He kept his gaze on her mouth. "Do you know what I was thinking just before I passed out in that grain elevator?"

Rebecca shook her head.

"It was like quicksand, pulling me under. I couldn't do anything but scream my guts out and hope I wouldn't die before the weight crushed my lungs and I stopped breathing."

Rebecca ceased breathing at the thought of it.

"I kept thinking, I'll never get to kiss Rebecca Miller. That was the only thing on my list of things to do before I died."

A sympathetic moan escaped her lips before he stopped it with another feather-soft kiss. Rebecca wanted to shout in elation. She would never want for another thing in her entire life.

She leaned more heavily on his chest and felt him flinch. "Does it hurt?"

"Like crazy. But don't stop," he said.

With her heart beating wildly, she reluctantly pulled from his grasp. "People will be shocked if Rebecca Miller puts Levi Cooper back in intensive care by kissing."

"Yeah, but what a way to go."

"You need time to heal."

He fell back onto his pillow. "The day the pain in these ribs is bearable is the day I marry you."

"Most Amish couples don't get married until winter."

"I won't wait that long. April is a great month for a wedding." He looked at her doubtfully. "Unless you want to wait. You just agreed to marry me. I'll do anything you want."

"I want to be with you every hour of every day starting now."

Levi smacked his forehead with his palm and immediately recoiled in pain. "Oh, sis yuscht! I can't take my bride home to a dawdi house." He took both her hands. "Look, Rebecca, I bought a piece of property with some money my dad gave me."

"Your dad?"

"It's good pastureland with room for a huge garden. But it's a pathetic little house. I promise, I'll work like a crazy man to get it ready for you, but with all the stuff that needs doing, we probably won't be married for another three years."

Rebecca did her best to wipe the smile off her face and to appear sufficiently troubled.

"I think if I provide a sturdy roof over your head, your fater might give his permission to marry you. Unless he's still hanging his hopes on Marvin Yutzy."

"Marvin is not interested anymore," Rebecca said. "Fater will have to settle for you or risk having an old-maid daughter. He couldn't bear the shame."

"Marvin gave up? So I'm your second choice?"

"You have always been my first choice."

"I don't care if I'm your twenty-seventh choice, as long as you choose me." He sighed. "How can I be in so much pain and be so happy at the same time?"

"Must be the medication."

"There is no drug or drink that can make me feel this way." He pulled her to him again. "The only thing better will be when I finish that house and I never have to let you go."

His lips found hers once more, and she thought she could die quite happily in that exact position. Being careful not to bump any tubes, she put her hands on his shoulders.

"I've changed my mind," he said between kisses. "I'll bet there's a hospital chaplain who'll marry us right now."

She heard the door open behind her and pulled away from Levi with blinding speed. Her sudden movement left him groaning in pain.

Levi's grandparents stood in the doorway, staring at the two of them with jaws almost to the floor. Alphy was the first to recover.

"See, I told you, Nancy. From the look of things, she's doing him a world of good."

Nancy nudged his elbow. "Oh, hush now, Alphy. Don't embarrass him."

"If he don't want to be embarrassed, he should not do his kissing in public."

Rebecca covered her mouth with her hand and tried not to giggle.

"Sorry," Levi said. "We didn't mean to embarrass you."

"Embarrass me?" Alphy shrugged off that suggestion. "I seen plenty of kissing in my day, young man. I done plenty of kissing in my day."

"Alphy, you hush," Nancy said.

"It takes more than a little spooning to ruffle my feathers."

Nancy helped Alphy to his chair. "Pay no never mind to my husband, Rebecca. He is an old man."

"And you are an old woman, last time I looked," Alphy said.

"Hush."

Alphy leaned forward in his chair and pointed his cane at Levi. "Do I hear wedding bells for you two?"

Nancy put her hands on her hips. "Alphy, if you don't quiet this minute, I will call Titus to come fetch us home."

Levi put his hand over Rebecca's and squeezed tight. "Jah, Dawdi. Rebecca says she'll marry me."

Levi's mammi clapped her hands in delight and didn't hesitate to give Rebecca a hearty embrace. "Such a handsome couple you'll be."

"But," Levi said, pinning Alphy with a look of mock sternness, "no one must know. I haven't talked to her fater."

"Jah, you must get permission yet," Alphy said.

"I will not say anything to anyone," Nancy said. "And you won't either, will you, Alphy?"

"I can keep a secret 'til the cows come home," said Alphy. "Nancy is the tattletale in the family."

Nancy shook her finger at her husband. "Don't you talk about your wife that way."

Chapter Forty-Three.

