A Mother for His Children

Chapter Four

Levi’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?

Chapter Five

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, 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 for her to stay here. “This family suffered a loss when their mother passed on, and it wouldn’t help anyone to separate them now.”

Eliza deflated in her chair, the corners of her mouth quivering. “Ach, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.” With the bluster gone, Eliza was just a lonely old woman.

“Would you like more coffee?” Ruthy rose and went to the stove. Eliza wouldn’t want a stranger to be a witness to her emotions.

“Ja, denki.” Eliza sniffed, and the chair creaked as she shifted. By the time Ruthy refilled the two cups, Eliza was back to her old self. “You seem like a young thing to be taking on a job like this.”

“Not so young. I’ll be twenty-four this spring.”

“Twenty-four? Why aren’t you married?”

Ruthy flinched at Eliza’s blunt words, but the other woman took another cookie from the plate and tackled it with relish. If she hadn’t seen the vulnerable crack in Levi’s sister a few moments ago, she might have run out of the room the same way Waneta had. But the downturned corners of Eliza’s mouth revealed more than a demanding aunt who was used to riding roughshod over everyone around her. Something else made her very unhappy.

Ruthy considered this as she took another sip of her coffee. Eliza may be a lonely old woman, but that gave her no excuse to be cruel to her brother. Eliza wasn’t going to bully this family while Ruthy was around.

“If I wasn’t a maidle, I wouldn’t be able to help this family, would I?”

Eliza raised her chin and regarded Ruthy through narrowed eyes, but Ruthy pressed on.

“If I wasn’t around, your brother would need you to help, ja? Is that why you came today? To see if you could get me to run back to Lancaster County?”

The other woman’s eyes narrowed further, and then a sudden smile broke over her face.

“You’ve got spunk. I like that. Maybe you will work out here.”

Ruthy nearly dropped her cookie. Instead she brushed nonexistent crumbs off her lap. What was going on? A chuckle from the other woman made her look up.

“My dear girl, I’m not nearly as grumpy as everyone thinks I am.” She tapped her knee with one hand. “Arthritis keeps me from getting around as I like, and sometimes the pain is unbearable. I try not to complain, but I know I can be short-tempered. I also know I stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong at times, but I love my brother. He has a long row to hoe in front of him, and I was just trying to help.”

Pieces fell together like a quilt top as Eliza paused to take a sip of coffee. Levi’s crafty sister used her cranky attitude to get her own way, just as Laurette used her pretty face. Was this nothing more than concern for her brother and his family?