The Forgiving Heart (The Heart of Minnesota Book 1) (30 page)

             
Karlijna took a deep breath, “Okay,” she put a hand on his as he started to rise,” but wait an hour or two.”

             
His look questioned her request.

             
“It is only six o'clock,” she laughed.

             
He picked up the phone anyway, “I'll call John and Lou first.”

             
She laughed as he dialed and went back to slicing the ham. Twenty minutes later Sig and Will came down.

             
“Karlijna,” she laughed, “you will spoil me by making breakfast for us every morning. I’ll forget how to do it.”

             
Michael handed his mother a cup of coffee, “You won't have much longer to get spoiled, I'm afraid.”

             
Sig raised her eyebrows at him over the rim of her cup.

             
“Karlijna and I have been talking. We're going to move out to the farm while our house is being built.”

             
Sig nodded. Will cleared his throat.

             
“And,” Michael continued, “we'd like to invite you to see us renew our vows later today.”

             
Sig reached an arm around Karlijna and pulled her close, “This time in a language your wife can understand?”

             
Michael laughed a little sheepishly, “I think it would be tough to find a language she doesn’t understand.”

             
The pastor was called and the girls informed.

             
“I don't really understand it,” Ellie shook her head.  “If you are already married why do it again?”

             
Karlijna left Sara and Sig to respond to that while she went to answer the door. Michael called out to her on the way, “Lou said to tell you she would bring you some flowers.”

             
Karlijna smiled at him as she opened the door. The young man standing on the other side was tall and broad. His dark eyes pierced through her. She covered her mouth with her hands and began to sob as he stepped forward and encircled her in his arms.

             
“
A
ufhören zu weinen,
meine Liebe,
” he spoke as he stroked her hair, crying himself.

             
Ellie and Sara came out to stare with their parents.

             
“What did he say?” Ellie looked to her father.

             
“Don't cry, my love,” Will was confused as he answered.

             
Michael was trying not to jump to conclusions, but watching his wife cling to another man just hours before they were to repeat their vows was almost more than he could take. He stepped forward.

             
Karlijna felt his arm on her shoulder and turned toward him, a look of such confusion on her face that he didn't know what to expect.

             
“Michael,” she still held the arm of the man beside her, “this is Benard.”

             
Michael's jaw dropped. He turned toward his family. Sig and Ellie – having recognized the name – were in the same state. Will frowned deeply. Sara was seething mad.

             
“Benard,” she spoke to the stranger while retreating to Michael. “
Das ist mein mann
.”

             
Ellie looked up at her father.

             
He interpreted, “She just told him that Michael is her husband.”

             
Ellie stepped forward and took the man's hand and introduced herself.

             
“Sig,” Will couldn't stop staring, “who is that man?”

             
“Her brother,” Sig took a hankie from her sleeve and handed it to Karlijna.

             
“I thought he was. . . .”

             
Sig looked up and laughed through the gathering tears, “So did she.”

             
Benard narrowed his eyes at Michael. The older man's face remained open as he held out his hand. Benard took it and said something.

             
Will translated again, “He said he would like to know more about you.”

             
Michael responded with a nod. He understood how her brother felt. Karlijna was a treasure who deserved to be treated well.

             
The family welcomed him into the living room. Sara relaxed a little after she realized this was not a man come to steal her brother's wife.

             
Karlijna and Benard were speaking so quickly to each other that even Will had trouble following them.

             
“I think they may be speaking Dutch,” he admitted.

             
“It's Flemish,” Ellie offered, “a Belgian Dutch.”

             
Sara looked at her sister in wonder, “Just how many languages does Karlijna speak?”

             
Ellie counted on her fingers, “Five, I think. Unless you count Polish, which she doesn't.”

             
Michael laughed, “I don't know what they are saying but it sounds good coming from her.”

             
They were talking about Michael.

             
“How did you meet this man?”

             
“He is the nephew of my employers in Sweden.”

             
“The man whose sister treated you so badly?  I think the family is not good.”

             
“No,” she waved her hands, “not him. Leif and Ingrid.”

             
Benard took a breath of relief and sat back in his chair a little.

             
“If you thought me dead I wonder that you did not faint at the sight of me.”

             
She smiled, “You would have thought that was fun, I am sure. But from my friend Regina's description I had learned to hope that you may still be alive though I had been thinking different.”

