And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;
but the greatest of these is charity.
1 Corinthians 13:13
It was a week and a half later that Heather visited Courtney and informed her that Aaron had phoned for James to collect him from the bus station.
“Come in, Heather.”
“Nee, I’ve just driven here to tell you that, and I must get home to serve the evening meal.”
“So did he say it was just him coming back?”
“James said he didn’t mention Beth or Willa.”
“They’ve left some of their belongings here. They must be coming back with him.”
“We’ll find out tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow?” Courtney smiled. Soon she’d see Aaron again.
“Jah, tomorrow.”
When Heather’s buggy disappeared down the driveway, Courtney closed the door and told the children their father was coming home soon. They hollered and danced around with happiness.
“Just one more sleep?” Amy asked.
“Just one more and he’ll be here. Just one more night of me telling you stories and then you’ll get your better storyteller back.”
“Yeah, Dat’s better at stories,” Jared said.
Courtney was pleased he was coming back not only because she missed him but because she’d been sleeping on the couch in the main house so she’d be closer to the children.
That night Courtney could barely sleep. If he and Willa were now boyfriend and girlfriend she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay on. It was clear that Willa didn’t like her so there would be no point in staying—and with a wife there would be nothing for her to do around the place.
Then it occurred to her that if Aaron were interested in marrying again he wouldn’t have spent so much time, money and effort to build the cabin near his house.
Just as she was finally drifting off to sleep she heard a knock on the door. She pulled her robe on and lit the gas lamp hoping that there wasn’t some emergency somewhere. Then she opened the door to see Aaron’s smiling face.
She hoped she didn’t look dreadful and put her hand to her head. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be here tomorrow.”
“I caught an earlier bus.” He took hold of her hand and walked inside.
“Why did you knock?”
“I didn’t want to frighten you. Tell me if I’m mad, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you all the time I was gone.”
“Where are Beth and Willa?”
“They couldn’t change their tickets to come back with me, so they’re not coming back. I’m sending their things to them.”
“Truly?” Her face beamed with delight.
He laughed. “Jah, it’s true.”
Then there was an awkward and unnatural silence. There was clearly something he wanted to say and Courtney hoped he was going to propose. If he had been keen on Willa he wouldn’t have rushed back to see her. Unless… unless he’d come back to tell her that she had to leave. She put a hand to her stomach. “Come and sit down on the couch.”
She moved her pillows and blankets aside so they could both sit. When they were both seated, Courtney took a deep breath. “What is it you want to say to me? It’ll be best to say it straight out.” She prepared herself to take another disappointment.
“Courtney, will you marry me?”
That was the best thing that he could have said. She looked into his eyes and he smiled back at her.
“Just say ‘yes.’”
“Really? You want to marry me?”
“I can’t think of anything better.”
Courtney looked into the crackling fire. After Mark's death, she didn’t think that there’d be another marriage in her life—not that she’d been against another marriage—she hadn’t thought anything of it. That was, until she met Aaron. She turned slightly to face him square on. “I can’t believe this is all real. I mean, I wasn’t sure how you felt.”
“I’ve tried to tell you over the past little while how I felt about you.”
“I know, but I thought I might have been reading things into your words.”
“Don’t string this out on me, Courtney. My heart is racing now.”
“Of course. Yes, I will marry you, Aaron.”
He pulled her into his arms. “Denke, denke for making me so happy. I can’t wait to tell the children tomorrow.”
“So soon?”
“We’re not going to keep this a secret.”
“Nee, I didn’t think we should. It’s just that I’ll need to get used to the idea.”
He laughed. “We can take things slow if you’d prefer, but I’d like us to marry as soon as we can.”
Courtney chewed on a fingernail. “Gabriel will have a vadder.”
He pulled her finger out of her mouth. “And I’ll have another son.” Aaron held onto her hand and squeezed it.
“Does Willa know?”
Aaron said, “She will find out tomorrow with everyone else. I didn’t tell anyone I was going to ask you in case you said you didn’t want to marry me. Now we can tell everyone.”
Courtney nodded and kept quiet on her opinion of his sister-in-law.
He looked around him. “You might as well stay here on the lounge tonight. The cabin will be cold without the fire on.”
“Are you certain?”
