A Wedding for Julia Read online

  Had the entire district gone crazy?

  During church he’d made a concerted effort not to stare at her, but she’d looked so forlorn, not to mention beautiful, that he’d had trouble tearing his eyes away.

  When had she started looking beautiful? Last week she’d merely looked like Julia.

  Caleb knew what he needed. He needed to spend a day fishing. Things made more sense when he had a line in the water, when he was standing on the bank of Pebble Creek and his thoughts were following an orderly fashion. Since Tuesday, his thoughts had jumped in every direction, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. He needed to make it through Sunday, and then Monday was his regular day off.

  Except he’d agreed to work the next day. He’d start early, finish early, and make time to go fishing. Once he put his life back on a normal track, everything would be fine.

  First, though, he needed to talk to Julia. So he’d tried again after the service.

  This time the table she was watching over was crowded with old people, children, and men, and she was at the vegetable table. No one was ever interested in the vegetable table! Suddenly, Andrew Miller couldn’t have enough of the squash casserole. Andrew, who Caleb had seen swallow more sweets in a month than he personally could consume all year. He ought to take the young man aside and have a talk with him. Andrew was making a fool of himself. But Andrew wasn’t the only one.

  Apparently every single man in their district, and there were a few, had heard of Julia’s predicament.

  “Better go and speak with her, Caleb, before someone sweeps her off her feet.” Aaron laughed as he stuffed a piece of ham into his mouth.

  “Speak with who?” Seth, David’s oldest son, glanced around as if he’d missed something.

  The boy was growing faster than hay in summertime. He was practically swallowing his food whole, and everyone knew why. As soon as Clara finished working in the serving line, the two would be off walking near the river. Rumor had it that they would publish their marriage intentions soon, which was one more thing to irritate Caleb on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

  “Never mind who.” Caleb stood and gathered up his dishes. The crowd around the vegetable table was thinning out. Most had taken their plates to their tables. Andrew remained, but Caleb was certain he could find a way to move him away from Julia.

  “Aren’t you going to eat that cobbler?” Seth asked.

  “Take it.” Caleb handed it to him and walked off, the thought of cobbler turning his stomach slightly. It had looked good enough when he’d accepted it from Clara, Lydia’s sister. He’d never be able to eat it now.

  His hands began to sweat as he covered the distance to where she stood. What was he doing? What was he going to say? Was he actually going to say what he thought he was going to say? Had he fallen down and hit his head sometime in the last week?

  Veering away from the food line, he walked to the edge of the gathering and braced his hand on a tall northern red oak. Looking up into its dark red leaves, he calmed somewhat, and that was when he remembered the conversation with his father. After several days of driving past his delivery drops, burning his own dinner, and waking in the middle of the night with a certain woman’s face dancing through his mind, he’d finally gone to the office at the cabins and put in a call to Indiana.

  His dat, in typical fashion, had summed it all up with a few questions.

  “Is she a gut woman?”

  “Sure, she is—”

  “Do you care for her?”

  “I care, but—”

  “Is she in need?”

  “Yes, that’s why—”

  “Do you feel Gotte has placed you there at this time to provide for her need?”

  “Maybe.”

  There’d been silence on the line, and then his dat had said the words that had calmed Caleb then and settled him now as he turned and walked back toward Julia. “Sounds as if you know what you need to do, know what Gotte intends you to do, and know what your heart is wanting you to do. All that’s left is to see if you’re willing to do it.”

  Good ol’ dat. He never wasted minutes on a telephone walking around the hayfield. No, he preferred to get straight to the point.

  “Hi, Caleb.” Julia smiled at him and rearranged two of the dishes.

  “Caleb.” Andrew grinned in a way that seemed suspicious. Had he already said something to her?

  Caleb greeted them both and waited, but Andrew made no move to step away from the table. Sighing, Caleb pushed forward. He hadn’t thought of what he was going to say, but he knew he wasn’t going to say it in front of a man who was barely over thirty and hadn’t even committed to staying in the area.

  “I was hoping to talk to Julia alone for a minute.”

  “Oh. Sure thing.” Andrew nodded, his smile still firmly in place. It served to irritate Caleb even more. What was he so pleased about? “Well, remember the offer stands, Julia. David can contact Gabe anytime.”

  “Thank you, Andrew.” Julia appeared flustered and shuffled the two casserole dishes back to their original position.

  What offer? Why was Julia uncomfortable? And why was Andrew grinning as though he were holding a prize brook trout instead of a plate filled with green beans, corn, and squash? Finally, he smiled back at her again and turned to go.

  Caleb didn’t realize he was scowling after him until Julia cleared her throat and said, “You wanted to talk with me?”

  “Oh, ya.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “But would you like a break? You’ve been standing here since lunch began.”

  “I’m not very hungry,” she admitted. “I am glad the line’s thinned out, though. I’ve never seen folks so hungry for vegetables.”

  Caleb was tempted to clue her into the fact that it wasn’t vegetables the men were after, but he let it slide. “How about we go for a walk, then? Aaron has made a nice path down to the river.”

