by Lilah Rivers
“What?” he managed to ask.
“Now, don’t look at me like that. You know this is for your own good,” his father said.
“Father, I can’t imagine how this could be for my own good. What do you mean you arranged it with Mr. Blake?” he asked, astonished.
But his father gave him a surprised look, one that reminded Jethro of his place.
“I’m sorry, Father. I didn’t mean to speak to you like that. I was only surprised,” Jethro said.
His father, Reverend Mills, had been out all evening with Mr. Blake, the father of that strange Annie woman who had jilted her former betrothed. She was the last woman Jethro had imagined himself with.
“I don’t want to have to spend a day around someone so flighty. She just up and left an engagement, Father. What do you think people will say if they learn that you are parading us around one another?” Jethro asked, daring to push himself just a little bit further to make his point.
He couldn’t believe that this was even a conversation that they were having.
“Jethro, I do not appreciate the way that you are speaking to me. I didn’t expect something like this from you,” his father said.
Jethro looked away in shame. He knew that his father was right but couldn’t bring himself to be the obedient son that he was meant to be at that moment.
“I know. I know I’m not being respectful,” he said, hanging his head and trying to keep his thoughts internalized.
Jethro had told his father twice in the past few weeks that he was ready to try and find a wife. In fact, he had been getting rather excited by the idea. He couldn’t wait to be a husband and provider to a sweet woman as he learned more about the Scriptures in his efforts toward becoming a reverend in his own right.
But when he imagined his helpmeet, the woman who would be by his side and live with him in beautiful matrimony, he hardly imagined someone who might dart away and leave him behind with just days until the wedding. He would never have thought he would end up with someone like Annie Blake.
And he wouldn’t. His father could parade her around in front of him if he wanted, but that hardly meant that Jethro had to like her or make a choice to spend his life with her. The very idea of that was painful to him.
“Listen, Jethro … we need to be realistic about this. You have had plenty of time to find a wife. You know it as well as I do. The fact that you haven’t is a result of your own laziness,” his father said.
It hurt, but it was true. His mother and father had been urging him to find a wife for a while, but Jethro had always had such high standards in what he wanted that he hadn’t managed to find anyone who fit them yet. Now, now that he was really eager to find someone, he should have expected that his father would make an effort to do it for him.
“You’re right, Father. I was lazy. But I won’t be anymore. I want to find a good wife, and I will. I just need a little bit more time. If you give me a week or two, I’m sure I can come up with another eligible woman in town,” Jethro said, racking his brain for other options.
He didn’t know many other women in town. And whenever he pictured his future, the vague mirage of a wife looked nothing like any of the women that he knew. But surely, he could find one who looked more like her than Annie Blake did.
Jethro ran his fingers nervously through his tousled black curls. He needed a haircut, and he allowed the thought to distract him for a moment, something to give his mind a break from the serious nature of the conversation.
But it was short-lived as he saw his father shake his head.
“Your mother and I have been thinking for a while that Annie Blake might be a good woman for you. Even before her … before the other arrangement, I had considered her. Now that she is available to court again, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be the man who courts her,” his father said.
Jethro was dumbfounded. His father simply wasn’t listening. Did he not want to hear? Did he know nothing at all about Annie Blake?
“Father, I don’t know what to say. I wish that I had words to express how difficult this is for me,” Jethro said.
“Life alone is what is difficult, Jethro. Trust me. And Mr. Blake is perfectly happy with what we have arranged,” his father said as if that was all that was needed to settle the matter.
Jethro wanted a happy life. He wanted to be married. He wanted to provide for a wonderful home.
But this was not how he wanted it.
“Father …” he began, desperation edging his voice.
“Yes?” his father asked.
“Please don’t make me marry someone like Annie Blake,” he said.
“Jethro, if it your Christian duty to marry, and you have not done it yet. You will spend some time with Annie Blake, and you will get to know her. From there, we will trust that the Lord has a plan, and it will be revealed to us in time,” his father said.
But Jethro could see that his father had already made up his mind. There was no going back. The decision had been made.
“May I spend some time at Timothy’s ranch?” Jethro asked, unable to stand there any longer.
“Yes, you may. Tell him that I said hello,” his father said, pertly.
