“I thought we could drive out to Long’s Park. Have you been there?”

She shook her head.

“Well then, I’ll have the pleasure of introducing you to one of the prettiest places in Lancaster County.” He grinned.

“What can I bring?”

“Thanks, but my mom’s got that covered.”

Anna was touched that he’d already put so much thought into this. “How kind.” His mom knows about me, she thought, suppressing her smile. And since Mart hadn’t brought up Charlotte and Austin or any of the other youth this time, she was fairly sure it would just be the two of them.

They continued to sip their coffee, discussing their morning tours.

Anna asked if he’d ever had a client who wanted to learn Pennsylvania Dutch.

“No, have you?”

“Just this morning, in fact—a Texas college professor and his wife. They were quite curious about it, asking lots of questions about how different it is from standard German. I was able to find a Pennsylvania German to English dictionary for them to purchase at the Gordonville Book Store, where we stopped during the tour. Should be a fun souvenir for them.”

“I’m not certain I would have thought of that,” he said, his attention wholly on her. “Good thinking, Anna.” Then he asked about her trip home. “Did you get to see the grandmother you told me about?”

Anna nodded. “We had a precious time together, and I even happened across an old diary she kept the summer she was here as a teen.”

Mart seemed interested.

“I’ve already read snippets of it,” she told him, adding how pleased she was that her mother and sister didn’t mind her bringing it back to Strasburg. “It’s comforting, in a way . . . makes me feel close to Mammi Eliza.”

“My mom likes old things, too, especially memoirs,” he said, glancing at his watch. “I really hate to end our conversation, but I need to meet my next clients.”

“Of course,” she said, smiling back at him and looking forward to their picnic.

The following Saturday, Anna talked with Dottie Stoltzfus and Katie Blank in the tack room at Peaceful Meadows, both young women in pale green dresses and matching cape aprons. Anna again noticed that most of the other volunteers were young women, although there were several teenage boys, too. Likely most married couples were too busy working the fields or at home tending to their families—the only married people here accompanied their child.