With the sun playing at the tops of the trees, Rebecca stood on her porch and watched as the Petersheims' buggy slowly made its way up the driveway. Levi had promised Rebecca that on the very day of his release from the hospital, he would ask for permission to marry her. Rebecca had come home from the hospital only an hour earlier to put the house in some semblance of order for Levi's arrival.

She had spent every possible moment of the last two days with Levi in the hospital, watching him grow stronger, feeling happier than she ever had in her life. Levi's mother had no objections once she saw that Rebecca returned Levi's affection. The three of them spent visiting hours making plans for the future and joyfully anticipating becoming a family.

Rebecca and Levi decided that Levi would petition Rebecca's fater as soon as he got out of the hospital. After that, he wanted to take Rebecca to see his new property.

"I'm seriously considering not letting you come to the house until I've fixed it up," he had said. "If you see it in the condition it is now, you might reconsider our engagement."

Rebecca smiled in anticipation. Levi didn't know about the work the community had done on the house. The surprise would bowl him over.

Levi's mom drove the buggy, because Levi was under strict orders to limit his activity. Rebecca knew how it galled him to be forced to bring his mom along for such an important visit.

Levi gingerly lowered himself from the buggy. His mom stayed put, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. He took the steps in slow motion but grinned with excitement when he finally reached the porch.

Rebecca smiled back at him. She wasn't as nervous as she probably should be. Fater might not give his approval, but she was determined to marry Levi with or without it. Arranged marriages had never been the Amish way, and Fater didn't have power to keep her from marrying the man she loved to distraction, especially since Levi was a fine, upstanding Amish man with a newly renovated house.

He moved close to embrace her, but she stepped back slightly and took his hand.

His eyes twinkled. "You are holding my hand in public."

"This is not public. This is my porch."

"It's still progress, kid."

"Dream on, lung boy."

Levi laughed and immediately groaned and wrapped an arm around his rib cage. "I'm not supposed to laugh. But I don't know how they expect me to keep from laughing. I'm so darn happy."

"Are you nervous?" Rebecca said.

"Terrified," he said.

"It doesn't matter what Fater says."

"It does to me. I want to start off on the right foot."

"It's too late for that."

"Probably."

Rebecca led Levi into the front room, where Fater sat in the rocker reading Die Botschaft, the Amish newspaper. He looked over his glasses and made no secret of his displeasure at who stood in his front hallway. Frowning, he glanced at their hands, still clasped, and wadded his paper into a twisted mess before trying to refold it and then giving up altogether and tossing it onto the sofa.

"What does he want?" Fater said.

His tone of voice summoned the agitation that Rebecca hadn't experienced earlier. Better explain before her airway closed. "He wants to talk to you, Fater."

Fater removed his glasses and eyed Levi with distaste as he lifted his chin and dared Levi to make a friendly overture. "Sit down, then."

Levi cleared his throat and sat, his back as rigid as a board.

Rebecca gave him one last resigned look and tiptoed out of the room. She should have gone straight to her bedroom to give them some privacy. Instead, she ducked around the corner into the kitchen and stood with her ear to the wall. Mamm sneaked up behind her, laid both hands on her shoulders, and leaned close. Rebecca gave her a look of shock, and Mamm put her finger to her lips to hush her.

In unison, Danny, Max, and Linda appeared from nowhere and gathered quickly and quietly around Rebecca. Rebecca wanted to shoo them away but couldn't manage it without making too much noise. Danny smiled sheepishly, shrugged his shoulders, and knelt on the floor. He put his ear to the wall. Linda and Max leaned in to hear what was going on in the other room.

They stood in complete silence, straining to hear the conversation in the front room.

Levi got right to the point. "I have come to ask permission to marry your daughter."

The ensuing silence grew thick.

"I am baptized," Levi said. "I have employment, and I bought some property next to the old highway. I will take gute care of Rebecca, and I love her as if she were already flesh of my flesh."

Rebecca's heart fluttered. It was a good strategy to quote Scripture. Fater loved to quote Scripture.

"She will marry Marvin Yutzy," Fater said.

"She wants to marry me," Levi insisted. "We love each other. We would really like your permission."

Again Fater drew out the silence. "I do not give it. Rebecca will marry one of our boys."

"I know I am an outsider," Levi said with calm humility. "But I have made my commitment to God."

"You will decide you are tired of the Amish life and leave the community. I will not take that risk with my daughter's heart. I do not give my permission."

To Rebecca's horror, Mamm sprang from her hiding place and stormed into the front room.

"Amos, I will not allow this," she said. Her voice was strong and clear. Mamm could muster incredible courage in an emergency.

"Erla, this is a private conversation. Go back to bed."

"You will not sabotage our daughter's happiness," Mamm said.

"I am not-"

"Husband, do not interrupt your wife."

"Let me speak before-"

"You will listen to me," Mamm said.