A Mother for His Children. Jan Drexler
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he missed the comfort of a mother’s arms.
They all missed their mother, even Elias and Waneta.
Ach, and she missed her own mother, even though they had only been parted a short time. But she could still write, and she knew she could visit whenever it was convenient. Her mam was only a train ride away.
With that thought she hurried into the Dawdi Haus and relit the fire in the stove. She retrieved her writing desk from the bedroom and sat at the little kitchen table, as close to the fire as she could get.
Putting the ink bottle on the side of the stove to warm it, Ruthy took out a sheet of paper and her pen, composing a letter to Mam in her head as she waited.
Her first week had gone well, she would write. Waneta was a sweet girl and a joy to work with. Martha had loved learning to make pies. Nellie had come to her wanting to learn to purl so she could knit a pair of stockings for her dat, but Ruthy had convinced her to start out with a blanket for her doll to practice the stitches. Nancy had come home from school yesterday with snow inside her boots, complaining that David had pushed her into the ditch on the way home. The boys... She didn’t know any of them very well yet, except Sam.
And then there was Levi. What would she tell Mam about Levi Zook?
Ruthy picked up the bottle of ink and shook it as she considered this problem. The ink was almost warm enough to use.
Levi hadn’t lied to her, but Mam and Dat would say he misled her by not telling her how many children he had. They would ask if she wanted to stay on, knowing he had kept that important information to himself.
She smiled to herself. Of course she was going to stay. Ten children seemed like such a large number...until she started getting to know them. Now that she had met them, had seen how much they all longed for a mother in their lives, she couldn’t bear to think of leaving them.
But... Ruthy shook the ink bottle again, and then brought it to the table and uncorked it. She filled her pen as she considered something that had been hovering at the back of her mind. What if there was something else Levi had forgotten to tell her?
What if he already had a new mother chosen for his children and he had only hired her so the house would be orderly and running well before his new wife came to live here? She wouldn’t be surprised. Just because he hadn’t been successful in courting that other woman Waneta had told her about didn’t mean he didn’t have his eye on someone else. A man like him wouldn’t stay single very long.
And if she got along well with the new wife, perhaps she would be asked to stay on. A new wife would need a helper, ja?
The clock’s ticking echoed in the silent room. It was a pipe dream at best. When Levi married again, she would have to move on. Find another position as a housekeeper, or a mother’s helper...
A tear fell, raising a spot on her paper. Ruthy quickly crumpled the sheet and threw it into the stove. She couldn’t send a letter home with a tearstain on it, could she?
Home. Would she ever know the sweetness of her own home again?
Levi recognized Eliza’s sleigh as soon as she turned the corner half a mile away. Her feisty horse, Ginger, had a flashy step that matched Eliza’s own personality. She never did anything partway.
He poured the bucket of slop he was carrying into the pig’s trough and then went back out to the yard to wait for her. She slowed Ginger for the turn into the farm lane, but then the horse picked up speed again before he reached the barn. Levi caught the reins as the horse neared the buggy shed. How could he convince Eliza this horse was too much for her? Levi struggled to hold the horse still. He had never been able to convince his older sister of anything.
Eliza climbed down from the sleigh and looked him up and down. “Well, Levi, I guess you aren’t starving yet. Waneta must be doing a good job feeding you.”
“Ja, Waneta’s doing a fine job.”
His sister sniffed, looking from the barn to the house. “You’re all well? The whole family?”
“Ja, Eliza. We’re all well. And you?” Levi stroked Ginger’s neck. What was Eliza doing here? It was an eight-mile drive from her home near Middlebury, and it wasn’t like her to drive that far on a Thursday just to see if all the children were healthy.
“I’m well enough, considering. It isn’t easy living alone, you know.”
He didn’t know. He had never lived alone.
“I’ll take care of Ginger if you want to go on in the house. I’m sure there’s still coffee on the stove.”
Eliza moved closer to him, stepping around a clump of snow. “I heard you picked up a woman at the Shipshewana station last week.”
Levi sighed. Here it was. He had been wondering how to tell Eliza about his new housekeeper, but he should have known word would get to her.
“Ja, her name is Ruth Mummert. She’s our housekeeper.”
“A housekeeper? You’re spending good money on a housekeeper when you know very well I had everything arranged for you?”
That was just the problem. She had everything arranged, whether he liked it or not.
“Eliza, I want to keep my family together.”
“Humph.”
Ginger moved restlessly, reminding Levi the horse needed attending to after the long drive.
“Why don’t you go on in the house and meet Ruth? She’s been a wonderful-gut help to us already, and I think you’ll like her.”
Eliza turned her bulk toward the house, but then looked at Levi. “I’ll meet her, but I can’t promise I’ll like her. It seems like backward thinking to bring an outsider into your home while I’m here.”
Levi watched Eliza pick her way across the snowy barnyard to the house. At least Waneta was there to provide a buffer between Ruth and his sister. He started unhitching Ginger.
He’d better get inside as soon as he could.
* * *
“How many jars of chowchow?”
Waneta counted, bending down to see into the back recesses of the cellar shelves. “Twenty-four, and then there are ten jars of pickled cauliflower.”
Ruthy wrote the numbers down and glanced over the list. Green beans, navy beans, tomatoes, vegetable soup, plenty of pickled vegetables... “Is there any corn?”
Waneta searched through the jars. “Ne, no corn left.”
“What about fruit?”
Waneta moved to the next shelf. “Lots of prune plums.”
As she started counting, Sam clattered down the wooden steps.
“’Neta! Aunt Eliza’s here.”
“Ach, ne, not today!” Waneta stood so quickly her head bumped against the shelf above her. “Ruthy, is my kapp straight?” She dusted off her skirt and retied her apron.
“You look fine. Why don’t I finish counting the fruit while you go up to greet your auntie.”
Waneta laid her hand on Ruthy’s arm, her voice an urgent whisper. “Don’t make me face her alone!”
“You aren’t afraid of her, are you?”
Waneta’s gaze went to the ceiling as they both heard heavy footsteps in the kitchen above them. “I can never do anything right for her. I know she doesn’t like me.”
“I understand. I have an auntie like that, too.” Ruthy smiled at Waneta. “Come, we’ll face her together.”
Waneta led the way up the bare wooden steps,