He turned the horse onto the road in the direction of the town of Redemption, and the buggy wheels bumped up onto the pavement for a smoother ride.
“You?” She shook her head. “You don’t hold me back, Arden. But Lizzie did get married, and she found another man who was brazen and brash and very forward. And she’s lived to regret that choice.”
“He can’t be that bad,” he said. How bad did a man have to be for a woman to regret marrying him?
“He is. He’s selfish. He doesn’t listen to Lizzie. He wants to be right all the time. He makes foolish choices and won’t take her input. He openly flirts with other women, too. I’ve seen her cry more often than I’ve seen her smile.”
Lizzie Peachy had been a pretty, sweet girl. “I’m sorry it turned out that way. Who did she marry?”
“His name is Paul Swarey. He’s from Bird in Hand, and she comes to visit us much more often than a happy wife would.”
So no one he knew. If he’d known the man, he might have paid him a visit and told him that people were talking and he’d better shape up. But who knew what the men who’d known him even thought of him now.
“Anyway, I’ve been watching and learning,” she went on. “And I don’t want to end up like Lizzie. I realized that it isn’t just about finding someone who wants to marry you. It’s about finding someone worthy of a lifelong vow. That’s much harder.”
Sarai had always been a bit of a know-it-all, but he was noticing something now: she was scared. That was what this was. She was scared of getting married, and so she tried to be an armchair expert on the topic.
“And that’s why you’re single still?” he asked, softening his tone. “You’re being cautious?”
“Of course I’m careful!” she said. “I know what I stand to lose if I make the wrong choice.”
“Or what you stand to gain if you make the right one,” he countered.
She didn’t answer.
“You get quiet when I’m right,” he said, but he cast her a smile to soften the words.
“Gott will bring me the right man,” she said. “I believe that.”
Fair enough. He’d been praying that Gott would provide him the right kind of woman, too, but he wasn’t sure how to go about finding her. Anyone who knew about his youth wasn’t about to risk her future with him, and the ones who’d only met him in Ohio saw a man who didn’t make much money and didn’t have roots in the area deep enough for them to ask around about him. The right woman was going to have to see deeper on her own.
But Sarai wasn’t only a good, hardworking woman. She was also stunningly beautiful. She would have her pick of men—he knew how this worked. And she’d been well provided for all these years. Women like Sarai had expectations of their own.
Arden flicked the reins, speeding the horse up to a trot. The road was familiar; this area had a feel all its own. It was in his blood. Overhanging branches tickled the top of his buggy, leaves scraping softly overhead until they emerged onto clear road once more.
“My grandfather says you all have a matchmaker out here now,” he said.
“Yah. Adel Knussli.”
“Have you considered using her?” he asked.
“I have other plans, actually,” she said.
“Yah? Like what?”
She eyed him for a moment. “I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
“Fine.” It shouldn’t matter to him, but he wished she would. He was curious about the plans a woman like her made for herself.
“I’m good at running a business, you know,” she said after a moment of silence. “I have a knack for it. I can see how the money works. That sounds crass, but I can see it. I can see how expenses and income work together, and how to set things up to appeal to what people want. And it’s...it’s not fun, exactly...”
“No?” He glanced over at her.
“Okay, maybe it is fun,” she said. “But it’s more than fun. It’s very satisfying. It’s like when you put together one of those wooden puzzles and the pieces fall into place with that perfect click.”
“That is satisfying,” he agreed.
“The wife in Proverbs 31 works hard, you know,” she went on. “She’s smart and capable and runs businesses. So you might say I’m not being very feminine, but I say I’m using the gifts Gott gave me.”
He heard something defensive in her tone, and he’d met enough insecure men to feel like he could see exactly what had happened.
“So who told you you were being unfeminine by being better at business than him?” he asked with a small smile.
She looked over at him in surprise.
“Come on,” he coaxed. “Just tell me.”
“Abram Yoder.” She rolled her eyes. “But don’t you use that for common gossip, Arden. I shouldn’t have said.”
“And was he taking you out driving at the time?” he asked.
“Yah. But it didn’t last past two drives.”
What a shortsighted fool Abram Yoder was. “Was he the kind of man you wanted?”
“Until he told me I should focus on my cooking and leave the money to a man, I thought he was. He’s got a very good roofing business, and he’s serious and focused, but...”
“He didn’t appreciate your skills,” he finished for her.
