Beginnings

DEDICATION

For Rylin,

the precious new addition to our family.

Your life is just beginning, sweet boy....

May you seek the Lord’s wisdom early and grow

in the knowledge of Him.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my family:
Don, Mom and Daddy, my girls, and my little boys.
Thank you for walking this pathway with me. I love you all muchly.

To my critique partners:
Eileen, Margie, Darlene, Ramona, Crystal, and Donna.
Thank you for your support, suggestions, prayers, and encouragement.

To the “brainstormers”:
Deb R., Judy, Pat, and Deb V.
You brought Beginnings to life. Thank you!

To my prayer warriors:
Rose, Carla, Connie, Cynthia, Kathy, Don, and Ann.
God bless you—you are so special to me.

To
Joyce Livingston,
my “stained-glass expert.” Thank you for your advice, but mostly for your friendship.

To
Patricia MacDonald,
my “neonatal expert.” Thank you for reading the scenes and getting the vernacular right. You made it
real.

To
Becky and the staff at Barbour.
Thank you for the opportunity to work with you. I’m grateful to be a part of the Barbour family.

And finally, most importantly, to
God.
You blessed me with a new beginning, and You’ve been with me every step of the way. I am nothing without You. May any praise or glory be reflected directly to You.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:

and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

ONE

Sommerfeld, Kansas

A wash of melted colors splashed across the concrete floor of Quinn’s Stained-Glass Art Studio, coloring the toes of Beth Quinn’s white leather sneakers. She raised her gaze from the reflection on the floor to the windowsill, where a scene of a dogwood branch with a cardinal nestled among white blossoms perched. Backlit by the late-afternoon sun, each carefully cut piece of colored, leaded glass glowed like a jewel.

As always, Beth got a chill of pleasure from seeing one of her finished creations. “Ooh, yes.” She hugged herself and gave a satisfied nod. “Perfect.”

The back door to the studio burst open, bringing in a gust of chilly wind. Beth spun toward the door, her hand on her throat. She slumped with relief when she recognized Andrew Braun, her lone employee, stepping through.

Andrew held up both hands as if in surrender. “I’m sorry—the wind caught the door. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Beth laughed, shaking her head. In mannerisms and appearance, Andrew reminded her a lot of her stepfather, Henry, who was Andrew’s uncle. He was tall, with short-cropped brown hair covered by a billed cap that shaded his dark, walnut-colored eyes. He was so shy it had taken weeks before he would say more than
Hi
to her in conversation. But over the past two months of working together in the studio, they had finally formed a friendship.

At least, it was only friendship from her angle. She sensed a need to tread carefully. Getting romantically involved with Andrew Braun would open a can of worms the likes of which Sommerfeld had never before seen. And she’d already opened plenty.

“No harm done. And look!” She pointed to the stained-glass piece.

He carefully latched the door and glanced at the window. His eyes widened in surprise. “You got that cardinal one done already? I was going to solder the reinforcement bars for you.”

Beth smirked. “All done. I didn’t need’ja.” She laughed at his crestfallen expression. “But you know if this one goes over well, there will be plenty of other opportunities for you to put the soldering iron to work.” Oh, she hoped her statement proved true! Skipping across the floor, she grabbed his elbow and tugged him over to the window. “Well, look at it, and tell me what you think.”

Andrew stood before the scene, pinching his chin between his thumb and forefinger. Beth waited, hands clasped in front of her, while he took his time seeming to examine every inch of the finished piece. Even though he had witnessed the creation of this window from her first drawings, there was always an element of excitement when pieces were viewed away from the worktable.

Finally, he gave a nod. “Yes. It’s a well-done piece. I like the little yellow bits between breaks in the branches, which make it look like the sun is shimmering through. You were right not to put the cardinal in the center. Even though it’s the focus of the piece, its placement to the lower right gives a better balance to the scene overall.”

Beth smiled, basking in the approval of another artist.

“But”—he leaned forward, tapping one dogwood blossom with a blunt finger—“should this petal have been placed lower to give the illusion of lapping over the cardinal’s tail feathers a little more? It would have added more dimension, I think.”

