A Touch of Grace (10 page)

“Astrid is being a gossip.” But she could feel the heat rising up her neck.

“You are blushing.” Sophie fanned her neck with her fingers along with a teasing grin. “He is very handsome.”

“He wants me to teach him to sign, so I gave him one of our alphabet charts.”

“I’d think he’d rather you formed his fingers into the proper shapes like you do the little children.”

“Sophie Knu—Bjorklund! What a thing to say.” Grace’s fingers warmed clear to the tips to match her face. She stumbled over the words in her confusion and resorted to fingers only. “How can you even think such things?”

“Do you like him?”

“Of course. He’s a very nice young man.”

“Does your heart pick up speed when he walks into a room?”

Grace shook her head.
Ah, Sophie, if only you knew. My heart is
already tied up with a knot and a bow. I just wish I could get a chance to
talk with Toby and find out what is going on
.

“Do you look up and find him watching you?”

“Sophie, that is quite enough. Besides, he will be leaving to go back to New York at the end of August. And that will be the end of that.”

“You can always write letters.” Sophie gave her a droll look and sighed. “So then, have a good time but be aware that what you think and what he thinks might be two entirely different things. Doesn’t the name Mrs. Jonathan Gould have a nice ring to it?”

“Very nice but not for me. I will help Mor in teaching the new students. We will open the school to five more pupils this year. That will be about twenty, if that many inquire.”

“Doesn’t Mor have a waiting list?” Sophie turned toward her babies. “There he goes again. Hamre, you just ate.”

Grace leaned over the basket. “I’ll take him up so he doesn’t wake Joy.” She lifted the squirming baby. “Oh, you’re soaked.”

“Ja, his system works very well. Cover him up when you change him, or you’ll get squirted.”

Choking back a retort, Grace laid the now whimpering baby on the padded top of the chest of drawers. She unpinned his diaper, remembering how the same thing had happened when Samuel was a baby. She and Sophie had thought their baby brother the most fascinating creature. And it was she, not Sophie, who had tried to help Mor change his diapers then. They were too little when Trygve was born to pay much attention. After dusting Hamre with powder, she pinned a new diaper in place and added dry soakers and finally a clean dry gown, tying the ribbons at neck and chest. By this time Hamre was throwing in a howl or two. She carried him to his mother, who had a hemmed flannel blanket to throw over him and her shoulder while he nursed.

Sophie settled her son into the crook of her arm and smiled down at him as he latched on to the breast. “Now, don’t go to sleep on me.” She glanced up at Grace. “Calves and lambs are cuter than human babies, don’t you think?”

“Don’t let Mor hear you say that.”

“Well, they are. And a lot more independent too. A calf wouldn’t lie around whimpering. It would go bop the cow on the udder and help itself.” She settled back in the rocking chair. “Have you walked through Mr. Wiste’s house?”

Why is she asking me that?
“No. But it looks to be a big one.”

“I wondered why he wanted me to look at the different plans and help him choose. But he had already decided he wanted to marry me, and he wanted me to like the house. Isn’t that just the most thoughtful thing?”

Grace nodded, not sure she’d caught everything Sophie said, but signing right now was a bit difficult. She got the idea that it was all about Mr.Wiste, however.
Sophie, Sophie, this sounds like last September
all over again. Hamre this and Hamre that
.

“I know you think I’m going on like I did over Hamre, but my dear sister, I have learned a few things. One of them is that life can change faster than you can blink your eyes. I’d rather grab hold and go along for the ride than stand on the sidelines and watch life pass me by. Both Garth and I have lost someone dear, and that makes us not want to waste a minute.” Her serious look turned to a grin. “Besides, just think of all the conniption fits Mrs. Valders is going to have over this. Why, she might as well write to President Roosevelt and complain.” Her eyebrows wiggled, setting Grace to grinning back.

“You really believe this is what God has planned for you?”

