Bride of Paradise (3 page)

He took a step forward and offered his hand to shake.  “I’m
Samuel.”

She looked at his hand for a moment, as if she were trying to decide if she wanted to touch him.  Finally her eyes met his, and she smiled, not taking his hand. 
Instead she put her hands behind her back.  “I’m Kristen.  It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

He all but laughed, taking the hint and walking to the basin to wash up.  He hoped she didn’t think he was usually that dirty, but by the look on her face, he could tell she did.  He washed his hands and face, but could do nothing for his dirty clothes without excusing himself before dinner, and he was starving.  He’d dropped half of his sandwiches in the mud sometime between changing the wheel and rescuing the dog, and he’d given one to the dog, because he was unsure how long the poor thing had stood there trapped.

So he’d eaten a total of two sandwiches in the past twelve hours, and he was starving.  Not even to make his future bride happy would he change his clothes before eating.  He sniffed the air and smiled happily.  Sally had made his favorite, a beef stew with carrots that she always served over rice. 

He turned from washing up and saw that she’d put it on the table, and he sank down into an empty chair across from Kristen.  Albert came into the room then, patting his shoulder before sinking into the chair beside him.  “Rough trip?”

Samuel laughed sourly.  “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”  He shook his head.

Albert grinned.  “I’ll pray then.”

They bowed their heads for Albert’s prayer, and when they were finished, Samuel served himself a huge helping of the stew over rice.  Sally pushed a plate of fresh bread she’d sliced and a small bowl of butter toward him and he buttered two pieces resting them on the side of the small bowl.  He knew he should be paying more attention to his bride, but he was so hungry.  He took a huge bite of the stew, marveling at how the flavors exploded on his tongue.  He’d missed Sally’s cooking almost more than he’d missed the companionship of the seminary.

“This is wonderful, Sally.  Thank you.”

Sally gestured to Kristen.  “Kristen made it.  I’ve been teaching her to cook all of your favorite dishes.”

Samuel
looked at Kristen with surprise.  So there was more to her than met the eye.  “Thank you.”

Kristen blushed and looked down.  “You’re welcome.”
   She took tiny little bites of the food in front of her.

“So tell me about your family, Kristen.”  He didn’t want to have to make conversation, but hopefully he could get her talking and she would just keep going.  Women liked to talk, from his experience, and while sometimes it was annoying, while he was eating, it would be perfect.

“I’m the oldest daughter of two immigrants.  My mother is from Norway, and looks like your typical Norwegian woman.  Tall, blond, blue eyes.  Sometimes I wish I’d gotten her looks…”  She looked at him as if waiting for him to say something, but he just kept eating, waiting for her to tell him more. She frowned. “My father is from Germany.  He manages one of the textile factories.  I have one sister, Laura.  She’s sixteen.”

He nodded, hoping she’d just keep talking and not expect him to answer as he served himself a second bowl of the stew.  He just wanted to eat and sleep.  Was that too much to ask after driving for over twelve hours?
  He kept eating until she said in a rather annoyed voice.  “Well?”

He glanced up.  “Well, what?”
  Was she already done talking?  What did she want from him?

“What’s your family like?”

He shrugged.  “My father died in the war between the states when I was six.  I was raised by my mother and my grandparents until I was fifteen when my mother remarried.  She had two daughters with her new husband, but I never quite felt like I fit in with them.  I moved on when I was of age and came here to Dallas to go to school.”  He took another bite.  “I went back once for the summer, and while they never said anything, I could tell they really didn’t have room for me or any desire to feed an extra mouth.  Albert and Sally have pretty much been my family since then.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry!”
Kristen told him, obviously upset.  “Families should never be that way.”

“I’m an adult now.  They no longer have any obligation to me.”  He just kept eating, hoping she’d talk about something else.  When she kept looking at him, he asked, “Is there anything I need to do to help get ready for the wedding?”

“Oh, no.  I’ve got that under control!  I would like you to come to lunch at my house tomorrow to meet my family.  They feel like they need to meet the man who’s going to take their daughter away from them.”

He nodded.  “That’s fine.”  He didn’t much care what he did then, he just cared about now.  Dinner, hot bath and bed in that order.  Nothing else mattered much at that point in time.

When it was time for Kristen to leave, Samuel knew he should offer to walk her home, but he needed a bath more than he needed to be polite.  It was still light out, and he was sure she could find her way.  She left, obviously put out with him, but he was too tired to care.

*****

Kristen climbed into bed in a huff, wearing her nightgown.  Laura rolled to her side in their small bed and looked at her.  “What’s wrong?  You told Mama and Papa he was a nice man.”  Laura knew her better than just about anyone.

