"Saints we're not," she whispered when Daisy settled again.
"Not even you?"
"Especially not me. You know I'm nosy and impatient—"
"No!" he said sharply. "That's not true."
Her eyebrows shot up at his vehemence.
"I might have thought that in the beginning. But you're just inquisitive . . . eager to understand. And you're one of the kindest people I know. So don't go putting yourself down."
He got to his feet, avoiding her startled glance, and took a closer look at Daisy. Then he met her eyes. "I'll go if you want me to."
She hesitated for a moment. "Like I said, we shouldn't be alone together."
Now it was his turn to raise his brows. "Surely it's not right to leave a woman alone in a barn all night."
She lifted her shoulders and then let them fall. "No. Matthew offered to come over, but I didn't want him to. He needs his sleep during a busy time like this." She sighed. "Stay for a while. It's nice to have company."
He sat again and after a moment, they began talking again, only this time, they talked about the horses, the harvest, the weather. Everyday stuff. Nothing deep and personal.
The long day under the sun, the physical work, and the big dinner Jenny had served him finally took its toll. Chris felt himself doing what his buddies called "chicken pecking"— falling asleep and the minute the chin touches the chest you jerk awake. He told himself he should just give in and go to bed, but it didn't seem fair to leave a woman alone in the barn in the middle of the night caring for a sick horse.
So he joked and apologized and accepted the coffee she made and brought out for them.
She'd said she was just staying up a little while longer but clearly she wasn't leaving, too worried about the horse. He was convinced he could pull an all-nighter. After all, he'd done it during his military duty. Hannah was keeping her eyes open.He became determined to do so too.
He dreamed.
It was one of those dreams where you knew you were sleeping.Where you tried to wake yourself up. But you kept on dreaming because it was so pleasant where you were.
Chris walked through the field of corn, the sun warm on his shoulders, the sky a bright blue overhead.
If there was any place he felt at home, this was it. And this was his home at last. He'd plowed the fields in the way it had been done for so many years, here in Lancaster County. Planted the seed. Nurtured and prayed over it. Then given to God the glory of the bountiful harvest.
His feet sank a little into the soft soil as he walked down a row of cornstalks, healthy and tall and green, topped by golden tassels. He pulled down an ear, shucked its green covering to reveal the kernels within, and smiled and nodded with satisfaction.
He grew several crops, as did Matthew on the adjoining farm, but corn was his favorite. It reminded him of all the happy years he'd enjoyed growing up on the family farm in Kansas. He couldn't wait to harvest the corn and try out the first ears, boiling them in a huge metal pot right out in the fields the way his father had always done. They'd be served with real butter slathered on them and be almost enough to eat all by themselves.
But of course Hannah wouldn't allow that. She'd insist that they had to have something else: some fried or baked chicken and her special potato salad. And, of course, some pie. She'd become quite a baker since she'd lived with Phoebe. She was considered one of the top bakers in the community, and that was saying something with all the fabulous cooks here.
A flock of birds flew up suddenly, and he saw Hannah walking toward him, smiling. The fall breeze fluttered the strings to her kapp and molded the fabric of her dress against her body, outlining her shape. Her lips were parted in a smile that reached all the way to her blue eyes.
The ear of corn fell from his hands and he began walking toward her, meeting her halfway.
He cupped her cheeks in his hands, marveling at the softness of her skin. She gazed at him with such love. What had he ever done to deserve her? When he'd first come here, he thought life had dealt him a really rough deal, that somehow he'd been punished for doing what he thought was the right thing.
But now? Well, now he had everything he could ever hope for: a healing of his spirit, and the true peace that came with knowing God loved him, not just this woman.
Everything else was better than he could have ever imagined . . . he and Hannah owned this farmhouse and land since Phoebe had offered to sell it to them after they were married and move into the dawdi haus at the back of Matthew and Jenny's farmhouse. He had friends and family who loved him, who welcomed him into their church, their lives, their community.
Hannah kissed him fervently, surprising him. They'd exchanged kisses, of course, since they had become engaged.But she'd never shown him quite so powerfully how much she had missed him that day.