A Plain and Sweet Christmas Romance Collection

by Lauralee Bliss

  Mervin hung his head. “I’ve not always made the best choices.”

  Lamar gave Mervin a quick pat on the back. “You did what you thought was right. I don’t fault you, son. But things are serious now. It’s time you married the girl.”

  Mervin tried to smile. “I’ll be speaking with Mattie.”

  Lamar turned to go, and Mervin made his way to the front door. Mattie’s mamm, Esther, opened at his knock. She appeared surprised.

  “Can I speak with Mattie?” Mervin asked.

  Esther motioned toward the stair door. “She’s in her room. You can go up.”

  Mervin took the stairs one at a time. He knocked on the familiar bedroom door.

  “Come in,” Mattie called out.

  She was seated on her bed when he opened. A smile twitched on her face and wrinkled the obvious tear stains. “It’s you.”

  Mervin came closer and took her hand. He seated himself on the quilt beside her.

  “I’ll be okay,” she whispered. “Sorry you caught me like this.”

  He tried to speak, but his words didn’t come.

  “You don’t have to apologize,” she said. “I’ve been wrestling with the Lord, and I’ve found peace. We can wait, Mervin, for whatever time it takes, until this wicked war is over and you come home. I might be an old woman by then.” Mattie choked back the tears. “But it’ll be okay. Our love will last that long. It’ll be there for whatever years are left to us.” The tears streamed freely down her face. “I’ll always love you, Mervin. Always and always and even when you’re not here, and when you come back, and—”

  “Hush, dear,” he interrupted to take her in his arms.

  “I’ll never hush.” She pulled away to peer up at his face. “I love, I love you, I love, and I’ll say that even if you don’t want to hear it.”

  “Dear heart.” He stilled her with his fingers on her lips. “Let me get a word in please.”

  Tears brimmed in her eyes again. “I don’t want to hear what you have to say. Reasons and excuses and—” Her voice broke. “I’ve already accepted it, okay? Just hold me, and hold me, and never let go.”

  He pulled her close, and she sobbed on his chest, with great choking sounds that tore at him.

  “Mattie,” he tried again. “I’ll marry you. Listen to me. I didn’t come to explain things but to say that we can wed.”

  “We can wed.” The sobs ceased. Her tear-stained face lifted to his. “Like when you come back, like in—”

  “Now,” he said. “This month. Before Christmas, if you can get ready by then.”

  “Before Christmas.” She stared at him. She yelled, “Before Christmas!”

  “Jah!” He held her face with both hands. “That’s what I’m sorry about. That we aren’t already wed.”

  “You are sorry? That we aren’t wed?” She leaped to her feet and danced a jig on the floor in front of him, her hands aflutter.

  “Of course.” He forced a laugh. “I’ve always been, Mattie.” He gathered her in his arms again. “We can marry whenever you are ready.”

  “When we are ready.” Her voice was muffled on his chest. “I’m ready right now.”

  “Well.” He held her at arm’s length. “Not now, but as soon as it’s decent. With the bishop here, of course, and the wedding guests.”

  “Mervin, are you okay?” She touched his forehead with one finger. “Are you well?”

  He laughed out loud. “I’m not ill. I can explain. This morning—”

  She stopped him with an uplifted hand. “Just say it again. What you said earlier about this month.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’ll marry you before Christmas, Mattie Beiler, if you can get ready.”

  “Get ready!” she screamed. With a leap she was on her feet again and twirled about the room. “Go, go, go. Out of the room.” She waved both of her hands at him. “No, no, Mamm has to hear this. She’ll never believe it. Come! Come! Come!”

  Mattie seized his hand and bustled him down the stairs. Esther appeared at the kitchen doorway, and Mattie parked Mervin in front of her. “Say it,” she commanded.

  Mervin grinned. “I will marry your daughter as soon as you can get the wedding ready.”

  “There!” Mattie pronounced. “Now go.” She jerked on his hand, and almost threw him out of the front door.

