The Amish Widower's Twins

by Jo Ann Brown

  At the time, she’d been delighted by the instant connection between them. That had been before she’d come to understand the hint of danger was real and aimed at her heart.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” she replied when Michael got the other high chair.

  She set Harley in it and bent to tie a bib around the boppli’s neck.

  “I hear you’re a twin, too,” Michael said as he leaned a shoulder against a cabinet.

  “Ja.”

  “Are you the older or younger twin?”

  “I’m sure I knew at one time or another. There are only five minutes between when we were born, so it doesn’t matter.”

  Michael chuckled. “I guess twin girls aren’t as competitive as male twins are. Gabriel never has let me forget he’s almost an hour older than me. Of course, I tell him God gave him a head start because He knew Gabriel would need it to keep up with me.”

  Leanna laughed. As she motioned for Michael to help himself to a cup of kaffi while she cooked him and the bopplin some breakfast, she told him Gabriel was catching a quick nap.

  “Gut,” Michael replied. “He’s a danger to himself and to everyone else if he tries to work when he can’t keep his eyes open.”

  “Aren’t the bopplin sleeping through the night?”

  “Don’t ask me. I wouldn’t hear them if they came into my room and shrieked in my ears. Once I’m asleep, I don’t hear anything.” He opened the refrigerator and shifted the bottles before pulling out a pitcher of cows’ milch. Pouring some into his cup, he grinned at her. “Sometimes, it’s great to be oblivious.”

  She handed each of the bopplin a hard cookie to chew on, then went to the stove to crack some eggs into a fresh pan. She listened as Michael talked about the project the two brothers would be working on, and though it was a simple job, he sounded excited about doing it, especially the interior carpentry. He made jokes that had her laughing, though she tried to keep the sound low so she didn’t wake Gabriel. She set a handful of fried-egg pieces on the trays of the two high chairs. She wasn’t sure if the kinder would eat them, but the food would keep them entertained while she worked. When she put a plate with fried eggs and toast in front of Michael before returning to the stove to get bacon, he sat and dug in with the fervor of a man who hadn’t eaten in a year.

  “Slow down,” she cautioned.

  “Why? It’s delicious.”

  “You two must not be very gut cooks, because I’m not. My sisters are the skilled cooks in our house.”

  He tapped his plate with his fork before scooping up another piece of egg, “If your sisters are better cooks than this, point me to them. I’ll propose today.”

  She laughed. “One is going to be married this fall, and the other is fourteen and still in school.”

  “I’ll wait if her cooking is better than this.” He gave her a wink, then reached for the strawberry jam to lather it on his toast.

  Leanna walked to the stove. Gabriel’s brother was charming.

  As Gabriel used to be.

  That thought sent a chilling wave of sorrow over her. She’d lost any chance to win Gabriel’s heart, but it seemed Gabriel had lost himself since the last time she’d spoken to him in Lancaster County.

  She couldn’t think of anything sadder.

  Chapter Five

  Sitting on the floor beside Heidi and Harley, Leanna wiped first one boppli’s face, then the other’s. She tried not to smile when they scrunched up their mouths, making it longer to get them clean. However, she’d learned to wash them quickly so they didn’t have time to cry. Harley could turn on the tears within seconds, but Heidi seemed to suck in air for almost a minute before a cry of dismay or pain or anger burst out of her. The first time it had happened, it had taken all of Leanna’s willpower not to laugh at the little girl’s reaction to being told she couldn’t crawl up the stairs.

  In the two days since she’d started babysitting for Gabriel, she’d discovered Harley and Heidi were already developing personalities as divergent as hers and Annie’s. Heidi was the more adventurous one. Harley could be kept content for hours playing with his fingers and toes. He didn’t show any interest in exploring the floor and the stairs as his sister did. Ja, the bopplin were twins, but each of them was also his or her own person.

  She gave in to her urge to grin as she thought of the many times people had assumed she and Annie were alike because they looked so similar. More than once she’d switched places with her sister at school when a distracted teacher gave them the opportunity.

