Chapter Two
JEREMIAH EYED THE ENVELOPESon the table with trepidation.
Somewhere in that stack lay a letter from a woman he would marry. He gripped the back of the chair. What had he been thinking, placing that advertisement? Perhaps he should send the letters back and forget all about this.
“Are you going to sit?” Clara asked as she gestured at the empty chair he was holding on to. She pulled the envelopes together into a neat stack.
Jeremiah drew in a breath, let it out, and slowly sank into the chair. Clara had been kind enough to offer to read through the letters with him after confessing that she’d overheard him talking about the advertisement with Roman.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said.
“Jeremiah, you must have a more positive outlook. You placed this advertisement because you wanted to marry, right?”
He paused, and then nodded. Hethoughthe wanted to marry, anyhow. He’d thought about it a lot over the past year. But the one girl that made him ponder it for the first time was one he wasn’t nearly good enough to consider, and besides, they’d settled into a friendly routine that he was loathe to disrupt. If he asked, she’d have to say no, and then he’d lose her altogether. Or, almost worse, she’d say yes and nothing would ever be the same between them. He couldn’t bear to consider either possibility.
This advertisement for a wife was his best option. And he needed to have it done by the first of September.
“All right. I’m ready.” He gripped the edges of the table and steeled his expression.
“You look as if you’re about to step into a burning building instead of reading letters from pretty girls.” Roman had entered the room and positioned himself against the kitchen wall.
Clara covered her smile with one hand as she reached for the first letter with the other.
“How do you know they’re pretty?” Jeremiah grumbled. “They could all be pockmarked and old.”
Clara fixed him with a stern look.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean it like that.” Jeremiah wished he could whisk himself right out the door. Just because Roman had gotten lucky with Clara’s response to his own advertisement didn’t mean Jeremiah would have the same results.
“There’s only one lady as beautiful as my wife, so I imagine you’ll be out of luck,” Roman said with a fond smile at Clara.
She waved him off, but she smiled too as she opened the first envelope with a kitchen knife. She retrieved a set of cream colored sheets of paper from inside, unfolded it, and held it out toward Jeremiah.
He shook his head and leaned back in the chair, his arms crossed. “You read it first.”
With a quick nod, Clara skimmed the letter, her forehead wrinkling as the seconds ticked by.
“Well?” Jeremiah prompted, unable to wait any longer.
“She’s written a rather lengthy letter.” Another minute went by and she went to the next page. Another minute. Another page.
