Plain Paradise by Beth Wiseman Page B

with Matt and Luke. Would their boys be just as upset by the news of Linda’s adoption as Linda? I should have gone with Abe to tell them .
    “Whoa.” She pulled the buggy to a stop next to the family buggy parked at Lillian and Samuel’s, picked up her basket, and headed to the house. Lillian met her on the porch.
    “How are you holding up?”
    “What?” Mary Ellen offered her the basket. “What do you mean?”
    Lillian pushed back a strand of loose hair, tucked it beneath her kapp , then stepped closer and accepted the basket. She put her free hand on Mary Ellen’s forearm. “David told us. About Linda. About her being adopted. I honestly didn’t know.”
    Mary Ellen wasn’t surprised that Linda had confided in her cousin; they’d always been close. “It happened so long ago, way before you married Samuel. We just don’t speak of it, so I’m not surprised that Samuel didn’t tell you.”
    “When I asked Samuel about it, he said he just never thought to tell me, that Linda is just as much a part of this family as anyone.” Lillian opened the screen door and motioned Mary Ellen into the kitchen. “Here, sit down. Samuel and David are working in the barn, and Anna and Elizabeth are down for their naps. This is a perfect time for us to talk.”
    Mary Ellen took a seat on one of the wooden benches in Lillian’s kitchen. “They’re together now. Linda and her mother.”
    “ You’re her mother, Mary Ellen. Nothing is going to change that.”
    “And Abe is telling Matt and Luke this morning.” Mary Ellen covered her face with both hands and shook her head. “We made such a mistake, Lillian.” She pulled her hands away and rubbed tired eyes. “We should have told Linda and the boys about this a long time ago, way before Josephine came callin’.”
    “Maybe so. But, Mary Ellen, love runs much deeper than a bloodline. You know that. No one is ever going to replace you as Linda’s mother.”
    Mary Ellen was quiet for a few moments. “I know nothing about this woman Josephine. Is she a good Christian woman? Will she be a gut influence on our Linda?”
    “Linda might not even want to have a relationship with this woman. They might just spend the day together and that will be it. Linda might just be curious now that she’s been told, and she might not want to see this woman again.”
    Mary Ellen sighed. “Lillian, I know it’s wrong of me to want that, but that’s exactly what I want. God help me, but I don’t want that woman in our lives. I’m praying about it constantly, and I know my thoughts aren’t Christian, but I can’t help it.”
    “Did she seem nice?”
    “ Ya , she did. She even invited me to go with her and Linda.”
    Lillian sat up taller. “Why didn’t you?”
    Mary Ellen shrugged. “I reckon we’ve made a mess of things up to this point, and I felt like Linda should have this time with Josephine by herself.” She paused. “She’s very pretty, the Englisch woman.”
    Lillian smiled. “So are you.”
    Mary Ellen forced a smile. “ Danki , Lillian.” But these days when Mary Ellen looked in the mirror, she no longer saw the person she remembered herself to be. Instead, the face that stared back at her had tiny lines feathering from the corners of each eye, and depending on the hours of sleep she’d had, often dark circles underneath eyes that seemed smaller somehow, less vibrant. And her hair, once a silky dark brown, was now speckled with gray. She thought about Josephine’s honey blonde hair, her perfectly made-up face, and the way her clothes complemented her shapely figure. Mary Ellen knew that vanity is a sin, but as her thirty-eighth birthday approached, it was hard not to see the physical changes taking place. She glanced at hands worn by years of hard work, and she suspected Josephine used fancy lotions to keep her hands smooth and young-looking.
    “How is Jonas?” Mary Ellen was ready to talk about something else.
    Lillian blew out an exasperated breath and