A Wedding Quilt for Ella Read Online Free PDF Page A

back from an even faster speed. He was like that—always had more than what he revealed. His body and soul contained strength above what one needed. After a time she learned this—after she understood his heart. She often marveled that God made such a man.
    She fed him shoofly pie that night. He said halfway through, “I don’t really like shoofly pie, but this is good. It must be because you made it.”
    “Aden,” she had gasped and stood to take the plate from him.
    “No, I’ll eat it,” he said, playfully pulling back from her outstretched hands.
    “But you don’t have to eat it. We still have a piece of cherry pie in the cupboard. It’s better than making you eat something you don’t like. I’m so embarrassed.”
    He laughed. “Don’t be. This really does taste good.”
    She sat down on the couch again and watched him finish. The way he ate convinced her he really did like the pie. Either that or he was a really good actor.
    “Can I come again?” he asked at the door when it was time to go.
    She knew then she loved him. She loved him enough to be his wife long before he ever took her hands in his or kissed her. His hands were rugged, rough from his work in the outdoors. He laughed with a full sound as if the joy rolled up from inside of him and his life could never hold all of it.
    Then there was that Sunday night. She was just nineteen. He had said the words, “You will marry me, yah?” Unable to speak, she had nodded.
    He laughed. She had hoped it was for joy and not for her awkward silence at such a moment.
    “If I could, I would marry you tomorrow, Ella. Do you know that? But we have to wait—until we’re both twenty-one.”
    “It’s so long,” she said, clinging to his arm.
    “I know. But you’re worth the wait, worth every minute. To be married to you will be worth it all and then some.”
    She hung her head that night to hide the stars in her eyes from him. How badly she wanted to tell him she was unworthy, that his opinion was too high of her, but the words wouldn’t come, just the rush of emotion as he kissed her again.
    They talked for hours on the backless couch in her living room. The things they found to do, apparently other couples weren’t that interested in doing. Together they took walks by the river at the bottom of Seager Hill. In the winter snow, they made snowmen on Sunday afternoons. They stood by his buggy and talked about the stars, argued about what they were called, and even visited the library in Randolph to find evidence for their arguments.
    They visited his grossmom who lived in the dawdy haus behind his parents’ place. They stopped the buggy once to listen to Englisha Christmas carolers singing outside a house.
    “They are beautiful, those songs, even if they are Englisha songs,” he said. “Da Hah in heaven might even listen to something so nice.”
    “Yah,” she said in astonishment.
    “The whole earth is beautiful, is it not?” he said. “Did not Da Hah make it all without the help of man? So who is to say He doesn’t like beautiful things?”
    She shivered. “You must not say such things. Preacher Stutzman might hear you. You should be careful with your words.”
    He laughed. “These are words for your ears only. You draw them out of my heart. We won’t speak such things to Preacher Stutzman. And if you knew the truth, Preacher Stutzman is a nice man. You just have to get to know him.”
    He pulled her tight against him in the buggy so that she felt the warmth of his arm even through the blanket.
    “Da Hah couldn’t have made a more beautiful girl than you if He tried,” he said. “I can’t wait until you’re my wife. I can’t imagine how I deserve such a thing. I will build a house, Ella, just for you. It will be a great big house, one with plenty of rooms for love…and for all our children.”
    “Stop it,” she told him. “Such nonsense you speak, and I am just a common, ordinary girl with plenty of faults like everyone else. If you