"More than I knew was possible." "Good. Because this is just the beginning." He was right. It was the beginning of their life together, a life that would have challenges and struggles, joys and sorrows. But they would face it all together, this patchwork family forged from loss and choice and stubborn hope. Three months later, Lena stood in her garden, the garden Jonas had helped her plant, tending the rose bushes that were just beginning to bud.
Pink roses, just like she'd remembered, just like he'd promised. Inside the house she could hear chaos, Jacob and Daniel arguing over whose turn it was to feed the chickens, Esther practicing her reading aloud, stumbling over difficult words. Ruthie teaching Rose a song their mother used to sing. Jonas emerged from the barn, saw her, and smiled. That smile that still made her heart skip, even now.
He crossed the yard pulling her into his arms. "How are you feeling?" Lena rested her hand on her belly where a tiny life was growing. The doctor had confirmed it last week. She was pregnant. After years of believing she was barren, after the shame and the certainty that she'd never bear children, here was proof that everything she'd been told was a lie.
"Scared," she admitted, "excited, overwhelmed." "Normal, then." Jonas kissed her forehead. "We'll face it together, all of it." "All 10 children?" She laughed at his expression. "What? You didn't think nine was enough?" "Nine was perfect. 10 is going to be interesting." From the house, Ruthie called out. "Pa, Miss Lena, supper's ready." "We should go in," Jonas said.
But Lena held him there a moment longer, looking at the house bursting with life, the children she loved as fiercely as if she'd borne them herself, the roses beginning to bloom. A year ago she'd been broken, rejected, certain she had nothing left to offer the world. She'd stood in the rain believing her life was over. She'd been so wrong. Her life hadn't ended that day.
It had begun. The moment a mountain man with nine children stopped and said, "You need a place, we need one, too." Now she had both. A place and a purpose. A family and a future. A man who chose her every single day and children who called her Ma without hesitation.
And in 7 months she'd hold a baby of her own. Proof that she'd never been broken, only bruised. That second chance has existed. That sometimes the best things in life came after you'd given up hope. "Lena?" Jonas was watching her with concern.
"You're crying." "Happy tears," she said smiling through them. "Just happy tears." They walked to the house together, hand in hand. Through the window, she could see the children gathered around the table, waiting. Her children. Her family.
Thomas Reddick had rejected her, but he'd done her the greatest favor of her life. Because if he'd accepted her, she never would have stumbled into the rain, never would have collapsed under that sycamore tree, never would have been found by the man who saw her worth when she couldn't see it herself. Reed Mercer was in jail awaiting trial. The charges against her had been dropped. The gossips had moved on to other scandals.
And she, she was exactly where she was meant to be. That evening, after supper, after the dishes were washed and the children tucked into bed, Lena sat at the table and began to write. Not to herself, but to women like her. Women who'd been told they weren't enough. Women trapped in bad marriages or running from dangerous men.