Courting Emma (Little Hickman Creek Series #3) (51 page)

"And I would still be without a Savior," Emma added.
"Grace shared Christ with nie woman-to-woman in those
letters she sent." Suddenly, she looked away from the empty
cot and tilted her gaze at him. "I see what you're sayin'-about
the bigger picture."

His heart swelled with triumph. "Romans 8:28 says, `And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.'
He knew all along what it would take to bring both you and Ezra
into the fold, but all the pieces had to fit together first."

"Yes."

"God has been looking out for you all your life, Emma, protecting you even when Ezra was at his worst. You lived through
it, right? And now you can be a beacon of hope for others who
have suffered. You never know how God may choose to use
you. Think of the possibilities."

Her eyes lit with fresh excitement. "It's too much to think
about right now."

He turned her body full around and swung her into the
circle of his arms. Wonder of wonders, she didn't even fight
him. "Emma, Emma, think about this, then," lie whispered,
grazing her earlobe with his lips. "I love you and wish for you
to be my wife."

She buried her face against his chest and wrapped her
arms around his back. "You really do?"

"I really do."

He bent and kissed the hollow part of her throat then drew
back to look into her summer-sky eyes. "What do you say?"

For one heart-stopping second he thought she might turn
tail on him. Instead, she stood on tiptoe and kissed his chin. "I
suppose I could confess my love for you as well."

He exhaled a long sigh. "I would like nothing more."

She picked at something on his lapel. "I have loved you,
Jonathan Atkins, for a long time, but it didn't seem possible
you could love me back."

His confidence spiraled upward. "Silly girl. I loved you
first. In fact," between each word, lie planted kisses around
her lips and along her jaw, "I've loved you since you were a girl
in yellow pigtails."

She pulled back and squinted up at hint. "I was a scrawny
kid. How could you have...?"

But he blocked her words with a sound kiss, one that sent
them both reeling, her trembling limbs clinging tightly, him
barely able to keep his knees from buckling under.

The rapid thudding of his pulse was what finally stopped
the kiss.

"Do I have to court you before you'll agree to marry nie?"
he asked, breathless.

"Of course. It wouldn't be proper otherwise."

He brushed his lips across her forehead. "What would this
courting business entail and how long should I persist?"

An infectious giggle floated upward. "To the first question, flowers, bushels of them; and to the second, years. Years
and years."

He set her back from him. "Years?"

"Look at the Crunkles. Wouldn't you say they're still courting?"

If anyone presented the perfect picture of a sound marriage, it was Gerald and Eileen Crunkle. He bent to kiss the
tip of her nose. "I see what you're saying. Get married now and
continue the courting for decades to come."

She pushed back and sent him a raking gaze. "Did I say
that?"

"Maybe not in so many words." He angled a mischievous
grin at her. "But it sounds like the perfect plan to me."

Jon and Enuna married the Saturday after William McKinley won the 1896 presidential election. It was also the Saturday
after Liza Jane Broughton gave birth to little Amos Benjamin. No one had expected to see her at the wedding, but just five
days after delivering the seven-pound bundle, she entered the
church on her husband's arni, albeit slowly, baby swaddled in a
white blanket, Lill and Molly in tow. They seated themselves in
a pew toward the back on the chance that Amos would object
to his first-ever wedding ceremony.

Almost the whole town showed up for the celebration,
fully supportive of the preacher marrying Eninia Browning,
and Rocky joked later that because the number had surely
exceeded two hundred it warranted the preacher having to
kiss a pig the next Sunday. Jon's defense, and it was a good
one, was that his wedding hardly counted as morning worship,
and besides, he was taking his bride to some undisclosed location of which only Grace was privy. If there were to be any pig
kissing, he'd announced, Reverend Miller, who was not only
marrying him but also standing in for him at the pulpit, would
have to do the honors.

Grace managed to return just three clays before the wedding, carting a wagonload of possessions for setting up housekeeping in Little Hickman. She would stay in Emma's quarters
until the couple returned from their honeymoon, for which she
had made all the arrangements-seven nights in a first-class
hotel in downtown Lexington. Both Jon and Emma balked at
the extravagance of it all, but Grace insisted. While Grace was
humble and unpretentious on the outside, she made it clear to
the pair the gift would in no way break her financially. Her late
husband, rest his soul, had invested wisely, leaving her with a
hefty bank account. The least she could do was lavish her precious cousin and her preacher husband with a lovely honeymoon. Put that way, Jon and Emma could hardly refuse.

