Mother For His Children, A (4 page)

She turned to get it, but Ruth took the empty bowl from Levi's hands.

“You sit and eat. I'll fill the bowl and get the coffee at the same time.”

Under the tantalizing breakfast smells of sausage and potatoes, Levi caught the scent of clean laundry as she turned from him to the stove. The slight nudge sent his memory whirling back to the night before, when this same woman stood in the shadowy kitchen in her long white nightgown.

“Dat,”
Elias said, bumping his arm with the bowl, “take the potatoes.”

Levi took the bowl and passed it on to Waneta, his appetite gone. He picked up his fork, hesitating, watching both benches full of children's heads down, focused on their meal.

“Here you are, Levi Zook.” She was at his left elbow, setting his coffee cup by his plate and handing him the dish of oatmeal.

He took it without a glance at her and spooned some into his waiting bowl. Perhaps if he didn't look at her, didn't speak to her, she would take her place as a welcome employee. Think of her as someone helping out on the farm. Think of her as a sister.

She sat at the end of the table again and leaned over to help Jesse cut his sausage patties, her golden hair, framed by her heart-shaped
kapp,
shone in the lamplight. He focused on his plate, shoveling tasteless food into his mouth. Even if he wasn't hungry now, it was many hours before dinnertime.

His plate finally empty, he downed his coffee in three swallows, shuddering as the bitter drink poured down his throat. He had forgotten the cream and sugar, but it was too late to add it now. He wiped his beard with his napkin as he stood.

“Elias, I'm going to get started on the repairs for the plow. You come out when you're done.”

“Ja, Dat,”
Elias answered, “I'll be out soon.”

“Dat,”
Waneta asked, “what about your second cup of coffee?”

Levi kept his eyes on his shirt front as he brushed off crumbs that weren't there. Anything to keep his eyes from straying to the other end of the table.

“I'll have it later. Maybe you can bring it out to the barn,
ja?
” He patted her cheek and escaped to the back porch.

He sat on the bench, lacing his boots, the cold pressing him even in the sheltered area. Voices came to him through the door as the children finished their breakfasts. He leaned back against the wall, one boot in his hand, forgotten, as he listened. The words were indistinct, but one voice floated above the others in calm, even tones. Even as old as Waneta was, she didn't have the gentle, womanly influence Ruth had brought into their home.

Levi thrust his foot into the well-worn leather of his second boot. It looked like bringing Ruth Mummert here was going to turn out to be just what his family needed.

* * *

The next Monday brought the beginning of the new school term. Once breakfast was finished, the children raced to get ready on time. Ruthy started clearing the table, but Waneta stopped her.

“Would you mind braiding the girls? I hate doing it, and they never look good for school.”

“
Ja,
sure I will.”

Braid the girls? As she went up the stairs to find the twins' room, Ruthy's mind flew back to when she and Laurette would braid each other's hair after playing too wildly in the school yard. Laurette's hair was so dark it was almost black, while Ruthy's was blond with a stubborn curl to it. She had loved to twist and braid Laurette's smooth hair.

But she didn't have any time to brood over memories as she quickly tamed Nancy's and Nellie's tousled brown hair and braided them with deft hands ready to fit their
kapps
on. When she was done, Nellie and Nancy looked at each other, then to Ruthy, Nellie almost in tears.

“You didn't do it right,” Nancy said.

Ruthy looked at the two girls, their silken hair twisted neatly away from their faces and two braids falling down their backs. “What do you mean?”

Nancy pointed to the side of Nellie's face. “You twisted it. The girls will say that's fancy. You have to do it right.”

Martha looked in the door. “Come, girls. It's time to go.” She stepped into the room, staring at them. “What have you done to your hair?”

“I braided it the way I would have done at home,” Ruthy said. “I guess the style is different here.”

“
Ja,
if they went to school like this they'd be teased to no end.” Martha sat down on the bed and started undoing Nancy's braid. “Here, you watch me, and then you'll know how we do it.”

Ruthy watched as Martha's fingers sped through Nancy's hair. It wasn't hard at all, just one more difference between home and this strange place. She finished braiding Nellie in time for them all to meet the school bus at the end of the lane.

After the scholars had left, Ruthy picked up a towel as Waneta shaved soap flakes into the dish pan.

“After we do our morning work, we need to get started on the laundry.” Ruthy filled a second dishpan with hot water from the stove's reservoir. “You'll have to show me how you do it.”

