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The Thorn
Prologue
September 1985
At times I wonder what might’ve happened if I’d gone with Mamm that damp, hazy morning eleven years ago. She was so tired—she’d said it herself—preparing for market day. Such a bleak expression dulled her sweet face as she trudged out to the waiting horse and the enclosed gray carriage filled with gourds and squash and other garden vegetables.
A shudder rippled through me as I watched her step into the buggy, carrying the rectangular money tin for making change at market. Was I somehow sensing what was just ahead?
She set the tin box on the front seat next to her and picked up the reins as I stood on the back steps. Then she gave a faint wave and our eyes locked momentarily. In that burning second, I felt the urge to run out to the buggy and stop her, or at least offer to join her, as though my presence alone might keep Providence from having its way.
But before I could do so, Mamm clicked her tongue for Upsy-Daisy to move ahead, and the young mare trotted off by way of Salem Road, where our farm adjoins the bishop’s own. Then over one road and down . . . down the precarious Bridle Path Lane that rims the rocky ravine, our shortcut to the main roads leading to Quarryville.
Even now, as a young woman of twenty, I think back to that miserable, dark hour and tremble, wishing I’d heeded the alarm clanging in my brain. Yet there I stood, watching silently in the mist and the fog.
How could I have known Mamm would be found moments later, lying along the road and unable to walk, the family buggy turned upside-down in the rugged ravine below?
From The Thorn by Beverly Lewis
Copyright © 2010 Beverly Lewis
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Thorn
Lancaster County, with its rolling meadows and secret byways, may seem idyllic, but it isn’t without its thorns. Beverly Lewis’ The Thorn, the first novel in The Rose Trilogy, is the stirring saga of two Amish sisters on the fringes of the church—and the unforeseen discoveries that change their lives.
Because she’s her mother's caregiver, Rose believes she’ll never marry. But Nick, the bishop’s wild foster son, wants to change her mind. Rose’s older sister, Hen, cautions her against becoming involved but Rose is being courted by a good, Amish fellow, so she ignores the warnings.
Rose, meanwhile, keeps house for an English widower who adamantly forbids her to ever go upstairs. What could the man be hiding?
Hen knows more than she should about falling for the wrong man. Unable to abandon her Amish ways, she is soon separated from her very modern husband. Mattie, their young daughter, must visit her father regularly, but Hen demands that she wear Amish attire and speak Pennsylvania Dutch, despite her husband’s wishes.
Will Hen be able to reestablish her place among the People she abandoned? And will she be able to convince Rose to steer clear of their rogue neighbor Nick?
Hardcover Book : 352 pages
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers ( September 01, 2010 )
Item #: 13-145801
ISBN: 9781616647247
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.25 x 0.813inches
Product Weight: 13.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
The Thorn 
August 24, 2010
Excellent reading
Anything that I have read by Beverly Lewis has been excellent reading...
Reviewer: susan k
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