“I’m quite sure. No one’s going to spread rumors about us staying under the same roof if it’s just tonight and if they do, we’re getting married anyway.”
Courtney giggled. “That’s true. Were there many people at the funeral?”
“There were hundreds there. Bessie had so many friends that I knew there'd be a lot of people there. I realized while I was there standing over Bessie’s grave that life is so short. We're only here for the blink of an eye. That’s when I thought ‘why wait?’ I think we’ll make a good pair and we all love Gabriel.”
Courtney giggled. “I’ve already said ‘yes.’”
Aaron laughed. “I don’t want you to change your mind.”
“I won’t. I’ve been fond of you for some time too.”
“Fond? We’ll have to work on that.”
“I wonder what the children will think about us getting married.”
“They’ll be thrilled. Especially Amy, she’s grown so attached to you. Why don’t we wake them up now and tell them?”
“Nee! We’ll never get them back to sleep.” She looked at Aaron to see that he was joking and she giggled again. “I hope they’ll be pleased.”
“We’ll tell them the first thing in the morning.”
“Do you want tea or anything?”
“Nee, you go to sleep. I’ve been on the bus all day and all I want to do right now is sleep.” He looked around the room and when he spotted the crib, he walked over and said goodnight to Gabriel even though he was fast asleep. Once he was back next to Courtney who was still sitting on the couch, he leaned over and kissed her on her forehead. “Gut nacht. Sleep tight and I’ll see you in the morning. Are you warm enough down here?”
“I’m as warm as toast here. Gut nacht.” Once he was up the stairs, Courtney remade her bed on the couch. Her prayers had been answered and she closed her eyes tightly hoping nothing would happen to stop them from getting married. Everything had been going well until Willa showed up. Was something else like that going to happen? Disappointment was what she’d grown used to in life, but she had to admit she had some things that had gone right.
To stop fears from rushing through her mind, she counted her blessings. Her baby was well and healthy. She’d made a good friend in Heather, and she was happy working for Aaron, and she loved his children. And it had worked out well that Bessie had recommended her for the position in the first place. When she added everything up, she realized that more good had happened in her life lately than bad. To cap it all off, a wonderful man had just proposed to her.
Gabriel had woken up the next morning in time for Courtney to feed him and change him before Aaron woke for breakfast.
When Aaron walked into the kitchen, he said, “Good morning, my future fraa.”
Courtney giggled and turned away from the stove to face him. “Good morning. Are you ready to tell the children today?”
“Jah, I’m looking forward to it.”
“Gut, but they’ll still be asleep when you leave for work.”
“Nee they won’t. I’m taking the day off. After we take the boys to schul we'll see if Amy can stay with Heather. Then we’re going to visit the bishop and tell him of our plans.”
“We are?”
He nodded.
“You’re full of surprises.”
“We should get married as soon as possible.”
“That suits me just fine.” Courtney turned back to the eggs she was cooking, feeling that her past run of bad luck might be well and truly in the past.
They waited until the three children were sitting at the breakfast table.
Jared asked, “Why aren’t you at work, Dat?”
“Today is a special day. Miss Courtney has agreed to marry me.”
Jared and Ben leaped out of their chairs. “We knew it,” Jared said.
“I said they would marry,” Ben said.
Courtney chewed on a fingernail and looked at Amy who remained silent.
“Do you know what that means, Amy?”
She shook her head.
“When Miss Courtney and I marry she will be your step-mudder.”
“You’re going to be my mudder?”
Courtney nodded and then Amy jumped off her chair and flung her arms around her. “Do I call you Mamm?”
“I guess you can. If you want to.” Courtney glanced at Aaron to see if that was okay. He gave a small nod. The boys ran to her and hugged her.
“We’ve got a new Mamm,” Ben said.
“I knew it all along,” Jared called out.
Courtney laughed with the three children hanging on to her. “It also means you all have another bruder in Gabriel.”
The two boys cheered and then Amy copied them.
Courtney looked into Aaron’s warm brown eyes, and they crinkled at the corners when he smiled at her. Her heart filled with gladness knowing that very soon she would be part of a large proper family just like she’d always wanted.
I cried unto the Lord with my voice,
and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
Psalm 3:4
Thank you for reading The Pregnant Amish Nanny. I do hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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Blessings,
Samantha Price