Belle Read online

  “THERE IS ONE THING I LACK THAT YOUR DAED COULD GIVE TO ME,” HE SAID AT LAST.

  Now she knew that she had been led by God to reach out to Adam in order to help her family. Surely God must have touched the man’s cold heart. Thank you, Lord! she said to herself. I knew that I should trust you.

  “What is it?” she asked Adam, eager to hear what solution he had for her. “I’m sure and certain my daed will oblige!”

  He chuckled under his breath. “Indeed, but will you?”

  “Oh, ja! Anything. Anything for the farm.”

  “If you are so certain,” he said, “then I imagine you will readily agree.”

  Belle’s excitement was suddenly dampened. “It’s not up to me to agree on behalf of my daed. But I’m certain he will, ja.”

  “Nee, not your daed. It may be his possession, but it is yours to agree to actually give.”

  Now she was confused. “Me?” She frowned. “What is it you want from my daed?”

  This time, he spun around and slowly extended his arm out of the shadow as he pointed his finger directly at her. “A wife.”

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  BELLE

  An Amish Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

  SARAH PRICE

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  “THERE IS ONE THING I LACK THAT YOUR DAED COULD GIVE TO ME,” HE SAID AT LAST.

  BOOK YOUR PLACE ON OUR WEBSITE AND MAKE THE READING CONNECTION!

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Teaser chapter

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by Price Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4201-4504-5

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4505-2

  eISBN-10: 1-4201-4505-3

  Chapter One

  Sunflowers always made Belle happy. Very happy. Perhaps it was the way their large, oversized heads seemed to follow the sun. Or perhaps it was how they looked like bright, sunny yellow faces, smiling at her. Or maybe it was just because she favored the color yellow. Regardless of the reason, whenever she walked to town, Belle always paused to look at the small patch of tall, happy sunflowers that greeted her from the Troyers’ front garden. Today, with the sun shining overhead and the sky as clear as the day was long, would be no different.

  Her friend Ella lived there with her two stepsisters and her stepmother, but they were most likely all working at their store in town. In their absence, Belle admired how Ella had planted their garden with the sunflowers lining the back rows and bookending the cornstalks that appeared almost ready to be harvested. She stood on the sidewalk and gazed at the garden, her hand on the white picket fence that bordered the Troyers’ property and the main street that led to Echo Creek. The warmth of the summer’s day on her back was almost as comforting to Belle as the sunflowers. She loved summer, even when it was hot and humid.

  A male cardinal flew off the porch of the house and landed on top of a sunflower. Belle watched it for a few long seconds, admiring its red feathers and wondering why it was alone. They usually traveled with their mates.

  “Hello there, Annabelle!”

  Surprised, Belle turned to see who was greeting her from the porch. She lifted her hand to shield her brown eyes from the sun. “Is that Ella, then?”

  Ella Troyer leaned against the white railing as she reached over to pluck the dry laundry from the line. She was a fetching young woman who, unlike Belle, had blond hair and a pretty face that mirrored her sweet personality. Even now as she worked, Ella smiled. “Kum visit a spell, Belle,” Ella called out.

  Belle hurried down the sidewalk toward the house. “Not helping at your maem’s store today?”

  “Nee, not today.” Ella unpinned a white towel and began to fold it. “Too much work at home, Maem says.” Ella laid the folded towel into the basket and leaned against the porch railing. Her smile broadened. “And isn’t that fortunate for me? Now I can be outside by myself, with no fear of Maem chastising me again or my schwesters bothering me. I like it when they’re all at the store.”

  Belle did not respond, preferring to keep to herself what she wanted to say. She knew that Ella’s stepsisters had never been very kind to her, especially after Ella’s father had passed away the previous year. Often Ella was asked to work while her stepsisters went to singings and youth gatherings at the different Amish farms in Echo Creek. While Belle was just as happy to stay home with her nose buried in a book, she knew that Ella would have liked a bit more of a social life. But Linda, her stepmother, catered to her own daughters first and foremost, and that often meant that Ella stayed behind at home alone.

  “That’s where I’m headed. The store,” Belle said at last.

  Ella laughed, her blue eyes sparkling. “The new books arrived a few days ago. Just this morning, Maem was wondering when you’d stop by.”