“It's going to take all day.” Waneta's voice was resigned.

Irritation at Levi Zook rose before Ruthy squelched it down. This girl had been carrying the full burden of running this house far too long, but now she could have some help.

“It will go twice as fast with two of us working,
ja?
”

“Ja.”
Waneta's voice sounded a little brighter with that thought. “And then what job gets done tomorrow?”

“My
mam
has a job for each day of the week, and all the work gets done in its own time. Tomorrow we'll iron the clothes, Wednesday will be for mending. Thursday we'll do the baking, Friday the marketing if we go to town, and Saturday, when all the scholars are at home, we'll do the cleaning.”

“That sounds like what my
mam
did before she got sick. I remember cleaning the house every Saturday.”

“Was your
mam
ill for a long time before she passed on?” Ruthy hated to ask, but she was curious about this woman who had been Levi Zook's wife and the mother to all these children.

“
Ja,
the illness started even before Sam came.” Waneta stared at the cooling dishwater, her hands resting on the edge of the pan. “There were lots of days she never got out of bed. After the baby came she just stayed there until she...”

“How old were you when Sam was born? Eleven?”

Waneta nodded, and then reached for the next stack of dishes. “I tried, but I could never keep house as well as
Mam
had before she got sick.”

“And your
dat
has never remarried?”

Waneta gave Ruthy a shaky smile. “Would you marry a man with ten children?”

“Why not? Children are a blessing.”

“Not everyone thinks so.
Dat
thought Ellie Miller would make a good
mam
for us, since she was a widow herself and her little ones needed a
dat,
but she married Bram Lapp last fall.”

“Maybe she just didn't think it was God's will.”

Waneta shook her head. “I've watched her with Bram, and I can tell they really love each other. She didn't love
Dat,
that's why she didn't marry him. I've always wondered if she would have learned to love him if it hadn't been for us children.”

Ruthy dried the next plate and stacked it with the others. Did love make any difference when it came to marriage? She had loved Elam, hadn't she? But now that marriage would never happen.

Ne,
love had nothing to do with it. Marriage was all about making promises and believing both you and your husband could keep them.

Ruthy picked a handful of spoons out of the rinse water and dried them one by one, dropping each one into the silverware drawer.

She had thought she could trust Elam, but his word hadn't meant anything. She dropped the last spoon and closed the drawer with a shove.

Perhaps being a
maidle
wasn't such a bad thing after all.

 

Chapter Four

L
evi's fork sliced through the crumbly topping and the gooey layer of molasses pudding. He hesitated before he put the bite of pie into his mouth, teasing Martha with his delay. The girl wiggled in her seat, her eyes glowing as she watched him. He took the triangle off his fork and chewed slowly, tasting the blend of molasses and the crumb topping.

“Mmm.” He closed his eyes and nodded. “Mmm,
ja
this is perfect. Even better than last week.” He opened his eyes to see Martha's face blushing.

“
Dat,
it's really good?”

“Martha, this is the best shoofly pie I've ever had.”

Martha turned to Ruth Mummert with a grin. “Then I guess we can serve everyone else, if
Dat
likes it.”

David reached for the pie plate. “I won't complain if Martha turns out to be a pie baker. I could eat pie for every meal.”

“It was Ruthy's recipe,” Martha said, her ears turning red at the praise. “She's the one who taught me.”

“And Martha is an excellent student.” Ruth started clearing the supper dishes as the pie was passed. “She will be a
wonderful-gut
baker.”

Levi took another bite and savored the sweetness. Pie was the best end to a meal. Pie and coffee, he amended as he sipped the fresh cup Ruth put in front of him. He took his time to finish his dessert, listening to the conversations between the children. The girls discussed which kind of pie Martha should try next, while the big boys argued about who had won the game that afternoon. He couldn't hear what the little boys at the end of the table were talking about, but they were deep in conversation.

He took the last bite of pie as the girls rose to wash the dishes.
Ja,
with pie for supper life was
gut.
He had done a
wonderful-gut
thing when he brought Ruth Mummert here. If she could teach Martha to make pie, she could teach his girls everything else they needed to know. There would never be a reason to send any of his children away.

“Do you want some more coffee?” Ruth asked, appearing at his elbow with the coffeepot in hand.

“
Ne,
it will only keep me awake.”

“It would me, too.”

Levi let her take his empty plate and swallowed the last of his coffee. “Boys, you can start on your studying. Martha and the twins will join you when the dishes are done.”