  Heidi flopped over to her stomach and pushed herself up to crawl again. Watching her, Leanna was amazed anew. The little girl’s physical skills seemed too advanced for a six-month-old.

  Grossmammi Inez’s voice echoed in her mind, reminding her twins appeared younger than they were. Still, Heidi acted more advanced than she could possibly be.

  Again Leanna counted on her fingers as she had several times already since she’d learned about the twins. No matter how she calculated, the twins had to be around six months old. Maybe a couple of weeks older. It seemed odd Heidi should be crawling and pulling herself up to stand.

  “You’re someone who can’t wait, ain’t so?” she asked as she picked up the boppli and cuddled her.

  Heidi chuckled a deep belly laugh and squirmed with delight at the attention. She never acted upset when Leanna curtailed her explorations. Only when she was hungry did she lose her cheerful demeanor. Leanna had discovered that when she put the bopplin in their high chairs and didn’t have something for Heidi to eat.

  Sliding along the floor to where Heidi’s brother was watching them and grinning, Leanna asked, “You’re a bit more patient, ain’t so? A bit.”

  Harley arched his back as if asking to be picked up, too, wriggling on the well-worn quilt on the floor. He already resembled his daed with his red hair, though his was more orange than Gabriel’s.

  Leanna set Heidi beside her, then bent over as she lifted Harley’s white shirt, already covered with teething biscuit crumbs. She blew on his belly, and he giggled. The sound was different from his sister’s. Instead of deep and joyful, it was more high-pitched. Each laugh seemed to include a gulp at the end. If he were drawing in that much air, he could end up with a tummy ache.

  Raising her head, she murmured, “We don’t want that.”

  He held up his arms to her.

  “Later,” she promised as she stood. “I need to warm up some bottles for two ravenous bopplin. Do you know their names? I’ll give you one hint. Their names start with the letter H. Any guesses?”

  She kept up a steady patter as she got two bottles from the refrigerator and put them in a pot of hot water to warm. She made a quick peanut butter sandwich for herself. She found some potato chips, grateful again that Gabriel had told her, after her first morning’s arrival, not to bring her lunch. He’d assured her he and Michael preferred different foods so she should always be able to find something she liked in the kitchen.

  I have. You, her heart had wanted her to call out to him as he’d turned to leave with his brother to go to work.

  She hadn’t expected that her recalcitrant heart would help her understand how impossible it was to control her feelings. Had it been the same for Gabriel? Had he walked out with her, hoping something would grow between them, until his heart had demanded he heed it and marry Freda?

  Giving the bottles to the bopplin and making sure they were settled on the quilt, Leanna ate her lunch. She hadn’t finished her sandwich before Heidi chucked her empty bottle aside and pushed herself up to sit. A large burp resonated through the kitchen.

  “That sounds gut,” Leanna said as she stooped to pick up the discarded bottle. “How are you doing, Harley?”

  She frowned when she noticed what appeared to be a bluish tint around his lips. She bent closer and scooped him up, holding him almost upright so he didn’t drop the
bottle. Examining him, she decided the light and shadows had deluded her, because his color appeared normal. She was being anxious when it was clear by how he was sucking on the bottle that he was fine.

  Telling herself not to look for trouble, she cleaned up the bopplin and carried them upstairs. She no longer felt as ill at ease as she had the first day when she had wandered around Gabriel’s house. It wasn’t as if she were snooping.

  Everything was scattered about, but that wasn’t a surprise when the family had moved in a couple of weeks ago. Or maybe it was because the house was home to two single men and two kinder. She had to resist the temptation to put away the towels on a chair outside the bathroom door. Her arms were already full with the twins.

  Both had to be changed, and she did that as soon as she reached their bedroom, which was big enough for two identical cribs, a changing table and a dresser. Once they were in fresh diapers and their faces clean again, she put them down for a nap.