  Books. That was the only thing Belle loved more than sunflowers. Each month, she knew exactly when the
new shipment was to arrive and usually was there at the Troyers’ store, waiting with anticipation. But yesterday it had rained, and this morning her father had needed her to help him in the barn. He was always trying new things or improving on something, and his latest invention would surely help the family regain its financial footing.

  “I meant to kum last evening, but Daed was finishing his new grill. He’s taking it to Liberty Village on Wednesday morning to see if Schrock’s General Store will sell it to the Englischers.” She paused. Her father had tried to get Linda Troyer to carry the grill in her store. But Linda had been adamant that no one in Echo Creek would buy it. Belle didn’t want Ella to think that she was complaining about her stepmother’s rejection, so she added, “They have more tourists there, you know.”

  Ella nodded. “Ja, I reckon they sure do. I’ll say a prayer tonight that his trip is successful.”

  “Danke, Ella.” Belle glanced down the road that led to the center of town. “I best get going.” She waved at her friend and continued her journey to town.

  Echo Creek was a small town with just a handful of stores. Ella’s stepmother had inherited Troyers’ General Store from her late husband. There was also a large feed and grain store, as well as a hardware and lumber store. Those were the main businesses on the strip that constituted the town center. Along a side street, the Lapp brothers built sheds that they sold to Englischers. Twice a month, a large truck came to town to pick up the sheds and drive them to the shed dealership in a neighboring county. And Joshua Mast had a blacksmith shop, where he shoed horses and repaired wheels for farm equipment and buggies.

  Unlike most of the other families in Echo Creek, Belle’s family wasn’t from there, but the town was the only place Belle knew as home. She had been just six years old when her parents had moved to the farm on the outskirts of town. Her older brothers and sisters often spoke of their previous home in Trinity Falls, a neighboring community located just south of Echo Creek. Belle’s siblings frequently reminisced about how life was better then. The farm was larger and the soil richer. But their father wasn’t a very good farmer, at that, and three years of bad crops forced them to sell the farm and move to a more remote area. Then, two years later, their mother unexpectedly died.

  Today, just over ten years later, Belle barely remembered her mother.

  Now that her two brothers were older and married, both of them having returned to Trinity Falls with their wives, only Belle and her two sisters remained at home. Without the boys to help with the farmwork, her father had fallen on tough times. Again. If only one of her older sisters would marry someone who might move onto the farm to help Daed ! But that was looking less and less likely with each passing season. The fields were overgrown, and the only crops that seemed to grow on their farm were debt and dreams.

  The bell rang over the door as Belle walked into the store, careful to close it behind her so that the midday heat didn’t tag along with her. She glanced around and immediately saw the bookcase. She hurried over to it, eager to discover what new books had arrived the previous evening.

  “Good afternoon, Belle Beiler!”

  She turned toward the front of the store, where Ella’s stepmother stood behind the cash register. “Good afternoon, Linda.” She hesitated before stepping away from the bookshelves to properly greet the older woman. “I just saw Ella, and she said the new books arrived yesterday.”

  “Ja, that they did. Drusilla just unpacked them an hour ago. Thought you might be in today.” Linda pointed toward the bookshelves. “She set them toward the front of the display. I think you’ll be rather pleased with the new selection. Plenty of romances and a wonderful selection of those devotionals you like. The one on the end cap looks like something you’d enjoy.”

  “Danke.”

  Without waiting, Belle hurried back toward the shelves and began to peruse the different titles. While she was especially fond of romance novels, she looked for the devotional that Linda had mentioned.

  In the Book of Matthew, Jesus tells us to judge not lest we be judged, if not by others than by God. Often I wonder how it is possible to not judge others? There are no two people who are exactly alike. That is the beauty of God’s creation in mankind. The very fact that everyone is different can create the urge to compare others to our own set of values and standards. When people fall short of our own expectations, how can we not judge them?

  The answer to this is simple: remember that the ruler you use to measure other people’s shortcomings is nothing compared to the ruler that God uses to measure ours. Accept the differences in other people with compassion and understanding. Realize that you, too, are different from everyone else who might measure your imperfections. Release the urge to judge and instead embrace the differences, even those you disagree with, in order to be right with God.

