best. He might sound like a hayseed, but there was no need to look like one. He’d even worn a new shirt his mother just made him, but he had an old one in the buggy that he could change into when he got to the King house. If he ruined this one with concrete, his mother would not be happy, and when she wasn’t happy, home could be an unpleasant place. But the shirt didn’t matter now. It was what he had to get straight with Sara.
“Ruby,” he blurted. Her name came out in a whisper, which he corrected in a deep and more insistent tone. “Ruby. I...I want to talk to you about...” He looked down at his boots. “Her,” he finished in a rush of breath.
When he looked up, a hint of a smile lit Sara’s almond-shaped eyes, but her mouth remained firm. After a second’s hesitation, she held open the door and motioned him into the kitchen.
A tall girl in a lilac dress was washing dishes at the sink while an even prettier one dried. The tall one turned to smile at him. “Arlene,” Sara said, “This is Joseph Brenneman. Leah, I think you know each other.”
“Hello, Joseph,” Leah said. “It’s good to see you again.” And then to Arlene, “Joseph’s from another church district, but we used to see each other at auctions and work frolics.”
Arlene nodded. Smiled.
“Ya.” Joseph’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. Leah had once hit a home run when he was pitching at an interschool game. She’d married a Mennonite and gone to South America to be a missionary. He’d died and now Leah had come back to Seven Poplars; she was staying with the matchmaker. Leah had always been known as the beauty of the county and she’d been nice too. But he’d never been drawn to her, not even as a boy still wet behind the ears. “Ruby,” he managed. “I...came for Ruby. About Ruby,” he corrected. “A match...with Ruby. Maybe,” he added. “I hope,” he clarified.
Arlene chuckled. “I see,” she replied in Deitsch.
She wore a different-style kapp than Leah and the other local girls, a shape of prayer covering Joseph wasn’t familiar with. Ruby did too, but hers wasn’t like Arlene’s. Ruby’s was heart shaped. He decided that he liked Ruby’s kapp better.
Thankfully, Sara rescued him from having to say anything else by leading him through the kitchen to her office. Sara gestured to a chair in front of and facing a desk. She closed the door and took a seat behind the desk. The desktop was empty except for a spiral notebook and a black pen.
Joseph leaned forward in his chair. The windows were open, but with the door closed there wasn’t any breeze and it was warm in here. Unconsciously, he ran a finger under his collar. Sara was just sitting there, looking at him. He couldn’t have been more uncomfortable if she’d caught him chopping wood without his shirt. “I want...want to court Ruby,” he declared bluntly.
“So I gather.” Sara sat back and smiled. “This is a little sudden, don’t you think? You’ve known each other, what? Three days? And that’s including today, and I don’t think you’ve even seen her today.” Her eyes sparkled with amusement rather than disapproval.
Joseph shifted in his chair. It was straight backed, oak and had probably been made at the chair shop not half a mile away. His mouth felt dry and he was slightly light-headed. “Ya, but...” He exhaled. But what? How did he explain to Sara that how long they’d known each other had nothing to do with anything? That he’d known the moment he’d opened his eyes, lying flat out in Sara’s driveway, that Ruby was the girl for him.
Sara’s chuckle became a full-throated laugh. It was a jolly laugh for a woman and it came up from deep in her chest and bubbled out with genuine mirth.
Joseph stood up. He wasn’t going to sit here and be laughed at.
“Sit down, sit down,” Sara insisted, waving her hand at him. “I wasn’t laughing at you. I was surprised. But in a good way, Joseph. I’m just not used to young men being in such a hurry.” She laced her fingers together, leaned forward and rested her hands on the desktop. “Don’t you want to get to know Ruby a little before you start talking about marriage?”
“Ne.” He shook his head, settling in the chair again. “She’s the one. For me.” He forced himself to meet Sara’s piercing gaze. “I like Ruby.”
“You’ve made that clear.” Sara’s attitude grew kindly as she slipped on a pair of wire-frame glasses she’d retrieved from her apron pocket. “And it’s clear that you’re uncomfortable here with me. I’m sorry for that. I hope you can come to think of me as a friend, maybe a favorite aunt. I like you, Joseph. You appear to be a fine man and an excellent candidate for one of my brides-to-be. You’re just the sort of man I like to find, someone who isn’t wishy-washy, someone who knows his own mind.” She paused and opened her notebook. She thumbed through until she’d reached a page about halfway through and picked up her pen. She jotted something down and then made eye contact with him again. “Sorry. I have a system, and if I don’t keep to it, I’d forget who was who.”
“Ruby’s not spoken for, is she?” That was the question he’d been dreading to ask. He knew he’d asked Sara that before, but he was afraid that someone had snapped her up since then. Because if there were another suitor, there’d be a whole lot more trouble before things could get worked out. He wasn’t going to give up. Sara had promised she could find him a wife; he just had to make her understand that Ruby was the one for him.
“Well...” Sara tapped her notebook with her pen. “I’d planned to introduce her to a blacksmith.” She looked up. “And I’d wanted you to get to know Arlene. I think you’d be very compatible. But if you’ve seen Ruby and you’re taken with her, there’s no reason why the two of you shouldn’t—”
“Then you have no problem matching us?”
Sara separated her hands and raised them, palms forward. “Now, just slow down, Joseph. It’s customary for my couples to take this one step at a time—get to know each other before a match is actually made. Usually couples attend some singings together, have meals here at the house and see each other at church. Picking a wife or a husband is a serious matter.”
He dropped his straw hat onto his knee and balled his hands into fists. They seemed clumsy, like two clubs rather than hands and he tucked them under his knees. His right foot wanted to bounce on his heel like he did when he was nervous but he forced it firmly to the floor and held it there by force of will. He was sweating. He could feel tiny beads of moisture trickling down the back of his shirt. Sara was looking at him expectantly. She was waiting for him to respond. “I...I know it’s a serious matter. I told you when I first came to you that...that I was serious about finding a wife. And I’m ready. Ruby and me... Ruby and I,” he corrected. “We’ve talked and we both want to court. Each other.”
Sara raised an eyebrow speculatively. “Ruby told you that she’s interested in courting you?”
“Ya, she did. She and I... We...we agreed.”
Sara sat back in her chair. It was an oversize office chair, crafted of oak and comfortably cushioned. The chair swiveled and rocked. It was a chair that Joseph had seen at the chair shop and greatly admired, but it was big for a woman of Sara’s size. She resembled a great-aunt of his, someone who’d always sneaked him cookies when he was a child. The thought of Aunt Rose made it feel a little easier talking to Sara.
Her smile widened. “Your mother said you were shy and that you had a difficult time expressing yourself. That doesn’t seem to be the case at all. I’m impressed. And frankly, young men rarely impress me.”
“I can support her... Support Ruby. And my mother. Mother has to live with us. But I told Ruby, and she’s fine with it. As a mason...a master mason, I can always get work. I’m working with James now. His construction company, I mean. He says he’s got plenty of work for me. And...and I have a house. In my own name.”
Sara wrote something in her notebook. “It’s good to know that you are financially solvent. That you can take on the responsibility of a household as a husband and father, if God blesses you and your future wife