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Her Amish Christmas Choice
Leigh Bale
A forbidden love… Communities and hearts unite this Christmas. For Julia Rose, starting her handmade-soap store almost makes up for her lost dreams of marriage and children. With patience and care, Amish carpenter Martin Hostetler renovates the dilapidated building Julia inherited—and sparks her interest in his community. But any romance between them is made impossible by their families’ objections …can faith and love can light their way home?
A forbidden love…
Can Englischer and Amish make a forever match?
For Englischer Julia Rose, starting her first handmade-soap store almost makes up for her lost dreams of marriage and children. With patience and care, Amish carpenter Martin Hostetler renovates the dilapidated building Julia inherited—and sparks her interest in his community’s peaceful ways. But their families’ objections make romance between them impossible…unless faith and love can light their holiday way home.
Colorado Amish Courtships
LEIGH BALE is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author. She is the winner of the prestigious Golden Heart® Award and is a finalist for the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and the Booksellers’ Best Award. The daughter of a retired US forest ranger, she holds a BA in history. Married in 1981 to the love of her life, Leigh and her professor husband have two children and two grandkids. You can reach her at leighbale.com (http://www.leighbale.com).
Also By Leigh Bale (#udd596fa7-5df2-56cd-9b87-7ae93c043918)
Colorado Amish Courtships
Runaway Amish Bride
His Amish Choice
Her Amish Christmas Choice
Men of Wildfire
Her Firefighter Hero
Wildfire Sweethearts
Reunited by a Secret Child
The Road to Forgiveness
The Forest Ranger’s Promise
The Forest Ranger’s Husband
The Forest Ranger’s Child
Falling for the Forest Ranger
Healing the Forest Ranger
The Forest Ranger’s Return
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk).
Her Amish Christmas Choice
Leigh Bale
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09920-2
HER AMISH CHRISTMAS CHOICE
© 2019 Lora Lee Bale
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Note to Readers (#udd596fa7-5df2-56cd-9b87-7ae93c043918)
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Text to speech
“I’m better off staying single, Martin,” Julia said.
Martin almost gasped out loud but caught himself in time. Julia not ever marry? He could hardly contemplate such a situation.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Love hurts too much. If I don’t fall in love, I can’t be hurt. It’s that simple. I get to say what happens in my life and I’m not at the whim and pleasure of someone who doesn’t really care about me.”
He nodded his assent. “It is true that if you don’t love, you won’t be hurt. But you also won’t have the joy. And besides, if you marry a man who really loves you, he would never want to hurt you.”
Julia was quiet for a moment, her face filled with such sadness that he thought she might cry. “I have loved before but he didn’t love me in return. He abandoned me when I needed him most. It hurt more than I can say. Love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, Martin. It can be brutal, cruel and destructive.”
He realized what she said was true. And yet, he couldn’t give up hope.
Not for her. And not for himself…
Dear Reader (#udd596fa7-5df2-56cd-9b87-7ae93c043918),
Have you ever wanted something so badly and it seemed you could never have it no matter what you did? In this book, Julia Rose has dreamed of having a large family all her own. She’s been alone and willingly carried the burden of caring for both her ill parents for so long. Yet, when it appears she has finally found Martin, the man of her heart, she can’t have him because he’s Amish. Julia believes she is faced with the choice of abandoning her mother or turning her back on her love. Only when the people in her life make concessions that will allow Julia and Martin to be together does she discover that life is full of surprises and God can bless us when we least expect it.
I know that as we accept and wait upon God’s will in our own lives and follow the Savior’s example, we can find peace and joy no matter what difficulties we might face.
I hope you enjoy reading this story and I invite you to visit my website at LeighBale.com (http://www.LeighBale.com) to learn more about my books.
May you find peace in the Lord’s words!
Leigh Bale
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
—Ecclesiastes 9:11
To my very own Rose, who has brought me more joy than I ever thought possible.
Contents
Cover (#uebbb972d-591b-57d1-b436-916508400621)
Back Cover Text (#u0eab2772-db0f-5549-86e1-5df4f61b2121)
About the Author (#u75873d8a-9cf8-542c-b2ff-e3d4e0c9c07b)
Booklist (#u5f301f27-5cdc-5c3f-a23c-2e1fd0657e70)
Title Page (#u627b90d7-3222-55c6-a6c0-281baa9762bf)
Copyright (#u67bcdeda-6cce-5f86-a1bc-6e256bdc1462)
Note to Readers
Introduction (#ub296ae2d-b6f1-5242-a6c0-f14e924a6716)
Dear Reader (#u16e6fa9c-7ba6-5441-9642-e36c25ec1e9e)
Bible Verse (#ub27368ad-7d7b-5536-a515-c5d7c7b5f4cf)
Dedication (#ud12b446b-c615-5ffb-b27a-d066078b3add)
Chapter One (#u83fe7384-ef6e-5879-8647-1f0ff0d8ee92)
Chapter Two (#u0270f6c1-e751-5910-9380-69c2d8a0f008)
Chapter Three (#u3bf7be34-d7bb-582b-b3ea-37005ad2908a)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#udd596fa7-5df2-56cd-9b87-7ae93c043918)
“Hallo?”
Julia Rose jerked, startled. The two nails she’d been holding between her pursed lips dropped to the wooden planks of the front porch and bounced off into the weedy flower bed.
She swiveled around on the rickety ladder and caught a glimpse of a tall man standing directly behind her. She didn’t have time to return his greeting. The leather gloves she wore were overly large and caused her to lose her grasp on the heavy hammer. It followed the nails, thudding to the wooden porch below. The ladder wobbled and she fought to retain her grip on the tall post she’d been holding upright with her left hand. For fifteen minutes, she’d struggled to get it in just the right spot so she could nail it into place. Now, it slid sideways. Without its support, the heavy canopy above sagged dangerously near her head. The overly stressed timbers gave a low groan and she widened her eyes.
“Acht gewwe!” the man called in a foreign language.
A sickening crack sounded above and Julia scrambled down the ladder. Like a zipper coming undone, the nails holding the awning to the side of the building pinged into the air as the canopy tore away from the outer wall and knocked her to the ground. She gasped in pain as the ruined wood continued its descent toward her.
With a cry of alarm, she curled against the side of the wall, protecting her head with her arms. She was vaguely aware of the man shielding her, taking the brunt of the weight against his own back.
“Oof!”
She glanced up and found his face no more than a breath away. She gazed into his eyes, catching the subtle scent of licorice. His muscular arms held her tight as another piece of the canopy bludgeoned him with a shocking thump. He jerked at the impact but made no sound. For several seconds, they both held perfectly still. She felt uncomfortable with his close proximity but couldn’t move away just then.
“Alles fit? Are you all right?” His voice sounded low and calm, like the approach of thunder off in the distance.
