A baby changes everything

for the Amish Spinster Club

Working in Caleb Hartz’s shop fits perfectly with Annie Wagler’s plan to match him with her twin sister—until Annie is drawn to him herself. But with his business, his farm and now his teenage runaway cousin and her baby, Caleb has no time for romance. Can they work together to care for mother and child—without losing their hearts?

JO ANN BROWN has always loved stories with happily-ever-after endings. A former military officer, she is thrilled to have the chance to write stories about people falling in love. She is also a photographer and travels with her husband of more than thirty years to places where she can snap pictures. They have three children and live in Florida. Drop her a note at joannbrownbooks.com.

Also By Jo Ann Brown

Amish Spinster Club

The Amish Suitor

The Amish Christmas Cowboy

The Amish Bachelor’s Baby

Amish Hearts

Amish Homecoming

An Amish Match

His Amish Sweetheart

An Amish Reunion

A Ready-Made Amish Family

An Amish Proposal

An Amish Arrangement

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

The Amish Bachelor’s Baby

Jo Ann Brown

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09481-8

THE AMISH BACHELOR’S BABY

© 2019 Jo Ann Ferguson

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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Happiness rushed through Annie when she saw Caleb on the porch steps behind her.

Stop it! He was meant to be her twin sister’s match and her way to happiness, not Annie’s.

“Looks like you didn’t get your laundry done earlier in the week.”

“These are your cousin’s and her boppli’s clothes.”

“I didn’t mean to dump this extra work on you, Annie. If you’d rather, I can pay you for taking care of my cousin and her boppli and find someone else to work with me at the bakery.”

“No!”

His eyes widened at her vehemence.

She told herself to be cautious or she’d give away her true reason for accepting his job offer. Working with Caleb would be Annie’s best opportunity to gently shove him and her sister toward each other.

“I want to work with you at the bakery,” she replied as if it were the most important oath she could take.

And it was, because what she did while in Caleb’s company could mean the difference between healing her sister’s heart or not.

But what would it do to hers?

Dear Reader,

We all have dreams. I have had the dream of being a published author since I was twelve years old. Each time I have another book published, it’s like that dream coming true all over again.

But we have to balance those dreams with the real world. Both have to be equally important, or our dreams can end up dead and useless. On the other hand, some dreams aren’t meant to come true, as Annie has to learn. Isn’t it splendid that usually when that happens, we find, as both Caleb and Annie do, that God had a plan all along for us that leads us to new and better dreams?

Visit me at www.joannbrownbooks.com. Look for the final story in the Amish Spinster Club series, coming soon.

Wishing you many blessings,

Jo Ann Brown

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

—John 15:12

For Mike Freeman,

a superstar real estate agent...

with a fabulous sense of humor.

Thanks for everything!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One
Harmony Creek Hollow, New York

“Don’t you dare eat those socks!”

Annie Wagler leaped off the back porch as the sock carousel soared on a gust and headed toward the pen where her twin sister’s goats were watching her bring in the laundry. The plastic circle, which was over twelve inches in diameter, had been clipped to the clothesline. As she’d reached for it, the wind swept it away.

Snow crunched beneath her boots, and she ducked under the clothes that hung, frozen hard, on the line. She despised bringing in laundry during the winter and having to hang the clothing over an air-dryer rack inside until it thawed. She hated everything to do with laundry: washing it, hanging it, bringing it in and folding it, ironing it and mending it. Every part of the process was more difficult in the cold.

Pulling her black wool shawl closer, she ran toward the fenced-in area where Leanna’s goats roamed. She wasn’t sure why they’d want to be outside on such a frigid day, but they were clumped together near where Leanna would feed them later. Annie sometimes wondered if the goats were one part hair, hooves and eyes, and three parts stomach. They never seemed to be full.

And they would consider the cotton and wool socks a treat.

Annie yanked open the gate, making sure it was latched behind her before she ran to collect the sock carousel. She had to push curious goats aside in order to reach it. One goat was already bending to sample the airborne windfall.

“Socks are for feet, not for filling your bottomless stomachs,” Annie scolded as she scooped up the socks that would have to be washed again.

The goats, in various patterns of white, black and brown, gave her both disgusted and hopeful glances. She wasn’t sure why her identical twin, Leanna, liked the creatures, especially the stinky male.

Leanna had established a business selling milk and had begun experimenting with recipes for soap. Her twin hoped to sell bars at the Salem farmers market, about three miles southwest of their farm, when it reopened in the spring. As shy as her twin was, Annie wasn’t sure how Leanna would handle interacting with customers.

They were mirror twins. Annie was right-handed, and Leanna left-handed. The cowlick that kept Annie’s black hair from lying on her right temple was identical to Leanna’s on the other side. They had matching birthmarks on their elbows, but on opposite arms. Their personalities were distinct, too. While Leanna seldom spoke up, Annie found it impossible to keep her opinions to herself.

How many times had she wished she was circumspect like her twin? For certain, too many times to count. Instead, she’d inherited her grossmammi’s plainspoken ways.

Annie edged toward the gate, leaning forward so the socks were on the other side of the fence. She needed to finish bringing in the laundry so she could help her grossmammi and Leanna with supper. Her younger siblings were always hungry after school and work. She’d hoped their older brother, who lived past the barn, would bring his wife and kinder tonight, but his six-year-old son, Junior, was sick.

Keeping the sock carousel out of the goats’ reach, she stretched to open the gate. One of the kids, a brown-and-white one her twin called Puddle, butted her, trying to get her attention.

Annie looked at the little goat. “If you weren’t so cute, you’d be annoying, ain’t so?”

“Do they talk to you when you talk to them?” asked a voice far deeper than her own.

In amazement, she looked up...and up...and up. Caleb Hartz was almost a foot taller than she was. Beneath his black broad-brimmed hat, his blond hair fell into eyes the color of early-summer grass. He had a ready smile and an easy, contagious enthusiasm.

And he was the man Leanna had her eye on.

Her sister hadn’t said anything about being attracted to him, but Annie couldn’t help noticing how tongue-tied Leanna was when he was nearby. He hadn’t seemed to notice, and maybe Annie would have missed her sister’s reactions if Annie didn’t find herself a bit giddy when Caleb spoke to her. Before Caleb’s sister, Miriam, had mentioned that Leanna seemed intrigued by her brother, Annie had been thinking...

No, it didn’t matter. If Leanna had set her heart on him, Annie should remind him how wunderbaar her sister was. She’d do anything to have her sister happy again.

“Gute nammidaag,” Annie said as she came out of the pen, being careful no goat slipped past her.

“Is it still afternoon?” He glanced toward the western horizon, where the sun touched the mountaintops.

“Barely,” she laughed. “I’ve been catching up with chores before working on supper. Would you like to eat with us this evening?”

“Danki, but no.” Caleb clasped his hands behind him.

Annie was puzzled. Why was he uncomfortable? Usually he chatted with everyone. While he traveled from church district to church district in several states, he’d met with each of the families now living in Harmony Creek Hollow and convinced them to join him in the new community in northern New York.

“What can we do for you?” she asked when he didn’t add anything else.

“I wanted to talk to you about a project I’m getting started on.”

Curiosity distracted her from how the icy wind sliced through her shawl, coat and bonnet. “What project?”

“I’m opening a bakery.”

“You are?” She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.