She sent him a brief scowl. “I think it’s fine the way it is. I’ve built in dimension with the varying background sky colors and the deeper green on the undersides of the leaves, which creates shadows.” Defensiveness increased the pitch of her voice as she pointed to the elements she mentioned. “And look at the cardinal itself—the way it’s positioned at an angle on the tree branch. There’s plenty of dimension.”

He looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “Yes, there is. But you asked me what I thought, and I think if the flower right above the cardinal had been brought down some—maybe a quarter of an inch—it would have enhanced the dimension.”

Beth set her jaw, wishing she could return to the days when all he said was
Hi.

Nudging her with his elbow, he grinned. “I made you mad.”

She jerked away. “I’m not mad!” But even she recognized the irritation in her voice. Taking a deep breath, she said through gritted teeth, “Thank you for your opinion. I’ll take it under advisement if I choose to duplicate this piece. Now...” Tipping her head, she pushed her long ponytail over her shoulder. “What are you doing here again? I thought you went home.”

He shrugged. “I came back to do that soldering. But I guess I don’t need to.”

She grinned, satisfaction filling her as she looked once more at the cardinal. “Nope. You don’t.” Much work went into the completion of a stained-glass project, but Beth enjoyed each step of the process, from drawing the design to adding the reinforcement bars that prevented buckling of the leaded-glass piece. Yes, whether creative or structural, she relished every facet of stained-glass art.

With the tip of her gloved finger, she traced the line of soldered zinc that bordered the cardinal’s wing. She shook her head, chuckling to herself. Never would she have thought when she made the journey from Cheyenne, Wyoming, a little over a year ago that she would stay in Kansas. Her goal had been simple—sell off the unexpected inheritance from her great-aunt, collect as many antiques as possible from the Old Order Mennonite community citizens, and return to Cheyenne to open an antiques boutique.

But those three months in Sommerfeld had turned everything upside down.

Clamping her hands around the edges of the glass, she lifted the scene from its perch on the windowsill. She grunted with the effort. The piece was larger than any others she’d made so far and heavy from the metal that bordered each glass segment. Andrew reached for it, but she shook her head.

“I can do it.” She shuffled across the floor to the display bench along the back wall of her small studio. Sweat broke out across her forehead and between her shoulder blades. Once the scene was secured behind the wood strip that kept the finished pieces from sliding, she wiped her forehead and sent Andrew a triumphant grin. “See?”

His frown let her know he wished she would let him handle the heavier tasks, but Beth was determined not to depend on Andrew too much. Beth was determined not to depend on
anyone
too much.

She offered a suggestion. “As long as you’re here, you could put away the shipment of glass that came this morning.”

Andrew shrugged and turned toward the crate in the corner. Beth removed her gloves and put them in the top drawer of her storage cabinet.
This cabinet is really too pretty to simply house supplies,
she thought as she ran her hand over the smooth pine top. Two of her mother’s cousins had built the cabinet for her, varying the sizes of the drawers and inserting dividers to keep everything organized. A quick glance around the steel building that served as her studio brought a second rush of appreciation. Watching the building go up in one day, reminiscent of an old-fashioned barn raising, had been thrilling—and scary.

She still marveled at the support she’d received from the community after their initial mistrust. Yet she realized their willingness to help didn’t indicate approval of her. Since she hadn’t joined their meetinghouse, she was still an “outsider.” But Mom had rejoined, so they offered their newly claimed member’s wayward daughter a helping hand. And now that they’d all had a hand in getting her studio up and running, she felt a real obligation to make it a success.

Her gaze returned to the dogwood and cardinal scene, her heart pounding with hope. A gallery in Wichita had commissioned the piece—her first real commissioned work after nine months of selling smaller, copper-foil pieces at craft fairs. If the gallery owners were pleased, it could lead to more work, and eventually she would be able to establish herself as a bona fide stained-glass artist.

So far, the response to her work had been favorable—her unique blending of colors that created a three-dimensional effect was unique to the stained-glass community—and she credited God with giving her the special talent. She longed to glorify Him through this gift.

Heading for the corner to retrieve the broom, she couldn’t help smiling at her thoughts. A year and a half ago, she wouldn’t have considered including God in her conversation, let alone being concerned about pleasing Him. But so many things had changed for Beth, both inside and out, and God was the most important addition to her life.