Free The Christmas Cradle by Charlotte Hubbard

their stock.”
    â€œAnd to think ya might not’ve come back to Willow Ridge,” Ben teased as he slung an arm around her shoulders. “I’m glad you’ll be my sister-in-law, Nora. Luke might’ve wandered like a lost sheep for the rest of his life had ya not come along to straighten him out!”
    As they laughed together, Ben put on his hat and coat. He opened the door to leave, and then gazed toward the county road that ran between his home and the café. “Are my eyes playin’ tricks on me or is that horse pullin’ a wagonload of grills?”
    Nora peered around his shoulder and then clapped him on the back. “Looks like Luke and I will have quite a wedding feast! I hope this all works out,” she added pensively. “Lena and Josiah are so young, and they have no idea what they’ve set themselves up for by, um, accident.”
    â€œNo child happens by accident,” Ben reminded her. “God’s got a plan for Lena’s baby, just like he did for your Millie.”
    â€œYou’re right,” Nora replied with a grateful smile. “Don’t let on, but at the surprise shower I’m having for Miriam, we’ll be making diapers and baby things for Lena, too. You two have given them rooms and a chance to succeed. Now the rest of us need to step up.”
    â€œThe harder part will be gettin’ Josiah to accept what we want to give him,” Ben pointed out. “I’d best see where he wants to put those cookers. See ya.”
    Ben jogged down the snow-packed road, waving a hand above his head. He was pleased to see a young woman on the wagon seat beside Josiah. It was too bad the kid had shown up without returning Lena’s call because she’d been on pins and needles ever since she’d called him.
    That’s the way some fellas behave until the right woman teaches them a better way. Ben laughed—at himself, mostly, for being much like Josiah at one time.
    â€œJosiah! It’s gut to see you and all this gear,” Ben called out as he caught up to the wagon. “And I’m not includin’ you as part of the gear, Savilla. I’m real happy to meet ya.”
    When the young woman with the coal black hair and snapping eyes smiled, Ben knew the local bachelors would be glad she’d come, as well. “After what Josiah’s told me about you and your wife, I can’t wait to cater this wedding, Ben,” she said as he helped her to the ground. “Our food’s not fancy, but folks scrape our pans clean when we cook at community events.”
    â€œI’m gettin’ hungry just thinkin’ about it.” Ben focused on Josiah then, and on his wagonload of equipment. “What sort of a place do ya need for your cookers?”
    â€œSome of them use propane and I burn charcoal and wood chips in the others,” Josiah replied. “In the winter they have to be out of the wind or it’s impossible to maintain the temperature for cooking whole hogs.”
    â€œWe brought our steam table, too,” Savilla said. “I wasn’t sure what you might already have for serving the food.”
    â€œIt’ll be gut to have another one besides Miriam’s.” Ben pointed to a long building that sat across a field behind his smithy. “Nora and Luke are havin’ their dinner in the Brennemans’ cabinetry shop because it holds more folks than anyplace else for weddings and funerals and such.”
    â€œWe’ll need to speak with Nora about the menu and get our food ordered,” Savilla said. She turned slowly, taking in the surrounding houses and Bishop Tom’s Holsteins, as well as Miriam’s orchard and the sheep at the Kanagy place. “What a homey town this is. And the buildings are in better condition than several we saw between here and Iowa.”
    Ben smiled at her observation. “We take pride in our home places, and in our new businesses, too.