A bakery? Amish men, as a rule, didn’t spend much time in the kitchen, other than to eat. Their focus was on learning farm skills or being apprenticed to a trade.

“Ja,” he said, then grimaced at another blast of frigid air. His coat was closed to the collar, where a scarf was edged with frost from his breath. “I stopped by to see if you’d be interested in working for me. The bakery will be out on the main road south of the turnoff for Harmony Creek Hollow.”

She set the sock carousel on a barrel. “You want to hire me? To work in your bakery?”

“I’ve had some success selling bread and baked goods at the farmers market in Salem. Having a shop will allow me to sell year-round, but I can’t be there every day and do my work at the farm.” He shivered again, and she guessed he was eager for a quick answer so he could return to his buggy. “Miriam told me you’d do a gut job for me.”

His sister, Miriam, was one of Annie’s best friends, a member of what they jokingly called the Harmony Creek Spinsters’ Club. Miriam hadn’t mentioned anything about Caleb starting a business.

“It sounds intriguing,” Annie said. “What would you expect me to do?”

“Tend the shop and handle customers. There would be some light cleaning.”

“Will you expect me to do any baking? I’d want several days’ warning if you’re going to want me to do that.”

He frowned, surprising her. It’d been a reasonable request, as she’d have to rearrange her household obligations around any extra baking. Asking Leanna would be silly. Her sister could burn air, and things that were supposed to be soft came out crunchy and vice versa. Nobody could quilt as beautifully as her twin, but the simplest tasks in the kitchen seemed to stump her.

“You’ve got a lot of questions,” he said.

Don’t ask too many questions. Don’t make suggestions. She doubted Caleb would treat her as her former boyfriend had, deriding her ideas until he found one he liked so much he claimed it for his own.

His frown faded. “I may need you to help with baking sometimes.”

“Will you expect me to do a daily accounting of sales?”

“Ja. Aren’t you curious how much I’m paying you?”

She rubbed her chin with a gloved finger. “I assume it’ll be a fair wage.” She smiled. “You’re not the sort of a man who’d take advantage of a neighbor.”

His wind-buffed cheeks seemed to grow redder, and she realized her compliment had embarrassed him.

Apologizing would cause him more discomfort, so she said, “Ja, I’d be interested in the job.”

“Then it’s yours.” His shoulders relaxed. “If you’ve got time now, I’ll give you a tour of the bakery, and we can talk more about what I’d need you to do.”

“Gut.” The wind buffeted her, almost knocking her from her feet as she reached to keep the sock carousel from sailing away again.

“Steady there.” Caleb’s broad hands curved along her shoulders, keeping her on her feet.

Sensation flowed out from his palms and riveted her, as sweet as maple syrup and, at the same time, as alarming as a fire siren.

“Danki,” she managed to whisper, but she wasn’t sure he heard her as the wind rose again. It made her breathing sound strange.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

When she nodded, he lifted his hands away and the warmth vanished. The day seemed colder than before.

Somehow, she mumbled that she needed to let her twin know where she was going. He wrapped his arms around himself as another blast of wind struck them.

“Hurry...anna...” The wind swallowed the rest of his words as she rushed toward the house.

She halted in midstep.

Anna?

Had Caleb thought he was talking to her twin? She’d clear everything up on their way to the bakery. She wanted the job. It was an answer to so many prayers, for God to let her find a way to help her sister be happy again, happy as Leanna had been before the man she loved married someone else without telling her.

Leanna was attracted to Caleb, and he’d be a fine match for her. Outgoing where her twin was quiet. A well-respected, handsome man whose gut looks would be the perfect foil for her twin’s. But Leanna would be too shy to let Caleb know she was interested in him. That was where Annie could help.

God, danki for giving me this chance to bring joy back to Leanna’s life. I won’t waste this opportunity You’ve brought to me.

As she was sending up her grateful prayer and rushing to the house, she reminded herself of one vital thing. She must be careful not to let her own attraction to Caleb grow while they worked together.

That might be the hardest part of the job.

* * *

One task down, a hundred to go...before he started tomorrow’s list.

Caleb glanced at the lead-gray sky as he moved closer to the heat box on the buggy’s floor, shifting his feet under the wool blanket there. The clouds overhead were low. Snow threatened, and the dampness in the air added another layer of cold. He hoped the Wagler twin wouldn’t remain in the house much longer. If he wanted to get home before the storm began, the trip to the bakery would have to be a quick one.

He hadn’t been sure when he went over to the Wagler farm if he’d get a ja or a no to his job offer. He had to have someone to help at the bakery.

But is she Annie or Leanna?

He hadn’t been sure which twin he was talking to. His usual way of telling them apart was that Annie talked more than Leanna, but without both being present, he hadn’t known. Not that it mattered. He had to have someone help at the bakery because he had his farmwork, as well.

After almost two years of traveling and recruiting families for the Harmony Creek settlement, he finally could make his dream of opening a bakery come true. He’d turned over the community’s leadership when the Leit ordained a minister and a deacon. It’d been the first service of the new year, and the right time to begin building the permanent leadership of their district.

He smiled in spite of the frigid wind as he glanced toward the white two-story farmhouse. Miriam had suggested he ask a Wagler twin to work for him. It had been a gut idea. The Wagler twins made heads—plain and Englisch—turn wherever they went. Not only were they identical with their sleek black hair, but they were lovely. The gentle curves of their cheekbones contrasted with their pert noses. Most important, they seemed to accept everyone as they were, not wanting to change them or belittle their dreams as Verba Tice had his.

His hands tightened on the reins, and his horse looked back as if to ask what was wrong. Caleb grimaced. It was stupid to think about the woman who’d ridiculed him. Verba was in Lancaster County, and he was far away. And...

He pushed the thoughts from his head as the back door opened and a bundled-up woman emerged. Her shawl flapped behind her as she hurried—with care, because there were slippery spots everywhere—to the buggy. He slid the door on the passenger side open, and she climbed in, closing it behind her. The momentary slap of wind had been as sharp as a paring knife.

“Sorry to be so long,” she said from behind a thick blue scarf. “My grossmammi asked me to get some canned fruit from the cellar.”

“It’s fine.” Which twin was sitting beside him? Too late, he realized he should have asked straightaway by the goats’ pen.

How could he ask now?

Giving his brown horse, Dusty, a gentle slap of the reins, he turned the buggy and headed toward the road. He tried to think of something that would lead to a clue about which Wagler twin was half-hidden behind the scarf. He didn’t want to talk about the weather. It was a grim subject in the midst of a March cold snap. What if he talked about the April auction to support the local volunteer fire department? The Englisch firefighters found it amusing when the plain volunteers called it a mud sale. He wondered if the ground would thaw enough to let the event live up to its name.

“Caleb?”

He wanted to cheer when she broke the silence. “Ja?”

“You know I’m Annie Wagler, ain’t so?”

“Ja.” He did now.

“I wanted to make sure, because people mix us up, and I didn’t want you to think you had to give me the job if you’d intended to hire Leanna.”

She was plainspoken. He prayed that would be gut in his shop, because he wasn’t going to renege on his offer. It could be embarrassing for her, and him, and the thought of the humiliation he’d endured at Verba’s hands stung.

And one thing hadn’t changed: he needed help at the bakery. It shouldn’t matter which twin worked for him.

Who are you trying to fool? nagged a tiny voice inside his head. The one that spoke up when he was trying to ignore his own thoughts.