  “What?” He stopped on the front porch.

  “I have work to do,” she declared, her face a beam of happiness in the front door. “We have to get ready for the wedding.”

  Chapter 10

  It was Christmas Eve, and Mattie held Mervin’s hand under the table. The number for the last song of the evening hymn singing had just been given out. She already knew what the words would be. She wished another parting song had been chosen, but all parting songs had a note of sadness in them. Even so, she wouldn’t let sadness creep into her wedding day. She was now Mervin’s frau, and nothing could change that.

  She stole a quick glance at Mervin as the song began, “God be with you till we meet again, by His counsel’s guide uphold you, with His sheep securely fold you…”

  Mervin smiled and mouthed the familiar words, “I love you.”

  Mattie looked away and gave his hand another tight squeeze. His smile grew as they began the chorus, “Till we meet, till we meet, till we meet at Jesus’ feet…”

  Mattie joined in the soaring voices of the young people. Outside tonight lay all the troubles of the world, but inside this little gathering there was joy and happiness. Christmas was tomorrow, and hope had been born that day—and promise. How fitting that she had made her promises to Mervin today and that he had made his to her. Bishop Martin had held their hands and declared them man and wife right after twelve o’clock. They were forever together in heart while they lived on this earth.

  “My frau,” Mervin leaned over to whisper, as if he knew her thoughts.

  “My husband,” she whispered back and gazed into his eyes.

  The sound of the singing faded away, and she saw only Mervin and the love that shone back at her. He had been so sweet these last weeks, so tender with her, as if he wanted to make up for all the time they had lost when their love had been denied and they’d had to wait. But she was his now, and he was hers.

  Mervin cleared his throat and pulled his gaze away to focus on the songbook. She didn’t have to look to sing the words. She could only see Mervin’s face, anyway. She wanted to reach up and touch him as she had done so many times in the past, but that would have to wait.

  The song ended, and the guests began to file past to wish them congratulations for the last time. Mervin stood, and Mattie took her place beside him. Her eight sisters with their husbands made a line of their own. Mervin and Mattie shook each hand and thanked everyone that had come. The crowd lingered even after the last relative and friend had passed by them. Mattie sat down again, and Mervin did likewise. It would be awhile before everyone left, but she had Mervin with her. Little else seemed to matter at the moment.

  “Thank you for helping out today.” Mervin leaned over to speak with his brother Emery and the girl Emery had asked to sit with him for the day, Millie Troyer.

  Millie turned all sorts of colors and giggled. “It’s been so great, that’s all I can say. I have enjoyed myself immensely sitting up here on the day that you said your wedding vows.”

  “We are glad to have you,” Mervin told her. “And I’m sure Emery is, too.”

  “Yep,” Emery chirped. He gave Millie a quick glance, and they smiled at each other.

  Emery would ask Millie home on a date before long, if Mattie didn’t miss her guess. Unless Emery was also called up for the draft. Mattie pushed the horrible thought away and turned to Mary, who was seated beside her. “And thank you, dear, for consenting to be my witness. I know it was hard, but you have been a jewel today.”

  Mary wiped away a quick tear. “We share in each other’s joys and sorrows. I wouldn’t have missed your joy for the world, and on Christmas Eve.”

&
nbsp; “Thank you,” Mattie whispered and gave Mary a quick hug. She leaned farther out to say to Mervin’s younger brother, “And thank you, John, for sitting with Mary. That was kind of you.”

  John gulped and nodded. There had been no sly smiles or glances exchanged between John and Mary all day, which was how it should have been. She had asked Mary to choose her partner, and Mary had chosen John. The funeral had been too recent for Mary to entertain any romantic thoughts, and John fit the bill exactly. He was handsome, but he would never ask Mary home on a date. That privilege would belong to some older man, a widower perhaps, once this awful war was over. But Mattie wouldn’t think of the future tonight. She would think of Mervin, who was finally her husband.

