I've really enjoyed writing this story, but it was driving me crazy that except for Benjamin and Dorcas, every couple's chapter was about pregnancy/parenting. I wanted to do something different, so for Ephraim and Liza, and in honor of Valentine's Day tomorrow, I wrote a chapter focused just on the two of them. It turned out a bit silly (and skinny), but I hope you'll enjoy it.

"I now pronounce you men and wives."

The six younger Pontipee brothers were all delighted to finally be married to their sweethearts, but their joy was soon dampened by a new problem. "Can't believe we never gave no thought to where we'd be spendin' our weddin' night," Benjamin muttered to Daniel, embarrassed, and it was true that the six new couples had nowhere to go for privacy. The barn loft was smelly and unromantic, and the big bedroom upstairs held six beds. Ephraim suggested hanging up blankets between the beds, but that would do nothing to block out sound, and his brothers doubted that the girls would agree to it.

There was a brief argument about who should get the main house, the one that their parents had built. "Ma and Pa didn't leave no will or nothin'," Frank told Adam, scowling. "I reckon this house don't automatically belong to you just 'cause you're the eldest."

But Adam was the first of his brothers to have become a father, and he played that card for all it was worth. "Oh sure, cast me and my baby girl out of house and home," he said, picking Hannah up from her crib. "Throw your very own niece out."

So on their wedding day, just a few hours after Reverend Elcott made their marriage pronouncement, the brothers began work on building their own cabins.

Adam joked that nothing had ever made his brothers work so hard as wanting privacy with their new wives. Working together, the seven men built three new cabins over the spring and summer - one for Benjamin and Dorcas, one for Frank and Sarah, and one that Caleb, Ruth, Daniel, and Martha shared. Ephraim, Liza, Gideon, and Alice continued living in the main house with Adam and Millie, but they put up new walls to create more rooms and more privacy.

Liza loved having their own new bedroom, especially when, after the door was fastened in place, Ephraim went behind it and pulled out his pocket knife. He carved E&L neatly into the back of the door, added a heart around it, stood back, and said, "There, now it's really our own room." Later Liza sewed a matching sampler, E&L inside a heart, and hung it on the wall beside the door carving. Sometimes in the evenings, she liked to lay a blanket on the floor of their room and eat dinner there. She called it having a picnic, which always made Ephraim laugh, and they ate picnic foods - sandwiches, apples, hard-boiled eggs.

One chilly night in November, as Ephraim came into their room after his evening chores, Liza grinned impishly at him. "Do you know what today is, Ephraim?" she asked him.

Ephraim went over the date in his mind. It wasn't his birthday or hers - Adam had warned him to make sure that he never forgot his wife's birthday, and Liza's was April 9 - and it was barely four months since they were married. He didn't know what was so special about today, but he didn't want to admit it to Liza.

"Well... it ain't our anniversary," Ephraim answered slowly, still racking his brain.

Liza grinned wider and waggled her shoulders. "Oh, it ain't our wedding anniversary," she said. "But it's the anniversary of somethin' else."

Ephraim went over the date again... and then it hit him. It had been just this time of year - early November, when the first dusty-light snows began to fall, just a few weeks after the October barn-raising - when Adam had gotten his bright idea out of Millie's book. Was it possible that it had been only a year ago? It felt so much longer.

"Well, it... it ain't anniversary of the day I kidnapped you, is it?" Ephraim asked hesitantly. He was still ashamed of himself for snatching her away that night, and he wasn't sure that Liza would want to remember it - but she looked happy.

"Sure is! It was this night exactly," Liza said. She put her hands on her hips and went on, playfully scolding him, "And ooh, I could've just killed you that night, Ephraim Pontipee. If I'd had my pa's gun, you and your brothers would all be dead men."

Ephraim laughed at the thought of his sweet Liza shooting a rifle. "Well, I reckon we woulda deserved it, the whole slummicky lot of us," he said. He was quiet for a moment, thinking back to that night for the first time in a long time. "I remember just how it happened. We hitched up the wagon, and Adam drove us into town real quiet-like."

"I think we oughtta do something to mark this day," Liza said. Then she laughed a little. "I know! You oughtta step outside and meow like a cat, tryin' to trick me into comin' out. Alice told me that's what Gideon done with her."

Ephraim smiled mischievously. "Well, I think you oughtta bake a pie, and when you set it on the window to cool, I'll grab you and pull you through. Caleb told me that's what he done with Ruth."

"And she was so mad at him for that, too. That was her best pie, blackberry and peaches - she come up with with it once when she didn't have enough of either - and I asked her later, 'Well, whatever happened to that pie, Ruth?' and she said, 'I plumb don't know!'"

Within a few minutes, they were playing a game, pretending to recreate the kidnapping. Ephraim chased Liza around their room, over their bed, behind the rocking chair, while Liza cried, "Help, help, I'm bein' kidnapped!" - but she was laughing so hard that she could barely say the words. She had such a fun-loving side, and it was one of the things that Ephraim loved about her. He was glad that they both wanted to wait to have a baby; it was good to spend some time just enjoying being married.

Ephraim laughed too and chased Liza harder around the room. They were both having so much fun that they didn't notice when they knocked a vase to the floor, or when they overturned the rocking chair, or when the bedframe creaked and groaned as they tumbled over it. They didn't notice how loudly they were shrieking and laughing.

Neither of them noticed anything, in fact, until the door slammed open. Adam stood there in the doorway, his rifle in one hand, looking alarmed. "What in tarnation is goin' on in here?" he thundered.

His fierce face sobered up Ephraim, but Liza was still helpless with laughter. "Help me, I'm bein' kidnapped," she got out again, gasping. Ephraim chuckled a bit and said sheepishly, "Well, the whole kidnappin' thing was your idea, Adam."

Adam stared at his brother, then at Liza, then shook his head, bewildered. "You two done took leave of your senses, I reckon," he said, shouldering his gun. "Here I was thinkin' a bear must've bust into the house, with all that racket, and you done woke up Hannah."

Only then did Ephraim and Liza notice that from Adam and Millie's bedroom, Hannah was crying. Her niece's cries accomplished what Adam couldn't, and Liza immediately stopped laughing and grew serious. "Gee, I'm sorry, Adam," she apologized. "We didn't mean to make so much racket. We was just..." But she stopped abruptly, afraid that if she tried to explain what they'd been doing, she would start laughing again.

Adam just shook his head again and went back down the hall. "Come next summer," he muttered to himself, "I reckon those two need a cabin of their own."

There's only one couple left... but I think Gideon and Alice just might get two chapters!