Bride of Paradise (4 page)

Samuel shrugged.  “That’s fine.  You won’t have any specific church duties as my wife, unless you want to try and create some, but getting to know the other women on a personal basis is a good idea.  Those are the women who will become your closest friends.”  He smiled at her, letting her know he thought she should make friends with the people of Paradise.

She frowned slightly.  She hadn’t thought of that.  She enjoyed new people and liked the idea of the adventure she was about to go on, but she hated the idea of leaving her friends and family behind.  “I’ll do my best then!”

He missed her frown as he stared out at the street, wondering if she had any clue just how isolated she would feel in a town the size of Paradise.  “I hope you enjoy it there.”  He looked at her.  “About clothes…we’re not going to have the money for you to keep making the same number of dresses you have been.  I don’t know of a woman in all of Paradise who has more than three or four dresses.”

She smiled.  “Papa is sending some fabric with me.  I can use it for curtains or dresses or whatever I want.  I promise, we’ll be fine.”
  Truly, she could live with fewer dresses if she had to, but she wouldn’t like it much.

He noticed she didn’t mention the possibility of going without dresses.  She seemed to think they were her due.  He sighed.  He really hoped she could handle life as a minister’s wife.  “Would you like to go to a restaurant for dinner tonight?  We won’t have much of a chance to do that in Paradise.”

She shook her head.  “We can’t!  We have the big dinner I planned for all of our friends and family at the seminary tonight.”

He looked at her.  “We do?”

She nodded emphatically.  “Sally and I wrote to some of your classmates and invited them to join us, and I wrote to your mother.  Sally had her address.  I invited them as well.  I’m not sure who all will come, but I invited thirty or so people for this evening.”  She hoped he’d be happy she’d made the time and effort to do that for him.  She’d worked so hard planning this wedding that carving out the hours it took to write that many letters had been difficult.  Most often she stayed up late at night to do it.

He let out a breath.  He really hoped his family wouldn’t be there.  It had been so long since he’d seen them, it would be awkward.  “Sounds good.  I guess there will be a few people in town for the wedding then.”

“Oh yes.”  She stood and went to lean on the porch rail looking out at the street.  “The wedding should be nice.”

“There’s nothing you need me to do?”
  He was willing, but he hoped there was nothing.  It was nice to just take a day or two off.

“Of course not!  You just need to show up at the seminary at ten in the morning.  Albert is going to marry us there, because I thought you’d prefer a preacher you knew marrying us instead of a stranger.”

“Thank you for thinking of that!”  He grinned.  “I like the idea of Albert marrying us.”

“Our church has a new preacher, and I don’t know him well yet, so that didn’t matter much to me.” 
She didn’t add that if it had been the preacher they’d had her whole life, she’d feel very strongly about him marrying them.

“I was feeling nervous about the wedding, but knowin
g it will be Albert marrying us makes me feel a lot better about it.” 

She looked at him in surprise.  “Why were you nervous?”
  He seemed like there wasn’t much that bothered him, so she was really surprised to hear him say that. 

He shrugged.  “Partially because I didn’t kn
ow you at all and partially because I didn’t have anything at all to do with planning the whole thing.  It just makes it a little awkward going into something and having no idea what to expect.”

“That makes a lot of sense.” 
She’d wanted everything to be a pleasant surprise for him, but maybe she should share the details of what she’d planned.  “Do you want me to tell you about my plans?”

“No, that’s okay.  But thank you.” 
He studied her for a moment, trying to imagine her being anything but perfect.  Even here in the hot August afternoon, she didn’t seem to be sweating at all.  “Do you want children?”

“Of course!  I want at least a dozen of them.”
  Her eyes turned dreamy at the mention of children.

“I just can’t picture you changing dirty diapers…and washing them.  I really can’t picture you washing them.” 

She laughed.  “I’m perfectly capable.  I promise.”  She’d scrub her hands when she was done, but she could do it.

“I just can’t picture you getting dirty.”  He shook his head.

“Well, I get dirty on a pretty regular basis.  I just wear gloves when I can and wash up as soon as I can afterward.  It doesn’t kill me.”  She shrugged, like getting dirty wasn’t a big deal.  Would he marry her if he knew just how crazy she was about staying clean?

He could see by the look on her face that she didn’t much like getting dirty, though.  “Well, I’m glad you want children, because I’d like to have several myself.”

She walked back over and sat beside him on the swing.  “I think we’re going to get along just fine.”  She rested her head against the back of the swing.  “It’s just going to be a little awkward as we get to know one another.”

He nodded, smiling down at her.  She seemed a lot more human than she had the night before.  “I look forward to all of it.”

She turned her head toward him and smiled.  “I do too.”

*****

Several of his friends had made the trip to Dallas for his wedding.  He was happy to see them that evening as he wandered around, eating the finger foods Kristen and Sally had put together, and talking with her at his side.

He kept looking to see if his mother was there, but so far, he hadn’t seen her at all.  He knew he shouldn’t be disappointed, but he was.  He wanted her there.
  Earlier he hadn’t wanted her, and now he did.  He knew he was being fickle, but it felt strange to marry without at least one family member there.

There were more people than he’d expected, and he was introduced to several of her friends.  “Did you plan all this?” he asked her halfway through the evening.
  There were just as many of his friends there as hers.  How had she managed that in such a short time?

She nodded.  “I had help from Sally, of course, but I knew you’d want your friends here and not just mine.”
  She peered up at him, hoping he was pleasantly surprised.

“I appreciate all the work you put into it.”  He was surprised by how touched he was that his friends had traveled all this way, and that she’d made the effort to make their wedding as good for him as she could.