             
Benard took his sister's hand in his own, “I thought you were dead as well.”

             
“Mother is dead,” she did not ease into it.

             
Benard looked away and struggled to hide his tears.

             
“And Veronike.”

             
The man's tears could not be held.

             
“You were forced to witness this?”

             
“Veronike was taken to be shot with the other children,” Karlijna could hardly bear to repeat it. “They beat Mama to death when the children were taken.”

             
“Papa will be grieved. He had hoped against hope.”

             
Karlijna opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

             
Sig looked at Will.

             
“I think he just said his father will be sad. I must be mistaken, he must have said his father was sad.”

             
“No,” Karlijna looked at Will and Sig, wide-eyed, “he said he will be sad.”

             
“I did not tell you?” Benard caught enough of the conversation to clear the confusion.

             
“Papa is alive?”

             
“He is in France. He has been there since the liberation of Dachau. We had nowhere else to go, so we went to his cousin's house.”

             
Karlijna could not absorb the information. As she was trying to figure out how to communicate the last two years to her brother, a voice sounded in the hall.

             
“We're here,” it was Louisa and John. “When is the wedding?”

             
Karlijna stood up and made introductions. She spoke in German so Will could interpret.

             
“Louisa and John, this is my brother, Benard.”

             
She went around the room, naming each person and telling her relationship to them.

             
“Michael and I are going to say our vows in front of his family and the pastor.”

             
“Were they not present at your wedding?”

             
Karlijna shook her head. It would be better to wait until he knew Michael to tell him the whole story, “We were in Scotland at the time.”

             
Benard turned to the family, “This iss great kindness,” he spoke in English, but his accent was so thick they had trouble understanding him.  “My sister says you haf luf of Jesus und luf for her. Ve are blest you take goot care for her.”

             
He turned back to his sister, “I vill be blest now to see you marry your . . .ehemann.”

             
She nodded, “My husband.”

             
“Hoosbant. Yes.”

             
The pastor arrived shortly, and Karlijna made more introductions before he began.

             
“Dearly beloved,” the pastor began and Karlijna could hardly contain her joy.

             
Grammy had not felt up to the ceremony, but she wanted to see her grandson, so Karlijna and Michael had gone over there. While they were there, Sig had called and said she wanted to get a portrait of the family on the wedding day. Michael and Karlijna returned to his parents’ house. Sara managed to put together a lunch with a wedding cake of sorts.

             
“You have to have a cake for your wedding,” she handed out the dessert.

             
Benard was as interested in grilling his new brother-in-law as he was in catching up with his sister. Karlijna spent two hours translating, and a good portion of that time was spent frowning at her brother and chastising him for his impertinence.

Before his family could insist they have supper there as well
, Michael surprised Karlijna by telling her he had booked a room at the St. James for two nights.

             
“You are welcome to stay here,” Will spoke to Benard in German as the young couple were preparing to leave.

             
The young man turned with a smile that resembled his sister's, “I vould be much pleest.”

             
Karlijna hardly noticed her husband dragging her away from the house. She turned in a circle once they were alone in their room.

              “This is more beautiful than I imagined.”

             
Michael sat on the edge of the bed watching her, “You are more beautiful than I remembered.”

             
Karlijna turned toward him, a blush creeping up her neck, “I think you tease, Mr. Michael.”

             
He laughed and took her hand, “I do not tease.”

             
She perched lightly on his good knee.

             
His voice sounded husky as he spoke to her, “It is has been a tiring day for you.”

             
“Yes, it has. And wonderful.”

             
“Do you need to go to sleep?” he pressed his face into her shoulder.

             
“Eventually,” she stood and turned back the bed.

             
Michael smiled at her.

             
She faced him, “I feel like David.”

             
Michael's face registered his surprise, “David?”

             
“I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, but God has brought me out.”

             
Michael stood up and drew her into his arms, “And now?”

             
She ran her hands up his arms and rested them on his shoulders, “He has caused my cup to run over, Michael. My cup runneth over.”

THE END

Coming in the Spring: the sequel to
The Forgiving Heart.

CHAPTER ONE

Benard hated to go home. For the past two weeks, the young man had looked for work but had gone back to his gracious hosts only to tell them he had found nothing. It wasn't laziness on his part. He had gotten started every morning with the sun and come home late in the afternoon. Benard dropped heavily to the park bench.