Wild Heart on the Prairie (A Prairie Heritage, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

slender, fit perfectly in his arms.
    Her love for him was like that, too. She “fit” him and
completed him, touching and healing him in his deepest parts.
    “Elli, you know when we go to America life will be hard,
even harder than here?” he breathed into her silky hair. “We don’t know what we
will face. Will you regret it, my love? Will you regret leaving your parents
and søster so far behind? Our children never seeing their grandparents?”
    She snuggled closer to Jan. “You know, my ektemann ,
my husband,” she replied softly, “that I love you more than my life. I,
I am like . . . Ruth! And you,” she giggled, “are my Naomi.”
    He chuckled and kissed her forehead. She was quiet and still
in his arms for so long that Jan thought she had slipped away into slumber.
    But then she whispered again, her words raw with tears. “Jan,
this is truth: Where you go, I will go; and where you live, I will live: your people
shall be my people, and your God my God. And where you die, my husband, I will
die, and there will I be buried.” She lifted her face to him. “This is truth.”
    Jan kissed her deeply and then buried his face in the warm
crook of her neck. “My dear wife! You are God’s greatest blessing to me in this
life.”
    With God to lead him and Elli to love him, Jan found
strength and hope each morning.
     
    The clacking of the train over the tracks brought Jan back
to the present and, as he had learned to do every time he began to fret over their
coming journey, he took a deep breath and prayed. Lord, again I place our
journey in your hands. I trust you. Where you lead us, we will go. You have
promised to never leave nor forsake us .
    Then peace came again to his heart.
     
    He must have dozed off. The sound of vomiting and coughing woke
him.
    Karl sat across from them staring ahead, his forehead
creased a little. He sighed.
    “ Mor has a bad tummy,” Sigrün confided in her loudest
whisper. Karl shushed her gently.
    Jan crooked an eyebrow. “Should we congratulate you?” he
asked his brother under his breath.
    Elli ‘tsked’ and pinched his arm. Karl just shook his head
and rubbed his tired eyes. A few moments later Amalie reappeared from behind
the curtain. Elli silently handed a dampened cloth to her.
    “Ach! I am sorry,” Amalie muttered.
    “Maybe this one will be a boy, eh, Søster ?” Jan said
with a straight face.
    Amalie blushed furiously and Karl shot him a dark look.
    “This one what?” Kristen asked innocently.
    Elli shook her head at the girl, but Jan could not help himself.
He quivered with laughter, even though he tried to hold it in. Grinning at Karl
and Amalie he made an attempt to apologize, but sniggered instead.
    Perhaps it was the strain of the past weeks, but it felt
good to laugh, to rejoice in what was ahead. He was happy, and was not a new
baby something to rejoice over?
    So he laughed. Karl tried to be serious and quell him with a
look, but it had the opposite effect. Jan laughed so hard he could not catch
his breath. Then Elli giggled and hiccupped, which only caused Jan to laugh
harder. Tears leaked down his face.
    Karl could hold out no longer. He chuckled, burst into
laughter, and slapped Jan on the leg. The children, knowing only that their
parents were laughing uncontrollably about something, joined them.
    Amalie smiled, too. “Perhaps so, Bror ,” she relented.
“It would be nice for a little Karl to be the first Thoresen born in America, nei ?”
    “ Pappa , can we sing?” Kristen looked at him with
hopeful eyes.
    “What? Are you tired and bored from riding on this train?”
Jan teased.
    “Oh, yes, Pappa ! Please! Can we sing?” she wheedled,
batting her wide blue eyes at him.
    Jan laughed and Elli shook her head. Karl rolled his eyes.
    “You have no idea what is ahead with your little datter , Bror ,” Jan teased him.
    He placed Kristen on his lap and smoothed her long braids. “ Ja ,
little one. We can sing!” He started a merry folk song best