Ben’s expression softened and he rubbed a hand through his scraggly beard. “It would have meant the world to me if he had.”
A family with ten kinner, and a boy’s heart had still turned to the Christmas turkey. But even with all that family around, a loving gesture for one little boy would have made all the difference for him.
“Look, if you want to sell me the bird, you can tell her that it went to a farm, and I’ll cook that rooster myself,” Ben said. “If that helps you in getting rid of it.”
“No,” Thomas said. “Rue has already decided that Toby is part of the family, and I’ve been informed that we don’t eat family. I suppose we shouldn’t let neighbors eat family, either. It’s the spirit of the thing.”
Ben chuckled. “Fair enough. Well, I just wanted to make sure that we were square between us, Thomas.”
“Yah, we’re fine,” Thomas replied. “Thanks.”
Ben nodded and turned toward the door. Thomas watched him go, then picked up the sandpaper once more. But this time he stared down at it, his mind spinning.
Was it possible to love his daughter so well that she found the roots she needed without brothers and sisters? Maybe he’d been defining family wrong... Sometimes families looked different because of how life had unfolded. He was a single daet, and his mamm was returning to the community... Maybe Rue needed to see his mamm loved well, in spite of the hard times, in spite of her changed views. Maybe Rue needed to see a wife loved deeply, whether or not she could have babies. Maybe the family Rue needed to see wasn’t the traditional Amish family of a mamm, a daet and a large group of siblings. Perhaps his daughter needed to see their family just as it was, complete with imperfections, hurts, hopes and devotion. And maybe, just maybe, Patience could be a part of it...
She didn’t want to be the one who held him back from the family she thought he wanted, but there might be a way to convince her that if she agreed to be his, he wasn’t settling at all—he was reaching for the highest happiness he could hope for on this earth.
“Noah!” Thomas brushed off his clothes with a sweep of his hands, and headed for the door that led to the sales shop.
An older Amish couple were just leaving, and both Noah and Amos looked up.
“I know this is a lot to ask since I’ve been taking so much time off for my daughter, but would you mind if I left a couple of hours early today?” Thomas asked.
The clock on the wall showed it was nearly three o’clock, and school would be letting out in a matter of minutes.
“What’s the rush?” Amos asked with a frown.
“I’m going to do something that might be incredibly stupid,” Thomas admitted. “But then again, it might be wonderful.”
Noah exchanged a look with Amos and both men grinned.
“So you’re going to propose, are you?” Amos asked.
Thomas shot them an irritated look. “I’ll make up the time. However, this goes, I’ll need to be working—either to save for a wedding, or to drown my sorrow.”
“Don’t let us keep you,” Noah said, gesturing toward the door. “And I’m praying for the wedding, Thomas. She’s a good choice!”
Thomas headed for the door and refused to look back. He knew that Noah and Amos meant well, but right now he didn’t want their good-humored ribbing. What he wanted was to get to the schoolhouse and see Patience... Because that was where his heart already was. He needed to see her once more, hold her hand again, and if she’d accept him, pull her back into his arms for good. He didn’t know if she would accept him, but he was adding his prayers to his brother’s.
Gott, I believe You’ve shown me the wife for me...if only You’d bring us together.
Chapter Fourteen
“Bartholomew, you may ring the bell now,” Patience said.
If she had to be honest, she’d been looking forward to the sound of that clanging bell overhead, too, and not just because she was tired. The kinner were wonderful—three first graders, and four eighth graders, with a spattering of kinner in the grades between. They were good kids—smart, eager and funny. She was looking forward to this year together, and it would be better still when she could finally put her heartbreak behind her.
But today, her pain was very, very fresh.
Bartholomew, an eighth-grade boy, opened the door that revealed the bell’s cord and gave it a hard pull. The bell clanged above them, and the kinner jumped to their feet, chattering away excitedly.
There were a couple of buggies waiting for some smaller kinner who had too far to walk, but most of them would walk home, their lunch boxes swinging at their sides and backpacks holding their first homework.
“Goodbye, Teacher,” said Naomi, a little girl not much bigger than Rue was. She had similar straight blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and she smiled up at Patience adoringly.
“Goodbye, Naomi,” Patience said with a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Naomi dashed out, her older sister and brother already outside the schoolhouse, and Patience tried to soothe the sadness that welled in her heart when she thought of Rue. One day, she’d be Rue’s teacher, but it wasn’t quite enough. Not for the love she already carried for the girl. To be called Teacher would be an honor, but to be called Mamm...
She pushed back the thought—it wasn’t wise to let herself think of such things. She knew better than to allow herself to long for things that couldn’t be hers.
“Have a good day, Patience,” one of the mamms called into the door.
“Thank you! You, too!” Patience called back.
She went down the rows of desks, picking up bits of garbage on the floor and straightening a chair or tucking a paper inside a desk. She stood and looked around. This was her classroom, and it would
