laughed and hugged the little girl. “This is Nellie. Martha is the twelve-year-old sister.”
Seven children? Ruthy grasped her satchel closer, her lips pressed together. Seven children would be a challenge, but she could do it. She had always enjoyed large families. She followed Sam through the kitchen door leading to the chilly passageway between the two houses. Windows on both sides made it feel large and open, but sheltered from the weather.
She followed Sam into the house, where a girl sat in a chair, a book open in her lap. She looked up with startled eyes as Sam opened the door.
He looked up at Ruthy with disgust. “Martha’s always reading when she’s supposed to be working.”
Ruthy smiled at Sam and glanced at Martha. “I like to read, too. It’s hard to put a book down when there are chores to be done, isn’t it?”
“Ja, for sure.” Martha’s sweet smile warmed the room. “Dat said we should leave you be so you can settle in today.” The girl looked at Ruthy’s suitcase. “Or I could help you unpack...”
“I’d love your company, but don’t you think Waneta needs your help?”
Martha’s face told her she had guessed right, and Sam tugged at his sister’s hand. “Come on, Martha. ’Neta’s going to be mad if you don’t help her instead of mooning around.”
“I’ll see you later, all right?” Ruthy gave Martha a smile as the girl followed Sam back into the main house.
Ruthy closed the door behind them, looking around her new home. The front sitting room was cozy, with two chairs and a small side table. It would be a comfortable place to sit in the evenings while she worked on her sewing.
At this thought Ruthy sank into the rocking chair. Sewing for seven children? And their father? First thing tomorrow she would need to start in on taking inventory and planning for their summer clothes. Although Sam’s trousers seemed pretty short—she may need to make sure they had enough winter clothes first. Why hadn’t Levi Zook told her how many children he had in his letter?
And why hadn’t she followed Mam’s advice and asked before making this trip?
She knew why. Even if he had told her the size of the job, she would have come anyway. Any excuse to get away from Lancaster County and the gossip. If she had to suffer the sight of her Elam with Laurette Mast one more time...
Ruthy bit her lip. Ne, not Laurette Mast. She was Laurette Nafziger now—Elam’s Laurette.
Well, nothing would get done if she sat here wasting time. She went into the bedroom to put her clothes away. The bed had three quilts layered on it, with an extra one folded across the end of the bed. At least she would sleep warm.
Smoothing the quilt beneath her hand, Ruthy felt the empty silence of the little house. Her own quiet, empty house.
For sure this was the future God had waiting for her. Life as a maidle, forever unmarried, caring for other people’s houses and families. It wouldn’t be a bad life, giving herself in service to others.
Ruthy’s eyes stung. Ne, not a bad life, but not at all what she had dreamed of during the eight years Elam had courted her. The life she had planned was at Elam’s side, raising his children, building their future together. She rubbed her hands together, working some warmth into them. Her bony hands, too large for a woman. No wonder Elam had turned from her to pretty, petite Laurette.
Ruthy knew what she looked like in Elam’s eyes. She was too tall, too thin, her mouth too wide. Even though she tried to shrink down when she was near him, he must have felt small next to her. No man wanted a wife who towered over him.
Ja, a maidle. That’s what she would always be.
And if she wasn’t careful, she’d sink into that trap of self-pity she had tried to leave behind.
Work—hard work—was what she needed, and it looked like she had found it. Well, first things first. Unpack and then out to the main house to help Waneta with the afternoon chores. There were nine mouths to feed, and that meant there was no time for lazing around, even as exhausted as she felt.
At the sound of a knock on her door, Ruthy opened it to find a little girl on the other side.
“Hallo. Nellie, right?”
The girl giggled. “Ne, I’m Nancy. Nellie is my twin sister.”
Eight children? This was really too much. Levi Zook should have told her.
Nancy’s cheeks were rosy and chapped.
“Have you been outside in this cold?”
“Ja, I was helping Elias with the chickens, but when Dat and the boys came home he didn’t need me anymore.”
A cold knot tightened in Ruthy’s stomach.
“Nancy, who is Elias?”
“My oldest brother. He and Waneta are twins just like Nellie and I are twins.”
Ruthy gripped the door, watching the eight-year-old bounce on her toes as she spoke. She counted up in her head. Nine. Nine children. She smiled at Nancy, the innocent bearer of this shocking news.
“Where is your daed now?”
“In the buggy shed. Do you want me to get him for you?”
“Ne, denki. I think I’ll go out and see the buggy shed myself.”
Ruthy closed the door of the Dawdi Haus and headed through the short breezeway to the kitchen, with Nancy following. Waneta nodded a hello to her as she peeled potatoes, the noise of the children’s voices making it impossible to say anything more. As Ruthy opened the door to the back porch, she kept Nancy from coming with her.
“I want to speak to your daed alone.”
Nancy nodded as she closed the door, and then she twitched her winter shawl from the hook and threw it around her shoulders as she barreled out the door. Five boys were throwing snowballs at each other in the yard as she passed. Would she ever remember their names? As she reached the door of the buggy shed at the side of the barn she stopped with her hand on the latch, trembling. Five boys? Sam was inside the house. She turned to the boys in the yard again, counting. There was James, David and Jesse, the three she had met in town, and two older boys with them. One of them had to be Elias, the oldest brother, but who was the other big one?
Just then one of the boys shouted to him, “Hah, Nathan, you missed me again!”
Biting back her anger, she swung open the door of the shed and stepped in, face-to-face with Levi Zook as he rose from wiping the buggy wheels with a rag. He loomed over her in the confines of the room, suddenly dark as she shut the door on the bright midafternoon sunshine. But for all his size, his eyes were the gentlest she had ever seen, with lines that crinkled when he smiled at her.
A snowball hit the outside of the shed with a thud, bringing Ruthy back to the anger that had propelled her in here. She opened her mouth to speak, but Levi Zook only bent down to wipe the wheel hub again.
* * *
“Levi Zook,
