otherwise.

    The bishop returned with Ben around three o’clock, but not before Martha Umble had lived through a zoo breakout and an attacking flock of seagulls. It was enough to have emotionally exhausted Kate, except for the fact that she was too keyed up at the thought of seeing Sebastian as soon as possible.
    But Ben seemed to have other ideas. “Kate, can I talk to you in the other room?” he asked as soon as he’d crossed the floor with his crutches.
    Kate put a finger to her lips, indicating they should whisper as