  Mattie turned her head when Bishop Martin waved his hand about. Silence settled over the building.

  “I think it fitting that we have one final prayer before we all part for the evening,” Bishop Martin proclaimed. “So let us pray.”

  Every head bowed, and Bishop Martin led with the words, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name, Thy kingdom come…”

  The amen came, and Mattie took Mervin’s hand again. She held him tight while the guests filed out. When some of them still chatted on the front porch, she pulled on Mervin’s hand, and they slipped out by way of the washroom door and down the dark side of the house. Daed must have anticipated her move, because he had Mervin’s horse Windy hitched to the buggy and ready to go.

  “Here we are,” Daed said with a smile. “And a special blessing to my daughter and my new son-in-law.”

  “And to you,” Mervin told him. “Thank you for raising such a wunderbaar woman.”

  Daed chuckled, and the newlyweds climbed into the buggy to dash up the lane and down Route 340 toward Whitehorse. A light snow lay on the ground. The moon had set, and the stars overhead blinked in all their brilliance. The only lights on the road were the bright flashes from the Christmas decorations in the English homes.

  “It’s Christmas tomorrow,” Mattie whispered, her head on Mervin’s shoulder, “and I’m married to you.”

  He smiled. “Jah, it is, and we made it through, no thanks to me.”

  She sat up straight. “It’s all thanks to you, so don’t say that. But tell me, what made you change your mind.”

  “You didn’t want to know before,” he replied.

  “Well, I do now,” she said and leaned against his shoulder.

  Mervin took a moment before he answered. “An English boy shamed me with his bravery and courage.”

  “An English boy?” Mattie sat up again. “You’ll have to give me more details than that.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to.”

  “You’re my husband, and we will have no secrets.”

  Mervin laughed. “I hope not.”

  “Tell me.” She peered up into his face.

  “I went to Whitehorse for a newspaper that morning,” Mervin began, and he continued the story in bits and pieces.

  “Mmm!” Mattie proclaimed when he finished. “I never thought things would happen that way. But you’re my husband, so it doesn’t matter how the Lord moved.”

  “We must pray for all those who must fight in this war,” Mervin said, as he pulled into the driveway.

  A dim kerosene lamp burned in the kitchen window. Mervin brought the buggy to a stop, and Mattie climbed down. “Did you leave a light on?” Mattie asked.

  Mervin shook his head. “Mamm stopped in on her way home. I wanted a light in the window when we arrived.”

  “You did.” Mattie clasped her hands together. “I’m home. I’m really home.”

  They climbed down from the buggy. Mervin led Windy forward after they unhitched, and Mattie held the shafts for him. Mervin tossed a smile over his shoulder and took off with Windy toward the barn. Mattie lingered near the buggy, the glow of the stars bright on the snow. Tears threatened as she gazed toward the house and the light in the window.

  “Come,” she told Mervin when he came back from the barn. “Let’s sit on the front porch for a moment. The moon is down, but the stars are so bright.”

  “Anything you want,” he agreed and followed with his hand in hers.

  The soft glow of the kitchen light crept out of the living room window, and the swing creaked as they sat down.

  “I always want to remember this day when I said my wedding vows.” Mattie drew close to him, and Mervin wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

  “So do I,” he agreed. “I will think of you all the time after I have to leave.”

  She touched his face. “Shhh…it was right what we did today. We will never regret it, not if troubles come, not if the road is long, not if the time never seems to end, and not if I’m old and withered when you come back. I will have loved you. For that, I will never have regrets.”

  “You are the sweetest thing, you know?” He brushed her hair back from her face. “Where did you come from? Did the angels drop you off somewhere between heaven and earth?”

  She giggled. “You wish.”

  He laughed, and she leaned against him. The silence fell around them, the twinkle of the Christmas lights bright in the distance.

  “Will our men die in the camps where you are going?” Mattie asked.

