It means—?
“It means I think I will stay. Andrew will need me.”
“Yes, he will,” Micah agreed.
It seemed as if neither one of them breathed for a long while.
Then, at last, Micah broke the silence. “You answered that question. Will you answer another?”
It was moving so quickly, this thing that she had wanted and was yet so afraid of.
She bent her head and could not speak.
He spoke for her. “Catherine, I know this is very sudden, but would you consider being my wife?”
Her heart answered first.
“Yes, Micah, I will—consider it. I cannot agree to marry you until Andrew is back and healthy once again. If, by the time a year has come and gone, another crop planted and harvested, you still want me and I still want you, then yes, I will marry you.”
“Walk with me in the moonlight,” Micah said suddenly.
They went as one into the fields, now cleared of grain. The harvest was in, but the greatest one was yet to come. There was no reason for fear, only belief, for those who loved each other and their Lord.
The prairie was warm that night, and the sky was aglow with starlight. He could feel it so clearly: all creation was happy.
His prayer was simple and heartfelt. “Thank You for the chance to love. It is enough.”
Epilogue
They walked down the road together. They were going slowly because the little boy alternately begged to be carried and to be allowed to walk on his own. A soft July breeze sent a strand of the woman’s hair across her face, and the man smoothed it back behind her ear.
The church’s bell began to toll, the call to worship ringing across the prairie, and the three hastened their footsteps.
“We don’t want to be late, Cooper,” Catherine said to her son.
He looked at her with eyes as dark as his father’s. “No. Up.” His chubby arms were lifted to her, and she swung him up to balance him on her waist. She never tired of this, nor did he.
Micah looked at his wife and child, and his heart flooded with warmth. Four years ago, he had prayed for love, and now he had it not once, but twofold.
A man could not be happier, he thought.
A shout from the converging road told them that Andrew and his new wife, Ardette, were late this morning, too.
Catherine’s brother now walked without any hesitation at all. The only sign of his injury was a faint scar along his hairline.
The five walked to church together, hurrying their footsteps to arrive before the first hymn began.
As she slid into the pew next to her husband, their son nestled between them, half on her lap and half on his, she let herself look at the picture on the wall beside the altar.
There, bordered by a frame that Andrew had carved during his rehabilitation, was her stitchery. The letters caught the gentle Sunday sunshine and seemed to glow with the message: “Be not afraid, only believe.”
She realized that Micah was watching her, and she smiled.
There was no fear in her heart; there was only love, for now she believed.
For as long as she can remember, JANET SPAETH has loved to read, and romances were always a favorite. Today she is delighted to be able to write romances based upon the greatest love story of all, that of our Lord for us. When she isn’t writing, Janet spends her time reading a romance or a cozy mystery, baking chocolate chip cookies, or spending precious hours with her family in North Dakota.
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