Upon their return, the couple planned to settle in Emma's
spacious quarters, converting Jon's former room into his private library/office, transporting the bed to Ezra's house for Grace's
use. Grace intended to stay at the old homestead until the
newly hired Lexington Construction Company completed her
two-story building in Little Hickman, tentatively fall of 1897.
It could prove to be a long, cold winter for the Chicago native,
but she claimed to look forward to the peace and serenity, and,
besides, she'd said, if the quiet got to her, she could always
look in on the newlyweds and the bunch of hooligans who
made up the boardinghouse.

Grace and Rocky served as witnesses to the bride and
groom's nuptials. Sarah, rumored to be three months pregnant, fairly glowed as she watched the proceedings from her
front-row pew, Seth and Rachel sitting on either side of her.

Besides the gold, princess-length necklace with the three-
dianiond pendant, the bride wore a white cotton gown with
Battenberg lace around the scooped neck and a wide silk belt
at her tiny waist. The bodice had large tucking and the sleeves
were puffy with pleats in the center and cuffs, and straight
down the middle of the back were about a hundred or so tiny
mother-of-pearl buttons, the kind that required assistance to
hook.

It was a lovely thing, the dress, sewn in record time and
with much skill and loving care by Fancy Jenkins. When Grace
asked her why she didn't sew for a living, the woman gave a
sheepish look and said she hadn't the business sense or the
money for setting up such a venture. Grace had pooh-poohed
that idea and said when things settled down for her, they would
talk.

It would seem Grace Giles had more than a new restaurant
on her mind for Little Hickman.

One week before the wedding, a postcard came from Billy
Wonder addressed to the entire town. In it he stated he'd found a ladyfriend in Georgia to whom he'd grown quite attached.
He never had made it down to Florida, he'd said, and after
having met Millie Grunder, a dancer who'd once traveled with
the circus but now taught ballet at a downtown studio, chances
were good he'd remain near Atlanta for the winter months.
Folks always gave a chuckle when they stopped to read the
postcard George Garner had pinned to the corkboard right
next to the wanted posters. Billy Wonder and Millie Grunder?
How strangely conical.

Would wonders never cease, Eileen Crunkle commented
after reading about the unlikely pair.

After a long afternoon of celebrating in the schoolhouse,
student desks pushed back against the walls to accommodate
tables of food, cakes, and pies, a large crowd assembled around
the newlyweds, who'd changed into their traveling clothes and
had seated themselves in a rented carriage parked in front of
the boardinghouse. The hired driver from Lexington, donning black suit and top hat, sat tall in his seat, all business,
awaiting orders to proceed up the road toward the big city.

"I've never ridden in anythin' so luxurious!" Emma gushed.
In the glow of the lowering sun, folks could see the blush of
pink stealing across her cheeks.

"Miss Emma looks like royalty sittin' up there," Wes Clayton remarked.

"Ain't Miss no more," corrected Harland, pulling at his
long white moustache and looking particularly pleased.

Eninia's boarders closed around the conveyance in a protective air. "Guess we don't need to tell the preacher to look
after ar landlady," Gideon said, a waggish look washing over
his features. A rare smile eked past his thin mouth. "Seein's as
he's been givin' 'er the eye fer some time now."

Chortles rose up all around.

The reverend pulled his bride tight to his side and grinned.
"Didn't know I was that obvious." His eyes had fastened to his
one and only as he spoke.

"You best get a move on 'fore ya embarrass us all by kissin'
'er in plain sight," Charley issued, taking a step back, his move
prompting everyone else to do the same.

"I s-seen 'eni kiss a'ready," Luke announced.

Emma whirled on her seat and looked at the lad, eyes
round as saucers. "You did not."

"D-did too. I was hidin' 'round the c-corner, and you was
b-by the w-w-wash machine."

"Luke Newman, that's spying," Emma scolded.

When the crowd of onlookers started laughing, Jon
motioned to the driver, and just like that, he set the team of
horses in motion. Last-minute felicitations sailed through the
air as the carriage jostled up the road, leaving everyone in a
swirl of dust.

Grace Giles and Fancy Jenkins swiped at tears, the Callahans and Broughtons exchanged knowing smiles, and Iris
Winthrop leaned into Clyde and gave an audible sigh, as the
whole of Little Hickman celebrated with the happy couple.

A mile up the road, the driver passed a little cemetery
where a fresh marked grave bore a simple, engraved message.

EZRA BROWNING
MARCH 1, 1840-OCTOBER 6, 1896
"WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN CHRIST SHALL NOT PERISH,
BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. 99

-JOHN 3:15

orn and raised in western Michigan,
Sharlene MacLaren attended Spring
Arbor University. Upon graduating with an
education degree, she traveled internationally
for a year with a small singing ensemble, then
came home and married one of her childhood friends. Together
they raised two lovely daughters. Now happily retired after teaching
elementary school for thirty-one years, "Shar" enjoys reading, writing, singing in the church choir and worship teams, traveling, and
spending time with her husband, children, and precious grandson.