“Joseph.”
He spun at the sound of her voice, and Maura stepped from the early morning gray.
“I couldn’t sleep all night,” she said.
He straightened his hat with both hands. “I was awake as well.”
“I wanted to see you one more time.”
The sun lit her from behind, casting a glow around her that would have been angelic if his heart were not cracking. Joseph was unable to speak.
“I’m worried for you,” Maura said. “You’re going to face judgment, and it is all my fault.”
“No. No.” He stepped toward her and held out a hand.
“There’s no telling what Zeke will have told everyone by the time you get home.”
“Stephen will have the bigger mouth.” Maura’s hand felt so small in his. Joseph tightened his hold.
“What does it matter? Either way, it’s the same in the end.”
He shifted his hand to intertwine his fingers with hers. She offered her other hand.
“It is true that some of my people will say I was foolish to get involved with the English, that I fell into temptation. They will say God’s will brought me back from the brink.”
“And you?” Maura searched his face. “What will you say?”
Joseph felt the tremble in her fingers laced through his. “I have no regrets.”
He leaned in to kiss her. She offered soft, eager lips, and he owned them until they were both breathless.
“Joseph,” she murmured when they stepped apart.
“Shh.” He put a finger on her lips. “I will be back. Those are the last words I want you to hear from me.”
She kissed his fingertips but said nothing. Joseph swung into the saddle and trotted his horse out of the stable yard. He did not dare look back.
Belle hung her handbag over one arm and a basket over the other.
The cupboards were getting bare. The Twigg store, where she had shopped for months, was closed. No one from the family was left to run it. Driving over to Mountain Home to buy the sugar and eggs she needed immediately would take longer than Belle was willing to leave her father alone. He was liable to be foolish enough to try to get out of bed on his own. Returning home promptly would require that she shop at the Denton Emporium—though she was tempted to discover how long it would take her father to worry about her absence.
Outside the emporium, only moments after it opened for the day, Belle shoved down the knot in her throat. She pushed open the door and stepped inside. Ing Denton eyed her from behind the counter. Ignoring the pressure in her chest, Belle paced slowly up the center aisle toward the basket of eggs she knew from years of experience would be sitting on a small table. She found a mixture of brown and white, glanced at the price, resolved to start keeping laying hens again, and listened idly to the conversation of two women.
“Yes, I’m starting any day now.”
“But why would Woody Woodley hire a housekeeper? Maura is more than capable.”
“Oh, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed she has a young man. He’s from over in Tennessee. They’ll be married before you know it.”
Belle’s heart nearly stopped. Maura had said nothing to her about leaving with Joseph!
But neither had she said she would not go.
Belle stomped through the store. Her father would have to wait.
She found Maura sitting in the Woodley kitchen. The breakfast dishes were still in the sink. Maura’s eyes swelled and reddened with the tears she could not hold back.
“Maura, why didn’t you tell me?” Belle demanded.
Maura stared at her. “What haven’t I told you?”
“I thought Joseph was leaving.”
“He did. I said good-bye this morning.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Belle, what are you talking about?” Maura wiped her nose with a handkerchief.
“You’re getting married.”
“I’m what?”
“Did you think that because I lost John I could not be happy for you?”
“Belle, I’m not getting married. I told you, Joseph left a few hours ago.”
“Then why has your father hired a housekeeper?”
“What?” Maura was on her feet now.
“I heard it with my own ears at Dentons’. Widow Sacks claims that she is going to start working for your father any day now.”
The kitchen door opened, and Woody Woodley entered. “What is all the commotion about?”
“Daddy,” Maura said slowly, “have you engaged the services of a housekeeper?”
“Why, yes. Mrs. Sacks and I came to an agreement yesterday. She will come in the afternoons to tidy up and make sure I have some dinner. I’m sure I can get my own breakfast. I’m not a doddering old man quite yet.”
“You might have said something,” Maura said.
Woody pulled out a kitchen chair and sat in it. “Maura, you’ve done a wonderful job of looking after me since your ma died. I admit I still miss her every day. But when your Joseph came out to rescue Leon Mooney, I saw in your eyes that you feel about him the way I felt about your mother.”
“But I never told you I was leaving.”
“It’s just a matter of time. If it is not Joseph Beiler, it will be someone else—but I think you would be crazy as a loon not to accept a fine man like that.”
Belle reached out and gripped Maura’s hand. “One of us should be happy. I had my chance at love. You should have yours. Do you want Joseph?”
Joseph’s kiss still lingered. Maura had not allowed food or drink to pass her lips for fear of losing his taste.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes! I want Joseph Beiler.”
“Then let’s get you packed.”
“Now?”
“Of course now. How much of a head start does he have?”
Maura looked at the clock, her bottom lip trembling. “About three hours.”
“That’s not so long. You’re a good rider.”
“I don’t know the way.”
“He’ll follow the train tracks where there is no road. Everyone does.”
Maura stared at Belle.
