As Mabel Garner so often said, weddings come in threes. This one was the third, and the most unexpected.
They were married in November. It was a small ceremony, but all the Garners were there to admire Mary in ivory satin, trimmed in seed pearls.
Mabel Garner told everyone later, 'Damned if she wasn't the prettiest bride I ever seen!' Rumor had it that Mary had worn a lovely ivory gown of quaint design, but nobody knew where it had come from. Surely if it were an heirloom, she'd have worn it at her first wedding.
It gave the women of Moran Township food for a whole winter's gossip. They recalled Mabel Garner's telling them how she and Garner had found Aaron wandering the roads in shock after his brother's death. They recalled how he'd given up his home to Mary and Jonathan more than once, how he'd worked the land after Jonathan died, asking nothing in return. Long before spring, their husbands had tired of hearing the merits of 'that boy' and how he'd married the girl, providing for her-with that young baby and all. They never failed to say, 'What would Mary have done without Aaron?'
On their wedding night, after putting Sarah to bed, they tiptoed down the hall by lantern light. At the doorway Aaron picked up his bride and kissed her before carrying her into his old room, which wore a new look. When he saw the room, colorful and clean, he thought how Mary loved this house, how she felt so right in it and in his arms, and how neither of them would ever have to leave it again.
Setting her on her feet, he asked, 'My darling, what would I do without you?' 'You'll never have to ask again,' she replied, pulling him toward the bed.
And their lantern burned brightly, long into the night.
