Amish Life

All of Pleasant Valley seems to think the newcomer from Lancaster County is the perfect match for teacher Leah. After all, so few new families come to their separate Amish community, and fewer still unmarried men. Daniel Glick is a widower with three young children to look after - clearly he's in need of a wife.

What would happen if an average American homeschooling family decided to visit a church from the Quiet of the Land? Jae never guessed that as soon as she stepped into that strange church service the first Sunday, where the people droned on like bumblebees and the preacher pulled at his beard showing his bottom teeth, that she had just entered the Life She Never Lived. They are so quiet...home-loving people, who keep to themselves.

It all started with a castle. Yes, the real kind, found in Missouri. On a bluff. Carved from the side of a cliff. With secret passageways, and locked doors and secret, concealed rooms and lots of false walls and panels and cubbyholes. When Jae visited the well-renowned Rothwell Lodge, known as Sedalia Missouri's Castle on the Hill, she was suspicious from the first. Why did Rothwell have so many secret things about the Castle? Why was his wife Hattie a recluse, who died two years after their marriage?

Every weekend, 10-year-old Josie would walk the two miles out of town to the local Amish community, where she would spend all day until sunset getting to know everyone there and helping out as best she could. She was enthralled with their way of life, their customs, their language, and the devout ways they held. What she most loved about them was their fairness in everything and how all they did revolved around their faith in God.