Second Chance Proposal

by Anna Schmidt

  “Of course,” she had mused, “if the twins are one of each...”

  “Twins?” he had exclaimed hardly able to believe what he was hearing.

  “So, Dr. Benson seems to believe.”

  The one thing that John had insisted on from her first pregnancy was that the doctor should manage everything. “I will not have Hilda Yoder catching our babies,” he declared. “Something could go wrong and I will take no chances on your health or the child’s.”

  To Lydia’s surprise Hilda had been in complete agreement with John’s decree. “Times are changing, Lydia,” she had said when Lydia tried to explain John’s wishes without hurting the older woman’s feelings. “And you are not so young anymore yourself. John is being very wise.”

  “Maybe you should call Dr. Benson...” Lydia said to John.

  He turned back toward the hardware store and shouted, “Call for the doctor, Tante Gert. The twins are coming.”

  It thrilled Lydia to hear the tone of pure unadulterated joy with which he delivered this news. “Well, you don’t have to tell the entire town,” she teased, and started to rise from the chair.

  “Just sit there,” he ordered as he knelt next to her. He dipped the towel she’d wiped her hands with into the bucket of water they kept on the back porch for washing up and wiped her forehead. “Where is that doctor?” he muttered after no more than five minutes had passed.

  “He’ll be here,” Lydia assured him and took hold of his hand, forcing his attention to her face. “John, I know it’s before my time, but I am sure that God knows best. Pray with me until the doctor arrives.” It warmed her heart knowing how John had settled into the strength of their faith following their marriage. Together they had built a home and were raising a family and they were doing both with the support and bond that they had found together in their congregation and community.

  He folded the towel and laid it across her forehead and then took both of her hands in his and bowed his head.

  * * *

  John had prayed often in his life. Early on his prayers had been selfish pleas for something he wanted or felt he needed. In those earlier years when he had left Celery Fields he had prayed for God to make Liddy come to her senses and understand that everything he was doing was for her, for them. But since marrying Liddy his prayers had all focused on the well-being of Liddy and the children.

  And he believed with all his heart that God had heard his prayers. Over the past five years his business had blossomed and enough new families had moved to the area that the elders had announced plans to build and open a new school. Bettina would be the teacher, since Liddy’s time was taken up with their children and managing their household as well as taking orders and keeping the books for his business. Their son, Joshua, would be in the first class to occupy the new building, one that John had worked side by side with their neighbors to build.

  So God had blessed them many times over, so much so that when Liddy warned him that hard times were bound to come again, he had assured her that they could weather any storm as long as they were together. But hard times came in many disguises, he realized as he held on to Liddy’s hands. It was too soon for the babies to come and the doctor had warned them both of the danger of another pregnancy at her age.

  Please, God, we need her—the children and I. Please let the twins be all right and protect Liddy.

  He opened his eyes, first checking on Liddy, who sat with her eyes closed and the sweetest smile on her face. Then he turned his gaze toward the lane that passed their house, willing the sound of the doctor’s automobile even as he saw his aunt crossing the space between the hardware store and their house at a run. “He’s coming,” she called out. “He’s on his way.”

  In the moment John realized that what had seemed like hours had in fact only been a matter of minutes since he’d first seen Liddy grab for the door frame and grimace in pain. “Her water...” he said when Gert stepped onto the porch and knelt beside him.

  “It’s only a little,” Lydia told Gert.

  But Gert—having never had children of her own—tended toward hysteria in times like this. “Roger Amman!” she shouted. “Leave the store and come now.”

  In seconds John saw his uncle running toward the house.

  “Let’s get her inside out of this hot sun,” Gert ordered as she held open the screen door and waited for the two men to help Liddy inside.

  “I can walk on my own,” Lydia protested.

  By the time they reached the bedroom Gert had already prepared the bed for the birthing by lining the mattress with newspapers and padding. “Lay her down here.”

  “Truly, you are all getting ahead of yourselves,” Lydia fumed.

  The sound of a car outside had them turning toward the open window. “That’ll be the doctor,” Roger muttered, and headed back through the house to meet him.

  As the doctor came through the front door, Pleasant and Greta came through the back and suddenly the bedroom that John had always thought spacious was so filled with people that he had no choice but to stand in the doorway trying to see his wife.

  “Liddy, I’m here,” he said, and the others turned to him.

  “Come,” Pleasant urged, making a place for him as they crowded around the bed. “She needs your strength, John Amman. She needs to know you are here with her.”

  “I would never leave her,” John replied, annoyed at the implication that there was cause for Liddy to doubt his devotion.

  Pleasant placed her hand gently on his forearm, forcing him to look at her. She smiled. “I know that, John. There was a time when I doubted that you....” She sniffed loudly and pursed her lips. “I was wrong.”

