A Mail Order Bride for the Miner (Love by Mail #2)(10)

“They’re in the other cupboard.” Her voice was right behind him.

“W-what –” he said surprised she came over.

“I want to help. What use am I otherwise?” She sounded scared, but also quite determined. He heard the cupboard door squeak open and the close. “Here.”

Her hand shook but she held a candle in her outstretched arm.

“You – you don’t have t-to look at it,” he said. She nodded and looked away.

Hank lit the candle. “Now we just - just need a h-holder.” He looked around the kitchen illuminated by the flickering flame. Where was that unused tin cup?

Suddenly he heard a gasp behind him and the light went out.

“Wh-what happened?” He turned around. “Are you – are you all r-right?”

“Sorry,” Sarah said, “The wax melted onto my hand, I looked and saw the flame and I – I dropped it.”

Hank sighed and crouched down. “N-no problem.” Except now he had to feel around for the candle in the dark.

“I’m so sorry.” He heard Sarah’s skirt ruffle as she shuffled around. “Here, I – I think I found it.”

“Good.” He took the candle from her and placed it in the tin cup.

“D’you need any help?” she asked.

He shook his head, then remembered she wouldn’t be able to see it.

“No, it’s f-fine.” He lit the candle and took it to the table. Sarah followed behind him.

“A-are you – all right?”

She nodded and smiled briefly. “I’m fine.”

Actually, she looked like death warmed over. Hank worried about his wife, if she couldn’t even hold a candle, how hard must it be for her to run a house. It pained him to watch her in such a frail state. He wished he could give her strength somehow. All he could remember is how he overcame fear when things went bad or accidents happened at the mines,

“M-maybe we – we should pray.”

Sarah nodded slowly. Hank gripped her hand and bowed his head. “F-for we are thaved – saved by h-hope, but hope that is – seen is n-not hope.”

“For what a man seeth for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” Sarah continued.

And together, “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Sarah took a deep breath. Hank felt the warmth on their joined hands.

“I’ll – I’ll clean up.” Sarah let go of him quickly and went to the table, leaving Hank with the memory of the warm hands previously in his grasp.

*

Hank stood by Sarah and smiled and nodded at the people passing by through the large church door. He let his wife do the talking and he was very much grateful for that.

“See ya, Hannah.” Sarah waved at the young couple leaving the church yard.

The service was a lively one that day, and it certainly left everyone in high spirits. The wind picked up and Sarah grabbed hold of her bonnet. It was time to go home.

“You all – all right?” Hank muttered.

“I’m fine.” She smiled, linked their arms and started walking. “Oh, I think we’ve run out of potatoes and we’ve only got a couple of cabbages left.”

Hank nodded. “Mr. Dubson sells –”

“Wonder if they still keep the mirrors in their house.”

Hank’s head swiveled to the right in an instant. Two young men in tatty clothes hammered at a rocking chair outside their workshop. The brown haired lad grinned at his blonde friend. As soon as Hank glared at them, they quickly went back to their work.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

Hank shook his head, and patted Sarah’s hand on his arm. But the gossip did not stop.

“You think it’s contagious?” the same voice ringed to Hank’s right.

“She might be a leper,” the other one replied.

Hank hoped Sarah didn’t hear it, but her quickened pace said otherwise.

“Wonder how he stands to look at her.”

The hurt in Sarah’s eyes made Hank see red. It was bad enough to think such things, but to speak them out loud. The sniggering and bullying from his childhood years all rushed to the forefront of his mind. It was one thing to offend him, but to speak badly of his wife… He turned to the two young men still snickering on the porch.

Hank wrenched his arm free from Sarah’s grip and turned around. “T-talk like th-that – again and I’ll – I’ll –“

The two young men stopped talking, mouths hung open. Then, they looked at each other and howled with laughter. The brunet dropped his tools on a workbench and slapped his thigh. “Oh, no wonder they’re together! He can hardly –“

It took hank barely a moment to breach the distance between them. His tall frame blocked the sun casting a shadow on the two offenders. His hand grasped the louder one’s shirt almost lifting the lad off the floor.

“W-what did y-you just say?!” His other arm, balled into a fist hovered in the air ready to strike. The other youth cowered against the wall beside his unfortunate friend.

The young man gulped, eyes wide, with tears forming in their corners. “I-I’m sorry.”

His blonde friend wiped his hands on his pants. “We were just playin’, sir. No disrespect, really.”