Like thoughts of how right it had felt to put his hands on Annie’s shoulders as he kept her from falling in the barnyard. He didn’t want to recall how his heart had beat faster when her blue-green eyes had gazed up at him.

He must keep a barrier between him and any attractive woman. Getting beguiled as he had with Verba, who’d claimed to love him before she tried to change everything about him, would be stupid.

“Do you and your sister try to confuse people on purpose?” Caleb asked to force his thoughts aside.

“We did when we were kinder. Once we realized people couldn’t tell us apart, we took advantage of it at school. I was better at arithmetic and Leanna excelled in spelling, so sometimes I’d go to the teacher to do Leanna’s math problems as well as my own. She’d do the same with spelling.”

“You cheated?”

“Not on written tests or desk work. Just when the teacher wasn’t paying attention.”

He laughed, “The other scholars never tattled on you?”

“They wouldn’t get any of Grossmammi’s delicious cookies if they did.”

“I didn’t realize we had a pair of criminal masterminds in our midst.”

“Very retired criminal masterminds.” She smiled. “Our nice, neat plan didn’t last long. A new teacher came when we were in fourth grade, and she kept much better track of us. Our days of posing as each other came to a quick end.”

“So you had to learn to spell on your own?”

“And Leanna did her arithmetic problems. She realized she had a real aptitude for it and surpassed me the following year.” Annie hesitated, then said, “I’m sure the whole thing was my idea. Leanna always went along with me.”

He glanced at her. She was regarding him as if willing him to accept her words. He wondered why it mattered to her. For a moment, he sensed she was struggling with something big.

Again, he shut down his thoughts. Annie was his employee, and it’d be better to keep some distance between them.

“So you’re now the better speller?” Caleb asked, glad his tone was light.

She laughed, “I don’t know. We haven’t had a spelling bee in a long time.”

“Maybe we should have one. I read somewhere that Englisch pioneers used to hold spelling bees for entertainment.” He gave her a grin. “Something we could do in our spare time.”

“When we get some.”

Miriam had told him how much fun she had with the Wagler twins, but he hadn’t known Annie possessed a dry sense of humor. She wasn’t trying to flirt with him, either, and he’d heard several of the community’s bachelors saying Leanna was eager to marry. Maybe asking Annie instead of her twin hadn’t been such a mistake after all.

When they reached the main road, Caleb held Dusty back. Traffic sped past. Most cars were headed to ski resorts in Vermont, and the drivers couldn’t wait to reach the slopes. Local drivers complained tourists drove along the uneven, twisting country roads as if they were interstates.

Two minutes passed before Caleb felt safe to move onto the road. They didn’t have to go far before he signaled a left turn. He held his breath as a car zipped by him, heading east, but he was able to make the turn before another vehicle, traveling as fast, roared toward Salem.

“Everyone’s in a hurry,” Annie said as she turned her head to watch the car vanish over abandoned railroad tracks.

“I hope they slow down before they get hurt.” Pulling into the asphalt parking area behind the building where ghosts of painted lines were visible, he said, “Here we are.”

“Your bakery is going to be here?”

“Ja.” He was still amazed he’d been able to buy the building in October.

It had served as a supply depot for the railroad until the mid-1960s. The parking area and the pair of picture windows on the front were perfect for the shop he had in mind. Its wide eaves protected the doors. The building needed painting, but that had to wait for the weather to warm. As a few stray snowflakes wafted toward the ground, he couldn’t help imagining how it’d look in May, when he planned to open.

“Why a bakery?” she asked.

“My grossmammi taught me to bake when I was young, and I enjoyed it.” He didn’t add he’d been recovering from an extended illness and had been too weak to play outside.

She glanced at him, and he suspected she wanted him to explain further. He didn’t.

Walls. Keep up the walls, he reminded himself. Getting close was a one-way ticket to getting hurt again. He wasn’t going to do something that dumm again.

Not ever.

* * *

The wind tore at Annie’s coat and shawl when Caleb opened the door on his side and got out. When she reached for her door, he called to her. She had to strain to hear his voice over the wild wind.

“Head inside. Don’t wait for me.” He grabbed a wool blanket off the floor. “I’ll tie up Dusty. I want to put this over him to keep him warm while I give you the nickel tour.”

She nodded, but she wasn’t sure if he saw the motion because he’d already turned to lash his horse to a hitching rail. The building would provide a windbreak for the horse.

After hurrying through the back door, she paused to cup her hands and blow on them. She wore heavy gloves, but her fingers felt as if they’d already frozen.

It was dusky inside. Large boxes were stacked throughout the cramped space. She wondered what was in them. Not supplies, because the room didn’t look ready for use. Paint hung in loose strips between the pair of windows to her left.

She stood on tiptoe to look for writing on the closest box. She halted when she heard a quiet thump.

It came from beyond the crates. She peered around them. A door led into another room.

Was someone there?

Should she get Caleb?

A soft sound, like a gurgle or a gasp, was barely louder than her heartbeat. If someone was in trouble in the other room, she shouldn’t hesitate.

God, guide me.

She took a single step toward the other room, keeping her hand on the wall and trying to avoid the big crates. Her eyes widened when she saw a silhouette backlit by a large window. She edged forward, then froze as a board creaked beneath her right foot.

The silhouette whirled. Something struck the floor. A flashlight! It splashed light around the space. A young woman was highlighted before she turned to rush past Annie.

“Wait!” Annie cried.

A boppli’s cry echoed through the building.

“Stop!” came a shout from behind Annie.

Caleb!

“There’s someone here,” she called as she spun, hoping to cut off the woman’s escape.

She ran forward at the sound of two bodies hitting each other.

Caleb yelled, “Turn on the lights.”

“Lights?”

“Switch...on the wall...by the door.” He sounded as if he was struggling with someone.

She flipped the switch and gasped when she saw the person trying to escape from Caleb.

It was a teenage girl, holding a boppli. Blonde and cute, the girl had eyes the same dark green as Caleb’s. The boppli held a bright blue bear close to his cheek and squinted at them in the bright light.

Annie started to ask a question, but Caleb beat her to it when he asked, “Becky Sue? What are you doing here?”

Chapter Two

Becky Sue?

Caleb knew this girl and the boppli?

Annie wondered why she was surprised. Caleb knew everyone who came to Harmony Creek Hollow. Was this young woman part of a new family joining their settlement? There was one empty farmstead along the twisting road beside the creek.

Annie faltered when she saw the shock on Caleb’s face. His green eyes were open so wide she could see white around the irises, and his mouth gaped.

Then she remembered what he’d said after calling the girl by name.

What are you doing here?

He wasn’t shocked to see Becky Sue. He was shocked she was in his bakery.

What was going on?

As if she’d asked that aloud, Caleb said in a taut tone, “Annie, this is my cousin, Becky Sue Hartz. She and her family have a farm a couple of districts away from where Miriam and I grew up.” He closed his mouth, and his jaw worked with strong emotions.

The girl shared Caleb’s coloring and his height. Annie wondered how alike they were in other ways.

Stepping forward with a smile, she tried to ignore the thick tension in the air. “I’m Annie Wagler. I should have guessed you were related to Caleb. You look alike.”

“Hi, Annie.” Becky Sue’s eyes kept cutting toward Caleb. Her expression announced she expected to be berated at any second.

