Sarai looked at her friend thoughtfully. “I never knew you felt that strongly about Englishers.”
“And I hope you won’t tell anyone,” Verna said. “I didn’t talk about it openly, but it was in my heart. I’m embarrassed about my past attitudes. But if I can change, then so can Arden. And if he has, and if he’s ready to be a devoted husband, then it would be a shame for some other girl to benefit from it.”
The very thought of Arden marrying someone else was like gravel in her stomach, and Sarai wondered what her grandmother would think after all her earnest talk about going to see her aunt and uncle.
“I agree, but I was supposed to go to Shipshewana. I was supposed to look for a good match out there.” Sarai swallowed. “I don’t want to go anymore, but I’ll have a lot of explaining to do, and I hate having my heartbreak laid out for all to see.”
“But you wanted the adventure in Shipshewana...” Verna leaned her elbows onto her knees.
“You think I should still go?” Sarai asked miserably. “Because I don’t want to anymore. It won’t be the same. Anywhere without Arden was going to be painful. I think I need to get over him first.”
“I don’t mean you should go to Shipshewana, necessarily. If you want adventure,” Verna said, “I hear Ohio is just brimming with it. There is nothing quite so adventurous as starting a new Amish community.”
Sarai froze, her thoughts swirling. Ohio...with the hardships, the small community struggling to get a foothold, the Englisher neighbors who just wouldn’t understand yet and the financial stresses that would certainly be waiting. Would she be willing to face a life without her father’s credit in the stores, without all of the comforts she took for granted, in order to be in Arden’s arms at the end of a day?
It wouldn’t be an easy life. There would be no safety net of a wide and established community. If she sold eggs, the egg money would be for necessities and not her personal spending. It would be a whole new life. It certainly would be the next step forward, wouldn’t it?
“I would need to learn how to shoot more than a pellet gun,” Sarai murmured.
Verna nudged her arm and smiled. “I think you’d do just fine. If you could trust Arden, that is.”
Sarai stood up, her heart starting to swell with hope. “I need to talk to him...”
Nothing might change. He had plenty of his own reasons to hold back, and she couldn’t alter those. But something had changed for her, and she couldn’t let him go back to Ohio without hearing it.
“I’m sorry to do this to you, but I have to go find Arden,” Sarai said.
“Go!” Verna said, laughing. “I have a knitting class to prepare for anyway.”
And Sarai started across the field toward the Stoltzfus farm. She’d say her piece before he left, and then the rest was in Gott’s hands.
Chapter Thirteen
Arden stood in the stable, his heart pattering in his chest. He closed the stall door, and the horse tucked into a new manger of hay.
He didn’t know how he’d tell Sarai what he was hoping... He had to figure out how. That was his problem. She’d already told him that she had plans to leave Redemption and that she didn’t fully trust him. That was huge!
But he’d talked to her father today and chatted with her mother, and her younger brother had asked him about Ohio, and...and when he’d driven away from the Peachy farm, he’d just known that he had to try once more with Sarai.
Except, how could he ask her to go to Ohio and live so much more simply, giving up all the comforts of her family in Pennsylvania? Would her parents even approve? Surely, they’d hoped for more for her. Just because Job had been kind didn’t mean he’d be willing to see his daughter married to him.
Which left Arden here in the stable, pacing back and forth, trying to string together the feelings inside him into words. And it wasn’t working.
“He’s in the stable, I believe!” Arden heard his grandfather say.
Was someone here? He went to the stable door and pushed it open. Sarai stood there, her hands limp at her sides and her eyes filled with emotion.
“Sarai, are you okay?” he asked.
“I had to talk to you,” she said.
“I had to talk to you, too,” he said. “I was just trying to figure out how.”
Dawdie stood by his rosebush where he’d been clipping some blooms, and he looked over at them with a smile.
“I’m just on my way over to see my fiancée,” he said with a wink. “Don’t mind me.”
Arden chuckled, and Moe ambled off in the direction of the Peachy house. They’d be alone for a little while, at least.
“Sarai, I want you to wait for me,” Arden blurted out.
“You do?”
“Yah. I need you to wait for me... I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’ll prove you can trust me. I love you, Sarai. I’m not the same fool you used to know. I’m a better man now, and maybe you could even ask your father about that. He said he’s heard good things.”
“So did Verna,” Sarai said.
“Good, good! I’m glad. I’ll make sure there’s nothing but good to say about me, but I want to write to you and visit you and court you properly. The thing is, your daet forgave my debt, and he pointed out a thing or two about what it means to be a Christian man. I’m going to accept that kindness on his part, and I’m going to get my start in saving for a wedding.”
“Oh, Arden...” Her chin trembled.
“And...and...” He cast about inside of him. “And maybe you’ll start saving the egg money, too, if you could see a future with me.”
“Yah, I can!” she said. “Arden, you did change. And I do love you, and I was quite afraid of taking a chance on you, but my grandmother pointed out a while ago that this pent-up, frustrated feeling is just being ready for the next step. I’m ready for that with you. You’ve become a good man, and I know it.”
“Are you saying you’d come to Ohio?” he asked. “Would you come help us get the new community established?”
“I’m not as tough as the women out there,” Sarai said.
