Love's New Beginning (a Love Comes Softly fanfiction)

It Comes Around

Something changed in Clark after Christmas. He found that as he lay on his cot in the lean-to at night, he thought less often of Ellen and more often of Marty—the things she had said, the way her unruly hair escaped its bun and she impatiently shoved the strands behind her ear, the wondering look he sometimes caught in her blue eyes as he read the Scripture at breakfast. Sometimes he would think of the spring and of Marty and Missie leaving on a wagon train for the east, and it struck him that he would miss Marty terribly, just as he would Missie.

He was increasingly disappointed by his attempts to bring the doctor to town in time for the birth of Marty's baby. The doctor was coming, that had been determined, but he wasn't going to arrive in time, and Clark was frustrated ... and a little scared, if he admitted it to himself. He had prayed that God's will be done, but he knew as well as anyone that God's will and what people wanted weren't always the same, and the fear still gripped him.

The Grahams came for New Year's Day. Marty and Ma stayed in the kitchen, drinking coffee and talking, while Clark and Ben withdrew to the sitting room. For a while they talked about crops and building projects and plans for the spring, but after a while the talk drifted around toward their families. The Grahams had a large brood of children, and Ben filled Clark in on some of their doings, including the news that Ma's oldest, Sally Anne, was getting married and would be moving to a home of her own come spring. Clark had a difficult time imagining that, his Missie all grown up and thinking about starting a new life away from home.

Then Ben turned his keen eyes on Clark. "How things be goin' with you?"

Clark didn't know where to start. "It feels like a home again," he said finally, and Ben nodded in comprehension.

"It takes some time, but sooner or later it comes around. Ya'll get there. Ma and I are keepin' ya both faithfully in our prayers."

"Thank ya. I 'preciate it."

They left it there, but Clark felt that Ben understood, and he felt the better for the discussion, brief though it had been.

After a late afternoon snack—they were still working through the spread Marty had prepared for Christmas—the Grahams left. Marty turned to Clark. "Thank ya so much fer invitin' them."

He smiled. He hadn't told her because he hadn't wanted to take credit for the idea, but he was glad the visit had been meaningful for her, too.

"Ma let it slip, not knowin' thet I didn't know," Marty explained. She laughed suddenly, her eyes sparkling. "I noticed though thet ya didn't invite all of those young'uns with the hearty appetites."

It felt good that she was comfortable teasing him now, and he happily laughed with her.

Over the rest of January, he continued his trips to town encouraging the doc to move up his schedule, even as it became ever more clear that the timing wasn't going to work out. He fretted about building a cradle for the new baby, but Marty assured him there was no need for one, that she would take the new baby into her bed to begin with. Clark promised her that once the baby needed his own place to sleep, he'd have built Missie a larger bed so the baby could move into the crib. He didn't dare think beyond that, to wonder how long that larger bed and the crib would be full, and was glad when Marty didn't bring it up either.

At the end of the month, he brought home a rocking chair, having seen it in the store.

Marty exclaimed over it, and Clark explained, "I vowed long ago that iffen there ever be another baby in this house, there gonna be a rockin' chair to quiet it by." He thought sadly of Ellen, how they had agreed they would need one, and he could see that Marty noticed.

"Well," she said gently, "best ya sit ya down an' show Missie how it works afore ya go off a chorin'."

He did so, cuddling his girl to him, holding her as they rocked back and forth, feeling her relax against him. It wouldn't be long before she got too big for this, and he wanted to enjoy this while he could.

When he came in from choring that night, Missie grabbed his hand. "Daddy, come. Come see." He let her pull him into the kitchen, where she stopped in front of Marty. She pointed at Marty's stomach. "Look—ba-by. Ba-by fer Missie."

Clark and Marty exchanged smiles. "Well, I reckon it be at thet," he agreed. He picked up Missie and carried her to the rocking chair. "So Missie is gonna git a new baby, an' we'll rock 'im in the chair. We'd better be a gittin' some practice, don't ya s'pose."

So they curled up in the rocking chair. Clark felt the soft weight of Missie in his arms, and smelled the good scents of supper on the stove, listening to Marty whisper to herself as she moved around the kitchen, and he prayed to God that he could keep all of this for as long as possible.