“I do, and we have prayed about this a lot. We will have the wedding in the church, and I want you to stand up with me. Garth is having his brother with him. We haven’t talked with Pastor Solberg yet, but we are hoping for mid-July. Maybe I’ll be able to wear one of my newer dresses by then.”

“Well, if we need to sew one, we better get on it.”

“You could wear the dress you sewed for graduation.”

“All right.”

Sophie glanced down at her baby. “Sure enough, sound asleep. Here, you tap on the bottoms of his feet while I pat his cheeks. Hamre, wake up.” They got him to nurse a bit more, but his little mouth would just slip away from the nipple. Sophie held him to her shoulder and rubbed his back until he burped and then laid him back in the basket next to his sister. “At least Joy didn’t wake up.”

“Why don’t I go and get us some lemonade.”

But when Grace came back, Sophie was on the bed, sleeping as peacefully as her children. Grace went back to the kitchen and set the lemonade in the icebox. “I’m going over to see Elizabeth,” she told Mrs. Sam. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

“They’s sleepin’?”

“For the moment.”

Before leaving, Grace took another look at Sophie sleeping, once such a familiar sight and now so different.
You ran away but now have
two beautiful babies and are about to marry again. If you are like the
prodigal son, I guess I am the stay-at-home brother. I definitely have his
attitude today. Why am I feeling jealous of my own sister?

Grace set her straw hat with the tulle ribbon back on her head, using a hatpin to hold it in place, and pausing on the front step, made a lightning decision. She’d walk the long way, around the flour mill and then back to Thorliff and Elizabeth’s house. Just perhaps she would see Toby, and just perhaps he would take a moment and come to talk with her. While the men waved from high up where they were putting the roof on the concrete building, Toby didn’t bother coming down. But then, what silly idea made her think he would? The men would have teased him forever.
Don’t be such a ninny, Grace. You’ll
embarrass yourself and him too
.

Instead of going in the front door and passing Elizabeth’s surgery, she let herself in the back screen door.

“Is anyone home?”

Thelma, her hair covered with a white dish towel, came up the stairs from the cellar brushing a cobweb off her arm. She nodded at Grace. “Don’t know how those pests move in so fast. We need a cat. Mouse droppings all over the place.”

“Our barn cats take care of the house too. We could bring in one of the half-grown kittens, but they are pretty wild.” Grace glanced about the immaculate kitchen. “Is Elizabeth out on a call?”

“No, she’s lying down. You want I should get her?”

“No. I know she’s not feeling well. I’ll go on back to the boardinghouse. I’m spending the afternoon with Sophie, but she fell asleep too.”

Thelma looked up. “That’s the doctor’s bell. I’ll go see what she needs and be right back.”

Grace waited, glancing around the room, admiring the gas stove and the hand pump at the sink so they needn’t carry water. Mor and Far wanted to put that in at their house too, but so far it had not happened.

Thelma charged back into the kitchen. “Doctor says to go for Ingeborg. Can you harness up the buggy and go?”

“I can run faster than harness the horse and buggy, but I could ride the horse.”

“Please, go.”

Without asking more, Grace tore out the door. What could be wrong that Elizabeth needed Ingeborg? Her baby? What else?

I
NGEBORG HEARD THE HORSE
galloping up the lane and went to the door. What was Grace doing on Thorliff ’s horse?

“Tante Ingeborg, she needs you!” Grace slid off the horse as soon as it stopped. “Dr. Elizabeth.”

“Oh, dear God. I’ll get my bag. You run down to the barn and ask the boys to harness the buggy.” Ingeborg whipped her apron over her head as she ran for the bedroom and her bag, although why she’d need it at Elizabeth’s, she wasn’t certain. Badly bruised bag in hand, she stopped long enough to grab a sunbonnet from the coatrack.

“What is it?” Astrid came down the stairs from where she’d been rocking Inga to sleep.

“Dr. Elizabeth needs me. Good thing we have Inga here. You’ll have to finish up supper. Perhaps Grace can stay and help you.”

“We’ll be fine. Go on and don’t worry.”

