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  PRAISE FOR AMY CLIPSTON

  “From the first line in A Place at our Table, talented Amy Clipston plunges the reader into a gripping, fast-paced novel of hope, friendship and redemption. I loved the story and loved its heart.”

  —NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING

  AUTHOR SHELLEY SHEPARD GRAY

  “A Place at our Table is a moving story of forgiveness and the healing power of love. Amy Clipston weaves beautiful tales of Amish life, family ties, and heartwarming romance. She has always been one of my favorite Amish authors.”

  —JENNIFER BECKSTRAND, AUTHOR OF

  RETURN TO HUCKLEBERRY HILL

  “A tender story about heartache, healing, and hope. This is a story Amy Clipston fans will absolutely love.”

  —KATHLEEN FULLER, AUTHOR OF THE AMISH LETTERS

  SERIES, ON A PLACE AT OUR TABLE

  “Warm and homespun as kitten tangled yarn, Amy treats the reader to hearth and table, flame and love. The invitation is open for a soul satisfying read. Come in and be blessed!”

  —KELLY LONG, BESTSELLING AUTHOR ON

  A PLACE AT OUR TABLE

  “Clipston is as reliable as her character, giving Emily a difficult and intense romance worthy of Emily’s ability to shine the light of Christ into the hearts of those she loves.”

  —RT BOOK REVIEWS, 4 ½ STARS, TOP PICK! ON

  THE CHERISHED QUILT

  “Clipston’s heartfelt writing and engaging characters make her a fan favorite. Her latest Amish tale combines a spiritual message of accepting God’s blessings as they are given with a sweet romance.”

  —LIBRARY JOURNAL ON THE CHERISHED QUILT

  “Clipston delivers another enchanting series starter with a tasty premise, family secrets, and sweet-as-pie romance, offering assurance that true love can happen more than once and second chances are worth fighting for.”

  —RT BOOK REVIEWS, 4 ½ STARS, TOP PICK! ON

  THE FORGOTTEN RECIPE

  “In the first book in her Amish Heirloom series, Clipston takes readers on a roller-coaster ride through grief, guilt, and anxiety.”

  —BOOKLIST ON THE FORGOTTEN RECIPE

  “Clipston is well versed in Amish culture and does a good job creating the world of Lancaster County, Penn. . . . Amish fiction fans will enjoy this story—and want a taste of Veronica’s raspberry pie!”

  —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ON THE FORGOTTEN RECIPE

  “[Clipston] does an excellent job of wrapping up her story while setting the stage for the sequel.”

  —CBA RETAILERS + RESOURCES ON

  THE FORGOTTEN RECIPE

  “Clipston brings this engaging series to an end with two emotional family reunions, a prodigal son parable, a sweet but hard-won romance and a happy ending for characters readers have grown to love. Once again, she gives us all we could possibly want from a talented storyteller.”

  —RT BOOK REVIEWS, 4 ½ STARS, TOP PICK! ON

  A SIMPLE PRAYER

  “. . . will leave readers craving more.”

  —RT BOOK REVIEWS, 4 ½ STARS, TOP PICK! ON

  A MOTHER’S SECRET

  “Clipston’s series starter has a compelling drama involving faith, family and romance . . . [an] absorbing series.”

  —RT BOOK REVIEWS, 4 ½ STARS, TOP PICK! ON

  A HOPEFUL HEART

  OTHER BOOKS BY AMY CLIPSTON

  THE AMISH

  HEIRLOOM SERIES

  The Forgotten Recipe

  The Courtship Basket

  The Cherished Quilt

  The Beloved Hope Chest

  THE HEARTS OF THE

  LANCASTER GRAND

  HOTEL SERIES

  A Hopeful Heart

  A Mother’s Secret

  A Dream of Home

  A Simple Prayer

  THE KAUFFMAN AMISH

  BAKERY SERIES

  A Gift of Grace

  A Promise of Hope

  A Place of Peace

  A Life of Joy

  A Season of Love

  YOUNG ADULT

  Roadside Assistance

  Reckless Heart

  Destination Unknown

  Miles from Nowhere

  NOVELLAS

  A Plain and Simple Christmas

  Naomi’s Gift included in

  An Amish Christmas Gift

  A Spoonful of Love included

  in An Amish Kitchen

  A Son for Always included

  in An Amish Cradle

  Love Birds included in

  An Amish Market

  Love and Buggy Rides included

  in An Amish Harvest

  Home Sweet Home included

  in An Amish Home

  Summer Storms included

  in An Amish Summer

  The Christmas Cat included

  in An Amish Christmas Love

  NONFICTION

  A Gift of Love

  ZONDERVAN

  A Place at Our Table

  Copyright © 2017 by Amy Clipston

  Requests for information should be addressed to:

  Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

  Names: Clipston, Amy, author.

  Title: A place at our table / Amy Clipston.

  Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, [2017] | Series: An Amish

  Homestead novel; 1

  Epub Edition September 2017 ISBN 9780310349037

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017026648 | ISBN 9780310349013 (softcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Amish--Fiction. | Grief--Fiction. | GSAFD: Christian fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3603.L58 P53 2017 | DDC 813/.6--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026648

  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

  Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America

  17 18 19 20 21 / LSC / 5 4 3 2 1

  For all the brave men and women

  who are serving or have served as firefighters

  and emergency medical technicians

  Contents

  Glossary

  Note to the Reader

  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

&
nbsp; Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue

  Discussion Questions

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  About the Author

  GLOSSARY

  ach: oh

  appeditlich: delicious

  bedauerlich: sad

  boppli: baby

  bruder: brother

  bruderskind: niece/nephew

  bu, buwe: boy, boys

  daed: dad

  danki: thank you

  dat: dad

  Dietsch: Pennsylvania Dutch, the Amish language (a German dialect)

  dochder, dochdern: daughter, daughters

  Dummle!: Hurry!

  English, Englisher: non-Amish, a non-Amish person

  fraa: wife

  freind, freinden: friend, friends

  froh: happy

  gegisch: silly

  gern gschehne: you’re welcome

  Gude mariye: Good morning

  gut: good

  Gut nacht: Good night

  haus: house

  Ich liebe dich: I love you

  kaffi: coffee

  kapp: prayer covering or cap

  kichlin: cookies

  kind, kinner: child, children

  kuche: cake

  kumm: come

  liewe: love, a term of endearment

  maed, maedel: young women, young woman

  mamm: mom

  mei: my

  mutter: mother

  naerfich: nervous

  narrisch: crazy

  schee: pretty

  schweschder, schweschdere: sister, sisters

  sohn: son

  Was iss letz?: What’s wrong?

  Wie geht’s: How do you do? or Good day!

  wunderbaar: wonderful

  ya: yes

  AMISH HOMESTEAD SERIES FAMILY TREES

  Marilyn m. Willie Dienner

  Simeon (deceased)

  Kayla

  Nathan

  Eva m. Simeon (deceased) Dienner

  Simeon Jr. (“Junior”)

  Savilla m. Allen Lambert

  Dorothy m. Vernon Riehl

  James (“Jamie”)

  Mark (Laura’s twin)

  Laura (Mark’s twin)

  Cindy

  Elsie m. Noah Zook

  Christian

  NOTE TO THE READER

  While this novel is set against the real backdrop of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the characters are fictional. There is no intended resemblance between the characters in this book and any real members of the Amish and Mennonite communities. As with any work of fiction, I’ve taken license in some areas of research as a means of creating the necessary circumstances for my characters. My research was thorough; however, it would be impossible to be completely accurate in details and description, since each community differs. Therefore, any inaccuracies in the Amish and Mennonite lifestyles portrayed in this book are completely due to fictional license.

  ONE

  A long, shrill tone screamed through the loud speaker, jarring Jamie Riehl from sleep. He sat up with a gasp and rubbed his eyes. At the same time, the fluorescent lights in the small room automatically flipped on, forcing him to focus.

  “All available units respond to a barn fire, 816 Irishtown Road in Ronks,” the bodiless voice over the radio blared. “Repeat. All available units respond to a barn fire, 816 Irishtown Road in Ronks.”

  Adrenaline pumped through Jamie’s veins and he was instantly wide awake. That address was only a few miles away, making theirs the closest fire unit. He jumped up from his bed, pulled on uniform pants, and slipped on his boots.

  “Let’s go,” Jamie told Leon King, still lying in the bed next to his. “Barn fire in Ronks.” He stretched his arms into a button-up, collared shirt boasting his fire station’s number: Station 5.

  “I just fell asleep.” Leon moaned, shielding his eyes with his forearm. “Wasn’t one call enough tonight?”

  “That’s not how it works, and you know that.” Jamie kicked his colleague’s bedframe with one booted foot as he finished buttoning his shirt. “Get up, Leon.”

  “Fine, fine.” Leon yawned as he pushed himself to a sitting position. Still fully clothed from the last call, he put on his boots and followed Jamie into the hallway. “Where do you find your energy?”

  “I don’t know.” Jamie shrugged. “I live for this. It’s in our blood.”

  “Ya, I know.” Leon yawned again as they pushed through double doors into the large apparatus area that housed their trucks and equipment. “I just hope this is the last call of the night. That car accident about did me in.” He glanced toward the large clock on the wall above them as they entered their locker room. “We barely got an hour of sleep. It’s not even two thirty.”

  “We’ve had worse nights with no sleep at all.” Jamie and Leon pulled on their turnout gear, including trousers and jackets. Brody Morgan appeared in the doorway. Their chief was already wearing his gear. Not for the first time, Jamie noted that at forty-five, Morgan still carried his six-foot-two, muscular frame well.