With that, Jethro went outside and mounted his horse before riding over to see his cousin. When he arrived, he went straight inside and found Timothy relaxed in the sitting room.
“Aren’t you meant to be out there shoveling hay?” Jethro asked.
“Not today! I’m ill, and I can hardly move my body, so my ranch hands are taking on the duties,” Timothy said.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jethro asked.
“Just a little cough. Anyway, what’s going on with you? You look terribly upset,” Timothy said.
“Yeah, well, I am. My father said I could come by and talk to you, but I think he’s just glad to get me out of the house for a little while so that I can’t argue with him,” Jethro said.
“You? Argue with your father? I can’t imagine that. You’re not the type,” Timothy said.
“Normally, I would agree with you, but this is a very different issue,” Jethro said.
“Tell me about it,” Timothy urged.
“You know the Blake girl?” Jethro asked.
“Sure. Beautiful, but she turned down poor Bartholomew Jones just a few days before the wedding, didn’t she?” Timothy asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Well, it turns out that my father talked to her father, and now they want us to spend some time getting to know one another tomorrow,” Jethro explained.
Timothy’s eyes widened.
“What? It can’t be. Doesn’t your father know what she did?” Timothy asked.
“Of course he does. Everyone in town knows about it. I mean, can you imagine? If we ended up having to get married or something, I feel like I would just be standing there at all times, waiting for her to change her mind. I want to marry, I really do, but I want to marry someone truly good,” Jethro said.
“Of course you do. I don’t blame you for being upset. Honestly, I’m shocked that your father would put you in this position. It’s not right,” Timothy said.
“That’s what I thought. But it’s not up to me, and he really seems to believe that this is for the best,” Jethro said.
“I wish there were something that we could do,” Timothy said.
“Me too, but there isn’t. I’m going to do the dutiful thing and spend the day with her tomorrow but after that? Nothing more. I’ll just tell my father that we don’t have any connection,” Jethro said.
“That’s a good idea. At least he will have to give you some credit for trying,” Timothy said.
“Exactly. He might even be proud of me for making an effort. But, anyway, I just can’t do it. I mean, marrying a woman who would be so flippant about a commitment like that? I don’t know how she thought her reputation would bounce back after something like that,” Jethro said.
A part of him felt bad for Annie. She really was beautiful, and she seemed nice enough, but it was a myst
ery to him that she would expect a swift and gracious acceptance into marriage when she had been so cruel to Bartholomew Jones. No other man was going to put himself in that position, and she shouldn’t expect them to do that for her.
At least Timothy understood. Maybe Jethro’s father wouldn’t listen, maybe his mother was so desperate to see him married that she would concede to this as well, but Jethro hoped that there was still a chance to get out of this.
“What exactly will you all be doing tomorrow?” Timothy asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m assuming lunch and maybe some activities. Probably something to show off all of Annie Blake’s accomplishments, trying to prove that she is just as respectable as any other young woman,” Jethro said with a shrug.
He hadn’t thought much about what the next day would hold, other than the fact that it was going to be a whole lot of nonsense, trying to pair him up with a woman that he could never learn to care about.
Jethro pictured Annie in his mind for a moment. Yes, she had plenty of good qualities, as far as he was aware. But he didn’t know her well, and he mostly knew what everyone else did.
Annie was the woman who could throw a man’s heart away as carelessly as she had tossed an apple core into the compost.
But Jethro tried to convince himself to give her a shot. He told himself that it would be worth it in the end, even if it were just to appease his mother and father before telling them he would find a wife of his own.
He wanted to honor God, and he wanted to honor the wife and family that God had for him. But until he managed to get past this hurdle, his visions of the future were suddenly blocked by an image in which he was standing at the altar, waiting for a bride who would never arrive.
“What are you thinking?” Timothy asked.
“I’m thinking that I will have to pray a whole lot to be released from this crazy scheme that my mother and father have put together. I know they want what’s best for me, I’m just not sure what makes them think that this is it,” he said.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure that they will come to realize what a silly mistake this is. Your father is a good man, and he is a man of prayer. God will give him guidance, and you will be free of anything having to do with Annie Blake,” Timothy said.
