Cover

Half Title Page

Books by Beverly Lewis

The Beginning • The Stone Wall

The Tinderbox • The Timepiece

The First Love • The Road Home

The Proving • The Ebb Tide

The Wish • The Atonement

The Photograph • The Love Letters

The River

HOME TO HICKORY HOLLOW

The Fiddler • The Bridesmaid

The Guardian • The Secret Keeper

The Last Bride

THE ROSE TRILOGY

The Thorn • The Judgment

The Mercy

ABRAM’S DAUGHTERS

The Covenant • The Betrayal

The Sacrifice • The Prodigal

The Revelation

THE HERITAGE
OF LANCASTER COUNTY

The Shunning • The Confession

The Reckoning

ANNIE’S PEOPLE

The Preacher’s Daughter

The Englisher • The Brethren

THE COURTSHIP
OF NELLIE FISHER

The Parting • The Forbidden

The Longing

SEASONS OF GRACE

The Secret • The Missing

The Telling

The Postcard • The Crossroad

The Redemption of Sarah Cain

Sanctuary (with David Lewis)

Child of Mine (with David Lewis)

The Sunroom • October Song

Beverly Lewis Amish Romance Collection

Amish Prayers

The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook

Title Page

Copyright Page

© 2021 by Beverly M. Lewis, Inc.

Published by Bethany House Publishers

11400 Hampshire Avenue South

Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

Bethany House Publishers is a division of

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Ebook edition created 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-3381-0

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

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cover design by Dan Thornberg, Design Source Creative Services

Art direction by Paul Higdon

Dedication

To
Donna Simmons,
devoted reader-friend
and constant encourager.

Epigraph

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
for ever.

—Psalm 23:6

Prologue

SPRING

It was that wunnerbaar-gut time of year in Hickory Hollow when the earth stirred from its wintry slumber and snow crocuses peeked through the dark soil. The snow had melted more than a week earlier, leaving behind last autumn’s leaves, fallen twigs, and mud. The days warmed and stretched ever longer toward evening.

Already I had seen our neighbor Deacon Luke Peachey out with his six-mule team, plowing the land he’d purchased from Mamma after my father died in a barn-raising accident fifteen years ago.

It was time now to get busy with spring housecleaning and fulfilling orders for the framed counted cross-stitch family trees I made to bring in extra money. Tomorrow, however, March twelfth, I would take some time to celebrate my twenty-second birthday.