  “I don’t know. My mamm—”

  “We’ll watch after her, Julia.” Elizabeth Troyer was standing at the next table—the dessert table. She was Aaron’s kin and the former owner of the cabins. When her husband had died, Aaron had moved to town to help with the management. Eventually, he and Lydia had purchased the cabins from her.

  “Oh. All right.” Rearranging the nearly empty vegetable dishes one last time, she stepped away from the table.

  They walked in silence for the first moment or so.

  Caleb tried to remember what he was going to say, but his mind had gone blank. Looking around at the house, the fields, and the barn, it occurred to him it was always safe to talk about everyday things. “Aaron’s made a lot of improvements here since buying the place.”

  “You have no idea,” Julia said.

  Caleb glanced at her and then back at the path they were walking down. “What do you mean?”

  “You came after much of the work was done. When Aaron first arrived, this property was a mess and where Lydia lived with her parents…” she pointed to the property next door. “It wasn’t much better, though Menno and Ella did their best.”

  “Menno’s illness was bad, even then?”

  “Ya. Many feel it’s a miracle he’s still alive. The farmer’s lung, it prevents him from doing very much.” Julia shook her head. “But he’s still able to pray. You should hear Lydia talk about her father…or maybe you have.”

  “A little. Aaron’s very fond of him too.”

  “He’s a special man.”

  When she grew quiet, Caleb figured she must be thinking about her own father. He missed his family as well, but he could hop on a bus and visit them anytime he wanted. He also received letters regularly. What would it feel like to know you’d soon be left alone?

  “Your parents had no other children?” he asked.

  “They tried, but my mamm wasn’t able.”

  They reached the creek, where Aaron had placed a bench beneath a tree. Julia sat down when he gestured to it, and he sat beside her, leaving a respectful distance between them. It remi
nded him of their time sitting beside her garden on Tuesday, and that made him smile.

  “Does Pebble Creek make you laugh?”

  “Nein, and I’m not laughing. I was remembering Tuesday.”

  “What could you possibly find funny about that?”

  He took off his hat, knocked it against his leg, and then set it back on his head. “I had no idea what I was walking into, is all. Sometimes your life takes a turn and you have no clue it’s about to happen.”

  She turned to face him now. “And how did your life change?”

  “I don’t…I don’t even know yet. It’s only that it feels different. Does that make any sense?” She nodded slightly, so he kept going. “I’m trying to understand myself, but I won’t lie to you, Julia. I don’t understand. I walked out to the garden with a glass of water and left your house with a dozen questions, none of which I’ve found the answers to.”

  “So why did you ask to speak with me?”

  “Maybe because I needed to.”

  Her brown eyes stared into his blue ones for the space of a heartbeat. Had he been too honest?

  When she smiled, freckles popped across the bridge of her nose. “I’m glad you’re not asking me for answers, because I’m fresh out. I don’t have any left at all.”

  “Sort of like your vegetables.”

  That started them both to laughing, and Caleb realized the knot that had been in his stomach was gone—finally it was gone. Was it because he was with Julia? Or was it because he’d stopped worrying?

  They sat for a few moments, listening to the creek running languidly by.

  “The sound of the water is soothing,” she admitted. “I should walk down to the bank behind our home more often. I used to, before my mother became so ill.”

  “That must be hard.”

  “Actually, it’s probably an excuse. We have a bell, and mamm would ring it if she needed me. It’s easy to forget what things relax you, and easier still to crowd them out of your day.”

  Caleb had always thought sitting in the shade near a creek was restful. It helped to calm his emotions.

  “I suppose I should go back,” she said.

  “Have you…have you given any thought as to what you’re going to do?”

  “I’ve thought of little else.” Her voice had dropped to a whisper, so that he had to bend his head closer to catch her words.

  “And?”

  “And I don’t know.” When she raised her eyes to his, something hit Caleb in the chest with the force of a baseball driven for a homerun.

  “Maybe I can help,” he murmured, reaching out and touching her face, trailing his fingers down her neck.

  “And how would you do that?”

  The words almost didn’t come out. He tried once and again a second time. His throat was so dry he had to swallow in order to find his voice. His mind and his heart filled with images of men crowded around Julia’s table, men standing between him and her. Then that was replaced by Julia sitting next to him in her garden, her eyes red but smiling as she waved him over. Finally, all he could see was Julia, waiting next to him right that moment.

  That image gave him the courage to say, “We could marry.”

  Chapter 8

  Julia stared at Caleb. She tried to think of a response, but her mind had gone completely blank at the word “marry.”

  When Andrew Miller had offered to stop by and help her with her fall garden work, she’d been surprised, but this? She gawked at Caleb in amazement and leaned closer because she was sure she had heard him wrong.

  “It’s not such a crazy idea, Julia. There’s no need to look at me as if I asked you to run off to Hollywood to join the circus.”

  “Did you ask me to marry you? Is that what you just did?”

  “Ya. I suppose so.”

  “You suppose. So you’re not certain.”

