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A year later, Jemima stood in her parent’s living room, in her brand-new blue wedding dress. Bishop Lapp smiled down at her, and his bright blue eyes were full of the same joy that filled her heart. She looked over at Brad, so handsome in his black suit and bow tie, and with his shock of sandy hair.
It was their wedding day. Under usual circumstances, it never should have happened.
But nothing about their story had been usual.
As the bishop intoned the words of the blessing, Jemima thought back over the last year: all the things that had happened to make this day come true. Her Daed had built Brad a little apartment addition onto the workshop, and let him live there while he was learning. He’d taught Brad how to help him in the shop, and so many other things: how to dress, what to do in worship, and what was expected of him as an Amish man.
It hadn’t always been easy. They had fought often. Her father had threatened to throw Brad into the pond for his smart mouth, and his disrespect for tradition, and his rebellious attitude. And three times Brad had thrown down his hammer, and said he was going back to the Englisch.
But neither one of them had carried out their threats.
Maybe, she considered, the fighting had been necessary to make them respect each other. And then, to like one another. Jemima looked over at her father. He was sitting just behind them, wiping his eyes with a big brown hand.
Her mother had quickly come to love Brad. When she’d told her mother about Brad’s childhood – or lack of one – Rachel had taken him to her heart immediately. And she knew he was fond of her, too.
As for Deborah – she still hadn’t paid back the fifty dollars she’d wangled from Brad. But he didn’t seem to hold it against her. In fact, Brad seemed to understand Deborah better than anyone else did, and even to like her. Which she had to admit, was kind of a rare quality.
She looked over at Brad, and caught his glance and smiled. He gave her a look that promised great things later, and she lowered her eyes primly.
Brad had promised her nothing when he’d first come to live with them. But he’d stuck to his intentions more stubbornly even than she’d hoped. She’d probably never know how hard it had been for him to change to their ways. When he first came to live with them, Joseph had challenged him to a fight, and Samuel had accidentally knocked him into a pig pen.
But none of it had made him change his mind.
Gratitude welled up in Jemima’s heart, followed quickly by joy. She closed her eyes.
Thank you Lord, she prayed. Thank you for giving me the George Washington letter, because without it, I would never have met Brad. I couldn’t see what You were doing at the time. I thought it was about the money, and I was unhappy for all the trouble it’d brought. But You never gave me the letter to make me a millionaire.
You gave me the letter to make me rich in another way. To make us all rich.
She looked over at Brad again. He met her eyes, smiled mischievously and winked.
