Homespun Bride

didn’t see how he was going to be able to get the words out.
    Maybe it was best to talk about the land sale, as she’d asked. “It’s a stroke of luck that this section came up for sale. I’ve signed papers too fancy for me to read, and I still don’t believe it.”
    “It’s not luck.” She said it with confidence. “That land was intended for you.”
    Faith wasn’t what he’d come to talk about, but it was the truth. It had to be the truth. The hard journey of the past five years had led him here, to this shining, shimmering hope. God had been watching over him after all. Knowing that gave him courage.
    “I have something for you.” He placed the wrapped package into her hand. “It’s for Valentine’s Day.”
    “ What? No, this can’t be—”
    “It’s for you.” She sure looked surprised. “Go on. Open it.”
    “But, Thad I—”
    “No arguments.” He was out of words, so he knelt before her. “Aren’t you curious about your present?”
    “All right.” Her fingertips inched across the spine of the volume. “Is it a book? ”
    Thad lifted it for her, because it was heavy. “You’re thinking, this is an odd gift since you can’t see to read, am I right?”
    “I can have Matilda read it to me.” She unfolded the paper to reveal the black leather cover.
    “No need for that.” He opened the thick vellum pages with care and slid the book onto her knees. “This is one book you can read. It’s raised print. Go on, you can feel the title.”
    “It’s the Book of Psalms.” She turned toward him and it wasn’t only tears that stood in her eyes. He saw her heart and her soul, all she was, all wrapped up in surprise and joy. “I love the psalms.”
    “You always did.” It did him good to see her so happy. He loved her without end. He would do anything for her. The need to cherish and protect her left him iron-strong. Now all he had to do was ask the question, and she would be his. His intended, his fiancée for all the world to see, and soon enough, his wife.
    His wife. That would have brought him to his knees, if he wasn’t there already. “I remember how much you used to love to read, especially your Bible.”
    “This is extremely thoughtful. And expensive.”
    He brushed the tendrils away from her sweet face. “Go on, give it a try.”
    Her sensitive fingertips skimmed over the top of the page and found the raised numeral. Her face brightened until all her heart shone sweetly. “It’s the twenty-third psalm. I can feel the letters. Why, I can read them. ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’”
    “How does it feel to be reading again?”
    “It’s an answered prayer.” Happiness filled her cometely. “‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.’”
    “Glad you like it.”
    “Like it? This is—” She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know what it is. It’s—just. Thank you.”
    Those tears broke him open completely.
    God, if you’re listening, a little guidance would be a help. Thad swallowed, not expecting to be heard for he knew the Lord was busy, but he asked anyway. He covered her hands with his, psalm book and all.
    Noelle leaned closer to him, her unspoken question on her face. The soft gray daylight kissed her sweetly, or maybe it was his own love for her making her seem so dear, so perfect in all the ways that mattered.
    “Noelle, some things have changed an awful lot in the five years since I’ve been gone. Surely both of us have.” He had to take a pause because his heart was beating as though he was running on a steep uphill slope.
    “Thad, you sound so serious.”
    “That’s because I’ve never been more serious or more sure.” Nothing had mattered so much before this moment. He gathered up his strength and kept going. “I want the job of making you happy for our lifetimes to come. I want to be with you in those green pastures. Marry me.”
    “What? What did you say?”
    “Marry me, Noelle.” His tone was complete love and pure wonder. “Be my wife.”
    “Wife?” She repeated the word blankly. Her mind was like a midnight fog. Nothing seemed to penetrate it. “You want to m-marry me?”
    “You needn’t sound quite so horrified,” he quipped. “This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Isn’t that what we talked about last night?”
    “What talk?” Panic crept up her spine like hungry ants at a picnic. Noelle vaguely felt the book slide off