Winter Is Past

by Ruth Axtell Morren

  “And I you,” she whispered back before their emotion for each other overwhelmed their ability to speak.

  They heard the door swinging open. Althea jumped, but Simon was reluctant to let her go very far. He held her imprisoned in his arms.

  An older woman gaped at them. “Oh, sister, I didn’t know anyone was in here!”

  Althea tried to stand. Simon smiled at her embarrassment. “That’s quite all right, Sister Kate. We were—We were—just leaving—” Althea answered hurriedly as she pushed against Simon. Finally he let her go.

  “This is Mr. Simon Aguilar,” she said, smoothing down her dressing gown and attempting to straighten her cap, which hung askew. She finally gave up, untying it and removing it completely. “He just stopped in unexpectedly.” She gave a nervous pat to her head. “Mr. Aguilar—” she blushed as she looked back at him “—may I present Mrs. Burrows, the woman who does much of the cooking for us here at the mission?”

  Simon stood with a smile and approached the older lady, his hand held out. The cook approached hesitantly and took his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Burrows.”

  “Likewise, I’m sure,” she said with a nod, her voice sounding doubtful.

  Simon took pity on her. “I will take my leave, then, and leave you to your kitchen. Miss Breton, will you show me out?” He winked at her, wanting to shout to the world that this woman standing so primly before him in her nightgown and dressing gown had agreed to be his wife.

  “Yes, of course,” she answered quietly.

  Silently the two entered the hallway. A few steps down the corridor, they both glanced at each other and suddenly started laughing. Althea tried to stifle her giggles, but Simon let his deep laugh ring through the hallway.

  “Shh!” She gestured futilely at him before they both erupted in laughter again.

  She looked at him in indignation. “This must stop!” When he only laughed some more, she began walking ahead of him. He caught up with her. As they mounted the stairs to the ground floor, he suddenly halted, sobering.

  “What is it?” she asked immediately, touching him on the arm.

  He looked at her small hand, moved by the gesture and warmed by the realization that he had a companion who could sense what he was feeling before he said anything.

  He covered her hand with his. “With you a Dissenter and I a Jew, the church won’t even acknowledge our vows as legal.”

  “But God will.”

  “It won’t be easy. Not even those who call themselves Christians will accept me.”

  She nodded, her brow clouded. “I know. Not everyone will accept us. But we have One who will never leave us nor forsake us, haven’t we.”

  He nodded, finally allowing himself to accept the love he read in her face. She was all light, that light that had drawn him from the first time they met.

  As the bustle in the mission grew, Simon reluctantly left, telling Althea he would come for her that afternoon to take her to her brother and his wife, who were still in London, to announce their engagement. In the meantime, he would contact her father, who was in town as well.

  When Simon returned to his house, he bathed and shaved, then went down to the servants and told them. They all burst into spontaneous applause.

  Giles looked at him and said quietly, “Well done, sir.”

  Simon impatiently counted the hours until he could direct his carriage once more to the mission. When he arrived, Althea was waiting for him, dressed becomingly in a dark green pelisse and cream-colored skirt. When she seemed reluctant to meet his eye, he took her chin in his fingers. “You look very pretty, although I must say your cap and dressing gown were most becoming as well this morning.”

  He could see the color rising in her cheeks and he chuckled, bringing her hand to his lips.

  “Shall we go?” she asked him.

  He escorted her to the carriage. During the carriage ride, he sat across from her, content to regard her. But it didn’t take him long to sense her unease. She kept her gaze locked on the passing scene. When the carriage slowed through the traffic on Fleet Street, he came to sit beside her.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked quickly, startled from her reverie.

  He smiled at her. “Only one thing.”

  “What is it?” she asked in concern.

  “Merely this.” He touched her cheek with his fingertip, bending toward her until his lips found hers. He lingered there, cupping her cheek with his hand, tasting an oasis after years of abstinence. His passion intensified, hers mirroring his, until he pulled back, saying breathlessly, “I can scarcely imagine being able to do that whenever I wish.” He was surprised when she didn’t answer his smile, but looked back out the window.

  “What is it?” he asked immediately, feeling bereft.

  Althea kept her eyes fixed out the window. How could she tell him what worried her? She could feel Simon’s gentle touch on her arm. She swallowed, knowing there could be no secrets between them.

  “Is it…wanton of me to kiss you like that?” The words came out in a hesitant whisper.

  Simon forced her to look around to him. He kept her chin anchored in his fingers as his brown eyes regarded her with tenderness. “Are you thinking about your mother?”

  She nodded.

  His forefinger rubbed her jaw softly. “What we feel for each other is God-given. Read the Song of Solomon. Read how Esther prepared for her king. Read about why God created Eve for Adam. God has given us to each other, to enjoy each other, to pleasure each other. Don’t ever be ashamed of what you feel in my arms, Althea.”

  He gave her a rueful grin as his fingers traveled upward, stroking her cheek.

  “I fear we mustn’t spend too much time alone, however, from now until our wedding day.”

