The Heirloom Brides Collection (56 page)

But this day had already been worth both the rush and the wait. Starting with breakfast at the boardinghouse with Father, Mother, and Peter. Attending the Sunday service with her first family seated on one side and her new family on the other. She and Father were once again under the same roof. This time, when past mistakes and hurts returned to weigh her down, the truth in Hattie’s words echoed in her heart.
“That was then, and this is now.”

As she stood in the foyer beside her father, she couldn’t be more ready for now, with the past in its rightful place.

Father reached for her hand and laid it on his arm, as if to punctuate that fact. “I couldn’t be more proud of the woman you’ve become, Darla May.”

Tears threatened to spill over, and she blotted her lower lids with the embroidered handkerchief her mother had loaned her for the ceremony. “Thank you, Daddy.” Pressing her hand to his arm, she raised up onto her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I am, too.” His voice wavered, but his arm was steady.

She pressed her hand to the blue agate cameo she wore—her something blue. “I’ve learned a lot since my return, but nothing so profoundly as I have learned that God works in mysterious ways.”

“Indeed He does.” A chord sounded on the piano, and they looked at each other. “Are you ready?”

Darla gave him a slow nod so as not to upset the exquisite old cap and veil Mother had brought from her side of the family. “I’m ready.”

The foyer doors swung open, and the tune began. A sea of smiling faces greeted them as Darla practically glided down the center aisle toward the man she loved. Nicolas wore a borrowed tailcoat and top hat with the blue chambray shirt she’d stitched for him. The span in his smile made the wait seem a distant memory. Nell’s husband, Judson, stood beside him.

Darla took a deep breath. Mother smiled at her from the piano bench, her hands dancing across the keys. Peter reached out and squeezed her hand. Mrs. Wahlberg choked back tears as she passed, which Darla remembered her doing at all weddings.

At the front, Darla took her place between Nicolas and Ida, her new dearest friend and matron of honor, while Father stepped around them and behind the pulpit. Her heart racing in the nearness of her soon-to-be husband, she looked out at the little girls who sat in the front row with Hattie and the Sinclair family. Her girls. Jocelyn wore a dress made of the cotton mull with the yellow embroidery. The green plaid dress was a perfect match for Jaya. And Julia looked like a summer sky in her blue calico. They each beamed smiles as vibrant as the stained-glass windows framing this occasion.

When Father pronounced them married, Nicolas reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wooden figurine. An angel with its wings spread. He pressed it into her hand as he bent toward her ear. “Julia was right the first time she saw you arriving at the house—you are an angel. My angel sent from God.”

Tears of matchless joy stung her eyes. “And you, Husband, are my phoenix, sent to lift me out of the ashes with you.”

Their first kiss as husband and wife sent shivers up Darla’s spine, and she was sure she heard fireworks overhead.
Mrs. Nicolas Zanzucchi.

Yes, God did indeed work, and in truly mysterious ways.

Married forty-two years to her leading man,
Mona Hodgson
from Arizona lives in the Southwest where trees have arms instead of branches and salsa is a staple. When Mona isn’t writing or speaking, she’s playing Wii games with her Arizona grandson, spending time with her mom, picnicking, texting her sisters, or chatting via Skype with her grandchildren in Africa. Mona is the author of nearly forty books, including her Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek series,
The Quilted Heart
omnibus, and
Prairie Song,
Book 1 in her Hearts Seeking Home series. Her children’s books include bestseller
Bedtime in the Southwest
and
Real Girls of the Bible: A 31-Day Devotional.
Mona’s writing credits also include several hundred articles, poems, and short stories, which have appeared in fifty different publications. She is a speaker for women’s groups, Christian women’s retreats, book clubs and reading groups, schools, and conferences for writers and librarians.