The Preacher's Bride by Jody Hedlund Read Free Book Online

stay, and she didn’t want to give him the opportunity to send her home.
    Elizabeth glanced to Mary under one of the apple trees with Johnny snuggled on her lap. He sucked the thumb of one hand and with the other fingered the edges of Mary’s curls. Thomas slept near Mary on a bed of blankets, quiet for the moment. Her gentle lilting voice rose and fell with the drama of David and Goliath—the story Johnny always asked her to tell.
    “Momma is a good name.” Betsy stood so that she was at eye level. “Don’t you agree?”
    “Oh, Betsy, Momma is a wonderful name.” She brushed her hand against the girl’s cheek. “But it can only belong to the woman married to your father.”
    Betsy’s eyebrows furrowed.
    Did a mind as young as Betsy’s even comprehend marriage? Elizabeth stroked her cheek trying to think of another way to explain.
    “So if you marry Father, then I could call you Momma?”
    “Well, yes, but ’tis not that easy—”
    “Then you must marry my father.” Betsy shook the dirt from her skirt. “I shall go ask him this instant.”
    “Oh—no, no, love.” Elizabeth jumped up and grabbed Betsy’s arm before she could dart away. “ ’Tis much more complicated than that.”
    “I shall make it easy.” The girl squirmed under Elizabeth’s firm grip. “I promise.”
    “Let me tell you about marriage.” Elizabeth lowered herself back to the ground and pulled Betsy onto her lap.
    The girl settled herself and peered up at Elizabeth with wide eyes.
    “ ’Tis like this.” Where did she start?
    Her gaze wandered around the garden with its freshly turned soil and tiny sprouts showing in places. She had planted her own family’s cottage plot more than a month ago but was only now bringing order to the Costins’.
    To besure she could plant a garden. But she was not the most qualified candidate for giving a marriage lecture. She was only a maiden and would herself benefit from such a talk.
    “ ’Tis not easy to explain.”
    Betsy’s eyes didn’t waver from hers.
    She must do this or have the girl run to her father proposing marriage betwixt them. “The Bible says a believer is not to be yoked to an unbeliever. This is the most important consideration.”
    “You’re a believer. Father’s a believer.”
    “But there must also be the weighing of character—two people who share values, virtue, and godliness.”
    “You’re godly. Father’s godly. You see, there’s nothing to stop you from marrying him. I shall go tell him this is what he must do.”
    Elizabeth wrapped her arms tighter around the girl. The conversation wasn’t going as planned.
    “No, love. You mustn’t go to your father about this. There must also be a mutual consent, a willing partnership of both the woman and the man, a liking of one to the other.”
    At this Betsy was silent.
    “Notwithstanding, I’m already courting another man.”
    The girl studied Elizabeth’s face, as if trying to comprehend the magnitude of this revelation.
    Thomas’s whimpering turned louder, the sign that his belly needed the nourishment she struggled to provide. Mary deposited Johnny and picked up the babe. She was proving to be a greater help than Elizabeth had anticipated.
    “Do you love him?”
    “Love who?”
    “Do you love the man you will marry? I know my mother and my father loved each other. I heard ’em say it.”
    Did she love Samuel Muddle? She’d never pretended to feel anything even near attraction for the man. Theirs was a practical match. That was all. She didn’t have dreams about gaining a man’s love or attention. That was reserved for pretty women like Jane and Catherine, whom men watched and admired—or a woman like Mary Costin, who had gained the adoration of John.
    “Well,” the girl said, “do you love him?”
    “No, I don’t love him. He’s a good man, and perhaps with the passing of years we’ll learn to have affection for each other. But love isn’t always something that accompanies marriage