“Of course!  It’s my job.”  She smiled up at him.  “All the entertaining and household things will be my job while you do the real work.”  Kristen couldn’t wait to have her own household she could run just the way she wanted to.

“I think all that is hard work too!”

She shook her head.  “I’m not the one who will have to get up in front of the congregation and speak.”

“How about we both just appreciate the other for all they do?”
  His eyes danced as they looked down into hers.  He couldn’t believe he was already falling for this girl, who just twenty-four hours before had seemed completely untouchable.  Maybe God had a hand in this wedding after all.

“That sounds really good to me!”  She turned and hugged a friend.  “Samuel, this is Ida.  She went through the seminar with me.”

He nodded, understanding she meant the seminar to be brides for ministers.  “It’s nice to meet you.  Have you been writing to anyone?”  It was as she hugged her friend that he noticed she was wearing elbow length gloves.  He hoped she wouldn’t try to do that in Paradise.

Ida nodded with a blush.  “His name is Joshua.  Do you know him?”
  She looked around the room as if she was trying to pick out which young man he was.

Samuel nodded with a grin.  “I’m surprised he’s not here.  He was my roommate during my first two years at seminary.”

Ida smiled.  “He wrote that he was going to try to make it into town for it.  Maybe he’ll be here tomorrow.  I’m not sure.”

“I’d like it if he was here.  He’s in…Tyler?  Right?”
  Samuel was pretty sure that was it.  He’d kept up a correspondence with Joshua, but he wrote to a great deal of the men he’d gone to seminary with, and had an address book.  He still wasn’t clear where each one was.

Ida nodded.  “It’s a lot further than Paradise.  We’d still be able to come here on occasion though.  I was hoping we’d get to meet in person for the first time this week.”
  She looked disappointed that she hadn’t seen him yet.

“The seminary is going to be pretty full tonight.  I’m so glad Sally is willing to be so accommodating.”

Sally wandered over, holding a tray of sandwiches.  “These chicken salad sandwiches you made have been a huge hit, Kristen.  Are there more?”

Kristen rushed away with Sally to help in the kitchen for a moment, and Samuel felt awkward standing alone with Ida.  “So what made you decide you wanted to be a bride?” he asked.

“My parents told me they can’t keep supporting me, so I decided to try it.  I don’t really know what else to do.”  Ida shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but he could see the hurt on her face.

“What does your father do?”

“He works in one of the factories.  I understand it.  There just isn’t enough to go around, and I’m the oldest.” 

He wondered for a moment if Kristen’s parents would consider letting her live there, but he decided it wasn’t his place to interfere.  If God wanted her to be Joshua’s bride, then she should be Joshua’s bride.  “Joshua’s a good, godly man.  I’m sure the two of you will get along very well together.”

Ida looked nervous.  “I sure hope so.”

Kristen appeared back between them.  “I found another tray of the chicken salad sandwiches, so the
party has been saved.”  She talked to Ida for a moment, asking what she’d found out while writing Joshua before her mother appeared beside her.

“People are getting tired.  Tonight, and tomorrow night, you two need to be the first to leave.”  The words were whispered into Kristen’s ear.

Kristen looked at Samuel.  “It’s time for us to go, so everyone else can go home and go to bed.”  She smiled at Ida.  “You’ll be at the wedding tomorrow?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t miss it!”  Ida hugged Kristen tightly.  “I have your new address already, so I’ll be writing you as much as I can.”

“You’d better!”  Kristen pulled away and walked toward the door. 

Samuel watched her leave, before heading to the room he was staying in.  It was odd to think that this was the last night he’d go to bed as a bachelor.  At this time tomorrow, he’d have a wife.  Kristen wasn’t the girl he’d have chosen for himself, but he knew God knew better than he did what he needed.

*****

Laura sat on the edge of the bed she shared with Kristen watching her sister pack the last of her things.  Kristen’s wedding dress, a vision of white lace, hung on the back of the door, ready to be put on the following morning.

Kristen carefully packed everything that she wouldn’t need until she got to Paradise into the last of the ten trunks she had.  She would put the things she needed to have tomorrow into a small carpet bag that she would keep with her instead of letting it be loaded onto Samuel’s wagon.

“Are you nervous?” Laura asked her.

Kristen shrugged.  “A little.  I’m more excited than anything, though.  I’m ready for the wedding, but nervous about spending the rest of my life with a man I barely know.”  She didn’t add that she found her fiancé very attractive.  She wasn’t sure what it was about him, but now that he’d cleaned up so well, she was looking forward to life with him.

“He seems really nice,” Laura said.

“He does.  We had enough time to talk alone together that I’m sure we’ll get along fine.  We have similar goals and like a lot of the same things.  It’ll just be awkward at first, I’m sure.”

“I can’t imagine marrying someone I barely knew.  You had lots of men who wanted to court you here.  Why are you marrying a stranger?”

Kristen shrugged.  “I just never thought any of the men who wanted to court me were very godly.  They were all more interested in their own lives than in serving our Lord.  I wanted to marry a man who looked to God first the same way I do.”  She put her spare nightgown into her carpet bag and snapped it shut before climbing into bed beside her sister and blowing out the kerosene light.  “I hope I can sleep.”

Laura laughed.  “I know I won’t be able to.  My sister’s getting married tomorrow.  I’m so excited.  And did you know I get to be the maid of honor?”

“I heard that somewhere…”

“It’s going to be glorious!”  Laura’s voice was filled with excitement.  “Papa is nervous about walking you down the aisle.  He says there will be too many people there, and he will fall and embarrass you.”

Kristen laughed.  “He won’t fall.”  She bit her lip.  “Do you think I invited too many people?  Samuel said to plan a small wedding…and…it’s not going to be very small.”

“How many people will be there?”