A Marriage of the Heart (2 page)

T
WO MONTHS LATER
. . .

T
HE SUNLIGHT OF EARLY AUTUMN FILTERED THROUGH
the clear windowpanes and made passing shadows on the wide fir floor of the Bender farmhouse. The family was gathered for a hearty meal, and the
gut
smells of cooking mingled with robust conversation.

“I tell you that it’s downright odd, that’s what.” Rose’s father gestured with his fork to the lunch table at large. “Two of our hens—our best layers, mind you—a goat from the Lamberts’, and the sheets from old Esther Mast’s clothesline. All of it missing, and dozens of other things from the community over the past few months. I say there’s a thief hereabouts, and that’s the truth.”

Rose’s mother calmly passed the platter of sauerkraut and kielbasa to Rose’s two older brothers to take seconds. Then she
offered the fresh platter of airy biscuits to
Aenti
Tabitha, Father’s sister, and nodded her head as her husband sputtered himself out.

“Maybe it’s a Robin Hood type of thief,”
Aenti
Tabitha ventured, her brown eyes shining. At fifty, she often seemed as young as a girl to Rose with all of her romantic ideas and flights of fancy. Yet her suggestion stilled Rose’s hand for a moment over the saltshaker. What would it be like to meet such a romantic figure of a man? Dark and mysterious in nature . . .

Abram Bender shook his head at
Aenti
Tabitha. “Tabby, you always have had a heart of gold—looking for the best in others. But Rob in the Hood, like the
Englisch
folktale? Taking from the rich to give to the poor? Who’s poor in our community? Don’t we all see to each other?
Nee
, this is just a thief, plain and simple. And I don’t like it one bit.”

“The weather’ll change over the next month or so,” Ben remarked over a forkful of boiled potatoes. “Any thief is likely to drop off in his ways once there’s snow on the ground to track him.”

“Or her,” Rose said, for some reason wanting to provoke.

“What?” her father asked.

“I said
her
. Your thief could be a female,
Daed
.” She didn’t really think the thief was female, yet she had a strange urge to enter the suggestion into her father’s mind.

Her
daed
gave a shout of laughter, then resumed eating. Ben turned to her with a smile while her other brother, James, just rolled his eyes.

“Rose, no woman in her right mind is going to go thieving about,”
Daed
said. “It’s a
gut
thing you’re marrying Luke come December. Maybe he’ll settle down some of your wild ideas.”

“Perhaps.” She smiled, her green eyes flashing heat for a brief second.

“Well,” Ben interjected, “Rose’s
narrisch
thoughts aside—there’s a storm due tonight, supposed to be a doozy.”

“
Ya
, I heard.” Father rose from the table and hitched up his suspenders. “Come on, boys. We’d best tighten down a few things.” He bent to pat
Mamm
’s shoulder. “
Danki
for lunch.” Then he pinched Rose’s cheek fondly. “And no more foolish thoughts from you, my miss. Remember, you’re to be a married woman soon.”

Rose didn’t respond. She toyed with her fork instead, making a mash of the potato as an idea began to take shape in her head.

A
S
R
OSE CLEARED THE LUNCH TABLE MECHANICALLY, SHE
avoided her
aenti
’s eagle eyes. Ever since she’d been little, she’d felt as though
Aenti
Tabby could see the subdued thoughts churning inside her head, and just for a moment she wanted to debate the merits of her plan undisturbed. Still, she knew the intent look on her aunt’s face and had to admit that the older woman’s intuition had fended off trouble for her many a time. But today—something was different. Today Rose
wanted
trouble. She drew a sharp breath at the hazardous thought, but the idea fit with her nature of late. It seemed as though her spirit had grown more restless, less satisfied with life, ever since she’d accepted Luke’s proposal. She’d tried to pray about it, stretching her feelings out before the Lord for guidance, but nothing had come to her.

Aenti
Tabby caught her eye in an unguarded moment as they
washed and wiped the dishes. “I’d like to see you in my room, Rose, after we clean up a bit. If you don’t mind?”

“Um . . . sure,
Aenti
Tabby, but I have to hurry. I’m going to bake some pies this afternoon.”

“Bake? Pies?” Her aunt and
mamm
uttered the questions in unison, and Rose concentrated on dabbing at a nonexistent spot on a dish. The whole family knew that she was a hard worker, to be sure, but baking was not a skill that she possessed or an activity she particularly enjoyed.

“
Ya.”
She nodded vigorously, forcing a soft curl to spring loose from the back of her
kapp
. “I need to practice, you know? Luke likes a
gut
apple pie, or perhaps blueberry.” She stretched to put the plate away in the cupboard. “But I’ll be glad to come and talk with you before I start.”

A
UNT
T
ABBY, WHO HAD NEVER MARRIED, LIVED WITH THE
Benders and was a cherished part of the home and family. Rose and her brothers often sought the sanctuary of their aunt’s room for advice, comfort, or a smuggled sweet long after supper. But Rose knew that she had been distinctly absent lately from any visits with her beloved
aenti
and mentally prepared to face what might be some pointed, but truth-provoking, questions about herself and Luke.