“It’s one of the few useful things my father has said to me in the last year.” Belle grabbed Maura by the elbow and pushed her out of the kitchen. “I’ll get your horse. You get whatever you can stuff in the saddlebags. Wear sensible shoes.”
Maura stumbled to her bedroom, unprepared for these rapid choices. She picked up the photo of her mother and slid it out of the frame then snatched up the too-small gloves. Then she gasped at her own thoughtlessness. Joseph’s people would accept neither the photo nor the gloves, and she did not intend to cause him any more discomfiture than would already await him when she rode into his community with him.
From a hook in the wardrobe, she took a simple dark calico dress and rolled it into a bundle. Sitting on the bed, she took Belle’s advice and changed her shoes. A black shawl was her final selection. She heard her father’s steps in the hall and looked up to see him.
“You’re fixin’ to leave, then.”
She nodded. “We’ll be back. Joseph won’t keep me from you.”
“Come back a married woman, and you will make your daddy happy.”
Maura smiled. “I can do that.” She stepped across the room and kissed her father’s cheek.
Joseph had already dawdled too long at the watering hole outside the railroad station in a small eastern Arkansas town. The horse had had its fill of refreshment and so had Joseph. A few other travelers had mounted and trotted away, leaving him alone. He knew he ought to be making better time, but somehow he could not make himself hurry.
He was stroking his horse’s neck when he heard the thundering gallop approaching from the west. A shaft of sunlight distorted the view. Joseph thought his eyes were playing tricks, making him see what he hoped to see. The horse and rider emerged from lines of streaming brilliance and settled into a constant form.
Maura.
Her dark h
air, with no hat, had lost its pins in the wind. She leaned forward, low and tight in the saddle, her knees unrelenting in the horse’s side.
Joseph stepped into the road that paralleled the iron rails, spread his arms wide, tilted his head back so far his hat fell off, and laughed with glee. Moments later, Maura Woodley was in his arms. His heart, his future.
He kissed her and reveled in her eagerness to share his life.
Forty-Eight
Are you sure you wouldn’t like to be at church?” Ruth grinned at Annalise over breakfast on Sunday.
“It does feel odd not to be there.” Annalise poured herself a third cup of coffee. “But Rufus wants to do things the traditional Lancaster way, and he says the bride does not come to church on the day the banns are published.”
“He’s right,” Ruth said, “but we’re a long way from Lancaster. Each district has its own traditions.”
“I want it to be perfect for Rufus. I just want him to be happy.”
Elijah helped himself to a second cinnamon roll. “He’s marrying you. What else does he need?”
“Is the date set?” Ruth asked. “The first Thursday in November?”
Annalise nodded.
“You have a lot of sewing to do!”
Annalise twisted in a sly smile. “I bought the fabric for the dresses weeks ago.”
Ruth grinned. “What color?”
“Purple. To remind me of the first Amish dress I ever wore, your purple dress.” Annalise sipped her coffee. “Thank you both for keeping me company this morning.”
“You haven’t eaten anything.” Ruth put a roll on a plate and set it in front of Annalise. “It’s nice that Leah went to church—and that you let her take the buggy.”
“Leah and I have come to an understanding of the heart. Of course I let her.” Annalise stood and picked up her coffee, leaving the roll untouched. “I’m restless. I think I’ll go sit on the front steps.”
“Rufus will be along soon enough to tell you how it went.” Ruth handed the plate to Annalise. “Distract yourself by eating.”
Annalise ignored the plate and ambled through the house and out the front door. Ruth looked out the front window at a used seven-passenger minivan parked in front of the house.
“I can’t believe you got a license to drive a car and did not tell me.”
Elijah shrugged. “You got one. Why shouldn’t I?”
“So you’ll taxi?”
“At least for the next couple of months.” Elijah picked up the roll Annalise had abandoned. “Tom is always saying he has more taxi business than he has time for and still run his hardware store properly. And I’ll have room for a family.”
Ruth lifted the lid on the coffee carafe to confirm her suspicion that it was empty. “I guess I’ll be here alone with Leah after Annalise and Rufus get married.”
“When will she go to Pennsylvania?”
“After Christmas, she thinks. She promised Jerusha a few weeks of regular sessions before she makes a major change. Yesterday her father agreed to help her with train fare.”
“I suppose she and Aaron will marry soon enough.”
“Even if they wait until next fall, at least they’ll be together.” Ruth picked at the remains of the roll on her own plate. “Elijah?”
“Yes?”
“What will our wedding be like?”
His countenance transformed. “Our wedding?”
“We’re going to get married, aren’t we?” Ruth dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “I’ve turned you down so many times. I hope you’re going to ask one more time.”
Elijah stood and pulled Ruth to her feet then held both her hands. “Ruth Beiler, our wedding will be anything you want it to be.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and waited, watching his face as he lowered his mouth to her and kissed her with the longest, most delicious kiss they had ever shared.
“I still want to finish my degree,” she said when they broke for air.
He kissed her again.
“That means we’ll have to be in Colorado Springs.”
He sought her lips again.
