Free Keys of Heaven by Adina Senft

Benny.”
    But if she thought he was going to break his heart over being turned down, she learned differently when not ten minutes later, she saw him walking under the trees with one of Malinda Kanagy’s friends, who was at least a year older than he was.
    Boys. Honestly.
    The more she knew of them, the more she wished Joe Byler would come home sooner rather than later.

Chapter 8
    I t was far too soon to expect results, but Linda Peachey still gave Sarah an update, pausing as she crossed the lawn. “I drank two cups of meadow tea and a glass of tincture water yesterday,” she said with a glint of humor. “I thought you’d want to know.”
    Sarah laughed and said, “I’m glad you did. Just keep it up for a month and see how you feel.”
    “I’m going to ask the boys to look for some of the ingredients when they’re rambling around in the woods. Benny has sharp eyes.”
    As Linda returned to her family, Sarah wondered again at Arlon’s allowing two grown boys to run so wild. Did they have chores at all? Because looking at that farm, you’d sure believe they didn’t. Well, they’d all see it in two weeks, because Arlon and Ella’s house was next in the rotation.
    Now that the lunch was over, the men had begun loading the benches into the bench wagon, while the women boxed up the plates, cups, and silverware and put them in their cubbyholes. Everything had its place, and the wagon went from home to home so that no one family bore the burden of keeping seating and eating utensils for use only once a year or so by the two dozen families in the Gmee . In minutes, the job was done, and the cupboards and doors closed up.
    Sarah was hovering around Evie’s big garden when she felt an arm slip around her waist. “Covet not thy neighbor’s flowers,” Amanda teased. “I see what you’re looking at.”
    Sarah squeezed back. “I don’t think that’s in the Scriptures.”
    “Maybe not specifically, but I’m sure the spirit of it is there. What’s caught your eye?”
    “I was thinking of making a skin preparation for you and I to try, and the recipe calls for four cups of rose petals. I wonder if Evie would let me have a paper bag full?”
    “You wouldn’t. Evie loves them so much. Nobody can grow roses like she can, and these have just hit their peak. Surely you don’t want to spoil them by tearing all their petals off?”
    “I wouldn’t tear them off…here. But you can see that they could use a little thinning. It would be good for the plants.”
    “I’m sure Evie will see it that way.”
    Sarah had to laugh. “All right. I’ll wait a couple of days until they’re just past their best, and offer to help her thin them in exchange for some of this facial splash.”
    Amanda’s gaze turned curious. “So you’re coming to enjoy it, then, being a Dokterfraa?  ”
    “I’m not one, I told you. I’m just learning. But it’s interesting. I think my mother was an herbalist—not like Ruth, preparing things as a business, but because it came naturally to her. She might even have learned it from her mother.” She drew in a long breath, scented with roses and marigolds. “I wish I’d known back then. I could have learned from her instead of starting from scratch.”
    “Maybe when you get more experience, you could—” Amanda stopped, gazing past Sarah’s shoulder, and Sarah turned to see Silas Lapp strolling up, hands in his pockets, smiling as though he was enjoying the picture they made.
    That Amanda made.
    “Hallo, Silas,” Sarah said in a sisterly tone. “It didn’t take long for you boys to get the benches put away.”
    “It never does when so many hands share the work. What are you looking at?”
    “Evie’s roses,” Amanda said shyly. “God has given her a gift with them, but we’re the ones who enjoy the benefit of it.”
    “God has given our bishop’s wife many gifts,” Sarah said. “She’s an accomplished quilter, and I hear there’s another baby on the way, too.”
    “I’m