Page 31 of A Secret Heart
The food turned to sawdust in his mouth as he imagined Rebekah sitting at her table, penning one of those letters. To Isaac.
He should have known she’d want to answer Isaac’s ad.
“Ed?”
“Naw.” His voice sounded harsh to his own ears. “Nothing happened.”
“I don’t believe you.”
If Kaitlyn hadn’t become a friend during the past months, he would’ve told her off. But he needed a friend right now.
“It’s Rebekah.”
“Rebekah?”
“The woman answering Isaac’s ad is Rebekah.”
“I don’t understand. You’d better start from the beginning.”
He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about how many letters had been exchanged. Kaitlyn’s brows rose higher and higher as his story unfolded.
“You fancy Rebekah?” She couldn’t keep the note of incredulity from her voice.
Ed ducked his head, pushing together the scraps on his plate.
She touched his arm. “If you and Rebekah are getting along better, isn’t that a good—oh.”
Kaitlyn seemed to have realized the crux of the problem. Rebekah was the woman meant for Isaac. And the woman who’d always wanted Isaac.
Ed stood and offered his scraps to Patch.
Kaitlyn joined him, shielding her eyes with her hand as she glanced at the girls again. Tillie had let a shirt fall in the grass, and Jo was scolding her.
She shifted her clear eyes back on him. “I’d say it’s perfect.”
“How? I was supposed to find a wife for Isaac. He’s the one she’s always wanted.”
“People change.”
Memories from their school days rushed back at him. All those times Rebekah had walked out of her way on the way home from school, just so she could chance talking to Isaac. Her hurried steps, trying to keep up with Isaac’s long, most certainly annoyed, strides. Always hoping for a word from him. Others may not have noticed it, but Ed always had.
“Has she asked for a meeting? Didn’t you say before that the woman signed with only her first name?” Kaitlyn’s questions drew him out of his woolgathering. “If she hasn’t revealed herself but she knows, or thinks rather, that it’s Isaac, then she must not be sure.”
Rebekah’d been perturbed when Ed had placed that ad. But now that he’d put the pieces together, he realized that every time she’d received one of the letters, she’d lit up.
“Why are you giving up so easy?” Kaitlyn reached out to take his empty plate. “You’re tall, strong, handsome.”
Heat rose up his neck.
“You own your own property. Have a house on it.” Kaitlyn pushed on. “You’re loyal as the day is long.”
“I’m not Isaac.”
“Ma, I need help.” Tillie cried out where she stood with a too-big laundry basket in front of her.
“I’m coming.” The return cry rang in Ed’s ears before Kaitlyn turned her gaze back on him, her hand on his arm. “You don’t need to be Isaac. Be yourself. You’re deserving of love.”
Ed shook his head as Kaitlyn moved toward the clothesline, wrapping an encouraging arm around Tillie in her approach. She didn’t know Rebekah like he did.
