“Sam, you sit up front with her.”
“Ne, ne, I don’t want to!” This last cry came from the smallest of the boys, still standing on the buggy step.
Ruthy turned her face toward the front of the buggy, trying to stay out of the squabble. They made the buggy sway as they pushed at each other, like a bunch of half-grown puppies.
So these were Levi Zook’s children. Mam had urged her to learn more about her position before traveling all this distance, but staying another day in Bird-in-Hand was out of the question. How could she stay there after what Elam and Laurette had done?
“Boys, you know where to sit.” Levi’s deep voice broke through the noise. “Stop this arguing, now. Jesse, move over so David can sit in his own place.”
Levi slid the warming pan across the floor of the buggy and Ruthy tucked her feet up to it. The January air had a bite to it, even in the shelter of the buggy, and she craved the heat that seeped through the leather shoes to her toes.
“But Dat, I don’t want to sit by her.” The littlest boy still stood on the buggy step, his face glaring at Ruthy as she turned to smile at him.
“If you sit between your daed and me, you’ll be able to share the warming pan.”
Ruthy knew her words had struck gold when she heard the envious groan from one of the boys behind her. The young boy heard it, too, and his face lit up.
“Can I really?”
“Ja, for sure.” Ruthy tucked her skirt in close as he scrambled onto the seat next to her. She glanced up to see Levi Zook giving her a grateful look. It seemed her job was starting out well so far.
As the buggy jolted over the railroad tracks, Ruthy smiled at the boy next to her.
“You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”
“I’m Sam. I’m five years old, and I like cows.” The words burst out of him as if he had been holding them in all day. “And that’s James. He’s eleven and doesn’t like girls. David is nine and likes school. And that’s Jesse. He’s seven.” He nodded toward the backseat as he introduced his brothers. “And at home...”
“How was the train ride?” Levi Zook interrupted, his face red as he concentrated on driving the horse through the town traffic.
“It was long, but comfortable.” Ruthy glanced out the window. The roads were smooth with packed snow. “How far is your farm from here?”
“We’re about six miles from Shipshewana, down in Eden Township.”
“It’s the biggest farm around,” Sam said, and then his pink cheeks reddened even more and he ducked his head into the collar of his coat. “I mean, it’s plenty large for our family.”
Levi cleared his throat, drawing Ruthy’s attention away from Sam’s boasting words. “I hope the arrangements I mentioned in the letter are to your liking.”
“Ach, ja,” Ruthy said. “There’s a Dawdi Haus I’ll be living in?”
“Ja. It’s attached to the main house, and there’s a passageway in between. It’s handy to the kitchen and cellar.”
Ruthy shivered as the horse trotted swiftly down the snow-covered road. The farm fields were January bare, with flat expanses of snow between the fence rows. As the buggy grew colder, she drew her shawl closer to her neck. Even the boys in the back fell into silence in the frigid air.
By the time Levi turned onto a farm lane, the coals in the warming pan had lost all their heat. Sam pressed against his daed to keep warm, but Ruthy looked up the lane, anxious to get the first glimpse of her new home. The house was large, with additions made over the years like train cars, and the little Dawdi Haus a tacked-on caboose following behind. Smoke poured from a chimney at the end of the house closest to the Dawdi Haus, a sign someone was home. Levi pulled up to the back door.
“Sam, take Ruth in to the kitchen while the boys and I take care of the chores.” Levi looked over Sam’s head at her, with an apologetic look in his brown eyes. “We’ll be in for supper.”
Ruthy nodded, looking forward to getting into the warm kitchen. The look in her employer’s eyes mystified her, though. Why would he feel bad for leaving her alone with little Sam?
She climbed down from the buggy and took her suitcase from the back, then followed Sam to the door. The back porch was enclosed, with a wash bench along the outer wall, hooks for coats on the wall next to the kitchen door and planks to hold muddy boots off the floor below. Warmth seeped into the porch through the closed kitchen door and Ruthy unwrapped her winter shawl as Sam hung his coat on a hook.
The door opened to welcome them in, and a young girl smiled shyly at Ruthy.
“Nellie, close the door!”
