Free A Marriage of the Heart by Kelly Long Page B

family.”
    “Her family? They’re Englisch ?”
    Luke nodded and met her eyes. “Ya.”
    “And they’re important to you?” Rose reached her purple fingertips to stroke his hand where it held the paper.
    “They were . . . important to my mamm .”
    “Your mamm ?”
    He nodded, his mouth set in a grim line.
    She could have pressed him further, fought him for answers, but thoughts of what the Lord expected as far as honor andfairness in an individual swirled through her mind. She understood valor, as part of her people, to be that part of self that yields instead of fights.
    Rose swallowed. “Then they’ll become important to me too. I’ll help you.” She stretched on tiptoe and sealed her words with a kiss.

Chapter Nineteen

    T HE WEATHER CONTINUED TO TRACK IN WITH THE MERCURIAL moods of Pennsylvania autumn. Cold to frost one day, blazing sun the next. The trees were beginning to lose their foliage now, and the leaves underfoot were a sure sign that Rose had let too many days slip past before visiting Priscilla. She knew it for sure as she looked across the table into her friend’s drawn face.
    “Has it been that bad?” Rose asked, wishing she’d visited sooner.
    Priscilla nodded. “I just don’t understand what all of this means. I’ve tried to reason it out, and it almost seems like—well, like maybe all of these things going wrong are a sign that I’m not on the right path.”
    Rose caught her friend’s hand in her own. “Priscilla, you know you love Chester.”
    But Priscilla was staring down in horror. “Your hand is purple.”
    “I know. Beet juice. Just think, though, if it doesn’t wear off soon, it’ll look really nice with the blue dress for your wedding.”
    “That’s not funny.”
    “Sorry.” Rose swallowed her smile.
    “Well, tell me about you and Luke. How are your plans?”
    Rose stifled a sigh. She’d promised to carry out hers and Luke’s “plans” later on that evening, but they weren’t exactly wedding related. Or maybe that wasn’t completely true, she considered. She certainly was being a helpmate to Luke even if no blessing of the bishop had yet been said between them. But even so, she couldn’t reveal any of this to Priscilla, who was looking at her expectantly.
    “Fine,” Rose murmured at last. “Plans are coming along just fine.”
    In truth, she knew that her mamm and aenti were the ones who were beginning to prepare for her December wedding, while she seemed to be off in a world of her own with Luke. She really needed to work on her dress . . .
    “Well, your attendant’s dress is nearly finished,” Priscilla said with relief in her voice. “If you could come over before the wedding to try it on, that would be gut .”
    “I’ll be here,” Rose promised. She got up from the Kings’ kitchen table, then bent to hug her friend. “Don’t worry so much. Everything will work out perfectly. You’ll see.”
    Priscilla nodded. “ Danki , Rose.”
    Rose left the Kings’ house feeling glad to escape the tension that radiated from her friend. She hoped her own wedding wouldn’t be as complicated . . . then laughed aloud at the irony of her thought.

    “I STILL FEEL NERVOUS LETTING YOU GO ALONE ,” L UKE commented, frowning as he watched Rose put things into her basket in the Lantzes’ barn.
    “It’ll be light for another two hours,” she pointed out as she looked toward the horizon.
    Luke rubbed his chin. “Maybe I should tell Mark . . . let him go with you.”
    “Mark?” Rose looked up with a smile. “Mark can’t be still with a joke in church, let alone keep a secret. Not that I know all of the truth myself, really . . .”
    Luke ignored her comment. He’d said all he could say. Now he tried to test his weight on his ankle and was forced to catch hold of a support beam to stop from falling. She calmly handed him his dropped crutch.
    “Luke, I can be up to that stand of pine trees and back before anyone will ever know I’m gone. Besides—”