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He appreciated her saying that. He also appreciated her insight. She had been married, and she had the scars from that marriage. She would have insight that he didn’t. He appreciated her sharing it with him.
“I think it’s too late for me to do it the right way then.”
“Yeah. You and Sondra probably never should have gotten engaged to begin with.”
“We never did get a ring.”
“Why did you ask her anyway? I never really thought you liked her that much.”
“She asked me. I don’t even think she asked me. At least, I wasn’t thinking of it as a marriage proposal. She just said in one of her rambles that we should get married. When she stopped to take a breath, I agreed with whatever it was she said, and the next thing I knew, she was announcing to the world that we were engaged. I...figured I might as well marry her as anyone and let it go.”
“You didn’t stop to see what the Lord thought about that?” Priscilla asked, sounding as though that were the obvious thing for him to do.
“No. I... I guess I just didn’t think about it. I mean, I wasn’t exactly thinking about getting married, and I wasn’t thinking about asking her, I wasn’t thinking about answering her either, since she did the asking and the answering, and I just didn’t argue. It...just kinda happened.”
“I don’t think I would’ve ever looked at you, as commanding and purposeful as you are, and thought that some woman would have tricked you like that.”
“Well, I kinda did want to get married.” He set the hammer down on the back of his four-wheeler and then lifted his hat and ran a hand over his hair, scratching a bit where the rim pressed against the scalp.
He settled his hat back down on his head.
“You’re lonely? That’s crazy in a family as big as ours. And as unusual as our family is. Typically everybody goes their own way, but we all just kinda hang out together.”
“We work together. We all had a purpose. And the ranch was big enough for everyone. And Mom and Dad made sure that everyone had something to do that matched their interests.”
“Yeah.”
That was another wise decision his parents had made. He had a commanding attitude, and his dad had taken him along, showing him how to manage things. One of his brothers had a head for numbers, and a couple of his sisters had worked in graphic design. They all did the grunt work on the ranch, but some of them liked it more than others and spent more time on it. Everyone pitched in where they were needed. Sure, there were fights and disagreements, but his parents had lectured, and Ezra had taken up the drum about being able to disagree without fighting or hating each other.
“So are you going to seriously go ahead with the wedding so soon? It’s going to be a lot anyway, with trying to work the herd tomorrow. That’s always a big day.”
“Yeah. I think the sooner we get it done, the better. It will solidify Alaska’s position here.”
“You mean, it will make her part of the family and we’ll be obligated to take care of her.”
“I guess if you want to look at it like that. I just know you will. Even though we’re not married, I assume everyone knows the plan is there, and you’ll still take care of her.”
“We will, but she’ll still be in danger from...whatever friends she has.”
He heard how Priscilla said “friends.” She didn’t mean it in an unkind way, but she didn’t necessarily consider someone who wasn’t out to help a person, but was rather intent on harm, as the man was this morning, a friend.
“Yeah. That would probably be the only reason I feel like there’s a rush. She... She’s trying to do right. And I know that there are places that will help her. But there’s no better place than right here. Am I wrong?”
“No. You’re absolutely right. She’s just not the kind of girl that I ever pictured you ending up with. But I know that if you marry her, you’ll stay with her until you die. Do you... Do you really think it’s a good idea?”
She was playing to the doubts that were already in his mind. Not necessarily because of the person Alaska was, but because he didn’t know her that well. How much more afraid must she be? She didn’t know him any better, and he could overpower her at any time. He was a good bit bigger than she was, and definitely stronger.
“You know, she kept asking me why, why was I asking to marry her, why did I want to. And I couldn’t answer. I don’t know that I can answer you either. I just... I was reading in Hosea.”
“Oh.”
He smiled, loving that Priscilla knew exactly what he meant when he said he had been reading. Hosea had been commanded to take a prostitute as a wife and bring her home.
That wife had left him, and he’d gone back for her. He didn’t necessarily think that Alaska was going to leave him, but he could see some similarities. Not that she was a prostitute, necessarily, but that a person would have thought that Hosea would marry a godly woman, as befitting his position as a prophet. But God had someone else in mind for him.
Their love story wasn’t necessarily a great one, but the applications were there, and it just felt like a nudge from the Lord.
“I don’t know how else to explain. Other than I just feel like...like it’s what the Lord wants me to do. It felt right when I thought about it and even more right when I suggested it to her. I figured if she disagreed, that was out of my hands, and what kind of woman agrees to marry a man that she only knew for four days? I really didn’t think she’d consent.”
