Epilogue

© 2005 by Elizabeth Delayne



One would have thought that with the number of times the wedding had been postponed, there would have been little to do in preparation for it, but the days were busy. Ellie saw little of Thad as he not only had to deal with the house they were to live in, but with the mess the Shatlers had left in their wake.

Of course, Ellie had to deal with ... everything else. She'd lost her mother's curtains, and other feminine things, in the fire. Jodie convinced her to wait until after the wedding to see to them, but it worried on her. There was cooking to be done, and fittings to be completed.

The biggest challenge, of course, was getting her family settled.

Roberta had decided to move into the widow's home. She had things she would have to replace as well, clothes and toys for the children. Things she couldn't replace ... things James had built that were gone forever.

Instead of weakening her, Ellie thought, the experience had seemed to strengthen her. Now Roberta had a house full of women to help care for her children, and she planned to add her talents of dress making to the wares the women sold. She had a purpose again. She had perspective again.

She'd talked to Ellie before they left for town, still a little lost, a little shaky, but so much more held together then she had been in months.

And when Ellie thought all was ready, Jodie decided they needed to head out to the house before the wedding ... the house she'd been born in, that she'd lost her mother in ... the house she had been raised in until her father married Roberta ...

The house Thad had spent so much of his time in of late ... the house they would live in as husband and wife.

She was nervous already and anxious and couldn't help but look back in the direction of town repeatedly as they made the trek west. The house was located on the edge of the mountains, in a wooded area blanketed with trees. The path ahead was somewhat overgrown, after years of disuse, but it seemed many had traveled over it in the preceding days.

"Thad wanted it to be a surprise."

"It is a surprise," Jodie reminded her as she turned the team through the opening in the trees. "He knows we're coming out here."

"Are you sure?" She thought about the few times she'd ridden here alone, and the promise she'd made to Thad. She was with someone this time, but still ... she knew what it meant to him.

"Ellie," Jodie cautioned. "Of course he does."

She sat back, resigned. "Shouldn't we be heading toward the church on my wedding day?"

"We will."

"But—" Ellie stopped, suddenly distracted by the sight of two wagons waiting outside her home. "Why are all these people here?"

"I told you. We have a surprise."

"You said you had a surprise," Ellie reminded her, but hearing the tone of her voice, stopped what might have sounded like a complaint. She wasn't unhappy with the turn of events, just somewhat weary of delays. Why couldn't she just get married?

To Thad ... to her Thad.

She found herself smiling again, unable to help herself. She was finally ... finally getting married today.

She couldn't help but notice the changes Thad had made to their home. She'd known he'd rooted a few saplings and shrubs, but it was different to see them planted, their young limbs shooting up from the ground. He'd restored the front porch and extended it around the side, replaced not only the glass in several windows, but the roof and the front door.

Tears prickled her eyes when she recognized it. She pressed a hand to her heart. It was her father's workmanship. It had been one of the last pieces he'd tooled over--one of the last things she'd watched him make.

A new door for her new home.

"Ellie?"

She looked over at Jodie, her smile struggled against her tears. "There are just so many memories. Not bad ones ... but so many good ones. It's my home. It's always been my home."

Jodie reached over and grasped her hand. For a moment they sat there in silence as Ellie treasured the gift. "I shouldn't be crying. It's my wedding day."

"You shouldn't be crying?" Jodie teased and set the wagon's break. "Come on. The faster we get this done, the faster we can get you married. Then Thad can deal with your tears."

Inside the women waited. Ruby, the widows, Martha and Catherine, her soon-to-be other sister-in-law. They stood in the long front room in front of the fireplace—the same fireplace she'd cooked most of the meals for her father. In front of it was a bear skin rug Ellie recognized as Thad's.

Catherine and Josie had sewn her curtains for her windows, and led her into the back bedroom to show her the new mattress and sheets for the bed.

Ellie ran a hand over the mattress, "But you couldn't have known ..."

"That your mother's things would be destroyed in the fire?" Catherine asked. "We didn't, but we knew how hard you worked with your father and while most women sew and set things away in preparation for their marriage, you were holding onto your mama's things."

"But they were old, Ellie," Jodie said gently. "You saw them with love ... we saw them ..."

With Thad in mind.

"How can I be upset?" Ellie asked as she ran a hand down one of the curtains. "It's beautiful ... all of it's so beautiful."

She brushed at tears as Ruby presented her a gift from the widows—so many of them women who had raised her. Ellie ran her hand over the pattern and reverently opened it up to revealed the double ring pattern, made with the remnants of her dress and pieces of her and Thad's lives.

She recognized the colors, now faded, of her mother's dress and her father's shirt, the curtains that had been her mother's, that she had saved for her own home ... all of it worth so much more to her than the fabric of her dress. She'd thought she'd lost all of it the fire.

She had blamed Roberta for loosing perspective, but it seemed she had lost her own. This was what was important, she thought, the memories ... and the people who had helped her live through them.

She looked toward Ruby and found herself enveloped in a hug.

"For your new life," Ruby murmured. "Now, let's get you dressed so you can begin that life."

But when she stepped back, Martha and Catherine stepped forward. They held not one, but two separate dresses ... one she recognized, and the other, she didn't. Ellie reached up and brushed at the tears that slid freely down her cheeks. "When did you ..."

"How long does it take to make a single dress?" Catherine teased. "Josie's been at my house working nearly every day ... we wanted to have this one ready as a gift when you were first getting married."

"Then I had a dress to get married in? I didn't have to wait?"

"You had a dress," Josie said dryly from behind her, "but it wasn't the one you were to be married in."

Ellie reached out and lifted the sleeve of the darker, green dress. The sleeves were long, befitting the coming winter. It was more practical for the weather, but not the dress Josie had sewn over the last few weeks for her wedding. She looked at the pale blue and back to the green. "I don't know which one to wear."

"How about this one?"

She turned and found Josie holding another dress, this one a pale cream, with long sleeves. Instead of pink flowers sprinkled throughout the pattern of the dress, there were embroidered pink flowers around the neckline, cuffs and the hem.

"You wanted a pale yellow dress with tiny pink flowers," Josie said, and through her tears, Ellie saw that there were tears her sister-in-law in her eyes as well. "This was the best we could do."

Without thought, Ellie flew into her arms ... and found herself enveloped into the folds of her new family.

Thad had always teased her about her tendency to cry, so she hoped he would understand the tears she cried on her wedding day. She had him ... and a family. It seemed that her wish for a large family never needed to come true, for it was true.

And had been true her entire life.



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