Weekend Freewrite -3/14/2020 - Single Prompt Option CONTINUATION: Feeling the Love
After lunchtime, Mrs. Onyx Baxter came with a smile to Mrs. Thornton.
“A secret admirer left this for you,” she said, and passed her a letter.
Mrs. Thornton smiled back … Rev. and Mrs. Baxter knew what was going on, as did Rev. and Mrs. Gordon … Captain Lee and Mrs. Thornton had already privately met with them for premarital counseling many times, and they had decided to have their public wedding at the Church in the Midst of Life.
That was still a few months off … the point, however, was that the founders of the church were in on the happy secret, and thus could pass along “secret admirer” notes to Mrs. Thornton.
It had been fiercely cold Monday through Wednesday and still cold enough Thursday, but it had warmed up quite a bit on Friday, so Mrs. Thornton retired to the church's garden to read her mail. She lifted it to her nose first of all … he used a sharp soap, a sharp and clean scent, and so he had written this just after his exercise and shower. She opened it, and took her time reading his precise, compact writing:
“I love you, Magdalena Milano Thornton. Your worth to me is beyond all words, and the thought that I must never take you for granted was burned into my mind at the sight of those bandages on your arms. I know that asking you to take the whole day off while there is service for you to do would be about as useless as you asking me the same thing [and she laughed, because both of them were stubborn], and since I know you will be at the church, I wanted to let you know in the midst of your day that I love you, and am thinking of you while in my own duties.
“I love you, Magdalena Milano Thornton. I love you all the more because you would not hear of parting from me after my prayers for you without you praying for me in the duties I have today. I would not have held it against you if all you wanted to do was curl up in my arms and cry, for I realize what it is to see a crumpled up car to you… but you will not permit me to have a single thought for you that you do not return to me many times over.
“I love you, Magdalena Milano Thornton, for I never thought I would be able to love again until you came into my life, a woman beautiful inside and out who was willing to take a chance on me, who saw in me a heart worth putting back together again when I could not see it. I did not know the Lord was as good as He is until He blessed me with your love, and with the honor and the privilege to love you. I will consider that my chief and best duty, for the rest of our lives, and I thank Him that He spared us both, yesterday, to have that life together.
“I love you as you are today and as you will be, soon enough, Mrs. Maggie M.T. Lee-to-be. Love always from your husband-in-prospectus, H.F. Lee, and I will see you after this last day of work … I also am taking Monday and Tuesday off, and am looking forward to the time spent with you.”
Mrs. Thornton folded that letter up and put it in her purse, took out her handkerchief, wept, and then did something like what Captain Lee would have done … she completed her day at the church, and then changed into a sweatsuit with a big hood, took the keys to Captain Lee's pickup truck, and then drove up around sunset to his temporary precinct location to pick him up after the last long day of his long workweek.
Artwork by the author, Deeann D. Mathews