  Leanna headed downstairs. She glanced at her purse, hanging over a kitchen chair. A romance novel she was partway through was tucked inside, but as she took a single step into the kitchen any idea of reading a chapter or two while the bopplin slept vanished from her head.

  Her sneaker stuck to something on the wood floor. Gabriel had said her job was only watching the kinder, but she couldn’t stomach the idea of the bopplin crawling on such a dirty floor. Picking up the quilt, she put it on the bench by the table. She filled a bucket with soapy water and went to work on the kitchen floor. She was pleased to see it wasn’t as dirty as she’d feared, though she found several other spots where someone must have dropped something sticky.

  The floors in the other downstairs rooms were worse than she’d guessed. In the bathroom, the linoleum was so worn the pattern had vanished and brown spots showed through the top layer. It might once have been white or tan. The front room and the two bedrooms being used for storage sent her to the sink several times to dump out filthy water and get fresh.

  Peering into the open boxes on the top of each pile, she saw a mishmash of household items and baby clothing. She hoped neither Gabriel nor Michael would be angry with her, but she began to unpack the boxes. She found places for dishes and cooking utensils in the kitchen, and put towels and washcloths in the bathrooms. Laundry supplies found a home on the wide shelves over the wringer washer.

  Her next discovery was a pile of dirty clothing tall enough to reach her waist. She went into the laundry where more unpacked boxes waited. After checking that the washer was connected to water and a drain, she tossed in enough dark clothes to fill the tub. For the next two hours, she did laundry. She was glad to find a freestanding clothesline outside the laundry room door. Her shoulders and back ached from wringing out clothing, but she smiled when the clean items were flapping in the warm breeze.

  By that time, the bopplin were awake and making sounds from their cribs. Leanna wasn’t sure if they were calling to her or talking to each other. They chirped with excitement when she walked into the small bedroom. It had been the only room, other than the kitchen, not filled with unpacked boxes.

  Had Gabriel and his brother been pulling out what they needed? It appeared that way, because she couldn’t see any rhyme or reason to what had been unpacked. Though the bopplin’s small white room with its single window had no boxes, their clothing was piled on top of an overflowing dresser. She wondered why the tiny garments and diapers hadn’t been put into the closet.

  She got her answer when she lifted the old-fashioned latch to open the closet door. The narrow space was jammed from floor to ceiling with more boxes. Most were marked for the bopplin’s room, but she saw one labeled “kitchen” near the top.

  “Lots more work to do, ain’t so?” she asked the twins.

  Before she could add more, the bopplin began to cry so loudly she wanted to put her hands over her ears. What was wrong? She rushed to the cribs, checking one and then the other. Neither needed to be changed, and it was way too early for their next bottles. She picked each of them up, trying to soothe them.

  Nothing she did helped. Their cries rose to shrieks. Again she checked to make sure diaper pins hadn’t come loose and were poking the twins. Were they suffering from teething pain? The biscuits were downstairs.

  She bent to lift Harley out of his crib, then went to pick up Heidi. Balancing them, each tiny body stiff with fury, she turned toward the door.

  Gabriel burst into the room. “Are you okay?”

  Was he shouting to be heard over the bopplin’s screeching? She stared at his wild eyes as they scanned the room. She’d never seen him so upset.

  Before she could reply, he said, “Gut. You’re okay.” His breath exploded out of him in relief, and his shoulders sagged as he put a hand on the door frame. “Thank the gut Lord.”

  Leanna bounced both bopplin as she asked, “Are you okay, Gabriel?”

  He started to answer, then paused. While the bopplin continued to howl, he looked everywhere but at his kinder and her. “On the day Freda died, I came in and heard the twins crying. I called to her, and she didn’t answer.”

  “You called to me today when you heard Harley and Heidi crying?”

  He nodded.