  “This won’t be World War I,” he replied. “The government will have more compassion, but how do you know these things?”

  “I asked Daed,” she said. “And you are going, aren’t you? Why shouldn’t I know?”

  “Sometimes it’s best not to know.”

  She shook her head. “You would think so, but that’s not true. To know is to share, and to share is to lessen the pain. You must always tell me what you go through.”

  “I doubt if I can write the details,” he said. “At least not from the camps. It’s wartime, and everyone will be on edge.”

  “You must tell me when you come back, then.”

  “Jah,” he said. “When I come back.”

  Mattie stared at the distant Christmas lights. “Many of them won’t come back. Daed’s newspaper is already full of deaths. The world will suffer more than any of us can imagine.”

  “Jah, I know.”

  “Is it right, do you think?” She looked up into his face. “That we don’t die with them?”

  “We died once for our faith all those years ago, when the others didn’t,” he said. “But these things are in the Lord’s hand. It is not for us to decide.”

  “But we can cry with them, can we not? I do at night after I’ve read Daed’s paper. They are just like us, Mervin. They hurt, even if they are brave.”

  “They are afraid like us, I think.”

  “Is that not what bravery is?”

  “Then we are very brave.” He stroked her hair again.

  “Oh Mervin.” She clung to him. “How am I going to let you go?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But the English do, and we will also find the strength.”

  She nestled against him, her shawl wrapped around her shoulders, until the distant Christmas lights blinked out and only the glow of the stars remained.

  Amish Christmas Cookies

  12 eggs

  2 pounds brown sugar

  4 cups sugar

  1 tablespoon vanilla

  1 tablespoon corn syrup

  8 tablespoons baking soda

  1 pound butter, melted

  6 cups peanut butter

  1 pound chocolate chips

  1 pound red and green M&M’s candies

  18 cups quick oats

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients in order given. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Do not overbake.

  Note: Recipe can be halved.

  Jerry S. Eicher’s seven Amish fiction series include The Land of Promise, The Beiler Sisters, and The Emma Raber’s Daughter series. He wrote of his experience growing up Amish in his memoir, My Amish Childhood, and taught for two terms in Amish and Mennonite schools in Ohio and
Illinois. Jerry has been involved in church renewal and preaching and has taught at Elnora Bible Institute. He lives with his wife, Tina, in Virginia.

  Love’s Pure Light

  by Olivia Newport

  Chapter 1

  Glory Grabill!”

  Still adjusting to her married name of seven weeks and standing among the chickens, Gloria let the scrap pail dangle from one hand and turned toward the caller. Lyddie, her husband’s youngest sister, waved an envelope in the nipping December air. Sun on rolling hills of white spun a dense glare. As Lyddie approached Gloria, she came into focus.

  “You got a letter,” Lyddie said.

  Lyddie moved toward the side of the yard where the chickens gathered around Glory’s feet anticipating the contents of the pail. Glory’s mother was always protective of her chickens in the winter, but her mother-in-law advocated that chickens were heartier than most people gave them credit for and made sure at least a small portion of the yard was cleared for them after a snow.

  “Do you want the letter now, or shall I put it in the house?” Lyddie said.

  “Now, please.” Glory upended the remains of the household’s midday meal and took three swift steps back from the mass of chickens that hustled toward the instant buffet.

  “It has always been Marianne’s job to feed the chickens,” Lyddie said.

  Having spared her only pair of winter gloves the mess of handling the slop bucket, Glory reached under her cloak and used her apron to wipe clean one icy hand. “I like to be helpful while I am here.” She flicked her eyes toward the letter.

  “From your mamm,” Lyddie said. “I recognize the writing from the others.”

  Though she lived only fifteen miles away, Gloria’s mother wrote nearly every day and managed a couple of times a week to find someone with reason to go by the Grabill farm. Other letters came through the mail. She remembered what it was like to move into the home of brand-new in-laws, she had said in her first letter to Gloria after the wedding.