Finally a Bride Read Free

his heart.
    Noah lifted the tiny boy by his feet as he once saw a father do at a church social when his young daughter had fallen into a lake. He waded toward the bank, whacking gently on the baby’s small back.
    On shore, Noah laid the child over his forearm and continued smacking him. “Please, Lord. Don’t take this young boy. He has his whole life ahead of him.”
    Water gushed from the boy’s mouth; then he lurched. He gagged and then retched. He clutched Noah’s arm and coughed up more water. When the worst had passed, Noah turned him over. Benny’s eyelids moved. He jerked, then gasped and uttered a strangled cry.
    The girl jumped up and hurried to him, hope brimming from her damp eyes. “He ain’t dead?”
    Goosebumps charged up Noah’s arm as tears moistened his eyes. The boy, no more than six months old, quieted and stared up at him with blue eyes that matched his sister’s. His wet brown hair clung to his head.
    “C’mere, Benny.”
    The boy heard his sister’s voice and lunged for her, wailing again to beat all.
    Noah smiled, then lifted his gaze heavenward. This was as close to a miracle as he’d ever witnessed. “Thank You, Father. Blessed be Your name.”

     
    Stirred up from the day’s events, Noah rode all night. The next morning, he put Rebel out to pasture then headed inside the house he shared with his mentor, Pete. He set his saddlebags across the back of a kitchen chair and glanced around the tidy room. It was good to be home again.
    Pete shuffled in from the parlor. “Noah! Thought I heard someone in here, but I weren’t expectin’it’d be you.”
    Noah hugged the older man. “I rode all night so I could get home sooner.”
    Pete pulled out a chair and dropped into it. “Howd’ya like being a circuit rider?”
    Needing time to think on his response, Noah walked over to the stove and felt the side of the coffeepot. He pulled two mugs from a shelf, poured the dark brew, then placed one cup in front of Pete and sat down, holding the other one. “It was all right. Met a lot of nice folks.”
    Pete stared at him with an intense gaze. From the first day they’d met, Noah had never been able to pull the wool over the old man’s eyes. “What’re you not tellin’ me?”
    Noah’s stomach clenched at the memory of the baby in the creek, but he told the story. “Mrs. Freedman is a widow. She’d been sick and was slow to recover, which was why the girl was doing the wash and caring for the baby. She offered to let me stay the night in her barn, but I was anxious to get home.” He rubbed his bristly jaw and eyed Pete, knowing his mentor would find this next piece of information humorous. “Just as I was fixin’ to head out, she told her girl to give me a piglet as a thank-you for saving Benny.”
    The old man’s lips twitched, and his eyes danced. A chuckle rose up from deep within, making Pete’s shoulders bounce. “Wish I’da been there to see your face when they gave you that critter.”
    Noah scowled. “It’s not funny. You know I can’t abide pork of any kind—dead or alive.”
    “What’d’ya do with it? Turn it loose?”
    He shook his head. “I might despise pigs, but I couldn’t turn the thing loose and let a wolf or coyote get it.” He looked into his mug and swirled the coffee. “I gave it to the next family I came across. They were mighty glad to have it.”
    “How many of them folks that you stayed with fixed bacon or sausage for breakfast?”
    “I don’t want to talk about that.” But there was something he needed to discuss. “I’m not sure that I’m cut out to be a traveling preacher.”
    Pete sipped his coffee. “How come?”
    He shrugged. “I think I’d rather be a minister in a small town where I could shepherd folks instead of just dropping a sermon and riding on, not knowing how folks are until I come around again the next month.” He’d traveled from one place to another as a kid and didn’t cotton to doing that again. He hadn’t