  For a moment, Belle simply sighed, pressing the book against her chest. If only others might live the Word of God as much as they preached it. However, far too often, people tended to tout the Golden Rule as a measure of how others should behave, rather than how they themselves should behave. Why, if only people switched their way of thinking, how much kinder the world would be! But Belle wasn’t necessarily concerned with the world. Her concern lay mostly with her community in Echo Creek. And, to be even more specific, with her father.

  Just as Belle was about to read the next passage, she heard a commotion outside of the store. Loud footsteps and voices interrupted her peace.

  “Maem! Kum quick!”

  Belle looked up as Anna and Drusilla ran through the front door. They were out of breath, and Anna’s prayer kapp was askew on her head. Drusilla shut the door and bent down, peering through the window. “Did you see him?”

  “See who, Dochders?”

  “Adam Hershberger.”

  At the sound of the name, Belle lost interest in the book. Instead, her attention was fully riveted to the conversation.

  “Adam Hershberger? How would I have seen him?” Linda sounded irritated as she walked around the counter and joined her daughters.

  Belle stared over the top of the bookshelf toward the door. Excited and pushing at each other, Anna and Drusilla were peering through the glass panes of the door. Linda, however, quickly ended their struggle to have a better look by shoving her way between them. Though she had tried to sound uninterested, Linda’s attention to the main street of Echo Creek was a clear indication that her curiosity was as piqued as that of her daughters.

  “Are you sure you saw him, Drusilla?” Linda asked, standing upright when she realized that the main street was empty. Her two daughters stood before her, the one looking flushed in the cheeks and the other looking disheveled. “Mayhaps you were mistaken?”

  Drusilla reached over to straighten her sister’s kapp. “Nee, Maem. We both just saw him as he drove through town in that odd-shaped buggy of his.”

  “Really!” Once again, Linda peered through the door’s windowpanes. Anyone would be hard-pressed to mistake Adam Hershberger’s buggy. While the other Amish in Echo Creek drove plain black buggies with lighter-colored tops, Adam drove a completely black buggy that had a narrow window in the back and only slightly bigger ones in the doors. “I wonder what on earth he’s doing in town? He usually only kums at the beginning of autumn and spring.”

  “And it’s summer!” Anna gushed.

  “We know it’s summer, goose.” Drusilla nudged her sister’s arm.

  “How that man survives, I’ll never know.” Once again, Linda stood up. “It’s not normal for a man to live alone like that. Although I must confess that I sure am glad he only visits here twice a year for his supplies. It’s unnerving to be in his presence, that’s for sure and certain.”

  “I couldn’t see his face.” Anna sounded disappointed.

  “And why would you want to?” Drusilla made a face, scrunching up her mouth and nose. “He’s so ugly with that scar!”

  “You’ve never seen his face, either!” Anna snapped, giving her sister a sharp
elbow to her side.

  Belle frowned. She, too, had never seen Adam Hershberger, but like the rest of the town, she had certainly heard of him. Ever since she was a child, the other children had made fun of the elusive man who lived five miles from town, on one of the largest farms in the church district. Belle never understood why this was permitted, even though she understood the reasons behind the ridicule.

  As a child, Adam had been caught in a fire; a fire that had left his face scarred. The fire had happened five years before her family moved into the town, and, since the Amish rarely spoke of tragic events, no one ever discussed the events of the actual fire. The only reason Belle had even learned that much was from overhearing an occasional comment, usually just a whispered reference to the fire, from other people whenever Adam’s name was mentioned, which wasn’t very often.

  When Belle had been younger and still attending school, the other students often played a made-up game called “The Beast.” One student, usually a boy, would pretend to be Adam Hershberger and would scrunch up his face and chase the others, trying to capture them. Once his prey was captured, the Beast would pretend to eat the loser. It was a game that Belle despised and refused to play. Thankfully, Teacher had found out about the game and put an end to it. But the children had still whispered about Adam and his horrible face. Belle had always wondered how the children knew about Adam, since they certainly did not see him at church or in town. She suspected that they overheard their parents talking about the Hershbergers at home.

  And yet Belle knew almost nothing about the Hershberger family.

  Instead of chastising either of her daughters—something that Belle thought any good Amish woman should have done—Linda said, “It’s a wonder that Bishop doesn’t shun him.” She spoke mostly to herself but with a heavy distaste lingering on her words that Belle found rather strange.