  If her arms hadn’t been filled with bopplin, she wasn’t sure she could have halted them from sweeping around him as she offered him comfort. She couldn’t ease the pain of losing his wife, but she could show she understood how it felt to lose someone precious. When her parents had died, she’d learned pain loitered in her heart, ready to leap out at any moment. How much worse would it be to lose the mamm of your kinder?

  Her tears blurred his strong face in front of her, and she bit her lower lip to keep her sob from slipping out. The tears fell, hot as acid along her cheek.

  “May I?” he asked as he stepped toward her and raised his arm.

  “Ja.” She started to turn to hand him Heidi but froze when his fingers settled on her cheek, wiping away the tears.

  The past seemed to reappear, taking them back to the night when she’d told him about how she was grateful to her grossmammi for sharing her small home with the orphaned Wagler siblings. She’d cried then, opening herself to him as she’d never done with anyone, and the first tendrils of love had emerged from her heart.

  Leanna was pulled into the present when Michael shouted up the stairs to his brother. He needed help with some boards, and the urgency in his voice was clear.

  “Go,” she urged. “I’ve got these two.”

  “Leanna, I—” Gabriel choked on whatever he would have said next. Pushing off from the door, he strode away.

  At the sound of his boots on the treads, she looked at the twins and forced a smile. “What am I going to do with you?”

  She kept up a steady chatter of nonsense that seemed to break through the twins’ distress. They calmed. She discovered they needed a diaper change and wondered if their stomachs had been bothering them. Deciding to be like the bopplin and forget they’d been crying a few minutes ago, she redressed them.

  Yet she couldn’t keep from thinking of how Gabriel’s face had been shadowed by a panic she’d never thought she’d see there. Why hadn’t she realized it was likely he’d been the one to discover Freda after her death? She wondered what other secrets he hid, secrets too appalling to bring into the light of day. Were those what she’d sensed? She couldn’t ask, because she didn’t want to risk seeing his haunted expression again.

  Propping one twin on each hip, Leanna went down to the kitchen. Michael was sitting at the table, wiping a soiled kerchief against his sweaty forehead. Gabriel was about to sit as well when Leanna walked into the room. Jumping to his feet, Gabriel held out his hands toward her.

  “Can I help?” he asked.

  “I’ve got them.” Squatting, she put one twin, then the other, on the quilt she’d replaced on the floor. “Much easier when they’re in a gut mood.”
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br />   “You’ve got to teach him how to do that,” Michael said with a laugh. “That way he won’t have to depend on me.”

  “It just takes practice.” Leanna stood and smoothed her apron over her skirt. “I learned how to handle more than one boppli when I helped with the younger kinder on Sundays.”

  “Show me?” Gabriel asked.

  “Later.” She motioned for him to sit beside his brother. He’d clearly decided to act as if their previous conversation hadn’t happened, so she’d do the same. “I’ll get you some lemonade.”

  “Lemonade?” His eyes widened. “I didn’t know we had any mix in the house.”

  “It’s freshly squeezed. I brought some lemons with me this morning.”

  “I told you that you didn’t need to bring food with you,” Gabriel said.

  “Stop chiding her, and be grateful.” His brother grinned. “You had time to do all that laundry hanging outside, make lemonade and take care of the bopplin? Are you sure there aren’t three or four of you?”

  “No,” she replied with a laugh as she bent to pick up Harley. “Just two bopplin who took a longer nap than usual this afternoon.”

  Setting the little boy in one high chair, she smiled as Gabriel put Heidi in the other high chair. She tied bibs around the bopplin and handed each of them a teething biscuit before Heidi could begin wailing.

  “Lemonade?” she asked.

  Michael held up his hands. “Danki, but I’ll have my lemonade without something to chew on.” He hooked a thumb toward the bopplin, who were chewing on the biscuits.

  His joking reminded her of how Gabriel used to do the same when they were walking out together, though expecting him now to be amusing when he was mourning his wife would be wrong.

  Leanna filled three glasses and served one to each of the men before taking a sip out of her own. They downed them and she refilled their glasses, leaving the pitcher in the middle of the table.