A Dream for Hannah (38 page)

Hannah stood on Betty’s front porch holding a letter in her hand, her cheeks flushed rosy.

“Well, can I see it?” Betty asked, her voice a tease.

“Nee,
you can’t,” Hannah said. “You know better than that.”

“Then at least tell me what it says.”

“Some of it.” Hannah held the letter away from Betty. “Let’s see. He’s home, and there was no trouble with his bishop. His parents thought him a little reckless when he told them about us, but they settled down when they heard we already knew each other from last summer. No news has gotten there about my disastrous wedding day. I know I’ll never be able to be married in Nappanee,” Hannah said. “But Jake thinks I should stay out here for the summer anyway. It would do me some good, he thinks.”

“He sounds like a husband already,” Betty said and grabbed for the letter.

Hannah laughed and kept it out of her reach.

“Did he, at least, ask the question?” Betty asked, barely able to contain herself.

“He asked while he was here,” Hannah said as a blush came to her face. “You know he wouldn’t ask in a letter.”

“No, I don’t know that,” Betty retorted. “The way you two do things!”

“Well, he
did
ask, and we’ll wait till next year to let things settle down and get to know each other better.”

“You’re staying the summer, then? You’ll run the riding stable again?”

“If Mom and Dad don’t object, I’d love to.”

“They won’t,” Betty said, her voice grim, “or I’ll have something to say about that.”

Hannah laughed and said, “Just think—all summer in Montana and letters from Jake.”

“When the time comes, is there a chance for a Montana wedding?” Betty pleaded. “We so need one out here. Don’t you see how lonely we are?”

“We
might,”
Hannah teased. “As much as I would like to have it at home, I guess I have to take into account what my dreams have cost me. Plus Dad will have calmed down by then and be ready for the trip out here.”

“A real wedding,” Betty said, her eyes glowing, “in the mountains of Montana. Won’t that be something?”

“My
wedding,” Hannah said, and the tears stung her eyes.

“Now don’t you get started,” Betty said. “We had best drop it for now and get the noon meal started.”

Hannah nodded as she focused, once again, on her letter.

That evening, upstairs in her room, she reread the letter again and then gently folded it and put it in her drawer.

She then sat at her desk, opened her tablet, and by the light of the kerosene lamp began to write.

My dear Jake,

I received your letter today. It was so very welcomed. I can’t tell you how much I love you, but perhaps you already know. Betty wants me to stay all summer again, and I think I will. When can I see you in Iowa? I suppose I should visit your family before the wedding. I will leave that up to you and how it can be arranged.

Tonight my heart is so full of joy and with many other things that concern you, but I will leave them unsaid. It’s best that way…so love and kisses. I’ll dash this note off tomorrow and send more detailed news later. For tonight, I just wanted to let you know how I love you and how thankful I am to God for you.

Hannah Miller

P.S. You are a dream come true.

The months passed quickly with a flurry of letters between Iowa and Montana.

“If I see one more, I’ll throw it in the trash myself,” Betty teased when another arrived in the mail.

“If you do…” Hannah said, glaring at her aunt and tearing open the letter.

“Hopeless cases you two are,” Betty said and sighed deeply. “It’s going to be a long, long winter.”

“Do you think Dad will let us marry in the spring?” Hannah asked.

“How would I know that?” Betty said. “I’m not sure I would let you. Both of you could use a little more maturity.”

“That’s what I thought,” Hannah said, her eyes quickly back on her letter. “He’s coming to Indiana this winter.”

“Just one visit?”

“Of course not,” Hannah replied, glowering. “He’s coming for a whole month, and I’m coming back to Montana next year again.”

“Does it say that in the letter?” Betty asked. “Is Jake already deciding those things for you?”

“Don’t be such a tease. Of course not. Mom said so in her last letter.”

“Then no spring wedding.”

“One can always hope,” Hannah said, “but I really don’t think so. Dad agrees with you on the maturing thing. Mom said so.”

“At least we’re on the same page now,” Betty said triumphantly.

Betty wasn’t surprised, though, when later that winter a wedding date was announced. A flurry of letters set the plans in motion, and then in early May, Hannah returned to Montana. To Betty’s delight, the couple decided they would, after all, be married in Montana.

Jake visited in June and stayed for two weeks.

The night before he left, he and Hannah rode back to the river. Memories of a less fortunate time returned to Hannah as they rode along the rushing water.

“Do you remember another evening…when things didn’t turn out too well?” she asked.

“I was trying to forget that,” Jake said with a somber smile.

The mountains lay all around them as they rode quietly. Hannah’s heart beat faster as she savored this time alone with Jake away from the bustle of the house.

“Come,” Jake said, motioning with his hand. He dismounted, keeping hold of the reins.

He approached her horse as she swung slowly down. She faced him, so close she was certain he could hear her heart pounding.

“Our wedding’s soon,” he said, and his fingers searched for her face in the falling dusk.

She nodded, unable to speak. Never had she felt so close to him. He was a vision to behold against the backdrop of the strong majestic mountains—and he was all hers now. The pain of the past was just a memory.

He brought both of his hands up to her face and came closer. She closed her eyes as he kissed her for the first time. She could scarcely breathe—so much joy filled the moment.

“Jake,” she whispered and clung to him, “you really do want to marry me?”

“Of course, silly,” he said, laughing and letting her go, “I do love you so.”

They walked a bit farther, and then he said, “I have to leave tomorrow, and I want the memory of us here by the river to stay in my mind until I see you again—just the two of us, alive and so in love.”

He kissed her again and then they saddled up to go back.

“Jake,” Hannah said, “let’s have a good gallop on our way back.”

“Okay, let’s do,” Jake agreed. They both let their horses have their head. Hannah bent low over the saddle to cut the wind, the tears stinging her eyes. Jake pulled ahead slightly and waved his arm over his head.
So unlike an Amish boy,
she thought as their horses kept neck to neck all the way back to the barn.

As they led their horses to their stalls, Hannah felt her cheeks still burning like fire—but not from the wind. Jake unsaddled the horses and kissed Hannah again before he left. She watched him walk out the driveway, thinking she had never seen a more handsome boy in all her life.

Jake returned two weeks before the wedding date, and they sat up half the night talking of their plans. Kathy and Roy arrived a week after that.

“What that girl doesn’t put a man through,” Roy said, grumbling and settling himself onto Betty’s couch. Hannah heard him but took hope from the smile that played around the edges of his mouth.

The morning of the wedding had finally arrived. Hannah came downstairs in her blue dress, which had been packed away since that fateful day when she last wore it. Her step was uncertain as she lowered herself from the final stair, not sure how Jake would react. From the expression on Jake’s face, as he stood by the window all dressed up in his new black shiny suit, she needn’t have worried.

“Cast me over the
odel,”
he said, unable to take his eyes off of her.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Kathy and Betty must have heard the couple because they then rushed into the room from the kitchen.

“Don’t get used to it, Jake,” Betty teased. “She won’t always look this good.”

“And neither will he,” Kathy added, thinking of her Roy. “Now get back upstairs until it’s time to go out. There will be people in and out of the house who might see you.”

At five till nine, Jake walked out the door with Hannah following behind him. The two pairs of witnesses followed them across the yard to the barn where the ceremony would be held.