Jethro certainly hoped so, but he was still uncertain if Timothy’s words would come to pass. He was desperate for them to be true.
But, if he did end up ensnared by the plan, he would have to beg God for rescue.
Chapter 3
Annie looked over at Mr. Jethro Mills, the handsome son of Reverend Mills. She still couldn’t believe it.
She was hardly disappointed. She knew that Jethro was a good man who loved God, someone who would take good care of his family. He was known to be a man of good character.
And those long, black eyelashes didn’t hurt.
But what had shocked Annie more than anything was discovering that this man she had admired before, someone she would have happily been courted by before Bartholomew, was surprisingly cold toward her.
“What do you think they’re talking about over there?” Annie asked Jethro as they sat in one of the lovely town gardens. Their mothers and fathers were standing a short ways away, heads bowed in conference.
“Surely you must know exactly what they’re talking about,” Jethro said.
There was the hurt of betrayal in his eyes as he looked at his mother and father, as though he never expected them to go through with this match. But Annie had known from the moment her father announced that he and Reverend Mills had made a big decision that she would end up being courted by Jethro.
What she had not expected was how resistant he would be to that.
“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice, his cheeks burning with shame for how rude he had been.
Although Annie wanted to be understanding, it hurt bitterly that he was so uninterested in her. What had she done to deserve this? Why was he being so rude?
It wasn’t as though Annie had asked her mother and father to arrange another match for her. In fact, after what happened with Bartholomew, she would have been more than happy to avoid it for as long as she could, and it had only been a year since she was supposed to have been married.
She wished that she had been given more time to come to terms with everything, more time to convince the community that she wasn’t as flighty as they thought her to be.
“I know. We are stuck here, aren’t we?” she finally replied to him, trying to sound as disappointed as he was.
Jethro looked at her with surprise, but maybe a hint of worry and also a bit of relief. There were so many emotions in those big, green orbs of his.
Annie tried to dissect what it was that he was thinking, even if it was a foolish thing to attempt. As far as she could assume, Jethro was worried that she would embarrass him by abandoning him, but maybe relieved that she didn’t like him either.
Not that she had made up her mind on that. She just didn’t like the way that he was acting right then, as though she should somehow be excited for this match when he was so clearly pained by it.
“Anyway, you might as well tell me something about yourself,” Annie said, timidly. Her mother kept looking over at her with insistent eyes that urged her to speak to him.
“Me? Well, I don’t know what all there is to tell,” he said.
Annie grimaced at the awkward pause that came after that.
“Surely something is interesting about you. What do you like to do? Are you going to be a reverend like your father? Who are your friends?” she asked, listing the only questions that she could think to ask him.
“Well, I like to go riding in the hills on my own. It gives me a chance to think about life, and I also like to take the Bible with me so that I can study the Word without distractions,” he began.
That made Annie happy to hear, but she was still too wounded to admit it.
“And, yes, I plan to be a reverend like my father. I think it is a noble task, and if the Lord allows me to do it, it is something that I would be honored to do. It is a calling that no man should take lightly,” he said.
“Agreed. I can hardly imagine how much goes into something like that. I mean, the responsibility of bringing the Word to people? Being entrusted with something so precious?” Annie said, realizing the undertaking.
“Yes, it won’t be easy, but it is important. I have seen the toll that it can take on my father at times,” he said.
Annie thought about what this would mean for Jethro’s future bride. It was going to be a tough task, whether for her or someone else. After all, supporting one’s husband at all times would be enough of a challenge, but for someone who had the weight of leading the spiritual maturity of a community? That really would be a lot.
“Anyway, as for friends, do you know Timothy? My cousin?” he asked.
“Of course. Best beef in town. My father always buys from him,” Annie said.
“Yeah, he’s a good rancher for sure, knows how to care for his cattle. He’s my closest friend. Beven Collier, John Gordon, and his brother Stephen, a few other men, we all spend time together. But Timothy is the one that I’m closest to,” he said, opening up a little bit.
Annie saw the dream in his eyes, as though he would rather be spending time with any one of his friends than stuck with her on a park bench next to the hyacinths, wishing that his future wasn’t being decided by his mother and father.
