The Revealing (2 page)

Galen took another deep breath. “Yes. Yes, I am. I am asking you to marry me.” He took her two hands in his. “Rose, there will always be obstacles. I want us to face those things together. I want us to get married. Soon.”

“I . . . I don’t know what to say.”

“Just say yes.” To Galen, everything was simple.

But it wasn’t a simple question. The very thought of getting married was ridiculous. It made no sense. Frankly, their entire relationship made no sense! She was older than Galen by more than a few years. She had a family—two stepchildren, three children, plus a very cranky mother-in-law; he had never married. She was still trying to unravel the mess of her husband’s investment company gone awry. Tobe, Dean’s son, was serving time in jail. Jake Hertzler, a key player in the downfall of the company, charged with all kinds of terrible crimes, hadn’t been found. Getting married was the furthest thing from her mind.

And why now, on a rainy Monday morning, would Galen blurt out something like asking her to marry him? Why not
yesterday, when the sun was shining as they had picnicked up at Blue Lake Pond?

Yet such an unrehearsed proposal was so like him. Words were few with Galen, but when he did speak, they were impactful. He was a man of action instead of words, purpose rather than intention. So different from her first husband, who could stir up a dust cloud with his fancy way with words.

Rose remembered the first time she had noticed Galen—truly noticed him. It was a sunny afternoon, sometime after the foggy period when Dean had passed, and Galen had offered to teach her how to drive a buggy. She had been raised Amish but had left the church over a dozen years ago. She hadn’t been near a horse in as many years and it was high time she grew comfortable with them again. As she was climbing into the buggy, the horse pranced sideways at a scurrying mouse, and Rose leaped back with a screech, startled. Immediately Galen stepped forward, taking the bridle, rubbing the mare’s forehead, and the horse soon quieted. But Rose’s reaction must have been so unexpected to Galen that his eyes went wide.

“I take exception to mice,” she explained, feeling color rise in her cheeks.

Then Galen broke out in a rich laugh. Never having seen him even smile before, she was unprepared for the impact. The sight was incredible; it completely changed him. She had not known his eyes to sparkle in such a way, his jaw to be so perfect, his throat so tan, his mouth so handsome. It was the first time she saw all that he could be.

An embarrassed laugh left her throat, then a second, and soon her laughter joined his and she suddenly found herself feeling happy. Happier than she had felt in a long, long time.
He had held out both his hands to her to help lift her into the buggy and she felt an unexpected jolt of excitement. As they sat together in the small buggy, she was as close to him as she’d ever been and the thought made her light-headed.

Each time she saw him after that buggy ride, there was a knife-edgy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Galen was so quiet and composed that she had no idea he felt the same way. It was months later that he admitted he had fallen in love with her.

With the rain falling behind him, Rose looked at Galen. He had a rugged, capable face. Firm features, determined jawline, placid eyes. She saw the great kindness in his expression, and she saw his wisdom, which was well beyond his years. She saw compassion in those green, green eyes. She saw love there.

It made no sense to marry now. No sense at all.

But . . . the thing about love was, once started, it couldn’t easily be stopped. A voice that she was surprised to realize was hers said, “Yes, Galen. I believe I would like to marry you.”

2

B
ethany popped up in bed again and stared at the window. For one crazy moment she thought Jimmy Fisher might have come calling. He certainly needed to do something to make amends to her after totally deserting her two nights ago. He had told her that he wanted to take her home after the youth gathering on Sunday night, and so she expected him to be there, but he never showed up.

She ended up going home with Simon Glick, a thoroughly awkward young man. So tall, his elbows and knees seemed to stick out at angles and she felt that if he fell he might break into small pieces. And yet that was a little unfair, because he wasn’t all that clumsy—he only looked as if he might be. In fact, he was more talkative than she expected. He even made her laugh once or twice. Nothing like the way Jimmy made her laugh, but it would serve him right if she started going out with Simon Glick.

She shifted on her bed to try to get more comfortable and shut her eyes. She tried to think of nothing, but crazy thoughts kept shooting through her mind.

Bethany picked up her pen and wrote “Mrs. Jimmy Fisher”
on the page of her journal. Not that she wanted Jimmy Fisher to propose, but she wondered if he might. And when.

She must have dozed off because, a short while later, she was startled awake when her room filled with light. A broad beam of light swept the wall and the ceiling, circling again and again. She came up on her elbows, heart pounding, crawled out of bed, and knelt at the window. At first she could see nothing; then Jimmy Fisher removed his hat, waving furiously at her, and the moon bounced off the crown of his hair.

She should ignore him and go back to bed. She knew she should. But of course she didn’t. She slipped into her clothes, wrapped a shawl around her shoulders—it was only March and the air was brittle—and hurried out to meet him.

She would scold him, of course, for dragging her out on a night as cold as this one, with off-and-on rain, but then she’d climb in the buggy with him, hidden at the end of the driveway, and they’d go to one of their favorite spots to talk. And hug. And cuddle. And kiss. And when things got a little heated, she would act indignant and insist he take her home again. On the way back, she would let her shoulder bump up against his now and then to know that she didn’t mean it.

It was a game they played, and one that Bethany hoped would entice Jimmy to think about how nice it would be not to have to say good night. To get married and live happily ever after.
Shootfire!
Was that too much to ask?

