While not all Amish get married in the fall, this season does involve quite a few weddings in various Amish communities! (We shared a few fun facts on this topic on Facebook from Mindy Starns Clark’s Plain Answers About the Amish Life.) So we thought we’d share an excerpt from The Amish Bride in honor of the season—and to give you a taste of one of the prizes you could win in Leslie Gould’s giveaway, which is open through November 24, 2015!

This excerpt is from the very beginning of the story, when Ella’s grandmother gives her a special book…

* * *

Mammi’s eyes moved to the book in my hands. Gazing at it, her face began to cloud over, and I could see she was troubled.

“There’s another thing, about the book,” she said.

I glanced toward the door, feeling bad for Ezra, though I didn’t protest lest she give me one of her disapproving looks. Neither his family, which was entirely Amish, nor mine, which was a mix of Mennonite and Amish, made any secret of the fact that they weren’t thrilled about our relationship.

“This is just between us,” she continued, oblivious to my impatience. “There’s something unique about it that you have to understand. And there’s something important I need you to do for me.”

Her odd tone brought my attention back to her. Curious, I lowered myself to the chair on her left and waited for her to elaborate. She gestured toward the book, so I opened it up and flipped through it, angling it so that she could see the pages.

“All of those tiny drawings at the tops and bottoms…” Her voice trailed off.

“These nifty little doodles?” Glancing down, I tilted the heavy tome my way. “It’s funny, but they kind of remind me of icons. You know, like for a phone app?”

She stared at me blankly. Of course she didn’t know what a phone app was.

“They’re symbols,” she said. “Each one represents something.”

“Oh, yeah?”

I flipped through more pages and saw that the various icons weren’t just random—they were repeated the exact same way in different places. She was right. Symbols.

“What are they for?”

“I’m not sure. But there’s more.”

She again gestured with her hand, so I tilted the book back toward her and continued to flip through it.

“There.” She placed a pointed finger on the page to stop me.

Glancing down, I saw that she was indicating the middle part of the book, the pages of weird squiggly lines. They reminded me of letters or numbers but were completely unreadable, like a foreign language that used a completely different alphabet.

“What is this?”

She sat back and clasped her hands in her lap. “It’s a code.”

My eyes widened. “A code?”

She nodded. “My mother didn’t want just anyone reading her journal. So she invented a code to keep parts of it private.”

“Cool.” I was really starting to like my great-grandmother Sarah.

I was studying the squiggles more closely when I realized Mammi was leaning toward me in her chair, her expression intense.

“Ella, I need you to decipher that code. Figure out how to make sense of it. The symbols too. I want you to translate the code and the symbols into words. I need to know what it says.”

My first reaction was to giggle, but her face was so serious I held it in. What was this, the CIA or something?

“I’m not exactly good at this sort of thing. I mean, Zed’s way smarter than I am. Why don’t you ask him?”

Mammi placed a hand on my arm and gave it a firm squeeze. “Never mind him. I’m asking you, Ella. You can do this. You have to do this.”

* * *

Excerpted from The Amish Bride by Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould

Intrigued yet? You can order the book directly from the publisher or from your favorite book retailer. And don’t forget to enter Leslie’s giveaway for a chance to win this whole series OR her new book, My Brother’s Crown!

 

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Filed under: Amish Fiction, Leslie Gould, Mindy Starns Clark by Amber | AmishReader.com