“Dat,”
said Jesse, “I need help with my arithmetic. I got all the problems wrong today.”

“I'll help you. Bring your book in here.”

When Jesse brought his book, he opened the page and showed Levi where he was having difficulty. “It's here,
Dat
. I added one plus one, but Miss Shrock said the answer was eleven, not two.”

Levi smiled.
Ja,
it was the same with all his children when they encountered adding ten and one for the first time. “Go in my bedroom and get a dime and the pennies off my dresser.”

Jesse brought them and Levi showed him how ten pennies turn into a dime. “Now, if I add one penny and one dime, what do I get?”

“Eleven cents.”

“
Ja, gut
. Now look at your arithmetic. If you add ten and one, what do you get?”

“Eleven?”

“
Ja,
that's it. Now try the next one.”

While Jesse worked on his arithmetic problems, the girls joined them at the table, and Levi's eyes strayed to Ruth. She was setting the sponge for tomorrow's bread, her movements quick and practiced.

As he watched her, the memory of her tall, graceful form in the flowing white gown hit him with full force. How could he put it out of his mind? Or did he even want to? Her golden hair gleaming under her heart-shaped kapp, her efficient hands, his children content and well-fed, the worry lines disappearing from Waneta's face...
Ja,
he had done right when he brought Ruth Mummert here.

“
Dat,
is this right?”

Jesse's question brought him back to the present. As he looked over Jesse's arithmetic paper, the reality of what he had been thinking hit him square in the jaw. Ruth Mummert wasn't much older than his Waneta. A grown woman,
ja,
but still a young woman. A beautiful young woman. How long would she be working for him? The first Singing she attended, she'd have a flock of young men buzzing around her.

He glanced back at Ruth, noting how quickly she had brought the kitchen to order after feeding all twelve of them. After less than a week, she had settled into the role of housekeeper very easily. Not just housekeeper, he amended as he surveyed the row of heads around the table, his scholars busy with their evening studies. She was taking his daughters under her wing like an older sister.

Ruth took off her apron, and after hanging it on the hook next to the sink, came over to look at Nellie's homework. Levi watched Nellie's face light up when Ruth whispered in her ear and gave her shoulders a hug. He swallowed the lump rising in his throat.

Ne,
not an older sister. More like an aunt or...

Ruth turned to Nancy and laid her hand on the girl's shoulder as she leaned down to catch Nancy's explanation of her homework.

Ne,
not even an aunt. A mother. The mother he had been hoping to find for his children.

But wasn't she too young to take on such a responsibility?

Levi turned back to Jesse's paper as Ruth left the girls and walked toward him.

“I'll say good-night now, Levi Zook, unless you have anything else you need me to do before morning.”

Levi glanced up at her, his mouth dry. Would his thoughts show on his face?

“Ne, denki.”
He cleared his throat to stop the adolescent squeak that threatened to escape. “That was a fine meal.”

She blushed and lowered her eyes at his praise. “Your daughters were a
wonderful-gut
help. Good night.”

The kitchen table filled with children was silent as she closed the door to the
Dawdi Haus.

“Dat,”
Sam said, standing in the door of the front room with a drawing tablet in his hand, “why didn't she stay with us?”

“Ruth works hard. She probably wanted to rest or write letters before she went to bed.”

Nellie, his quiet Nellie, said, “She could have stayed and written her letters here.”

“Tomorrow we'll ask her to stay.”

But would she? Levi had the sudden urge to follow her, to ask her to stay tonight. But he sat, the final snick of the
Dawdi Haus
door latch echoing above the children's voices.

* * *

Ruthy leaned back against the kitchen door before heading down the short hall to the
Dawdi Haus.
The kitchen had been cozy and warm, and the lantern hung over the table had enclosed them all within its light. The scholars bent to their studies, Waneta copying recipes, Elias and Nathan sharing sections of
The Budget
—they were a family, but not her family. From the table-flat farmland outside the window, to the stark stiffness of the girls'
kapps,
to the flat tones of their words, every moment she spent with Levi Zook's family showed her just how far from home she really was.

But this is where God wanted her to be, wasn't it? And she was needed here. Even after this short time, she could see how much this family needed her help, especially the girls and little, lonely Sam. Several times during the day he would come to her and she would take quick breaks from her work to sit down and hold him on her lap while he chatted with her or showed her his drawings. His little-boy body had molded into hers, showing her how 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?