The news made her smile. “That is a special gift, to be sure. Every girl, no matter what her age, likes having her own keeping chest.” Katie remembered when she’d received her own trunk. Her daed and Henry had worked on it for months, smoothing and sanding and staining the oak until it was a rich, burnished coppery-brown. She’d been so surprised and touched to see it on her fourteenth birthday.
Over the years, she’d put all kinds of things inside. Quilts, candle holders, a particularly fine basket. A recipe box. All of those treasures were currently waiting for the day when she would become a bride.
“I hope Mary will like it. As I said, she’s a bit young for such a thing, but I’ve been thinking she needs something of her own right now. Something that will be lasting and solid.”
“I agree. She will love the chest. But just as important, she will love it because you made it for her.”
His lips turned up. “I’m glad you came with me, Katie. Ever since we argued, I’ve felt bad about things.”
“I have, too. I can be too outspoken and insensitive to other people’s feelings.”
“I have not noticed that. As for me, I need to remember to ask your opinions. I’ve become too used to only taking my own advice. It has not always served me well. We live in a community for a reason. I need to learn to grasp the hands that reach out toward me.”
Katie thought that was a fine way of putting it. All obstacles in life would be easier to manage if help was accepted. “Jonathan, if it is okay with you, I’d like to treat today as a new beginning. We have much in common and much to be thankful for. Too much to be constantly bickering.”
To her great relief, Jonathan nodded. “I would like that.” Shyly, he glanced in her direction. “I would enjoy a new…a new beginning for us, Katie. Back when I came to your home, to ask you to help with the girls, I said that I had no need to think about a future, about a wife. Now I realize how wrong that was. Your presence has encouraged me to see the world and all of its glories again. I feel like our Heavenly Father has given me a second chance.”
Once again, Katie’s heart fluttered. What was he saying? That he wanted a future with her? Or that he wanted another woman as a bride one day?
She gripped the side of the wagon as they traveled across the snow, their path leaving a thick trail behind them. After a few more moments Jonathan halted Blacky and assisted her out of the wagon. Then side by side they tromped through the thicket of trees, stopping and staring at each one and giving it either a yes or no.
Playfully Katie stood in front of an especially tall tree…its height was far over ten feet and its branches looked wide enough to fill a whole room. “What do you think about this one, Jonathan?” she asked, all innocence. “Do you think there might be enough wood here for Mary’s trunk?”
“Why…well, hum.”
“It’s a nice, sturdy tree, yes?”
“Yes.” It was hard for Katie to keep her expression neutral as Jonathan obviously struggled to give the tree a close inspection. “It’s tall, that’s for sure.”
“And very full.”
After a pause, he knelt on one knee and patted the trunk. “You chose well, but I had in mind something a fair bit smaller.”
“I’m only teasing you, Jonathan,” she said, unable to keep from laughing. “I know it’s far too big.”
To her pleasure, he laughed, too. “I was getting worried. And poor Blacky—he would have had a time pulling it.”
“We would have had to rig you up to pull, too!”
“I’m glad you don’t really want this tree, then.”
Her mirth vanished in an instant. “You would have chopped it down if I’d asked you to?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t have wanted to hurt your feelings.”
Now she felt bad. “Oh.”
Almost tenderly, he gazed at her. “I didn’t ask you to accompany me just to ignore your opinions.”
Her pulse quickened. “You didn’t?”
“No.” He bent down, brushed some snow off a boot, then quick as a cricket, flicked a bit of snow from a nearby pine her way. “I took you out here to get the best of you, too!”
When the cold, wet snow hit her right on her nose, she gasped. To her surprise, he had the nerve to sound dismayed. “Oh, I am sorry, Katie. I didn’t realize a little bit of snow would bother you so much. Henry told me you have had your share of snowball fights.”
“Oh! I’ll show you! Henry taught me well.” Her first throw caught him off guard when it landed right in the middle of his chest.