  She blushed under the direct look he was giving her.

  “I will not dishonor you, Althea, nor my God, who has granted me this second chance, by taking what He has sanctified through the marriage vows, until that day.” He paused. “I don’t want you to be frightened. I promise you it won’t be as that last time. Can you trust me?”

  Slowly, she nodded, seeing the love in his eyes. Tentatively she reached for him this time. “I love you, Simon, and I trust you with my heart…with my body….”

  His lips felt warm and soft. They nuzzled hers, not pushing, but teasing, until hers parted of their own volition. As they explored each other, her body began to react, not in terror and dread, but in a gradual awareness, as if something long dormant were being called to awaken. Her body felt drawn to his, and she rejoiced knowing she wanted with all her soul to be joined to this man fully in the way God had given. The Lord had truly set her free of her past.

  When at last they drew apart, Simon sighed. “I only hope it won’t be a long engagement. You are too beautiful and too tempting for my weak nature.” As her color deepened, he chuckled. “Yes, you are wanton, but I want you wanton for me. When we are married, I want you to show me just how wanton you are,” he said, covering her lips with his once more. He was still kissing her when the carriage arrived in Mayfair at the home of Althea’s brother.

  When the two stood hand in hand before Tertius and Gillian, Gillian smiled broadly. “Does this mean what I think it means?” she asked, her face alight.

  Simon looked at Althea’s brother. “Tertius, I think I have lived a lifetime in the past twenty-four hours. I received your Jesus, and He showed me the truth—” Suddenly his voice broke, and he looked down.

  Tertius walked quickly over to Simon and extended his hand. The two looked deeply into one another’s eyes.

  Gillian embraced Althea and they all began talking and laughing together.

  “Nothing could make us happier than to see the two of you wed,” Tertius told them both as he held Althea’s hand, his arm around his wife.

  Gillian added, “We knew it could be no other way, when we saw you together. We are so happy for you.”

  This time, rather than just take his hand, Tertius embraced
Simon. “Welcome to the family, brother.”

  Epilogue

  East End, London, 1823

  Arnold Smith stood on the platform introducing Simon amidst great applause. He lauded Simon for all the good work he had done in their neighborhood over the past five years. He began with his own personal testimony—how Simon had rescued him when he had lost his job and been threatened with eviction.

  From the shouts of the crowd, it was evident how much they thought of their new member of Parliament. Then Simon stepped up to the platform and began his acceptance speech.

  Althea sat on a little bench they had set up for her to the side. It was getting hard to stand too long in her condition. Standing next to her, his little hand on her knee, was three-year-old Simon, Junior. She felt the new child move about in her belly and automatically put her hand up to it. Three more months to go.

  She was thinking how uncomfortable Simon would be with so much praise. Her husband had become very modest over the past five years. She thought back over that time. Simon had eventually turned down her brother’s offer of a seat in Parliament, telling them that if the Lord ever gave him another chance at office, it would have to be on his own merits, from a constituency that knew him and voted for him because he came from them and truly represented them.

  Shortly afterward, Simon had purchased a property next to the mission. Together he and Althea had refurbished it, with help from Arnold and many others at the mission. Two months later, when they were married, they had moved in. Their son had been born there, while Althea had continued her work at the mission. Simon had worked alongside her when he wasn’t managing a factory for his father—fighting tooth and nail with him for every improvement. When the factory had begun to show both profit and higher productivity and no strikes in that awful year of upheaval, 1819, a year of executions and transportations, his father had begun to be convinced of his son’s arguments.

  Now, Althea was preparing for another move, this time back to Simon’s home in Mayfair. A maiden aunt of Simon’s had lived in it, in the interim, and she would continue to live with them now that they were returning.

  Althea thought of the passage from Proverbs that had been given to Simon at their marriage: “Seest thou a man diligent in business? He shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men.”

  She had no doubt those words would be fulfilled in the coming years. Simon would be reentering the political realm, and Althea’s life would once again involve what she had avoided for so long—society. But she was no longer afraid of society, nor of her position in it. She didn’t have to face it alone, for one thing. She had two allies with her: her Lord and Savior, and the man He had given her, Simon. The Lord had never let her forget His burden for those women He’d had her pray for that evening at Simon’s dinner party. Now she would be going into their midst once again. She would not be abandoning her work at the mission, but a new door was opening.

  Simon had finished his speech and was now holding out his hand to her. She rose, with little Simon at her side, and went up to the platform.

  Simon pulled her up to stand beside him. “I could have done none of this without the dear woman the Lord gave me five years ago. I would like you to welcome and applaud her as you have me, for without her, this journey would never have begun.”

  He looked deep into her eyes at these last words, his dark eyes shining with light, as he spoke for her ears alone. “I love you so very much. Thank you, dear Althea.”

  They both turned and looked at the crowd then, seeing the harvest field the Lord had given them.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-5758-4

  WINTER IS PAST

  Copyright © 2003 by Ruth Axtell

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