An Amish Wedding (39 page)

Chester smiled, but Priscilla’s stomach was beginning to churn.

I trust God’s will. I will not worry . .
.

C
HESTER STAYED BY
P
RISCILLA’S SIDE, SMILING WHEN IT
was required amidst the talk of their upcoming wedding, but for the most part he kept quiet. How was he going to tell Priscilla that her special day was not going to happen? At least not this Tuesday. He took a deep breath as he listened to his fiancée describe the cake her sister was planning to make the following day.

“
Ach
, Rose. Wait until you see it. Naomi makes such beautiful cakes.” Priscilla’s smile was radiant, and Chester didn’t think he’d ever seen her look so happy. Rose didn’t look quite as happy as she scratched her arms continuously. He’d heard about her run-in with some poison ivy.

There was a plentiful spread of food on the table in the Petersheims’ kitchen. Under different circumstances, Chester wouldn’t have been able to stay away from the many snack trays and desserts, but his stomach churned with anticipation. And dread.

About an hour into the singing, he couldn’t take all the wedding talk anymore.

“Priscilla, I need to talk to you.” He gently coaxed her away from Rose and whispered, “Privately.”

Her face registered the appropriate amount of concern.
If she only knew
.

“What’s wrong?”

“Can we please go? I really need to talk to you.” He edged through the crowd in the kitchen.

“Chester, you’re scaring me.” Priscilla blinked her eyes several times.

Please don’t start crying
.

He brushed past Lena Petersheim and gave her a quick thank-you for hosting the singing.

“See you on Tuesday,” she responded with a wink.

Chester hurried out the door and down the porch steps toward his buggy. He could hear Priscilla calling behind him. Once he got to his buggy, he opened the passenger door for her to get in. Even in the moonlight, he could see her beautiful blue eyes filling with tears.
I’m so sorry, Priscilla
.

“Chester?” Her eyes were wide and glassy as she stared up at him. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”

He gently grasped her shoulders. “Everything is going to be fine, Priscilla. Here, just get in, warm yourself with the heater, and we’ll go talk.”

She sniffled a bit, but climbed inside the buggy. He waited until they were on the road before he said anything.

“I’m going to pull over up here off the main road.”

Priscilla was quiet as he edged off of Blacksmith Road and onto an unmarked dirt road that he knew was a dead end. An almost full moon lit the area around them, and he twisted in his seat to face her. He reached for her trembling hand.

“Are you cold?”

She shook her head. “Just concerned. What’s going on, Chester?” She blinked her eyes a few times, and her lip trembled.

“I’m so sorry for what I’m about to tell you.” He pulled his eyes from hers and hung his head. “We can’t get married on Tuesday.”

She jerked her hand out of his grasp. “What? Why?” Her voice shook as she spoke. “It’s because everything is going wrong, isn’t it? God must not want us to get married!” Her voice rose an octave as a tear slipped down her cheek. “I’ve tried not to worry.”
Hiccup
. “Oh no! I should have known . . .”

“Priscilla—”

“Stop!” She held up one palm toward him. “I know what you’re going to say. You love me, but there is just too much going against us. We’re not on the right path.” She lowered her face into her hands and sobbed.

“Priscilla, that’s not what—” He reached for her, but she pulled back.

“All my life, I’ve needed everything perfect, even though we’re taught to trust His will when things don’t go as we’ve planned. Just when I realized that everything happens on God’s time frame and in His way, you”—her voice grew angry as she swung her hand in his direction—“decide the challenges are too much for you.” She shook her head, crying hard. “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

“Maybe not.” He regretted the words the moment they hastily slipped from his tongue, but it hurt him that Priscilla would feel this way. Yes, they’d had obstacles, but he never thought that it was enough for her to not want to marry him.

“Take me home.” Her body shook as she cried.

“Priscilla, wait. You’re not understanding me. I’m trying to tell you that we can’t get married on
Tuesday
. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to marry you.”

She sniffled. “What?”

Chester reached for her hand again, and this time she didn’t pull away. “I love you, Priscilla. I want to marry you more than anything.” He took a deep breath. “But I’ve lost our marriage license. I can’t find it anywhere.” He shook his head as he talked. “I’m so sorry. We don’t have time to get another one by Tuesday.”

Priscilla stared at him with her mouth hung open. “That’s it?”

“That’s enough, isn’t it? We’ll have to postpone the wedding, and I’m not sure how we’re going to let everyone know, and I can’t believe I’ve blundered so badly.”

“Chester.” Priscilla’s voice was firm as she said his name. Her brows rose, and a slight grin formed at the corner of her mouth. “
You
never had the marriage license. I have it safely put away at my house.”

