Last Bride, The (Home to Hickory Hollow Book #5) by Beverly Lewis

something more colorful today,” Mamma said as they went to get the best china from the sitting-room hutch. “It’s been two months now. . . .”
    Tessie felt ill again at this mention.
    Mamma glanced at her, handing down a pile of sparkling white dessert plates first, and suddenly backpedaled. “But, of course, you and Marcus were . . . close friends.”
    If she only knew, Tessie thought, loath to spoil their family celebration. Despite that, she was fairly sure Mamma suspected something.
    They carried stacks of plates into the kitchen, and eventually, Mamma changed the subject, asking Tessie which set of glassware she liked better for the table—the clear glass tumblers or the golden-tinted set passed down from Mamma’s own grandmother years before.
    One way for Mamma to recover the conversation , most likely, she thought, choosing the gold-tinted ones.

    Mandy and Sylvan walked single file on the pebbled path that led next door to his great-aunt’s, taking with them a gift of dark almond bark, Great-Aunt Elaine’s very favorite. The stooped woman welcomed them inside from the cold,beaming with delight, and they sat and visited with her for more than an hour that Christmas morning. Earlier they had invited her to come along with them for the day, but Elaine had declined and insisted she was expecting some of her immediate family members to drop by around noon for the meal. “Well, if you’re sure you’ll have some company,” Mandy said with a glance at Sylvan.
    “We don’t want you alone on Christmas Day,” he added.
    Aunt Elaine nodded, looking a bit peaked despite her pretty burgundy dress and matching apron, and assured them she’d be just fine. Then she said, “I ain’t cookin’ a big meal for just myself, ya know . . . yous go on an’ have yourselves a real nice time at your folks’, Sylvan. Don’t ya worry none, hear?”
    Mandy gave the independent little woman a gentle hug before they left, and declined accepting one of the chocolates for the second time. “Denki, but they’re all for you,” she said, smiling.
    Later, after hitching up, they rode up Hickory Lane, Mandy sitting on Sylvan’s left on the way to his parents’ home. The peaceful rural landscape with its dusting of snow relaxed her, making her forget time and space—and the undertow of tension between them.
    When they drove past the deacon’s herd of dairy cattle, Mandy recalled hearing that the deacon’s wife had insisted on naming three of their cows—Polly, Gentle, and Frieda—just as Tessie Ann had named her two favorite chickens. This made Mandy smile. Such a playful sister.
    A while later, they passed one of Marcus King’s married sisters, Arie Ann Esh, and her husband, Noah, nephew to the late Benuel Esh, and their three little tykes all piled inthe back of the buggy. Arie Ann was Marcus’s only brunette sister out of his blond siblings. She looked as somber as Tessie had all this time, dressed completely in black, including her outer bonnet.
    Waving and waiting till the buggy passed, Sylvan asked Mandy, “Why on earth do ya think Tessie’s still in mourning?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Does it wonder you?”
    “Sometimes.”
    Sylvan was quiet for a while. Then he said more firmly, “Seems mighty strange she should wear black garb for this long. Or at all.”
    “She must have her reasons,” Mandy said quietly. Surely Sylvan guessed at Tessie’s love for Marcus. Few among the People hadn’t witnessed her reaction the day of his death and the change in her afterward.
    Mandy was relieved when nothing more was said about Tessie’s dreary clothing. Neither was anything else shared on the way to her in-laws’ place. Mandy didn’t actually dread the day ahead, but given a say, she’d much preferred to have gone to her parents’ home for Christmas dinner, to be near Tessie Ann. Two of their married sisters were also going over there to fellowship around Mamm’s bountiful table. Thus far, she and