  It was as close as Pleasant Troyer would ever come to an outright apology and John understood that. He patted her hand and then turned his attention back to his wife.

  “This is ridiculous,” she said, ignoring her family and addressing the doctor.

  “Tell me about the pain,” he said. “When did it begin?”

  “Twenty minutes ago and there’s been nothing since,” she reported. “Now...” She started to raise herself up from the bed, but Dr. Benson gently pushed her back.

  “Lie still please. We have work to do here and then you can go do whatever you seem to be in such a worry to take care of.”

  John was not at all sure that he liked the doctor’s brusque tone, but it seemed to work. Liddy fell back onto the pillows and almost immediately she grimaced and half sat up as a fresh pain grabbed her. John glanced at the doctor.

  “Now Herr Amman, you know well enough how this goes. She’s going to have some pain. You can either hold her hand and offer her comfort or wait out there,” he told John as he indicated the hallway outside the bedroom.

  “I will not leave her,” John said. “Tell me what is needed and let me help.”

  Dr. Benson glanced at Pleasant, who nodded. “Very well, position yourself behind her there so that she is partially sitting up and leaning against you. If you start to feel queasy you will need to fight against that. The only person whose comfort matters right now is your wife’s and once we begin you cannot leave her. Understood?”

  “This is not my first time doing this,” John grumbled as he positioned himself at the head of the bed and pulled Lydia against him. “I’m not going anywhere,” he added in a tone that defied anyone to dispute him. Then he leaned close to Liddy’s ear and repeated his promise. “Ever again.” He smoothed back her hair after Greta took away her prayer covering and handed him a cloth that she had dipped in cold water. Recalling the births of their two older children, he prepared himself for a long siege of Liddy fighting gripping pain followed by long periods of her collapsed in exhaustion against him. It had taken nearly twelve hours to bring Joshua into this world and seven for Rose.

  He tightened his embrace on Lydia as she cried o
ut and the doctor ordered her to push. In what seemed only a matter of a few seconds the doctor handed Pleasant a bundle that John realized was their child.

  “A boy,” Pleasant told him, her face wreathed in smiles as the doctor cut the cord and she handed the child to Greta for washing.

  “And here comes the other one,” Dr. Benson announced.

  * * *

  The second child was a girl and once freed of the umbilical cord that had wrapped itself around her neck, she let the world know with her cries that she had fought her way into a world that she clearly intended to take by storm. Once again Pleasant handed the child to Greta and turned back to assist the doctor.

  Lydia could not recall a time when she had felt quite so filled with joy—or quite so exhausted. She closed her eyes.

  “Liddy,” John whispered.

  “She’ll need her rest,” Lydia heard the doctor say as he completed his work.

  “I’ll be fine,” Lydia insisted, forcing her eyes open and holding out her arms to receive her babies.

  Dr. Benson handed Pleasant a vial of pills and gave her instructions for administering them. “I’ll stop by later tonight,” he said.

  Lydia barely heard him as she and John cradled the newest members of their family. “They’re so very small,” John murmured.

  “They’ll be bigger soon enough,” Pleasant advised as she and Greta continued to clear away the refuse from the birthing.

  “Do you...did you and Lydia choose names?” Greta asked as she bent down for a closer look at the red-faced infants.

  “Noah and Ruth,” Lydia and John said in unison, and then they both laughed.

  Pleasant laid out a fresh nightgown for Lydia, her take-charge demeanor reminding them all that the world did not stop even for the birthing of twins. “Go get yourself cleaned up and have something to eat, John,” she ordered. “Gert has made some supper for you. Greta and I will take care of things here while you and Luke tend to the chores and keep Joshua and Rose occupied.”

  “You won’t leave her,” John cautioned.

  “Not for an instant,” Pleasant promised.

  “John Amman, there is work to be done and children to be fed,” Lydia instructed. “Now go.”

  Gently John handed baby Noah to Greta and eased himself from behind Liddy. He walked to the door and then turned around and walked back to her, grinning. “You’d think at a time like this you might be the one to take orders not give them,” he teased as he kissed her temple.

  * * *

  Lydia could not seem to open her eyes although she tried to do so. She could hear the low murmur of John’s voice from somewhere very close to her and yet he seemed so very far away.

  She felt a damp breeze pass over her and realized that somewhere a window was open. She could smell lemons mingling with the telltale scent of baby oil.

  The babies!