  “Let’s go.” Brody motioned toward the engine.

  Jamie climbed into the passenger seat, Leon sank into the back, and Brody slipped into the driver’s seat and steered the truck out of the large bay. The siren wailed.

  Jamie peered down at the computer screen to read the location of the fire. “Do either of you know anyone who lives on Irishtown Road?” he asked as their truck roared through an intersection.

  Brody glanced at Leon in his rearview mirror. “Isn’t the Dienner farm on that road?”

  “Ya, I think so.” Leon yawned yet again.

  Jamie twisted around and glared at him. “You need to wake up. You can’t be half asleep while we’re fighting a fire.”

  “I realize that.” Leon’s eyes narrowed to slits as he nearly spat the words. “You don’t need to keep lecturing me. You’re not mei daed.”

  Jamie bit back the bitter response that threatened to leap from his lips. Leon and Jamie met nine years earlier when they both began training to be volunteer firefighters. They were sixteen and became fast friends. But then they were assigned to different volunteer stations. They’d reconnected a month ago when Jamie was reassigned to Station 5. Leon’s whining was irritating, but Jamie considered him a good firefighter and a loyal friend.

  “All right, you two,” Brody yelled over the blare of the siren. “It’s time to get your heads in the game. This is a barn fire, and thanks to the dry summer we’re having, it’s going to be brutal if it spreads. Quit your bickering and concentrate on safety.”

  “Yes, chief,” Leon grumbled.

  “I hope Noah meets us there.” Jamie’s thoughts turned to his best friend since first grade. “His farm isn’t far from Irishtown Road, and we’re going to need his help.”

  “I imagine Noah is already on his way if he heard the call on his radio. You’re right. We’re going to need all the help we can get.” Brody steered the engine onto Irishtown Road.

  Jamie momentarily thought back to a conversation he’d had with his sister, Cindy, just a few days earlier. She was reflecting on recently seeing Jamie, Noah, and Leon together.

  “You know, you three all look a lot alike. You’re not only similar in height and have dark-brown hair, but Noah’s clean-shaven too.” The bishop in their district had made an exception to the rule about married men wearing beards—a requirement because of the custom-fit facemasks the firemen wore. “If you didn’t have blue eyes to their brown eyes,” she’d said, “you’d practically look like triplets! You’re even all twenty-five.”

  Jamie had laughed at that. But now the scent of burning wood filled the cab of the truck, bringing him back to the present. Brody pulled into a rock driveway and stopped alongside a two-story farmhouse,
pointing the fire engine’s headlights toward a large red barn where dark, gray smoke billowed.

  So far fire licked up the walls on only the right side of the structure. Good. They might still have time to rescue any animals in there before the entire barn was engulfed in angry flames.

  Jamie leaped from the engine. The hot, humid June air clung to the back of his neck as acrid smoke threatened his lungs. A light mist of much-needed rain fell as thunder rumbled above him.

  Jamie glanced toward the house’s back porch and spotted a man with a lantern. Two women dressed in robes and with scarves on their heads stood with him. He grabbed his respirator and helmet and sprinted toward them. He could hear Leon right behind him.

  As he and Leon closed in on the porch, Jamie could tell the family was Amish. The man looked to be in his mid-fifties, and the woman on his right seemed about the same age. She was most likely his wife.

  “Do we need to save any animals?” Jamie skipped the pleasantries as he called to them.

  “Ya.” The man pointed toward the barn. “Two horses.

  “Willie. Marilyn. Eva.” As Leon nodded to each one, they nodded in return. Jamie blinked. How did Leon know this family? Maybe they were the Dienners Brody and Leon thought they remembered living on this road.

  “Where are the horse stalls located?” Jamie asked.

  “On the far left side of the barn. There’s a separate door there.”

  “Gut. We still have time to get them.”

  “Where is Nathan?” Jamie heard a thread of worry in the older woman’s voice. Leon had called her Marilyn.

  “You said Nathan went to the phone shanty,” the younger woman named Eva responded. Jamie followed her eyes as she turned toward the shed at the top of the driveway. “He saw the lightning hit the barn and ran to call for help. Didn’t Kayla follow him?”

  “But where are they both now?” Marilyn’s voice rose, and she turned to Willie. “Do you think Nathan would go into the barn to save the horses?” Then to Jamie and Leon, she said, “Would you please see if our sohn is in there? He’s only fourteen.”

  “Ya.” Jamie turned to Leon. “Let’s go. Dummle!”

  “Jamie!”

  Jamie blew out a sigh of relief as Noah Zook loped over, clad in his turnout gear and holding his helmet and respirator as well.

  “I got here as quickly as I could,” Noah managed between deep breaths. “Brody is doing the scene size-up and making sure more companies are coming to help us keep this fire under control.”