Kristen sighed.  “He was rather rude actually.  And he was
filthy
.  He looked like he hadn’t bathed in a month or more.  Doesn’t he know that cleanliness is next to godliness?”

Laura stared at her in surprise.  “He was rude?  How?”

“Well, he spent more time paying attention to his food than to me.  He ate like it had been months since his last meal, which I know perfectly well isn’t true.  And it was like he didn’t want me there.  He’s marrying me in two days and he didn’t want me to be there?  Is that really what I want from my future husband?”  Kristen worked hard to keep her voice to a whisper.  She didn’t want her parents to realize she was having doubts about her future husband.

“Could he have just been tired?  It’s a long drive.”

Kristen shrugged.  “It is a long drive, and I’m trying to take that into account.  You’d think he’d have at least washed up before meeting me, though.”

“Did he know you’d be there?”

“Well, no, but he still should have washed up.”  She made a face.  “I guess I’m being unreasonable.  I wanted our first meeting to be perfect.  I wanted to look at him and wonder where he’d been all my life.  I wanted our glances to meet across a crowded room and music to play in my head.  Instead, I couldn’t even shake his hand because it was as filthy as the rest of him.”

Laura looked as if she were trying not to giggle.  “I can’t imagine you married to a dirty man, Kris.”

Kristen shook her head.  “I can’t either.  I can’t imagine me married to a man who wouldn’t pay more attention to me than his meal either.”  She sighed.  “I sure hope it all works out between us.”  Since she’d started this, she’d been sure everything would work out perfectly.  Now, for the first time, she was having second thoughts.  Could she really marry the man she’d met that evening?

“It will.”  Laura flipped to her side away from Kristen, and Kristen could feel the bed shake with her sister’s giggles. 

“Please, God,” Kristen prayed silently.  “Let him be more than what I met today.  Let him be cleaner and more godly.  Let him be a man that I want to spend my life with, not just one that I feel obligated to marry.  Let him be more polite and more interesting to be around.  I don’t know if I can marry the man I met tonight.”

Chapter Three

Samuel crawled between the clean sheets of the bed in the Anderson’s spare bedroom with a sigh of delight.  He was finally clean.  It had taken almost an hour to scrub all the caked mud off his body and to get his hair washed.  He’d never felt so disgusting in all his life.  He hadn’t realized just how badly he smelled until after Kristen had left.  He was sure he hadn’t made a good impression, but he just wasn’t going to worry about it right now.  He’d worry in the morning.

He hoped she wasn’t as perfect and prudish as she’d seemed at dinner.  He didn’t know what he’d expected, but what he’d seen was not it.  She was pretty enough, but she seemed to be too…self-absorbed to be a good pastor’s wife.  Everything about her from head to toe had been perfect.  Could he really marry a perfect woman and be everything she wanted him to be?

*****

Samuel stood outside Kristen’s door at half past eleven the following morning.  He observed the house for a moment before knocking.  Judging by her manners and dress, he’d expected her to come from a wealthy family, but looking at her house, she was no wealthier than most of the people in his congregation.  Her family didn’t appear to be poor, but they didn’t seem to have servants rushing around doing their bidding either.
 

He raised his hand and knocked on the door, waiting patiently for someone to answer.  A blond head peeked around the door as soon as it was opened.  “Are you the pastor?” the girl asked.

Samuel smiled.  “I am.  Are you Laura?” 

Laura nodded.  “Yes.  Won’t you come in?”  She opened the door wider, giving him access to the house.

He stepped inside taking everything in.  The house was decorated simply.
 
It didn’t seem to fit the lady he’d met the night before.  He followed Laura through the house as she led him to the kitchen.  “Look who I found,” Laura told Ingrid and Kristen who were working side by side.

Kristen removed her apron from her pretty mint green dress and stepped to Samuel’s side.  “Mama, this is my fiancé, Samuel.  Samuel, this is my mama, Ingrid Walston.”

Samuel held his hand out for Ingrid to shake.  “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Walston.”  It felt odd to be introduced as her fiancé since they’d only met the previous evening, but he knew that’s what they were.  He was certain he’d get used to it.

Ingrid looked him up and down before nodding briefly.  “You’ll do.”  She pushed Kristen toward the door.  “Take him to the parlor.  You two talk.”

Kristen nodded.  “This way,” she said, waiting for him to follow her through the small house.  She led him to a small room with a sofa and two arm chairs.  She sat on one of the chairs and he took the sofa.  She seemed a lot more pleased with him today now that he was clean.  Her eyes no longer lingered on his slacks. 