  She was very tired and so much wanted to sink back into the sleep that called to her. But her children needed her—her four precious children. John was hopeless when it came to managing the children. They would be spoiled rotten in no time if he were left to tend to them. Look how he had spoiled Joshua and Rose already. The man could refuse them nothing and those children knew it. She felt a smile play over her parched lips. On the other hand they were good children, caring of each other and their many cousins and friends. So what if John gave in to their pleas for one more story at bedtime or one more slice of cake because they had indeed finished eating all their vegetables?

  She forced her eyes open and waited for the hazy image of him to clear. He was sitting in the rocking chair he’d clearly brought inside from the porch. “Well, hello there. It’s about time you came back to us. Were you planning to sleep through the first year of our babies’ lives?”

  “I have always been right here and you know it.” She was upset with herself for having left all the work to others. “You are the one who left, not once but twice.”

  He smiled and sat on the bed next to her. “Are you never going to let that go, Lydia Amman?”

  “Probably not,” she said as she reached up and cupped his cheek. “Otherwise, you might just forget how miserable you were without me.”

  “And were you not just as miserable without me?”

  She stroked his face, smoothed back his hair and then placed her fingertips against his lips. “I thought that I might die from that misery,” she said.

  “Then it is good that God saw fit to lead us back to each other every time,” John murmured as he leaned in to kiss her.

  “The babies? I mean it was early and...”

  “Noah and Ruth are fine, Liddy. Doc Benson was here while you were sleeping and has pronounced them hale and hearty.”

  “Bring them to me.”

  “You’re sure you don’t need more rest?”

  “Oh, John, what I need is my family—you and the children.”

  “All right, but if you tire...I’m going,” he promised when she presented him with the expression she had perfected in all her years of teaching to get her students to follow her instructions.

  He was gone only a minute and then back, a baby cradled in each powerful arm and their two older children peeking at her shyly from next to him. Behind him Pleasant and Greta peered in, their faces wreathed in smiles.

  Before she could say a word, all of them were crowded around the bed. John handed her a bundle. “Your son Noah,” he said, even as the bundle still in his arms started to writhe and fuss. “And this,” he said, pulling back the covers from the second baby’s face, “is your daughter Ruth, and I fear that she is going to be very much like her mother.”

  “God willing,” Lydia murmured as she held out her free arm to receive her daughter. They were perfect, she saw as she examined them. And as Joshua and Rose scrambled onto the bed and took up places on either side of her, Lydia met John’s gaze.

  He looked a good deal like the man she had found kneeling next to the stove at the schoolhouse that morning. His clothing was just as rumpled and his hair was as tousled as it had been that day. But this time his unkempt appearance was not because he had been away from her for eight long years. It was because he had been—and with God’s blessing would be right there at her side—for years to come.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Cowboy's Surprise Bride by Linda Ford

  Dear Reader,

  And so we come to the fourth and final “bride” in our Amish Brides of Celery Fields series. Lydia has played a part in most of the other three stories so it was time for her to have her happy ending. She almost misses it—not once but twice! I hope you love Lydia’s story as much as I loved helping her find her way to true love. And I hope if you haven’t already read them, you will return to the fictional Florida village of Celery Fields to read the stories of Hannah (HANNAH’S JOURNEY), Pleasant (FAMILY BLESSINGS) and Greta (A GROOM FOR GRETA).

  It has been my joy to create this wonderful family of women and this inspiring community of Celery Fields. Please stop by my website at www.booksbyanna.com or write me the old-fashioned way at P.O. Box 161, Thiensville, WI 53092 to let me know which “bride’s story” was your favorite!

  All best wishes to you!

  Questions for Discussion

  God’s will be done is a recurrent theme throughout this story. Name some examples.

  In what ways was Lydia’s life changed by John’s leaving when they were both younger?

  In what ways might it have been different and how would that have affected his return?

  How does John’s reason for leaving the second time differ from his going the first time?

  Both Lydia and John are people of strong faith, but how do their beliefs differ?

  How did John attem
pt to prove his love for Lydia throughout the story?

  How did Lydia learn to trust in John’s love for her?

  Have you been in any relationship (romantic, friendship, etc.) where trust or the lack of it became an issue? If so, how did you resolve that?

  How did John really feel about “outsiders”?

  The Amish faith is rooted in forgiveness. Give examples of ways that were illustrated throughout the story among the people of Celery Fields.

  What do you think it means to truly forgive another person?

  Talk about a time when you had to forgive or were forgiven.

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Historical title.

  You find illumination in days gone by. Love Inspired Historical stories lift the spirit as heroines tackle the challenges of life in another era with hope, faith and a focus on family.

  Enjoy four new stories from Love Inspired Historical every month!

  Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.

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  Chapter One

  Northwest Territories, Canada

  October 1881

  For the first time she was about to meet Eddie Gardiner. The man she intended to marry. The answer to her prayers.