Why? For being in the bakery? It wasn’t as if she’d broken in. The door had been unlocked. However, even if Becky Sue had jimmied a window and climbed in, her cousin would have forgiven her.

“And who is this cutie?” Annie tapped the nose of the little boy in the girl’s arms, and he chuckled in a surprisingly deep tone.

For a moment, Becky Sue lost her hunted look and gave Annie a tentative smile. “This is Joey. He’s my son.”

Her son? The girl didn’t look like much more than a kind herself. If Annie had to speculate, she would have guessed Becky Sue was sixteen or seventeen. At the most. The little boy, who had her flaxen hair, appeared to be almost a year old.

Shutting her mouth when she realized it had gaped open as Caleb’s was, Annie struggled to keep her smile from falling away. Though it wasn’t common, some plain girls got pregnant before marriage as Englisch ones did. Or had Becky Sue been a very young bride?

As if she’d cued Caleb, he asked, “Is your husband with you?”

Becky Sue raised her chin in a pose of defiance. A weak one, because her lips trembled, and Annie guessed she was trying to keep from crying.

“No,” the girl replied, “because I don’t have a husband. Just a son.” When Caleb opened his mouth again, she hurried to add, “I’m not a widow, though that would be convenient for everyone, ain’t so?”

“Everyone?” He frowned. “Do your parents know where you are?”

“Ja.” When he continued to give her a stern look, she relented enough to say, “They know I left home.”

“But not where you’re going?”

She didn’t answer.

“Where are you going?” Caleb persisted.

Again the girl was silent, her chin jutting out to show she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. Though the girl was terrified. Her shoulders shook, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

Knowing she should keep quiet because the matter was between Caleb and the girl, Annie couldn’t halt herself from saying, “I’m sure you and Joey would like something warm to eat. It’s cold here, ain’t so? Though I was here last winter, I can’t get used to it. Caleb, we need to get these two something warm to eat.”

Caleb aimed his frown in her direction. She pretended she hadn’t seen it. Didn’t he understand they wouldn’t get any information if the conversation dissolved into the two of them firing recriminations at each other? Once the girl and her boppli weren’t cold and hungry—and exhausted, because Joey was knuckling his eyes with tiny fists and dark crescents shadowed his mamm’s eyes—Becky Sue might be willing to come clean about why she and her son were so far away from home.

But Annie’s comments were ignored as Becky Sue said, “I told you, Caleb. I left home, and I’m—we’re not going back.”

“And you decided to come to Harmony Creek Hollow?” Annie asked, earning another scowl from Caleb.

“I heard about the new settlement.” Though she answered Annie’s question, she glared at her cousin. “I didn’t know this was the one you were involved with, Caleb. If I had—”

“Well, isn’t it a wunderbaar coincidence, Becky Sue?” Annie hurried to ask. “And your timing is perfect.”

“It is?” Becky Sue seemed overwhelmed by Annie.

Gut! That was what Annie wanted. If the girl stopped thinking about defying Caleb, she might relax enough to reveal a smidgen of the truth; then Annie and Caleb could figure out what was going on.

No! Not Annie and Caleb. She shouldn’t use their names together in her thoughts. She had to keep her focus on helping Caleb see what a wunderbaar wife Leanna would make him.

Wishing she could think of a way to bring her twin into the conversation, Annie said, “Your timing is great because Caleb was giving me a tour of his bakery.”

“Bakery?” Hope sprang into the girl’s voice. “I didn’t see any food around here. Do you have some?”

“I’ve got soup in a thermos in the buggy.” Caleb’s face eased from its frown. “I meant to eat it for lunch, but I got busy and forgot.”

“Wasn’t that a blessing?” Annie hoped her laugh didn’t sound as forced to them as it did to her.

“It probably won’t be hot,” Caleb said.

Annie frowned. Didn’t he realize his cousin might be so hungry she wouldn’t care what temperature the soup was? “We can heat it up.”

He shook his head. “The stove isn’t connected. Nothing is yet. The gas company is supposed to have someone come later this week.”

Annie made a quick motion with her fingers toward the door. Did he understand that she hoped, when he was gone, Becky Sue would open up to her? Sometimes it was easier to speak to a stranger.

The boppli wiggled in Becky Sue’s arms and began crying. While the girl’s attention was diverted, Annie gestured again to Caleb. He gave her a curt nod, but his frown returned as he headed for the door. If he disliked her idea, why was he going along with it?

Focus, she told herself.

Pasting on a smile, Annie held out her arms to Becky Sue. “Do you want me to hold him while you have something to eat?”

“No, I can do it myself.” Her sharp voice suggested she’d made the argument a lot already.

With Becky Sue’s parents? Other members of her family? Joey’s daed? The girl had said she wasn’t a widow, but where was the boppli’s daed?

Wanting to draw Becky Sue out without making the conversation feel like an interrogation, Annie began to talk about the weather again. Her attempts to convince the girl to join in were futile. Becky Sue refused to be lured into talking. Instead she stared at some spot over Annie’s head as she bounced her son on her hip in an effort to calm him.

But Annie wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. There was one topic any mamm would find hard to ignore. “Becky Sue, do you have enough supplies for your boppli?”

Her face crumbling as her defiance sifted away, Becky Sue shook her head. “I’ve only got one clean diaper left for him.”

“Do you have bottles, or is he drinking from a cup?”

“I had a bottle.” She stared at the floor. “It got lost a couple of days ago.”

“My sister-in-law has a little one not too much older than Joey. I’m sure she or someone else will have extra diapers and bottles you can borrow.”

Bright tears clung to Becky Sue’s lashes but didn’t fall. The girl’s strong will astonished Annie. It was also a warning that Becky Sue, unless she decided to cooperate, would continue to avoid answering their questions.

“Gut,” the girl replied.

“I know it’s none of my business, but are you planning to stay here?”

“You’re right. It’s not any of your business.” A flush rose up Becky Sue’s cheeks, and Annie guessed she usually wasn’t prickly. In a subdued tone, she added, “I don’t know if I’m staying in Harmony Creek Hollow...beyond tonight.”

“I’m glad you don’t plan to go any farther tonight. It’s going to be cold.”

“I didn’t expect the weather to be so bad.”

“None of us did.”

Annie watched as the girl began to relax. Becky Sue was willing to talk about trite topics, but the mere hint of any question that delved into why she was in Caleb’s bakery made her close up tighter than a miser’s wallet.

A few admiring queries about Joey brought a torrent of words from the girl, but they halted when the door opened and Caleb walked in. Annie kept her frustrated sigh to herself as she searched for a chair Caleb said was among the boxes.

Somehow they were going to have to convince the mulish girl to let them help. Becky Sue must be honest with them about what had brought her to northern New York. Annie prayed for inspiration about how to persuade her to trust them.

Not having any ideas on how to solve a problem was a novel sensation.

And it was one she didn’t like a bit.

* * *

While Becky Sue sat on the floor and began to feed her son small bites of the vegetable soup from the thermos, Caleb watched in silence. The same silence had greeted him when he came into the bakery. He’d heard Annie talking to his cousin, but Becky Sue had cut herself off in the middle of a word the moment she saw him.

Annie edged closer and offered him a kind smile. He was startled at the thought of how comforting it was to have her there. She was focused on what must be done instead of thinking about the implications of his cousin announcing the boppli was her son.