“This is a nice house,” he said.  He hoped she realized that their house in Paradise wouldn’t be nearly as pretty.  “My house in Paradise isn’t nearly as nice.  It’s new, but it’s really small.  Just a kitchen that serves as both the room for entertaining and for cooking, and then the bedroom.  It’s not much.”

Kristen shrugged.  “I really don’t need much.  I can live simply.”

He eyed her dress, which was just as perfect as the one she’d worn the night before.  How many did she have?  “Are you sure?  You seem to like clothes…”

She laughed.  “I love having lots of dresses.  I do a theme each month.”  Her eyes lit up a she mentioned the word “theme.”

He swallowed, trying to understand, and guess how much she was going to cost him.  “A theme?”

“Well, I pick a theme every month, and then dress to the theme all month.  Like last month, for July, I did red, white and blue.”

He stared.  “You have enough dresses to wear just three colors for a whole month?”
  How was he going to afford this woman?  What was Sally thinking sending her to be a pastor’s wife?

She shrugged.  “I have more than most women, but I do things like add a sash for color.  And put ribbons in my hair to complete it.  My papa works as a manager for a textile mill, so I get all the fabric at a discount.” 

“I hope it’s a big discount.”  He leaned forward with his forearms on his knees.  “You know you won’t be able to do that when we’re married.  I mean, you won’t be able to keep getting new dresses that way.”

“I make my own.  I have a lot of fabric left, so I’m taking it with me when we marry.  I’ll still have lots of dresses.”

He sighed.  “You realize that you won’t need that many dresses as my wife?”  He thought about his simple congregation and wondered how they’d take to someone who had a “theme” every month.

She shrugged.  “Needs and wants are two different things usually.”  She looked up with a smile, her eyes on the doorway.  “Papa!  This is Samuel.”

Samuel got to his feet, holding his hand out for her father to shake.  “Samuel Benner.”

Her father had dark hair and eyes like hers.  “Dirk Walston.”  Dirk’s eyes studied the younger man, as if he were trying to decide if he was good enough to marry his daughter.  “I hear you’re a minister.”
  His German accent was apparent in his words, but he was very easy to understand.

“Yes, sir.”  Dirk took the other arm chair while Samuel resumed his spot on the couch.  “I was just ordained in May.”
  He’d expected to be questioned by Kristen’s father, and it looked like the man was not going to disappoint him.

“And you live in Paradise?”  There was laughter in the older man’s eyes as he mentioned the name of the Texas town.

Samuel grinned.  “I do live in Paradise.”

Dirk nodded.  “Sounds like the kind of place Kristen needs to live.”  He smiled at his daughter.

Ingrid came to the door then.  “It’s time to eat.” 

They all stood and followed her, Samuel
was certain to stay at Kristen’s side like a good beau would.  They walked into the small dining room and each took a seat, Samuel holding a chair out for Kristen before sitting beside her. 

“Would you say the prayer for us, pastor?” Dirk asked.

Samuel said a simple prayer, thanking God for everything from the food he’d provided to providing him with a wife who wasn’t afraid to venture into the unknown with her new husband.  After they’d finished, he watched as everyone picked up the bowl in front of them and served themselves before passing the bowl on. 

He took his first bite of the meatloaf in front of him, and closed his eyes as the flavor exploded on his tongue.  “This is wonderful.  You’re a good cook, Mrs. Walston.”
  Hopefully Kristen had learned to cook from her mother, because this meal was better than the one he’d had at Sally’s the night before.

Ingrid shook her head.  “Kristen cooked today.”

He looked at Kristen with a smile.  “You can already cook two meals I love.  I think we’re going to do just fine together.”

Kristen laughed.  “So the way to a man’s heart really is through his stomach?”

Samuel shrugged.  “It’s definitely the way to my heart.”  He forked up a bite of the mashed potatoes and the rich brown gravy she’d made to go with them.  “I could eat this for every meal.”  He shoveled the bite into his mouth, watching Kristen as he ate.

“I think I’d get sick of it pretty quickly, but I do enjoy cooking, so we should be fine.”  She took small bites of her own food, not having given herself much. 

Samuel watched her eat out of the corner of his eye.  She was such a thin little thing, and she only picked at her food.  A good wind would blow her away.  He really hoped she would be strong enough for the life he led.
 
She was a good cook, though.  That was certainly in her favor.  And she was pretty, if a little too perfect.  If she wasn’t as expensive as she seemed to be, then they’d have a good marriage.

He watched how she interacted with her family throughout the meal and found they made her more likable.  The family chatted rapidly using their hands and gesturing wildly.  Kristen didn’t gesture quite like her family did, and he found that odd, but didn’t say anything.  She was more reserved than the others,
but that wasn’t a bad quality in a pastor’s wife.