“It’s not going to be easy. It took me a long time to get used to living in the English world.”
This time he put a finger on her lips before kissing her yet again.
The bench at the base of the Beiler staircase was a tight fit for six people adorned in new wedding clothes. Even if Annie wanted to move her arms freely, she would not have been able to. Crunched between Sophie and Lydia Beiler, her attendants wearing clothing identical to hers, Annie tried to keep her white cape and apron from becoming crumpled before the ceremony. She would have neither photograph nor ring nor pressed flowers to remember this day by. Instead, she breathed in every detail around her, committing as much to memory as her brain would hold.
She could not even get a good look at Rufus at the other end of the bench, where he was flanked by his brother Joel and Levi Staub, one of the young men Rufus employed when he could afford to take on extra help. She would have liked to get a better view of his new black suit and bow tie before the formalities began. Wedding guests had been arriving for most of an hour already. They slowly made their way past the bench where the wedding party were seated, shaking hands and offering congratulations. Annie listened for the lilt in Rufus’s voice as he greeted the members of the church district by name, her chest swelling with the assurance that she would hear that voice for the rest of her life and have the joy of calling him husband. After offering their greetings, the men circled around and returned to the outdoors, while the women took their coats and shawls upstairs to the master bedroom set aside for their fellowship before the wedding.
Leah stepped through the front door of the Beiler home. Annie smiled as the girl crossed the room and then stood to kiss her cheek.
“I’m so glad you could come,” Annie said.
“You’re so kind to invite me. I only wish you could be at my wedding someday.”
“These are my new sisters.” Annie gestured to Sophie and Lydia. “I hope you will get to know them before you leave for Pennsylvania.”
Behind Leah came Ruth and Elijah in unadorned simple English clothing. Although the bishop had advised that they should refrain from coming to church in the wake of Elijah’s decision to forsake his baptismal vows and leave the congregation, they were welcome as wedding guests. Annie could not think what to say to Ruth in such a moment. When they met each other two summers ago, who could have known they would become such dear friends—and sisters-in-law? Elijah somberly shook her hand, and a wordless peace passed between them. Annie knew Elijah would lay down his life for Ruth. Whatever awaited them in the English world, they would face it together.
Annie hardly sat down again before her eyes listed to the next group to enter and filled with tears. She looked past Lydia and Joel to Rufus and saw that his eyes were fixed on the same sight.
“They came.” She swallowed her sob. “I wasn’t sure if they would.”
Rufus smiled, his violet-blue eyes sparkling.
Annie wanted to run to the front door, but she held her dignified position and waited for the guests to come to her.
Her parents. Her sister. The family who had been so confused last summer by her choice to join the Amish church but who had taken Rufus into their hearts. Her parents’ acceptance of the man she loved so deeply, evident by their presence on this occasion, made her knees go weak in gratitude. Annie embraced each one in turn, clasping their shoulders and feeling their heartbeats.
Ruth had walked Annie through every detail that would follow, and now she focused as much as she could through tear-brimmed eyes on the procedures.
The arrival of the bishop, who would preside at the ceremony.
The seating of her parents and Rufus’s parents, who loved her as their own daughter.
The entry of the young people, some of them looking at each other with yearning before they went their separate ways, the men to sit with the men and the women to
sit with the women.
A hymn began, and Annie and Rufus followed the bishop to a room that had been prepared for them to hear his words of encouragement in Christian marriage. By the time they returned to the main rooms, the congregation was singing a second hymn. The wedding party took their seats in six matching chairs. Annie and the Beiler sisters faced Rufus and his side sitters.
A sermon.
A silent prayer.
A reading from the Bible.
And the bishop’s words, “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.”
The main sermon.
And the bishop’s words, “If any here has objection, he now has opportunity to make it manifest.”
Annie smiled at Rufus as no one made manifest any objection, and the bishop said, “If you are still minded the same, you may now come forth in the name of the Lord.”
Rufus offered his hand and she took it, walking forward to stand before the bishop.
“Can you confess, brother,” the bishop intoned, “that you accept this our sister as your wife, and that you will not leave her until death separates you? And do you believe that this is from the Lord and that you have come thus far by your faith and prayers?”
Rufus left not an instant of hesitation. “Yes.”
The bishop turned to Annie and asked the same question. Softly, confidently, she answered, “Yes.”
The bishop spoke again to Rufus, and then to Annie with the same question to which Rufus had given a somber answer.
“Because you have confessed, sister, that you want to take this our brother for your husband, do you promise to be loyal to him and care for him if he may have adversity, affliction, sickness, weakness, or faintheartedness—which are many infirmities that are among poor mankind—as is appropriate for a Christian, God-fearing wife?”
Annie’s pulse pounded. “Yes.”
The bishop took Annie’s right hand and placed it in Rufus’s right hand. “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be with you and give His rich blessing upon you and be merciful to you. May you have the blessing of God for a good beginning, a steadfast middle, and a blessed end, this all in and through Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Taken for English Page 32
