Free Christmas at Promise Lodge by Charlotte Hubbard

she remarked as she looked around. “I’ve not explored this area much, so I have no idea where any of these trails in the woods might lead.”
    â€œIt’s a guy thing, to look for potential spots where you can spend time alone with a special woman. And if you follow this trail a little farther, you’ll see a surprise.” Amos took Mattie’s hand, eager to show her what he’d discovered the other day when he’d followed a hunch. Two rabbits sprang from the underbrush at the side of the path, and a woodpecker hammered a nearby tree, far above them. Amos held up a low branch so Mattie could walk beneath it. About twenty feet farther along the trail the view opened up.
    â€œBe careful—the ground drops away on the other side of that outcropping,” he warned as he squeezed her hand. “But tell me what you see.”
    Mattie took notice of the rocks he’d mentioned and leaned forward to gaze out beyond the woods. She sucked in her breath. “Why, there’s the lodge! And the cabins, all in a row,” she said with awe in her voice. “And there’s Rainbow Lake and the orchard, and the new road winding around between the plots we’ve sold to our new neighbors. Hah! And Queenie’s herding Harley’s sheep toward his new barn—just for the fun of it, I suppose.”
    Amos chuckled. “Harley had no idea he’d be getting a four-legged flock manager as part of the deal when he came here, but Queenie’s an instinctive sheepdog, it seems.”
    â€œIt looks like a little toy town from this distance, ain’t so?” she whispered.
    â€œOur own little slice of paradise,” Amos said. “You probably didn’t realize that our property extends this far, to where we’re standing. When Truman and I staked out plots and drew our map to show potential residents, we didn’t include this rocky hillside or these woods because we figured no one would buy it. Gives us a nice buffer from the traffic and the adjoining property.”
    He studied Mattie’s face. She had a few gray strands in her dark brown hair, and some fine lines around her eyes—and a smile filled with wonderment—and to Amos, she’d never looked prettier. “Don’t you wonder what God thinks when He looks down at all of us?” she said softly. “It amazes me that we surely must appear so tiny and insignificant, yet He hears our prayers . . . and answers them.”
    â€œAnd that, dear Mattie, is why you and I are together now,” Amos whispered. “He answered my prayers—even if parts of His reply aren’t what I wanted to hear.”
    Mattie nipped her lip, glancing up at him. “Like the part where Floyd is telling us women to get rid of our businesses?” she said ruefully. “Has the bishop said anything more to you about what’s to happen to the produce stand? Or to Christine’s dairy herd and Rosetta’s apartments in the lodge?”
    â€œIt would be the natural order of things for your husbands to assume ownership of your land and your businesses—at least in the more conservative Amish communities,” Amos replied quietly. “But I have no time or desire to take on the produce business you’ve established. The gardening season is the best time for me to be building homes for the folks who come to Promise Lodge.”
    â€œAnd what of Christine’s cows? When she meets a man to marry, will Roman lose his job when her husband takes over the dairy?” Mattie mused aloud. “And I can’t see any fellow managing apartments for single women—just as I can’t imagine Rosetta marrying anyone other than Truman.”
    â€œIf Floyd has his way, Ruby and Beulah will have to move out rather than continue to live in a setting he considers unnatural.” Amos exhaled slowly, his eyes upon the cream-colored sheep that were now skittering across the pasture ahead