Rebekah's Cradle

By Sara Harris

Rebekah and Joseph are enjoying married life when a letter, addressed only to Joseph, arrives from Katie, telling of her pregnancy. Soon after, Rebekah learns that she, too, is with child; however, her difficult pregnancy is nothing like Katie’s idyllic one.

Tensions between Rebekah and her husband grow when she learns Joseph is keeping the correspondence going without her knowledge. Rebekah begins to lose faith in her marriage, and by the time her sickly father, Samuel, presents her with an heirloom cradle, she wonders if hers will be the only hands rocking it.

When Katie and her family arrive for a visit, Rebekah expects the worst but instead learns that lessons in love tend to occur in the most unexpected places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: vinspirepublishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215687901

Sara Harris

Sara Harris is the Creative Director at the Children's Discovery Center where she designs, develops, and purchases equipment for classroom spaces both existing and for new builds. She lives with her family in Maumee, Ohio.

Book preview

Rebekah’s Cradle

Rebekah and Joseph are enjoying married life when a letter, addressed only to Joseph, arrives from Katie, telling of her pregnancy. Soon after, Rebekah learns that she, too, is with child; however, her difficult pregnancy is nothing like Katie’s idyllic one.

Tensions between Rebekah and her husband grow when she learns Joseph is keeping the correspondence going without her knowledge. Rebekah begins to lose faith in her marriage and by the time her sickly father, Samuel, presents her with an heirloom cradle, she wonders if hers will be the only hands rocking it.

When Katie and her family arrive for a visit, Rebekah expects the worst but instead learns that lessons in love tend to occur in the most unexpected places.

Praise for Rebekah’s Cradle

Rebekah’s Cradle takes us on an emotional journey as newlywed Rebekah learns about pregnancy, deceit, and heartbreak – all in one fell swoop. – Ann Swann, author of All for Love and Takers.

Other Books by Sara Harris

Historical Fiction

A Heart on Hold (An Everlasting Heart #1)

A Heart Broken (An Everlasting Heart #2)

A Heart at Home (An Everlasting Heart #3)

A Heart Forever Wild (An Everlasting Heart #4)

Christian Historical Fiction

The Calling

Amish Fiction

Rebekah’s Quilt (Rebekah’s Keepsakes #1)

Katie’s Plain Regret (Amish Journeys #1)

Middle Grade Fiction

The Apache and the Pale Face Soldiers (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #1)

On the Colorado Trail (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #2)

The Orphanage (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #3)

Journey Home (The Saga of Indian Em’ly #4)

Picture Books

Little Spoon

Chunky Sugars

Inspirational Thriller

House of Madness

Nonfiction for Young Readers

The ABCs of Texas Plants

The ABCs of Oklahoma Plants

The Big Bad Wolf Really Isn’t So Big and Bad

Short Fiction

Shootout in Old Amarillo

The Bank Robber’s Lament

Desperado

Anthology Works

Crazy Horse High (Music of the Heart Anthology)

The Calling (A Cowboy’s Heart Anthology)

Michaela of the Sea (Amuseing Tales Anthology)

Moggin Says Red (by Sara’s son, Logan)

REBEKAH’S CRADLE

Rebekah’s Keepsakes #3

Sara Harris

Copyright ©2021 Sara Harris

Cover art copyright © 2021 Elaina Lee/For the Muse Designs

Formatted by Woven Red Author Services, www.WovenRed.ca

First Edition

Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web-without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, please contact Vinspire Publishing, LLC, P.O. Box 1165, Ladson, SC 29456-1165.

All characters in this work are purely fictional and have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

ISBN: 978-1-7363662-5-7

Published by Vinspire Publishing, LLC

For Michaela, my firstborn. You made me a mater so many years ago and in doing so, opened my eyes to an entirely new world filled with love, light, hope, and innocence. For that and so much more, I am eternally grateful to you and your sweet heart. I love you, bopplin durl, more than you will ever know.

We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures, we are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His Son Jesus. – Saint Pope John Paul II

Chapter 1

I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. -1 Samuel 1:27

Gasthof Village, Indiana Territory 1892

Buttercup, the cantankerous rooster that Rebekah’s doting little bruder Thomas insisted on gifting her and Joseph as a wedding present, crowed his trademark, pitiable crow as the Indiana sun peeked over the horizon. Buttercup was ornery enough to guard his flock of hens against any perceived threat, be it two-legged or four, but his crowing skills were severely lacking.

Rebekah stretched her arms over her head. Her eyelids were like stone and refused to open. Joseph? she murmured.

Her mann didn’t answer.

She patted his side of the bed and forced her eyes to open. The sheets beside her were cold. And empty.

Someone’s up and gone with the sun, she whispered. Rebekah dragged herself out of the small, handmade bed she shared with Joseph. The world pitched and rolled, and her head felt airy, as though a breeze could knock her over. She listed against the dresser that her dat, Samuel, had made for them.

Oh my. Rebekah’s hand went to her stomach and bile burned the back of her throat. I must have picked up a stomach sickness.

The roiling in her stomach bubbled as she felt her way down the stairs into the empty living room.

Still no Joseph.

She peeked into the kitchen and shivered in the morning’s coolness. Steam rose from the coffee pot and gray, morning light tinted the window behind the gauzy curtains that she and her mamm, Elnora, had made together. The curtain Elnora sewed hung straight and true, while Rebekah’s crooked hem hung oddly. She sniffed the coffee-scented air.

Joseph has been here. He made coffee. The trail is getting warmer…

She thought momentarily about pouring herself a cup, but another surge of nausea gave her pause. She hiccupped and leaned against the doorway.