But the situation was taking its toll on her, as well. Lines of worry gouged her forehead. She was as upset as he was about his cousin.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“For what?” she returned as softly.

“Putting you in the middle of this mess. When I asked you to work for me, I didn’t think we’d find my cousin hiding here.” He gulped, then forced himself to continue. “Here with a boppli.”

“You didn’t know she was pregnant, ain’t so?”

He moved out of the front room. When Becky Sue glanced at them with suspicion, he made sure no emotion was visible on his face. The boppli chirped his impatience, and she went back to feeding her son.

Standing where he could watch them, he leaned toward Annie. A whiff of some sweet fragrance, something that offered a tantalizing hint of spring, drifted from her hair. He hadn’t thought of Annie Wagler as sweet. She was the forthright one, the one who spoke her mind. But standing close to her, he realized he might have been wrong to dismiss her as all business. She had a feminine side to her.

A very intriguing one.

“Caleb?” she prompted, and he realized he hadn’t answered her.

Folding his arms over his coat, he said, “Nobody mentioned anything about Becky Sue having a kind.”

“But you’ve got to let her family know she’s here. She...”

Annie’s voice trailed off, and Caleb looked over his shoulder to see Becky Sue getting to her feet. Annie didn’t want his cousin to know they’d been talking about contacting Becky Sue’s parents. A wise decision, because making the girl more intractable wouldn’t gain them anything.

He realized Annie had guessed the same thing because she strolled into the front room and began asking how Becky Sue and Joey had liked their impromptu picnic.

The girl looked at her coat that was splattered with soup. “He liked it more than you’d guess from the spots on me. I should wash this out before the stains set.”

Making sure his tone was conversational, Caleb pointed into the kitchen area and to the right. “The bathroom is through that door.”

Becky Sue glanced at her drowsy son and hesitated.

Annie held out her hands. “I’ll watch him while you wash up.”

“Danki,” the girl said as she placed the boppli in Annie’s arms.

Becky Sue took one step, then paused. She half turned and appraised how Annie cuddled the little boy. Satisfied, she hurried into the bathroom and closed the door.

Annie began to walk the floor to soothe the uneasy boppli. He calmed in her arms when she paced from one end of the kitchen to the other. As he stretched out a small hand to touch her face, she said, “This may be the first moment she’s had alone since they left home. I can’t imagine having to take care of a boppli on my own while traveling aimlessly.”

“What makes you think she’s being aimless?”

“It seems as if she’s thought more about running away than running to a specific place.”

Caleb nodded at Annie’s insightful remark. “We’ve got to figure out what to do.”

“What’s to figure out? She has to have a place to stay while you—” She gave a glance at the closed bathroom door. “While you make a few calls.”

He was grateful she chose her words with care. If they spooked Becky Sue, she might take off again.

“That’s true, but, Annie, I live by myself. I can’t have her under my roof with nobody else there.”

Puzzlement threaded across her brow. “Why not? She’s your cousin.”

“She’s my second cousin.”

Comprehension raced through Annie’s worried eyes. Marriage between second cousins wasn’t uncommon among plain folks. He had two friends who’d made such matches.

“Won’t Miriam take them?” she asked, adjusting the boppli’s head as it wobbled at the same time he began to snore.

“Under normal circumstances, but she has caught whatever bug has made so many of her scholars sick. When I stopped by earlier today, the whole family was barely able to get on their feet. She won’t want to pass along the germs.”

“Then there’s only one solution.”

“What’s that?”

“She can stay at our house.”

To say he was shocked would have been an understatement. “But they’re not your problem.”

She gave him a frown he guessed had daunted many others. He squared his shoulders before she realized how successful her expression nearly had been.

“Caleb, Becky Sue and Joey aren’t a problem. Becky Sue is a girl with a problem. Not that this little one should be called a problem, either.” Her face softened when she gazed at the sleeping boppli in her arms and rocked him.

He almost gasped, as he had when he recognized his cousin among the boxes in the bakery’s kitchen. The unguarded warmth on Annie’s face offered a view of her he’d never seen before. He wondered how many had, because she hid this gentle softness behind a quick wit and sharp tongue. He was discovering many aspects of her today. He couldn’t help being curious about what else she kept concealed.

“We’ve got plenty of room in our house,” she went on, her voice rising and falling with the motion of her arms as she rocked the kind. “There will always be someone there to help Becky Sue.”

He couldn’t argue. The twins’ younger sister, Juanita, was in her final year of school. In addition, Annie’s grossmammi and younger brother lived with them.

At that thought, he said, “You’ve already got your hands full.”

“True, so we won’t notice another couple of people in our house. Let us help you, Caleb. You’ve worked hard building our community, and doing this will give our family a chance to repay you.”

Guilt suffused him, but he couldn’t think of another solution. It seemed Becky Sue had already decided she could trust Annie. Now he must show he trusted her, too.

The bathroom door opened and Becky Sue emerged. When Annie asked her to stay with the Wagler family, she made the invitation sound spontaneous.

Caleb held his breath until his cousin said, “Danki.”

“Get your things,” he replied. “I turned the heater on in the buggy when I got the thermos. It’s as warm in there as it’s going to be, so bundle up. I’ll stop by later and check on you.”

“You aren’t coming with us?” Becky Sue asked suspiciously.

“No. I’ve got work to do.” Turning to Annie, he said with the best smile he could manage, “You taking them tonight will let me keep my work on schedule.”

“Gut,” Annie replied, as if the timetable for the bakery was the most important thing on their minds.

As soon as Becky Sue went into the front room, Caleb lowered his voice and said, “Danki for taking her home with you. Now I’ll have the chance to contact her family.”

“Do they have access to a phone?”

“I’m pretty sure they do. If not, I can try calling the store that’s not far from where they live. The Englisch owner will deliver emergency messages.” He couldn’t keep from arching his brows. “I don’t know what would constitute more of an emergency than a missing kind and kins-kind.”

“You know the number?”

“The phone here at the bakery is for dealing with vendors, but I’ve let a couple of our neighbors use it, and at least one of them mentioned calling the store. The number should be stored in the phone’s list of outgoing calls.”

Becky Sue returned with a pair of torn and dirty grocery bags in one hand. The girl carried a bright blue-and-yellow blanket in the other. Stains on it suggested she and her boppli had slept rough since leaving their home.

Joey woke as Annie was wrapping the blanket around him. He took one look at Caleb and began to cry at a volume Caleb hadn’t imagined a little boy could make.

As Annie cooed to console him, she handed him to his mamm. She finished winding the blanket around him at the same time as she herded Becky Sue out of the bakery.

Caleb went to a window and watched them leave in his buggy. He went to the phone he kept on top of the rickety cabinet that must be as old as the building. He’d planned to start tearing the cupboard out after giving Annie a tour of the bakery. He wondered when he’d have time to finish.

Soon, he told himself. He’d set a date at the beginning of May to open the bakery. He’d already purchased ads in the local newspaper and the swap magazine delivered to every household in the area because his customers from the farmers market had been so insistent he inform them as soon as the bakery opened its doors.

Picking up the phone, he frowned when he began clicking through the list of outgoing calls. Someone had made a call about ten minutes before he and Annie had arrived. He had no doubt it was Becky Sue.

The number wasn’t a Lancaster County one. It had a different area code, one he didn’t recognize. He wasn’t sure where 319 was, but he’d ask someone at the fire department where he was a volunteer firefighter to look it up for him.

