The Amish Bachelor's Baby. Jo Ann Brown

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       Chapter One

      Harmony Creek Hollow, New York

      “Don’t you dare eat those socks!”

      Annie Wagler leaped off the back porch as the sock carousel soared on a gust and headed toward the pen where her twin sister’s goats were watching her bring in the laundry. The plastic circle, which was over twelve inches in diameter, had been clipped to the clothesline. As she’d reached for it, the wind swept it away.

      Snow crunched beneath her boots, and she ducked under the clothes that hung, frozen hard, on the line. She despised bringing in laundry during the winter and having to hang the clothing over an air-dryer rack inside until it thawed. She hated everything to do with laundry: washing it, hanging it, bringing it in and folding it, ironing it and mending it. Every part of the process was more difficult in the cold.

      Pulling her black wool shawl closer, she ran toward the fenced-in area where Leanna’s goats roamed. She wasn’t sure why they’d want to be outside on such a frigid day, but they were clumped together near where Leanna would feed them later. Annie sometimes wondered if the goats were one part hair, hooves and eyes, and three parts stomach. They never seemed to be full.

      And they would consider the cotton and wool socks a treat.

      Annie yanked open the gate, making sure it was latched behind her before she ran to collect the sock carousel. She had to push curious goats aside in order to reach it. One goat was already bending to sample the airborne windfall.

      “Socks are for feet, not for filling your bottomless stomachs,” Annie scolded as she scooped up the socks that would have to be washed again.

      The goats, in various patterns of white, black and brown, gave her both disgusted and hopeful glances. She wasn’t sure why her identical twin, Leanna, liked the creatures, especially the stinky male.

      Leanna СКАЧАТЬ