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, glancing back once to make sure Ruthy was following her.
“Go on, I’m right behind you.”
Ruthy smiled at Waneta’s back. She remembered hating to face her overbearing Aunt Trudy when she was a young teenager, so Waneta’s reaction didn’t surprise her. Aunts could be very particular about a girl’s behavior.
The woman waiting for them in the kitchen didn’t look anything like thin, pinched Aunt Trudy. Eliza stood in the middle of the floor, still wearing her woolen shawl and black bonnet, leaning heavily on a gnarled cane. Her expression was the same as Aunt Trudy’s, though, as she surveyed the spotless kitchen shelf. If she were looking for a fault with Ruthy’s housekeeping, she certainly wouldn’t find it in the kitchen.
“Aunt Eliza, you should sit down. Would you like some coffee?” Waneta hurried to the stove and moved the coffeepot to the front.
Eliza’s cane thumped as the woman turned to inspect Ruthy.
“So you’re the housekeeper my brother hired.” Eliza’s gaze took in everything from Ruthy’s heart-shaped kapp to her shoes, dusty from the cellar.
“Ja, I’m Ruth Mummert.”
“You’re from Lancaster County?”
“Ja.” Ruthy smiled. Eliza was gruff, but didn’t seem to be as scary as Waneta acted. Sam had disappeared into the front room.
“I once met a Mummert from Lancaster County.” Eliza let Ruthy take her shawl and untied her bonnet.
“You did? I wonder if they could be related to us.”
“I hope not.” Eliza sniffed and thumped toward the rocking chair in the corner. “They were Englisch.” She turned to Ruthy again, narrowing her eyes as she studied her. “You don’t have Englisch relatives, do you?”
Before Ruthy could think how to answer this, Eliza sank into the rocking chair with a groan.
“Here’s your coffee, Aunt Eliza.” Waneta handed the cup to her aunt. “And here’s the footstool.” She brought the small stool from its place next to the wall.
As Ruthy poured herself a cup of coffee, she watched Eliza lift her left foot onto the stool with one hand and lean back in the chair, her lips pinched together. Raising the cup to her mouth, she blew on the hot liquid before taking a sip.
“Waneta,” Ruthy said, sitting on the bench with her back to the table, “will you get a plate of cookies?” She took a sip of her own coffee, and watched Eliza’s face relax as her body eased into the chair. The older woman appeared to be in much pain, but no complaints escaped, except for her gruff demeanor.
“You need to know up front that I don’t approve of what my brother’s done.” Eliza took a cookie from the plate Waneta set on the small table next to her. “We could get along just fine without the expense of hiring someone from outside.”
Ruthy kept a smile on her face as Eliza paused to take a bite of her cookie. Did the woman have any idea the hurt her words caused? Without a family of her own, Ruthy would always be an outsider.
“I told him I would take the little girls to live with me.” Eliza spoke around her cookie, unaware of the crumbs that fell as she gestured. “Those two will never learn to be good wives, growing up without a mother as they are.”
A small sound escaped from Waneta, who was sitting next to Ruthy on the bench. Ruthy glanced at her, but the girl’s head was down, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.
“I don’t think Levi Zook wants his girls to live away from him. Isn’t your house quite far?”
Eliza grunted and shifted her bulk in the chair. “Not so much. It’s only eight miles, and that’s close enough to visit several times a year.”
Waneta jumped up from the bench and went through the doorway to the front room. Ruthy heard her feet pounding on the stairway as she ran to her room and slammed the door behind her.
“Now, what’s wrong with her?” Eliza gazed through the doorway where Waneta had vanished.
“I don’t think she wants her sisters to live that far away.” Ruthy took another sip from her coffee, and then set the cup on the table behind her. Irritation at this woman’s callous behavior rose with each moment, and she didn’t want her shaky hand to betray her feelings.
“Humph.” Eliza took a bite of her cookie and inspected it as she chewed. “There’s nothing wrong with making sure those little girls have all the advantages a mother can give them.”
Ruthy clenched her hands together on her lap. “I’m sure Levi Zook has considered what his daughters need.” She lifted her chin, looking at Eliza. She was beginning to understand why Levi was so anxious
