A Match for the Matchmaker

Clara, Willowbrook’s beloved matchmaker, has helped everyone find love while quietly longing for her own. When a kind carpenter moves next door, she eagerly…

A village matchmaker who finds everyone a partner but never herself.

Every wedding in Willowbrook seemed to begin at Clara’s kitchen table. People arrived with photographs, hopeful questions, and firm ideas about whom they would never marry. Clara listened, poured tea, and often introduced them to exactly that person. Years later, they still stopped her in the market to say she had been right.

Yet at thirty-two, Clara returned each evening to a quiet cottage. Whenever someone offered to find her a husband, she laughed and changed the subject. It was easier to ask about another person’s heart than explain what she hoped for in her own.

Then a carpenter named Samuel moved into the empty house beside hers. He had kind eyes, a patient manner, and a gate that refused to stay shut. Clara introduced herself over the fence and, within minutes, asked whether he was married. “No,” he said. She smiled. “Then you’ve moved to the right village.”

She invited him to tea with the baker’s daughter, then arranged for him to meet a widowed schoolteacher. He was courteous to both, but neither meeting led anywhere. Strangely, he always stayed afterward to help Clara wash the cups. He repaired her loose cupboard door, remembered that she disliked sugar in her tea, and began leaving apples from his garden on her doorstep.

Clara told herself he was simply a thoughtful neighbour. Still, she started looking toward his workshop when she passed. On evenings when he joined her for supper, she found herself setting the table early.

One autumn afternoon, Samuel arrived carrying a small wooden box. Inside lay the names of every woman Clara had suggested, each written on a folded slip of paper. She stared at them, embarrassed. “You could have told me to stop.”

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What is A Match for the Matchmaker about?

Clara, Willowbrook’s beloved matchmaker, has helped everyone find love while quietly longing for her own. When a kind carpenter moves next door, she eagerly…

Is A Match for the Matchmaker free to read?

Yes. Every story on RapidTale is free to read in the browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install.

How long does it take to read?

This story runs 1 chapter — most readers finish in one sitting, and you can stop and return to any chapter using the contents list.

Who wrote it?

Nimra Khan — original fiction published on RapidTale.