Perhaps he is outside.

Rebekah picked her way down the front stairs. The dew from the yard was icy on her bare feet as she tip-toed to the barn. Sure enough, Joseph was there. Beside him, holding the lantern, was his new little shadow, Thomas. Her favorite little bruder had his own room at their house in addition to the one at their parents’ house. Since she and Joseph married, wherever Joseph went, Thomas went, too. If Joseph went to town, Thomas went to town. Thanks to their constant travels, or adventures as he and Joseph called them, Thomas was the only nine-year-old in Gasthof Village who knew every backroad and shortcut between Montgomery, Indiana and Gasthof Village.

"Gute morning, little bruder. A smile flickered across Rebekah’s lips. I might be wrong, but I thought you stayed the night with Mamm and Dat last night."

Thomas grinned his gap-toothed grin at his schwester’s unexpected appearance. The lantern light illuminated his freckled, round face beneath his wide-brimmed straw hat.

You are right, I did go home last night.

Joseph, busy sanding a piece of wood that would be a chair at some point, raised his eyebrows and smiled.

Thomas continued. "Dat is still not feeling well, so I went to help Jeremiah make the wagon wheel delivery in Montgomery this morning. When we were done at the livery, I just took my secret trail back here. To my other home."

Wait… Dat is sick?

The memory of the heart seizure that almost took Samuel’s life last year burst to the forefront of Rebekah’s mind. He had collapsed in front of Thomas and Rebekah as they helped him in the barn, only a short time before she and Joseph were to be married. The man who bought his wagon wheels worried when the delivery was tardy and came out to check on Samuel, and it was a good thing he did. He saved her father’s life.

Rebekah remembered how helpless and feeble Samuel had looked, lying in the Englischer doctor’s bed in Montgomery as she went by to check on him before leaving in the company of Joseph and Peter to go in search of Katie in New York City.

The memory of the leeches, attached to her father’s sick body by the Englischer doctor, made her stomach churn again. Saliva pooled in the back of her mouth, and she felt hot and cold, both at the same time.

"What is the matter with fater?" Rebekah’s voice came out much too high-pitched to be her own.

It is all very strange, Thomas said. I noticed he kept leaving his shoes untied. I thought he was forgetting to tie them, so I remembered to remember my manners and did not say anything until he kept doing it every day. Finally, I asked him about it, but not in front of anybody because I did not want to embarrass him, and he said his feet were too swollen to tie them anymore.

Hold the lantern still, Thomas, Joseph whispered.

Thomas stilled his hand that held the light. At night, he has taken to soaking them in tubs of ice water, which does not seem like it would feel good. When I got that bad splinter, remember, Rebekah? I had to soak my foot in tubs of hot water with the salts in it until it came out?

Rebekah nodded. I remember. That was a terrible splinter.

Thomas nodded. "It was. It felt like a whole board in there! Anyway, I asked Mamm why he would choose to soak his feet in ice water instead of hot water, and she said it was to help with the swelling."

Rebekah’s brow furrowed. Before she could offer any sort of response, Thomas continued.

He huffs and puffs now, and it seems like he cannot breathe and walk at the same time. Going up the stairs, he huffs and puffs. Going out to work, he huffs and puffs. He shrugged. I do not like the sound of him huffing and puffing. He must bend over and put his hands on his knees to catch his breath sometimes. And he looks…gray.

She shuddered at the description of her beloved father.

Thomas dropped his voice low, as though he was telling a secret that he’d promised never to tell. And yesterday, he took to coughing and could not get his breath. I ran and grabbed a hankey for him, and when he pulled it away from his mouth, it was covered in foam.

Foam?

Thomas nodded. Pink foam.

Oh my, Rebekah started. Something deep inside her began to tremble. It was an odd feeling.

He has not been sleeping well, I hear him get up to go to the outhouse two sometimes four times a night. Thomas’s eyes rounded at the prospect of someone having to use the outhouse so many times a night. Sometimes even more.

A smile flickered across Rebekah’s lips.

And today, Thomas said, he was too tired to even get out of bed to make his wagon wheel delivery. That is why Jeremiah and I went for him.

That was very kind of both of you. She tried to ignore the niggling of fear that stirred deep in her gut.

I would be tired, too, if I had to pee fifteen times a night. Thomas stilled for a moment. Oh, there’s something else. You had mail in Montgomery.

Rebekah hiccupped. I did?

"No, Schwestie. Not you. Thomas shook his head. Joseph. He reached into his overalls pocket and pulled out a stiff envelope. I forgot to give this to you."

Joseph stopped sanding. Someone wrote a letter? To me?

He accepted the letter from Thomas and studied the handwriting on the front. Can you hold the lantern over here, Thomas?

Who is it from? Rebekah asked.

Joseph, engrossed in his mysterious piece of mail, didn’t answer.

The lantern light wavered a bit as Thomas shifted his weight. At nine, he was tall, skinny, and lanky. Their mamm had poked a new hole in his gute belt a week earlier, and Rebekah had to add another just the day before. However, the taller he grew the thinner he became, and he was growing now. She smiled at her littlest bruder.

"Danki for bringing the mail. And for all the help," she said in a quiet voice.

You are welcome. Thomas returned her smile. It is my pleasure.

Joseph gave a little cough and scratched his nose as a smile played at the corners of his lips. Illuminated in the lantern light, Rebekah was certain that her beloved mann was created by Gotte just for her. His handsome face was tanned from working hard for his family and his eyes, blue and sparkly like the river after a storm, always looked for the best in