Jimmy was waiting with the flashlight, which he turned off the minute he saw her framed in the doorway. Once Bethany walked outside, he caught her in his arms and tipped his forehead against hers. She could feel his breath, his words, falling onto her. He tilted his face so that their mouths came together.

She wedged her hands up between them to set her distance. “And where were you on Sunday night, Jimmy Fisher? You can’t just show up like I’m at your beck and call and think I’m available for kissing.”

She looked at him, daring him to say he was sorry. Instead, he said, “My mother was so distraught . . . you know . . . after you dumped her out of the wheelchair—”

“Dumped is a strong word. I prefer to think of it as tipped.” Edith Fisher was recuperating from bunion surgery, and Bethany wheeled her outside after the fellowship lunch at church to get some fresh air and a little sunshine. There was a ramp, after all, and the air was unusually warm, almost springlike.

But Bethany had never taken a wheelchair down a ramp. As she guided Edith backward, the wheelchair started to gain momentum. Edith’s weight, plus the wheelchair’s, surpassed Bethany’s. At the bottom of the ten-foot ramp, the wheelchair flipped sideways and dumped Edith out, facedown on the grass.

Naomi, Edith’s favorite girl, ran for a wet rag to hold against the scrapes on her forehead and a towel for a pillow. Edith, furious and humiliated, wouldn’t accept Bethany’s profuse apologies. Jimmy ended up taking his mother home early.

“—after I finally got her settled down, I fell asleep on the couch and when I woke up, it was morning.”

“Did you happen to hear that Susie Glick and Tim Riehl have an Understanding? And Elizabeth Mast and Eli Miller do too.” She squeezed his hands. “Eli said he’d like to marry before spring planting starts.” That’s exactly what Bethany would like to have now . . . a formal Understanding. She would like to know where she stood with Jimmy Fisher.

“Hmmm,” Jimmy said, nuzzling that tender spot on her neck that he knew she liked.

“It’s nice, isn’t it, when a couple has an Understanding? When the fellow steps up and makes a decision to move forward.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Folks say that weddings always come in threes.”

“Yup.”

“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Bethany’s temper went up like a March kite. She broke away from him and thrust her hands on her hips. “Ever since you’ve been taking care of those chickens full-time, you have turned right back into the boy I first met. As immature as can be.”

Enjoyment fled Jimmy’s face. He sighed and met Bethany’s gaze. “I know. You’re right. There’s something about those birds that makes me feel like I’m thirteen all over again. It’s those chickens. They’re running me ragged . . .” His voice trailed off. “You know, I’ve hated chickens for as long as I can remember. They stink, they squawk, they peck at me. They make me stink and squawk and act peckish.”

He was always griping about those chickens and she was tired of hearing about it. It wasn’t just the chickens. It was living under his mother’s thumb. As Galen King always said, Edith Fisher cast a long shadow on her boys. She sucked the joy of life out of them. And when Jimmy was away from his mother, like now, he acted like a silly schoolboy on summer break. Nothing on his mind whatsoever. She walked a few steps away from him and looked up at the clouds gliding past the moon. He followed behind and slipped his arms around her waist.

“Jimmy, the solution is simple. You need to find someone to work for your mother.”

“It’s not that easy.” He sounded a million miles away. Miles from Bethany and from Eagle Hill.

“You’d better figure it out. And you’d better start making noises about our future together, Jimmy Fisher, because if you don’t take me more seriously—”

Spinning her around to face him, Jimmy put a finger to her lips, reached for her hand, and pulled her out of the moonlight and into the shadows. “I take you plenty seriously! You’re my best girl, Bethany.”

Immediately her temper sizzled. “I’d better be your only girl, Jimmy Fisher!” She knew her voice had risen an octave and sounded sharp, and she regretted it. But he was always saying they would get married someday, and someday never seemed to come. Perhaps the rainbows had gone and the glow had dimmed for Jimmy. If so, she’d rather know it now.

He lifted his eyes. “That’s what I meant. You’re my only girl. My best and only girl.” He took his hat off. “Aw, Bethany, what’s the rush? We’re young. We have our whole lives ahead of us.”

“Maybe you do, but I’m not about to waste my life on a fellow who hates chickens and won’t do anything about it. I only agreed to go out with you because I thought you were a fellow with some plans for himself.”

“I did have plans! I did. Good ones. But without Lodestar as the cornerstone, my entire horse breeding business fell apart.”

She rolled her eyes. “There
are
other horses.”

He cut a smile in her direction. “None like that horse.”

She let out a big sigh. “Have you looked for him?”

“Every chance I’ve had. That’s what I’ve been doing on Saturday afternoons.” So
that’s
where he’d been when he was supposed to be stopping by Eagle Hill.

“What about Galen? Have you asked him to look for you?”

“He’s no help at all. He told me I needed to let that horse go and stop making excuses for being a man.” He rubbed his chin. “I’d like him to have a week living with my mother, then he can tell me all about being a man.”

“So you’re saying that if you had Lodestar back, your life would be back on track. You’d have your future mapped out.”

His dark eyebrows lifted.

“Did you hear me?”

“I heard you.” He cleared his throat. “If I could ever get Lodestar back, I think everything else will fall into place.”

“Like . . . our future.”

Jimmy ran his finger around his collar and smiled at her ruefully.