But that had to wait. For now...

He found the number for the small store and punched it in. This wouldn’t be an easy call.

Chapter Three

As Annie had expected, her arrival with Becky Sue and the boppli in tow threw the Wagler house into an uproar. The moment they walked in, her two sisters stopped their preparations for supper and came over to greet their unexpected guests. The family’s new puppy, Penny, who was a hound and Irish setter mix Annie’s younger brother had brought home the previous week, barked and bounced as if she had springs for legs.

Annie’s efforts to catch Penny were worthless. The copper-colored pup was too eager to greet the newcomers to listen. Little Joey seemed as excited as the puppy. Becky Sue had to wrap him in both arms to keep him from escaping.

Annie pulled off her coat and tossed it over a nearby chair. She finally was able to grab Penny by the scruff. The puppy wore a mournful expression when Annie shut her in the laundry room. She hoped Penny would calm down at the sight of her dish filled with kibble.

Annie returned to the kitchen and looked around. A bolt of concern riveted her. Grossmammi Inez wasn’t in the rocking chair by the living room door. Her grossmammi had lived with them for a year after Annie’s daed died from a long illness. When Annie’s mamm married her late husband’s cousin and had two more kinder, Annie had used any excuse to visit her grossmammi.

The elderly woman had taken them in a second time after Mamm and her second husband, a hardworking man who’d been a loving daed to his stepchildren, were killed in a bus accident when Kenny was a toddler. Though she couldn’t do as much as she once had, Grossmammi Inez supervised the kitchen she considered her domain.

“She’s resting,” Leanna said before she shot a smile at Becky Sue and introduced herself.

Annie nodded, glad her twin knew what was on her mind. However, her uneasiness didn’t ebb. Her grossmammi sometimes took a nap, but Annie couldn’t recall her ever staying in bed while meal preparations were underway.

Her attention was drawn to her guests when Becky Sue asked, “You are twins, ain’t so?” The teenager stared, wide-eyed, at Leanna before facing Annie. “You look exactly alike.”

Leanna said with a faint smile, “I’m a quarter inch taller.”

“Really?”

Leanna lifted her right foot. “Only when I’m wearing these sneakers.”

Everyone, including Becky Sue, laughed, and Annie wanted to hug her twin for putting the girl at ease.

“I’ve never met girl twins before,” Becky Sue said. “There were two pairs of boy twins in my school, but no girls.”

“No?” Annie laughed again. “Well, now you have.”

Before Becky Sue could reply, Annie’s younger sister, Juanita, edged around Leanna. She was a gangly fourteen-year-old who was already three inches taller than the twins and still growing, though Annie doubted she’d ever challenge Becky Sue’s height. Juanita’s light brown hair was so tightly curled it popped out around her kapp in hundreds of tiny coils. It was the bane of Juanita’s existence, and nothing she’d tried had straightened it enough to keep the strands in place.

“Can I hold him?” Juanita held out her arms to the boppli.

Annie smiled at her younger sister. Juanita wavered between being a kind herself and becoming a young woman. It was shocking to realize Becky Sue couldn’t have been much older than Juanita when she became pregnant. Annie’s sister hadn’t begun to attend youth events yet, preferring to spend time with girls her own age. They seemed more interested in besting the boys at sports than flirting.

“This is my sister Juanita,” she explained to Becky Sue. “We’ve got two brothers, as well. Lyndon is married and lives next door, and Kenny, who’s twelve, should be out in the barn milking with him. You’ll meet him at supper.”

Juanita cuddled Joey, who reached up to touch her face as he had Annie’s. Becky Sue took off her coat and hung it up by the door as she scanned the large kitchen with cabinets along one wall and the refrigerator and stove on another.

Standing by the large table in the center, Annie smiled at her younger sister, who loved all young things. She delighted in taking care of the farm’s animals, other than Leanna’s goats and the dairy cows. She tended to the chickens, ducks and geese as well as the pigs and two sheep.

When Joey began fussing, Annie urged her sisters to return to making supper while she took Becky Sue upstairs and got her and the boppli settled. The extra bed was in Annie’s room, but if Becky Sue was bothered by the arrangement, she didn’t mention it. Annie cleared out the deepest drawer in her dresser and folded a quilt in it. Tucking a sheet around the quilt, she added a small blanket on top to make a bed for Joey. She urged her guests to rest while she went to help her sisters finish supper.

Annie asked Juanita to run next door to ask their sister-in-law if they could borrow some diapers and a couple of bottles for the boppli. Her younger sister was always happy for any excuse to visit her nephews and nieces.

Leanna didn’t pause chopping vegetables for the stew simmering on the gas stove. Not that her twin would do any actual cooking. Juanita was already a more competent cook.

Hanging up the coat she’d draped over the kitchen chair, Annie went to the stove and checked the beef stew. She halted, her fingers inches from the spoon, as she wondered if Caleb would be joining them for supper. He’d said something about coming over after he called Becky Sue’s parents.

“We need to set extra plates on the table,” Annie said as she stirred the stew so it didn’t stick.

“More than one?” Leanna looked up from the trio of carrots she had left to chop.

“Caleb said he’d stop over.” Annie dropped her voice to a whisper to explain why he’d remained behind at the bakery. “It’ll be a gut opportunity for us to get to know him better.”

Her twin set down the knife and walked away from the counter. Taking the broom from its corner, she began to sweep the kitchen floor. “Why were you at the bakery today?”

“Caleb wants an assistant to help with getting it ready and to wait on customers when it opens. He asked me, though he thought he was asking you.” She told Leanna about the conversation by the goats’ pen. “If you’d like to take the job instead, I’m sure he’d agree.”

Leanna stopped sweeping. “I’ve already got a job.”

That was true. Leanna cleaned for several Englisch neighbors. She could have a house sparkling in less time than it took Annie to do a load of wash.

“This would be different.” Her answer sounded lame even to Annie, but somehow she had to convince her sister to be honest about her feelings for Caleb.

Leanna was generous and kind and, other than her inability to cook and bake, something that shouldn’t be as important to a man who owned a bakery, would make Caleb a wunderbaar wife. It was a fabulous plan, even if it broke Annie’s own heart.

Frustration battered her. Why couldn’t those two see what was obvious to Annie? Leanna and Caleb could make each other happy as husband and wife. Of that, she was certain.

Because you believe you would be happy with him as his wife.

Annie wished her conscience would remain silent. It was true she’d imagined walking out with Caleb before she noticed how her sister reacted each time he was near.

God, make me Your instrument in bringing happiness to Leanna, she prayed as she had so many times since her sister’s heart was broken.

“It doesn’t matter,” Leanna said, “whether the job is different or not. I wouldn’t have time to work for Caleb. This morning, I agreed to clean Mrs. Duchamps’s house twice a week.”

Annie recognized the name of one of the few Englischers who lived along the meandering creek. Mrs. Duchamps had worked at the bank in Salem most of her adult life as well as taking care of her late husband during the years when he was ill. Having no kinder of her own, it was no surprise Mrs. Duchamps had hired Leanna to help.

“I didn’t know you were looking for more houses to clean.”

Leanna smiled. “I enjoy the work, so why not? And we could use the money. Kenny is growing so fast it seems as if he needs new shoes every other month. This works out for the best because I wouldn’t want to work at Caleb’s bakery.” She began sweeping again. “Don’t you think it’s odd he wants to start a bakery at the same time he’s trying to keep his farm going?”

