“We couldn’t have picked a nicer day,” she remarked as she followed Jude around to the side of the house—instead of toward the wedding wagon, where she’d intended to go. “For December, it’s very warm and—”
“And I couldn’t have picked a more beautiful, loving bride,” Jude interrupted before he pressed her against the wooden wall. “Kiss me for real this time, Leah. Nobody can see us now.”
Leah’s breath left her as Jude kissed her, gently at first and then with increasing fervor. Of their own accord, her arms twined around his neck as he deepened the kiss and left her no doubt as to how much he loved her . . . craved her. Once again, she felt special, beautiful, transported to a fairy-tale place where she could believe that nothing would interfere with the unique, forever love she and Jude already shared.
Jude finally eased away to catch his breath. “Oh, Leah,” he whispered near her ear, “I wish all these people were on their way home—and I wish Mamm and the kids were already at Jeremiah’s—so we could be alone.”
Leah’s heart danced. “Don’t wish away even a minute of our wedding day, Jude,” she admonished him with a chuckle. “We only get one of them.”
Jude cupped her face in his hand, gazing at her as though he couldn’t stop. “You’re a wise woman, Leah. I hope that once you’ve shared my bed, however, you’ll be eager to wish other people would go away, too. I promise you we’ll make time to be alone so the kids won’t interrupt the special bond we’ll share.”
She inhaled quickly, overwhelmed by the intensity of her husband’s words and the expression on his ruggedly handsome face. Why had she ever allowed her doubts to overshadow his all-encompassing love for her?
“Hey there, you lovebirds!” one of the men called out from the pew wagon. “You two gonna spend the day all by yourselves, or visit with your guests?”
“Jah, you’ll have plenty of time for that kissy-face stuff tonight!” another fellow teased as he carried another pew bench.
“That would be my younger cousin Harvey and his brother, Pete,” Jude explained as he eased away from Leah. He turned to wave his hand high in the air. “You guys are just jealous—and still single!” he added brightly. “If you’re lucky, you’ll get caught kissing your brides while you still have your teeth. I hope I live long enough to see that day.”
Leah laughed as Jude grabbed her hand. Not far from the mudroom and kitchen doors, the wedding wagon appeared as busy as a beehive with neighbors who were carrying out long tables and pulling carts loaded with crates of the dinner plates and utensils that were stored in the wagon’s built-in cabinets. Heavenly aromas of chicken, cooked onions, and celery made Leah’s stomach rumble, because she’d been too excited to eat more than a piece of toast for breakfast.
“I’d like to say a word to my cooks and helpers,” she said, squeezing Jude’s hand. “How about if I join you in the barn to meet your far-flung uncles in a few minutes?”
Jude smiled knowingly. “If you find any dinner rolls or slices of pie that’re up for grabs, don’t forget your hungry husband.”
Leah laughed. “I’ll see what I can do—and I’ll ask if we can eat a little earlier than two o’clock. I’m starved half out of my mind.”
“Uh-huh. Welcome to my world, sweet Leah.”
Her insides tightened with the realization that food wasn’t the only thing Jude was hungry for. Would this giddy sense of anticipation keep her tingling through the coming months and years with her husband? Leah wiggled her fingers at him and turned toward the big, blocky wedding wagon. Enterprising Amish neighbors Elmer and Clara Eicher had built and stocked the huge horse-drawn vehicle to meet a need in the area’s Plain communities. Their original wagon was rented out so often, they’d constructed a second one, which Leah was approaching. It featured two large stoves with ovens and a huge commercial refrigerator—along with a generator to run these appliances, and enough tableware and linens to serve a thousand people. The Eichers also provided portable toilets, which sat discreetly beside the barn.
About three hundred folks had joined them for this big day, and they would be eating in shifts because of limited table space in the house, so Leah and her mother had been immensely relieved when Jude had rented the wedding wagon. Her heart swelled when she saw that Alice and Adeline were pushing and pulling one of the carts, which was piled with white tablecloths. Mama’s nearest neighbor, Elva Yoder, was walking alongside the twins, clasping a case of silverware between her sturdy hands.
“Congratulations on getting a new mamm!” Elva said to the girls as her face lit up with a smile. “There’s nobody nicer than Leah—”
“I only have one mother, and it’ll never be Leah,” the twin pulling the wagon snapped.
Her sister scowled from the cart’s other end. “My mother’s rolling in her grave,” she said curtly. “Why Dat wants a wife who smells like a goat and has duck poop on her shoes is beyond me.”
Leah stopped short, feeling as appalled by the twins’ remarks as poor Elva did, judging from her wide-eyed expression. For a moment, Leah wanted to rush up and contradict the girls’ assessment of her—or ask Jude to intercede before such sentiments soured the entire day for their guests.
But Leah nipped her lip and decided not to blow this incident out of proportion. It stood to reason that Adeline and Alice would be upset about any woman who came into their home as their father’s new wife. They would need some time to adjust to such a major change. Once they all had a chance to settle in together, they’d be a family, however—bound by the ties God Himself had sanctioned at the wedding. At sixteen, the twins were old enough to understand and accept that.
Leah believed that Jude wouldn’t tolerate