Aunt Tabby sank down onto the comfortable maple bed with its patchwork quilt and patted a space next to her. “
Kumme
and sit, Rosie.”

Rose blew out a breath, then came forward to relax into the
age-old comfort of the well-turned mattress. She half smiled at her
aenti
, remembering times she’d jumped on the same bed and had once taken a header that nearly landed her in the windowsill. But that was childhood past—long past, or so it seemed to her heart.

“I’ll not keep you long, Rose, but I want to ask—why did you agree to marry Luke?”

“What?”

The question was even more probing than she’d braced for, and a thousand answers swirled in her mind.

“Luke. Why did you accept his proposal?”

“Well . . . because he’s . . . we’re . . . we’ve always been best friends.”

Aunt Tabby frowned. “I’ve never married, child, but I do wonder if that is reason enough to build a life together.”

Rose said, “It’s made both of the families happy.”

“That’s true, but what about you? Are you happy?”

There was a long, disconsolate silence that wrung Rose’s heart as her aunt touched her shoulder.

“I’m supposed to be happy,” Rose said, thinking hard.

“
Ya
, that’s true.”

“I just—I expect too much, I guess. Like wanting some kind of—I don’t know.”

“Like wanting someone mysterious and romantic?”

Rose gazed in surprise at her
aenti
, who laughed out loud.

“I was young once too, and I think it’s perfectly normal to want more from a relationship than just friendship. But maybe—maybe there’s more to Luke Lantz than meets the eye. Have you thought of that?”

Rose shrugged as her aunt cleared her throat. “Luke’s father—well, we courted some. He was always shy, but then . . . well. He had it in him to do some fine kissing now and then.”

Rose stared at her
aenti’
s flushed face. “You and Matthew Lantz?
Aenti
Tabby—I never knew you dated him. Why didn’t you marry him?”

“It wasn’t what the Lord wanted for me.”

Rose marveled at the simple statement. She knew her people lived by the will of
Derr Herr
, but to give up a relationship because of faith was difficult for her to comprehend. She knew she had spiritual miles to go before she would make a decision like that.

“Haven’t you ever regretted it? Not even when—well, when Laura Lantz died of the influenza? You’re still young,
Aenti
Tabby. Maybe you and Mr. Lantz could—”

“Nee,”
the older woman gently contradicted. “I’ve never regretted it, not even when Laura died. In truth, I believe I would have regretted more if I had not obeyed what I felt was the Lord’s leading. And just think—had I married Matthew, there would be no Luke for you.”

Rose frowned. “
Ya
, you’re right.”

“So, you will try, Rosie? To see all there is of him?” Her aunt gave her a hug.

“
Ya, Aenti
Tabby—all that there is.”

Chapter Two

A
HAWK GAVE A KEENING CRY AS IT BEGAN ITS TWILIGHT
hunt while the evening shadows stretched across the grass to wend through the windows of the Lantz woodworking shop. Luke closed the heavy ledger and glanced at his watch. Six o’clock. He was done tussling with another day’s accounts for his family’s furniture-making business, and his head ached from the numbers and the customers. But his father wouldn’t trust an outsider with the books, and although Luke was as skilled as any of his brothers in woodworking, he was the only one “with a head for business,” as his
daed
liked to say. So he sat in the stuffy office and dutifully did his job, though he would much rather let his hands run down the fine smoothness of a wood grain than the tally of a day’s earnings.

He leaned back in the chair, letting himself drift for a moment until the familiar pleasure of imagining Rose came to mind. In truth, he couldn’t believe she’d accepted his proposal so readily.
He wasn’t always the most persuasive of persons, and Rose could be headstrong.

He didn’t jump when his father clapped him on the back.

“Dreaming of your bride,
sohn
?”

Luke smiled, looking over his shoulder. “She’s worth the dreaming,
Daed
.”

“To be sure. But now’s the time to see what Joshua’s managed for supper.
Kumme
.”

He followed his father into the old farmhouse and stifled the urge to look about for his mother as he came through the door. It was difficult for him to believe that she was gone, even after two years. She’d been what the Bible called a “gentle and quiet spirit,” but she’d been a vigorous light to each of them as well. He knew that part of what he loved about Rose was her own light and sweetness, and that her spirit was a balm to his grieving soul. He knew she’d bring that comfort to the whole house once they married, and he mentally charged himself once again with making sure that she wasn’t overtaxed physically or emotionally with the inherent burden of taking on a household of men.

His brother Joshua looked up rather sheepishly from the stove when
Daed
asked what was for supper. “Fried potatoes and bacon.”

Luke stifled a groan. He longed for variety—vegetables, pie, anything. Even when kindly members of the community brought them hot meals, it wasn’t the same as having someone cook for them with love. And there had been no one to maintain a kitchen garden since
Mamm
passed, so they were restricted to more plain fare. Still, he knew it was food in his belly, and he was grateful for it. And so he told the Lord when
Daed
bowed for silent grace.