“Not really.” Annie recalled the light beaming from his eyes when he spoke about his plans for the bakery. It was a chance to make his dream a reality.

“Then it’s a gut thing he asked you instead of me.” Leanna shuddered. “I don’t know what I’d say to his customers, and I’d get so nervous I’d end up dropping a tray of cookies.”

“You navigate among your goats without stumbling. Even when you’re milking them.”

Leanna laughed, “Having them crowd around me hides a lot of my clumsiness. Besides, I’m sure you’re going to have wunderbaar ideas to help Caleb.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Annie began to chop the rest of the carrots.

“You never used to hesitate sharing your ideas, Annie. I wish I had half of the ones you have.”

“Ideas come when they come.”

Ideas did always pop into her head. She used to speak them without hesitation, but that was before she’d started walking out with Rolan Plank three years ago. They hadn’t lasted long as a couple. After a month, he’d started to scold her for speaking up. He chided her for what he’d called her silly ideas. Yet, after he’d dumped her, he’d taken one of her so-called silly ideas and let everyone think it was his own.

“Either way,” Leanna said, “I’m glad you’re working for Caleb instead of me.”

“But you could have had a chance to get to know him better.”

“True, but I’m sure you’ll share many stories about your time with him.” Leanna paused for a long moment, then added, “I didn’t think we’d still be talking about jobs now. I assumed I’d be a wife and mamm, but that hasn’t happened.”

“It will when—”

“Don’t tell me it’s God’s will whether I marry or not.” Her twin kept moving, each motion sure and calm in comparison with her voice. “I’ve heard that too many times.”

Annie paid no attention to her sister’s words. Only to her heartbroken tone, and Annie’s heart broke, as well. Her sister had fallen hard for Gabriel Miller before they moved from Lancaster County, but Gabriel had wedded someone else. In retrospect, Annie wasn’t sure he’d been aware of Leanna’s feelings. As far as Annie knew, her sister hadn’t told him. Instead, she’d decided to let him pursue her as the heroes did the heroines in the romance novels Leanna loved to read.

In the months since they’d arrived at the settlement in Harmony Creek Hollow, her sister had begun to emerge from her self-imposed isolation. Being a member of the Harmony Creek Spinsters’ Club with two of their friends had helped. Now their friends Miriam and Sarah were married. In fact, there had been three weddings at the end of the year, and while Leanna was thrilled for her friends, each ceremony had been a reminder of what she wanted and didn’t have: a husband and a family of her own.

Annie scooped up the chopped carrots and dropped them into the stew. When Caleb had offered her the job—even if it’d appeared to be a mistake—God had opened a door for her to help her sister. She ignored the familiar twinge in her own heart as she tried to convince herself that persuading Caleb to walk out with her twin sister would be the best idea she’d ever had.

* * *

How was it possible the evening was growing colder by the second? Each breath Caleb took seemed to be more glacial than the one before. He hadn’t thought it could get any more bitter, but with the sun setting, the very air felt as if it’d turned to ice. He guessed by the time he’d left the bakery, got home and milked his cows, the mercury must have dropped to ten degrees below zero. It would be worse by the time he got up in the morning. The idea of heading into his comfortable house and calling it a day had been tempting, but he couldn’t cede his responsibility for his cousin and her kind to Annie. He’d told her he’d stop by, and he couldn’t renege on the promise.

As he led Dusty toward the Waglers’ barn so the horse could get out of the cold, Caleb glanced at the goats’ pen. It was empty, and he guessed the goats were huddling inside their shed.

Smart goats. He smiled at the two words he’d never thought he would put together.

Caleb’s shoulders ached by the time he walked to the house. Trying to halt the shivers rippling over him was foolish, because he couldn’t relax against the cold. His body refused to keep from trying to keep the polar wind at bay.

He climbed up onto the porch and rapped on the door. The faint call from inside was all the invitation he needed to open it.

Taking one step inside the mudroom connecting the kitchen to the porch, he was almost bowled over by a reddish-brown ball of fur. A sharp command from the table didn’t stop the excited puppy from welcoming him.

Kenny rushed into the mudroom to collect the dog. Caleb smiled his thanks to the dark-haired boy before shrugging off his coat. Watching Kenny try to get the puppy to behave with little success, Caleb wondered if the boy’s shoulders grew broader every day. Kenny wasn’t going to be tall, but he was going to be a sturdy adult. Hard work in the barn was giving him the strength of a man twice his age.

Caleb set his coat, scarf, gloves and hat on a chair by the door because the pegs were filled. He turned to walk into the kitchen and then stopped as he took in the sight of the families gathered around the table. Two families. The Waglers—Annie and her twin, as well as her grossmammi, sister and younger brother, who was sliding into his chair, holding on to the puppy—and two members of the Hartz family: his cousin and her son.

Yet they could have been a single family. No one acted disconcerted. One twin held Joey on her lap and offered him bites of her food while his cousin sat on the opposite side of the table between a girl close to her age and the other twin.

But which twin was which? He was embarrassed that he wasn’t sure.

His discomfort was overtaken by distress. He hadn’t been able to reach Becky Sue’s parents. He’d waited by the phone at the bakery for an hour, hoping for a call back. He’d left after that because his dairy herd got uncomfortable when he delayed the milking.

“Komm in...and join us,” Inez said, motioning to him.

The elderly woman was shorter than the twins, and though her hair was gray and thinning, she had the same blue-green eyes. It was more than a physical resemblance, because she said what she thought, exactly as Annie did.

“Komm...in, Caleb,” Inez urged again when he didn’t move. She paused often as if having to catch her breath. “Sit...so we...can thank God...for our food...before...everything...is cold.”

He entered the kitchen, which smelled of beef gravy and freshly baked bread. When his stomach rumbled, a reminder he’d skipped lunch, he was glad he was far enough away from the table so nobody would hear it. “You could have eaten without me.”

“See?” piped up Kenny. “I told you he’d be okay with it.”

“But...I wasn’t.” Inez’s tone brooked no argument, and the boy didn’t give her any as he bent to soothe the puppy, who was lunging to escape so it could greet Caleb as he neared the table. “Hurry. Join...us before hunger...makes Kenny forget...his manners again.”

When the twin holding Joey—Caleb was almost certain she was Annie—flashed him a quick smile, he dampened his own. He admired how Inez spoke her mind. Not that she ever was cruel or critical of anyone, though she denounced what she saw as absurd ideas. She, as one of his fellow firefighters was fond of saying, called it as she saw it.

The only empty chair was at the end of the table. He sat there and nodded when Inez asked him to lead grace. He was the oldest man present, and it was his duty. As he bowed his head, his thoughts refused to focus on his gratitude for God guiding his young cousin to the bakery where she could be found. He was too aware of both twins sitting at the table.

If he mistook one for the other...

Annie had given him an easy way to avoid admitting he hadn’t realized which twin he was asking to work for him, but he couldn’t depend on that happening again.

He cleared his throat to signal the end of grace. As he raised his head, he was startled by an abrupt yearning he hadn’t expected. A yearning for a life where he could sit with a family of his own at day’s end. Several of his friends had married in November and December and stepped into the next phase of their lives. He was moving forward as well, but not in the same direction. Was he missing his chance to have a family?

