An Instrument in His Hands

Part 3 Chapter 10

Part 3

Chapter 10

The day came when I heard that the missionaries came through the mountain pass to Jershon from Antionum. ‘Did you have success?’ I asked one that walked by our fence.

He stopped. ‘You are Christian Lady, are you not?’

‘I am.’

‘If we did, it will be due to you. We taught them the word of God. Then God bade us to leave. We shall see what they now choose.’

‘And their leaders? I wondered what my brother would do.

‘I have not much hope for them. It will be for the humble to decide.’

I was disappointed. Perhaps I would never see my brother again.

But Aaron was coming home! Would Alma get to speak to him first? Of course, they would all report to him, so, yes, he would. He promised me.

I was so nervous to see Aaron that I burned the rabbit that I was cooking for him. It reminded me of the time long ago when he jumped the wall to save me from the last rabbit I burned. And now, he was coming once again!

Taking the evidence out to bury, I saw him coming towards the village thru the fields. Quickly, I hurried back to the hut to tell the children and their aunts. ‘Your father is coming. Let me tidy up your hair and robes.’ Then I hid myself inside. I could not bear to meet him the first time before so many witnesses. I wanted to run to him freely like Leahla would have done for him.

Aaron came into the yard and gathered his children into his arms, then bouncing them on his knees, he listened as his sisters-in-law told him of the death of his wife and exactly how she had suffered, born the child, and then passed. They shared their sorrow and all that they felt at losing her. Aaron gave them his attention and wept with them.

I was right to not greet him until they finished. Every once in a while he would glance towards the shadows where I was watching. He was big and strong and stalwart and wonderful, a man I could trust with all my heart. And he was mine – finally, all mine.

I was blessed among women. ‘Thank you, Leahla,’ I whispered. I was certain that she was there watching with her husband, waiting for me to greet Aaron as she would have.

Determined to do her justice, when Aaron had sent all the children away with their aunts, so that he could have a private word with their caretaker, and stood inside the door of the hut with a tiny gesture of his hands towards me, I ran into his arms and was sheltered.

At last I was where I belonged! How many years had it been?

Aaron was tugging at my head covering. And then he was tugging at the tie I used on my hair. My hair! Of course he would want it down. I had not worn it down since I attended Political Party events with Daniel.

Aaron buried his face in my curls and began to sob.

‘I loved her too,’ I cried.

‘It’s like losing my left hand,’ he wimpered into my hair.

‘I can imagine,’ I said and started to pull away from him. Did he want me? Was he glad that we were betrothed? Was it too soon to be glad?

He held me tighter. ‘But losing you for all those years, was like losing my right hand.’

I had to ask to be sure. ‘Does it comfort you to have found me?’

‘Infinitely,’ he said as he buried his face in my hair again.

He still wanted me.

‘Leahla said it would,’ I mumbled into his shoulder. ‘That’s why she made me promise to sign the betrothal. I would not have presumed to otherwise.’

He pulled away and looked into my eyes. ‘Bless her. Alma told me all.’

I said earnestly, ‘She promised she would haunt me until I signed. I’m sure she is haunting me even now.’

Aaron chuckled and led me to the seat in the corner where he lifted me onto his lap like one of his children. ‘When I received your note from Muloki, I was certain that I was cast off from God and unworthy to be your husband or the king of the land.’

‘Oh, no!’ I protested to his chin. ‘It was I that was not… I explained everything…’

I felt the rumble of his words in his chest. ‘That an angel of God came to you to tell you not to marry me? How many suitors are rejected in that way?’

I took his face in my hands and told him, ‘But I said that the angel approved of our love, that he said, “Not at this time.” I did not think it would be such a long time, but is that promise not fulfilled today?’

He looked up at the rafters, away from my earnest face. ‘I felt cast off from God and hopelessly unworthy. I asked what I could do to gain eternal life and was promised by my father that if I served a mission to the Lamanites, that I would have that blessing.’

I pulled his face back to look at me. ‘You are everything that I ever dreamed of in a suitor, Aaron.’

‘I don’t recall that I was at that time,’ he said  with a grimace.

‘I love and adore you with all my heart and want to be with you forever, nobody else.’ I said, and lowered my lashes. That was a bold statement to make. ‘I waited for you,’ I confessed, and tucked myself into his shoulder again.

He squeezed me with his arms. ‘It was you that needed to serve the Zoramites. I know now that I married Leahla because it was not your time.’

I looked up at him and sat up straight. ‘You married Leahla because she was adorable, and Alma told you to.’

Laughter suddenly danced in his eyes. ‘Yes, I lined up a thousand widows and picked the very best one.’

I punched him in the stomach. ‘You did not!’

‘You see,’ he protested, ‘I really need you to keep me humble. I told you that all those years ago.’

There was a lot that he had told me all those years ago. We stared at each other, remembering.

‘Kiss him!’ A voice whispered into my ear.

I whipped around to see where the voice came from and saw nothing. Yet I knew from whence it had come. I would obey it gladly – my way. Taking the strands of my hair in my hands, I wrapped them carefully and privately around Aaron’s neck and then joined them with my arms.

‘Are you planning to kiss me?’ he asked.

I did not answer, but showed him. And I found that I was not too old to enjoy it.