He didn’t move as Priscilla’s comment soaked in.
How could I have forgotten that?
He thought back to their trip to the courthouse to get the license. “You put it in your purse that day, didn’t you?” He slapped his forehead with his hand as she nodded. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember that until now.”

Relief washed over him. About the marriage license, anyway.

They’d said some hurtful things to each other. Was Priscilla really just about to give up on them?

Chapter Eleven

P
RISCILLA SAT QUIETLY AS THEY RODE TO HER HOUSE
. Her heart was heavy. She’d reacted much too quickly and said things she didn’t mean—once again forgoing what she knew to be true and falling back to her old ways. Chester was the man she wanted to marry, and that was much more important than the challenges they’d faced up to this point. But he was quiet. Too quiet.

When he stopped the buggy, she turned to face him. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

“Do you still want to marry me, Chester?” She fought back tears.

“Do you still want to marry me?”

That was not the answer she’d hoped for. She quickly swiped at a tear that rolled down her cheek. “Of course.”

“I want to marry you too, Priscilla. There’s just been . . .”

She braced herself and didn’t breathe as she waited for him to go on. When he didn’t, she finished his sentence. “There have just been a lot of things going wrong.”

“Ya.”

Chester pulled to a stop, got out of the buggy, and walked around to where Priscilla was standing. He leaned down and kissed her, but despite his words earlier, his lips betrayed him. She could feel it in his touch. Something had changed. He was having doubts.

“I love you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I love you too.”

She pulled back and stared into his eyes for a long while. “See you Tuesday?”

He smiled a little.
“Ya.”

Priscilla walked across the yard to the house, turning back twice to look at Chester and wondering if he would actually show up.

M
ONDAY MORNING
P
RISCILLA WATCHED AS
N
AOMI PUT
the yellow candied roses on the cake she was making. Within the hour, their house would be bustling with church members who would set up for the wedding tomorrow.

“It’s beautiful.” She sat down at the kitchen table across from her sister.

Naomi adjusted the tiny roses along the edge of the cake and looked up. “What’s bothering you? For someone who is getting married tomorrow, you seem down in the dumps.”

Priscilla shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it’s because Chester and I had harsh words last night.” She took in a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then blew it out. “I mean, I think everything is fine, but . . .” She touched the corner of the cake and pulled back a tiny dab of cream cheese and pineapple icing.

Naomi slapped her hand. “Priscilla, that is something I would expect of Sarah Mae. Stop that.” She grinned and went back to work. “Now tell me . . . but what?”

She tried to organize her thoughts. “We’ve had so much go wrong. You don’t think it’s God’s way of telling us not to get married, do you?”

Naomi didn’t look up. “What do you think?”

“Don’t do that, Naomi.” Priscilla gently tapped the table with her hand. “I want to know what
you
think.”

Naomi stopped what she was doing and walked around to sit down beside her. “Here’s what I think.” She put her hand on top of Priscilla’s. “Life is not perfect. And sometimes in your world, Priscilla, you need things to go exactly as you’ve planned, even though you know it is our belief that life should not be easy. But you forget . . . we are here living God’s plan. Sometimes things might seem like they are falling apart or going wrong because God has something better planned for us around the corner.” She tipped her head and smiled. “Life is a learning journey, Priscilla. But sometimes I think you forget the lessons being taught.”

Priscilla knew that Naomi was right.
Please, God. Let me trust Your plan for my life
. She knew that it was just a wedding and that the meaning behind the event was far more important than the affair itself. She hoped Chester could forgive her outburst, and she hoped that God would calm her heart as she fought the fear that Chester was now having doubts about their future.

C
HESTER HAD A SURPRISE FOR PRISCILLA, EVEN THOUGH
he wouldn’t be able to tell her until two weeks after they were married. But even though he was excited about it, worry threatened to weigh him down. He loved Priscilla more than anything in the world, and her desire to have things organized and orderly was one of the things that drew him to her. But if the past month was any indication of how their wedding might go tomorrow, he worried that she would be disappointed. He’d prayed long and hard last night after he dropped her off at home, and through communion with God, he asked the Lord to fill his heart with faith. Surely love was the right path, even if it was paved with challenges. And today, Priscilla seemed to be working things out in her heart and mind. The day before they’d both reacted out of fear and worry, both emotions that they knew kept God’s wisdom just out of reach. He hadn’t been able to talk to her much with so many people around getting things ready, but she had smiled most of the day. And things were looking up in other areas too. Zeke had made it back from Middlefield tonight, saying his father was doing better. Even though John had been ready to step in as an attendant, Chester was glad that his cousin was back.