  Caleb removed his hat and combed down his hair, an expression of confusion replacing the hopeful one he had been wearing. “I’m certain—”

  “Because I wouldn’t want someone asking me to be their fraa, to join them in sacred union for the rest of our lives…” Julia sprang up from the bench and began pacing in front of him, “…if he wasn’t exactly sure of what he’d asked.”

  “Julia—”

  “One of these days, you might wake up and find yourself married if you’re not careful, Caleb Zook. It could be quite a shock.” Julia heard her voice rising as a sort of nervous hysteria took over, but she couldn’t stop herself.

  A little ways from where they sat, Clara and Seth were walking. As Julia’s voice rose, Clara turned to look at her. Seth tugged on her hand, and they continued around the bend of the river.

  Caleb stood, blocking the route she had been pacing. “If you want to walk, we can. Or maybe you could sit down and we can talk about this.”

  Looking into his eyes—which were calm and amused—settled her, reminding her of the time she’d seen her father speak softly and settle a young colt. Julia closed her eyes, pulled in a deep breath, and nodded. She sat down.

  “I do know what I asked you, but I didn’t know I was going to ask in exactly that way. So I surprised myself as well as you.” Caleb pulled her hand away from her lap and held it in both of his. “I’m sorry I’m not very gut with words, Julia. I suspect you already know this about me, but it won’t change if we do wed. I trip over what I mean to say much as a child stumbles over his first steps, especially if I’m a little nervous. I always have.”

  His honesty was more than charming. It touched a place in her heart she had long kept guarded.

  “Why would you suggest such a thing, Caleb? We barely know each other.”

  He stared out over the creek, but he didn’t release her hand.

  “In some ways that’s true. I don’t know what your favorite pie is or what subject you liked best in school.” He glanced back at her, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. “But I know you plant flowers at the end of your vegetable rows, that you quilt with brighter colors than your mamm, and I would be blind not to see how devoted you are to her.”

  She had to look away then.

  How much more had he noticed? She’d grown accustomed to him delivering their groceries, but she hadn’t realized he’d become attuned to their lives.

  She wished he would stop, but he pushed on, oblivious to her discomfort.

  “I know how well you are regarded within your community, though I’ve been here only a year. It didn’t take long to understand that the people in our congregation think well of you.” Caleb laughed and resettled his hat on his head again, with his left hand because his right was still holding hers. “If Aaron’s word on my reputation isn’t enough, perhaps you’ll want a letter from my bishop back home, though Bishop Atlee has already spoken to him.”

  “I’m flattered—”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “What?” She raised her eyes to his and thought to pull her hand away, but she couldn’t. How long had it been since someone had touched her this way?

  “Don’t say you’re ‘flattered, but…’”

  “I am flattered, but—”

  “You don’t believe, in your heart, that you could learn to care for me in the way a fraa cares for her husband?” His expression grew somber as he studied her.

  “How can I know, Caleb? This is all so sudden. Everything is happening so fast.”

  He nodded as if he understood. The strange thing was, Julia sensed he did.

  Would he be willing to give up his life as it was to marry her? Could he be the answer she had prayed for? He hadn’t said he loved her, but was it possible he might one day?

  “I was thinking the same thing. Seems to me at times life moves slowly, like the waters of Pebble Creek at this moment. Other times, it speeds up and the details of our lives change quickly, like when the rains come and the water rushes down the creek. Remember earlier this year in the spring, when we had a long string of stormy days?”

  Julia nodded, clueless as
to why they were talking about the weather they’d had six months ago.

  “The waters rose so fast and so high that they cut out a new bank on a portion of Aaron’s property. He feared it was a real tragedy at first, but now you should see it—better fishing, a cleaner bank, and a nicer spot all around.”

  He glanced at Julia, squeezed her hand, and then released it.

  “Our lives are like the river?”

  “Maybe.” He shrugged. “Or maybe I’m stumbling over my words again. One thing I’m sure of—Gotte knew what He was doing then. I suspect He knows what He’s doing now.”

  Julia shook her head. “I want to believe that, but this is such a big step. It’s a decision that will last the rest of our lives, all because of some decree my parents made years ago.”

  “Gotte knows our past and our future.” Caleb stood and pulled her to her feet.

  When she raised an eyebrow, he added, “Something my grossdaddi always says.”

  They were quiet on their walk back, but Caleb stopped short of the group of families waiting at the picnic tables.

  “You can tell me it’s none of my business, but…was Aaron asking you the same? Asking you to marry him?”

  “Aaron Miller? Nein. He was offering to work in my garden.”

  The smile that covered his face caused her pulse to race.

  “Take your time deciding, though from what you’ve said it sounds as if you don’t have long. But there’s one more thing I wanted to tell you. I don’t know if it will make a difference. It’s what gave me the courage to speak to you today.”

  Julia stopped fidgeting with the strings of her prayer kapp, and though she felt the eyes of some of her freinden on her, she stepped closer to hear what Caleb was about to say. He seemed more embarrassed even than when he’d first brought up the subject of marriage.

  “I’m a believing man, Julia. I try to follow the Scripture, and of course I’m baptized and a member of the church. I don’t pray as I should, though. I can’t say I actually know how to do it well.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and stared down at the ground. “On the day I was delivering your groceries—”