There wasn’t time for such thoughts. Between the farm and the bakery, he had too much work to do every day. The responsibilities of a family would require more of his nonexistent time. He’d made his choice, and he shouldn’t second-guess himself.

Caleb took the bowl of fragrant stew. He spooned some onto his plate, then more when urged by Inez, who told him in her no-nonsense voice not to worry if he emptied the bowl because there was extra on the stove. When he sampled it, he was glad he’d listened to the old woman.

He focused on eating as conversation went on around him. He looked up when Inez spoke.

“Leanna...pass the basket...of rolls...to Caleb.” Inez gave him a wink as she spoke with her usual interruptions. Seeing how the twins glanced at her, he wondered what her pauses to take a breath meant. “I’ve...never met a...man who doesn’t...have room for...another roll...or two.”

“Especially with apple butter,” he replied as he waited to see which twin did as her grossmammi had asked. When it wasn’t the one holding Joey, he was relieved. He’d guessed Annie was the twin bouncing the little boy on her knee and keeping Joey entertained with pieces of soft carrot she’d fished out of her stew. He watched, amazed at how she kept the kind fed while she ate her own supper. He was beginning to wonder if Annie was gut at everything she did. She’d handled the touchy situation with Becky Sue with a skill he didn’t possess.

“I’m not as out of practice as I thought,” Annie said with a laugh. Was she trying to put him at ease for staring? That she might be able to discern his thoughts was disquieting. “I used to feed Kenny this way when he was little.”

Kenny grumbled something, and Caleb swallowed his chuckle. No boy on the verge of becoming a teenager wanted to be reminded about such things.

As the meal went on and Caleb had another generous serving of the delicious stew, laughter came from the Waglers. But Becky Sue was reticent, and every movement she made displayed exhaustion. He wondered when—and where—she’d last slept.

A quick prayer of gratitude for their food, their families and for shelter from the cold night ended the meal. Leanna offered to help Becky Sue upstairs so she could rest, and Inez took the boppli into the living room to rock him until he became sleepy. Kenny wandered off somewhere with the puppy he called Penny.

Annie began to clear the table, carrying the dishes to the white farmhouse sink. “Did you get in touch with Becky Sue’s parents?”

“No answer yet.”

“As soon as they get the message, they’ll call. I can’t imagine how happy they’ll be to discover their daughter and kins-kind are safe with you.”

“With you, actually.”

“We’re happy to help.” When he picked up his dishes, she said, “You don’t have to clear the table. I know you’ve had a long day.”

“No longer than yours.”

“But I didn’t have to milk,” she laughed. “Lyndon, Kenny and Leanna milk every day, and Juanita will help sometimes. I always try to find somewhere else to be.”

“Why? There’s something wunderbaar about being in a warm barn and spending time with animals willing to share their bounty with us.” He set the dishes by the sink. “For me, it’s one of the clearest symbols of God’s gifts to us.”

She turned on the water and squirted dish detergent into the sink. “That’s a much nicer way of looking at milking.”

“But not your way?”

“Definitely not.” She chuckled as she reached for the dishrag.

“You may have your mind changed one of these days.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

He smiled. Trust Annie Wagler not to withhold her opinion! It was one of the reasons his sister liked her, and working together at the bakery was going to be interesting. At least he wouldn’t have to try to guess what she was thinking.

“So you prefer spending time with a boppli who spits up on you rather than a nice, clean cow who gives you milk?”

“Spits up?” She glanced at the spots of orange on her black apron. “I didn’t notice. Oh, well. It’ll wash out,” she laughed. “Joey should be glad he wanted to sit on my lap rather than Leanna’s.”

“Why?” He was curious how the little boy had figured out which twin was which. And a bit envious of the kind’s intuitive ability.

“Leanna prefers boppli goats to boppli humans because she spent most of her teen years babysitting for an Englisch family who had a ton of rules about their kinder. They insisted she carry the boppli in some sort of contraption that wrapped around her shoulders. Half the time when she came home, she was covered with formula because they believed she should feed the boppli in the getup.”

“That’s enough to put anyone off from kinder.”

Annie flinched, surprising him before she went to the table to collect more dishes. “She won’t feel that way about her own bopplin. She’ll be a wunderbaar mamm, I know.”

“But you’ll never like milking?”

“Never!” She carried the other dishes to the sink.

“Don’t you know you should never say never?”

“That sounds like a challenge.”

“It might be.”

“It’s one you’re guaranteed to lose. Cows and I agree we’re better off having as little to do with each other as possible.”

“You’re going to make me prove that you’re wrong.”

“About what?” asked Inez as she came into the kitchen. She set Joey on the floor and pressed one hand to her chest. An odd wheezing sound came from her, and she sat in the closest chair.

Annie rushed to her side. “Are you okay, Grossmammi?”

“I guess I’m not as young as I used to be.” She glanced at the boppli, who dropped to his belly. “Chasing a young one is a task for someone with fewer years on her than me. So, what you are going to prove our Annie wrong about, Caleb?”

“That milking is a pleasant chore,” he replied, though he wondered how Inez had failed so fast.

Beside her chair, Annie looked worried, but she kept her voice light. “That is something he’ll never prove to me. Grossmammi, I can finish up if you want to go to bed.”

He thought Inez would protest it was too early, but she didn’t. Coming to her feet, she said, “A gut idea. These old bones need extra rest to keep up with a boppli.” Before he could say he’d make other arrangements for Becky Sue, she added, “Caleb, we’re glad to have your cousin and her kind stay with us.” She wagged a gnarled finger at him. “Such things should go unsaid among neighbors, ain’t so?”

Again, as he bade Inez a gut nacht, he was discomfited at how the Wagler women seemed to gauge his thoughts.

At the very moment Inez closed the door to her bedroom beyond the kitchen, Joey began to crawl toward them on his belly. Caleb bent to pick up the little fellow, but froze when Joey let out a shriek. The boppli clenched his fists close to his sides as his face became a vivid red.

“What’s wrong?” Caleb asked as he reached again for the kind.

With a screech that rang in Caleb’s ears, Joey cringed away.

Annie scooped up the boppli and held him close as she murmured. Joey’s heartrending screams dissolved into soft, gulping sobs as he buried his face in her neck. She patted his back and made soothing sounds into his hair. When the boppli softened against her, she looked over his head toward Caleb.

Sympathy battled with dismay in her expressive eyes. Caleb had never guessed a mere look could convey such intense emotion. Or maybe it was as simple as the fact he felt sorry for the toddler, too.

Becky Sue burst into the kitchen, wearing a borrowed robe over a nightgown too short for her. Her hair was half-braided and her kapp was missing. “What’s wrong with Joey?”

“I think he’s overtired,” Annie said. “Bopplin get strange notions in their heads when they’re Joey’s age. Some don’t like men. Others fear dogs or cats or tiny bugs.”

“Do you know why he’s scared of men?” Caleb didn’t want to admit how relieved he was Joey’s antipathy wasn’t aimed solely at him, because he’d always got along well with kinder.

Becky Sue shrugged. Or she tried to, but her shoulders must have been as stiff as his had been outside in the cold, because they curtailed the motion. Instead of answering him further, she hefted her son and walked away.

Caleb watched her climb the stairs at the front of the house and vanish along with the boppli. Her lack of answer told him plenty. She was hiding even more than he’d guessed.

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