“I’m not worrying. God has everything under control—just thinking out loud.”

Grace charged up the steps and burst in the door. “They’ll be ready by the time you get to the barn.” Her fingers did her talking so she could catch her breath.

“Takk.” She paused before the door. “We’ll plan on keeping Inga overnight if this is what I think it is.”

“She’s losing the baby?” Astrid asked, following her mother out the door.

“Possibly. This pregnancy hasn’t been right.” Ingeborg looked to the barn, where Jonathan and Trygve had the horse backed into the buggy traces. “Take care.”

“Go with God.”

“I do. Thank you, my dear.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek, gave Grace a hug, and let Jonathan hand her into the buggy. “Thank you too.” She picked up the reins, clucked the horse forward, and driving a tight circle, turned down the lane in a quick trot.
Please, Father,
protect Elizabeth. Restore her health. Comfort her
. Her thoughts roamed back to 1880, when she and Roald immigrated to this new land. She’d had to fight to learn to forgive herself for losing their baby. She’d taken a fall when out hunting, something Roald hadn’t wanted her doing anyway. And then with Haakan, when she never conceived again after Astrid, she often thought perhaps God was punishing her. Thankfully those terrible days were done and gone, and she now knew with all certainty that God had forgiven her.

But Elizabeth would most likely suffer the same doubts, especially since this was her second one to lose, although she had carried this baby longer. Doubt and guilt seemed to be the way of women when they lost a baby. Now she figured some babies died early because something was wrong with them and this was nature’s way of taking care of things. It didn’t help the hurt of the hour, however.

She prayed her way into town and upstairs to Elizabeth’s side.

The bloody sheets and towels told their own sad story. Thelma nodded to her and bundled the evidence up to wash.

“Oh, my dear.” She sat on the edge of the bed and held Elizabeth in her arms to let her cry out her sorrow.

“I lost my baby boy,” Elizabeth sobbed. “I-I can’t find Thorliff, and I …” Her mutterings dissolved in shuddering tears.

Ingeborg’s tears of comfort slid down her face as she murmured mother things and stroked Elizabeth’s hair back from her sweaty fore head. When the storm lightened, she asked, “Are you still bleeding?”

“I guess. I had Thelma help me.”

“Not overly heavy?”

“No. Just a few contractions and it was over. I want to bury him.”

“You shall. And we’ll plant a tree for him, in memory.”

“You think I did too much? Maybe I should have gone to bed or—”

“You know that’s not true. You’ve been feeling ill for most of the pregnancy. Something just wasn’t right.” Ingeborg dipped a cloth in a basin of cool water and sponged Elizabeth’s face. “How about I give you a basin bath and you put on a clean nightdress? Then I’ll mix my brew. You drink that and you’ll sleep for a while.”

“Inga?”

“Astrid will keep her at our house, and I’ll stay here as long as you need me.”

“Dearest Ingeborg, what would I do without you?”

Ingeborg kissed her daughter-in-law’s forehead. “God gives us each other for such times as this and for every day.”

Sometime later, with Elizabeth resting, the room straightened again, and the evening breeze puffing the sheer curtains, Ingeborg sipped the iced tea that Thelma had brought up and thought about the little boy who would never know his bestemor and bestefar, who would never run in the grass with his big sister, and who already knew the joys of heaven. “Father, I know you love him more than I could, but give him some extra love, please. He didn’t get to discover what a wonderful earth you have given us, but I realize you know what is best. I know that he is healed now of whatever was wrong, and while we are all sad, he is in your mighty hands, safe and home.” She wiped away her tears and swallowed some more tea. The footsteps she heard coming down the hall were heavy, a man’s steps. Thorliff.

Her son came through the door, saw his wife in the bed and his mother at the window. “I’m sorry; I came as soon as I heard.” His whisper sounded like a shout in the stillness. “Is it over, then?”

“Ja. Elizabeth just needs to sleep. I gave her something to help her relax. Now we need to pray for healing for her. Losing a baby that never lived has its own sorrow.”