After the meal, the three women jumped up to clear the table, and he followed Dirk outside.  Once out there, Dirk got buckets of water and began watering the flowers there.  Samuel took one of the buckets and joined him.  “You have a beautiful garden.”

Dirk smiled.  “I think growing flowers when you can grow vegetables is silly, but they make my wife happy, so we grow some of each.”  He shrugged at Samuel.  “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for our wives.”

Samuel nodded.  “I can see that.  I hope I can be the kind of husband Kristen deserves.”

Dirk patted Samuel’s shoulder.  “You will.  You’re a worker.  I can see that.  Just remember, Kristen is a special girl, and sometimes needs to be treated that way.” 

“What do you mean?” Samuel asked just as Kristen came to the back door.

“Dishes are finished.  Would you like to go for a walk?  Or sit on the front porch?” she asked.

Samuel looked at Dirk, really wishing he could finish the conversation, but Dirk shook his head.  “Go and get to know each other better.  Have fun.”

Samuel followed Kristen into the house.  “Where do you want to go?” he asked.

She shrugged.  “I’d be happy with either a walk or sitting on the porch.  The porch would be cooler.”  She noted that he had
sweat on his forehead from the little time he’d spent outside with her father.  “The porch swing is in the shade, and we could have water here.”  Kristen liked the man she’d met today.  He must have been really tired the night before to act so rude around her.

He nodded.  “That sounds nice.”  He walked to the front porch, surprised he hadn’t noticed the swing earlier.  The porch was on the east side of the house, so already was in the shade for the rest of the day.  He sat down on the swing and watched while she took the spot next to him, carefully keeping a respectable distance.  He wasn’t sure if she was being polite enough not to crowd him, modest enough not to touch him, or disgusted enough by his sweat not to touch him.  Either way, she kept her distance.

“Tell me about Paradise,” she said as she used her foot to start the swing rocking back and forth.

He smiled, happy to talk about his church and the congregation there.  “It’s a nice place.  It’s a growing town, full of fine people.  We have two lumber mills, a couple of cotton gins, and even a room
ing house and a bank.  It’s growing faster than anyone knows what to do with.”

“And the people?”
  She was very curious about the place she would be calling home in just a couple of days.

“They’re all very hard workers.  The women have taken it upon themselves to feed me.  I have meals delivered about five nights per week, and the other two I typically go to people’s homes for dinner.”  He shrugged.  “I have no complaints.  The congregation is small now, but not so small that it’s not worth being there.  There’s not a lot of money coming in, of course, but I have a free place to live, and most people will tithe in food or some other good
s, so it’s okay.”

She nodded.  “Sounds like a wonderful place.”
  She closed her eyes thinking about how nice it would be to live in such a small town.  She didn’t like the hustle and bustle of Dallas.  There were always people on the streets touching her.  She hated being touched.  She looked at Samuel, and thought she’d like to touch him.  Now that he was finally clean, she wouldn’t mind touching him at all.

He looked at her skeptically.  “I don’t know how you’ll like it there.  I mean, I want you to like it, but I think you probably have more dresses than the other women in my congregation combined.”

She shrugged.  “That’s okay.  It doesn’t matter how much money anyone has as long as they’re good people.”

He watched her, looking for any signs that she didn’t like the idea of moving there, but she gave none.  “What do you like to do in your spare time?” he asked.

“I spend a lot of time volunteering with the local orphanage.  I enjoy cooking and sewing a great deal.”  She seemed to be thinking about it.  “I like being around people.  I’m not much for things like public speaking, but I certainly don’t mind speaking as a member of a small group of women.”  She turned to him.  “Is there a strong women’s ministry at the church?”

He laughed.  “We don’t have enough women to have a women’s ministry.  We do have a group of ladies who meet to pray and decide who will bring me meals on Monday morning.”

She smiled.  “Well, no one will have to bring meals anymore.  I can cook for you.”  By the look on her face he could tell she was looking forward to cooking for him.

“We’ll probably still be invited to other’s houses for dinner a lot.  It’s a way of supporting the pastor and has wife.” 

“I can do that.”  She smiled.  “You won’t mind if I do some entertaining as well do you?  Maybe have different women over for tea in the afternoons?”  She hoped she would be okay eating other women’s cooking.  Maybe if they allowed her to go over early and help with the meal it would work better.

Kristen had a problem with eating meals others had cooked.  She never knew if they’d washed their hands properly before making the meal.  She didn’t bring that up, of course, because people seemed to think her “little problems” were funny.