Ruthy stepped into the kitchen quickly as the girl, about eight years old, obeyed the voice of an older girl who stood with her back to Ruthy as she removed a loaf of bread from the oven. It must be Waneta, the oldest. Four boys and two girls? So, Levi Zook had six children she was to care for? She should have asked more about the children in her letters.
“Hallo,” the older girl said as she closed the oven door. “You must be Ruth. I’m Waneta.”
“It’s good to meet you,” Ruthy said, smiling at her. The heat of the oven had given Waneta’s face a pretty flush.
“You’ve had a long journey, and I’m sure you want to get settled. Martha built a fire in the Dawdi Haus when she went to make up your bed, so it should be warm in there for you by now.”
“Martha? I must have heard wrong. I thought I heard you call your sister ‘Nellie.’”
Waneta laughed and hugged the little girl. “This is Nellie. Martha is the twelve-year-old sister.”
Seven children? Ruthy grasped her satchel closer, her lips pressed together. Seven children would be a challenge, but she could do it. She had always enjoyed large families. She followed Sam through the kitchen door leading to the chilly passageway between the two houses. Windows on both sides made it feel large and open, but sheltered from the weather.
She followed Sam into the house, where a girl sat in a chair, a book open in her lap. She looked up with startled eyes as Sam opened the door.
He looked up at Ruthy with disgust. “Martha’s always reading when she’s supposed to be working.”
Ruthy smiled at Sam and glanced at Martha. “I like to read, too. It’s hard to put a book down when there are chores to be done, isn’t it?”
“Ja, for sure.” Martha’s sweet smile warmed the room. “Dat said we should leave you be so you can settle in today.” The girl looked at Ruthy’s suitcase. “Or I could help you unpack...”
“I’d love your company, but don’t you think Waneta needs your help?”
Martha’s face told her she had guessed right, and Sam tugged at his sister’s hand. “Come on, Martha. ’Neta’s going to be mad if you don’t help her instead of mooning around.”
“I’ll see you later, all right?” Ruthy gave Martha a smile as the girl followed Sam back into the main house.
Ruthy closed the door behind them, looking around her new home. The front sitting room was cozy, with two chairs and a small side table. It would be a comfortable place to sit in the evenings while she worked on her sewing.
At this thought Ruthy sank into the rocking chair. Sewing for seven children? And their father? First thing tomorrow she would need to start in on taking inventory and planning for their summer clothes. Although Sam’s trousers seemed pretty short—she may need to make sure they had enough winter clothes first. Why hadn’t Levi Zook told her how many children he had in his letter?
And why hadn’t she followed Mam’s advice and asked before making this trip?
She knew why. Even if he had told her the size of the job, she would have come anyway. Any excuse to get away from Lancaster County and the gossip. If she had to suffer the sight of her Elam with Laurette Mast one more time...
Ruthy bit her lip. Ne, not Laurette Mast. She was Laurette Nafziger now—Elam’s Laurette.
Well, nothing would get done if she sat here wasting time. She went into the bedroom to put her clothes away. The bed had three
quilts layered on it, with an extra one folded across the end of the bed. At least she would sleep warm.
Smoothing the quilt beneath her hand, Ruthy felt the empty silence of the little house. Her own quiet, empty house.
For sure this was the future God had waiting for her. Life as a maidle, forever unmarried, caring for other people’s houses and families. It wouldn’t be a bad life, giving herself in service to others.
Ruthy’s eyes stung. Ne, not a bad life, but not at all what she had dreamed of during the eight years Elam had courted her. The life she had planned was at Elam’s side, raising his children, building their future together. She rubbed her hands together, working some warmth into them. Her bony hands, too large for a woman. No wonder Elam had turned from her to pretty, petite Laurette.
Ruthy knew what she looked like in Elam’s eyes. She was too tall, too thin, her mouth too wide. Even though she tried to shrink down when she was near him, he must have felt small next to her. No man wanted a wife who towered over him.
Ja, a maidle. That’s what she would always be.
And if she wasn’t careful, she’d sink into that trap of self-pity she had tried to leave behind.
Work—hard work—was what she needed, and it looked like she had found it. Well, first things first. Unpack and then out to the main house to help Waneta with the afternoon chores. There were nine mouths to feed, and that meant there was no time for lazing around, even as exhausted as she felt.
At the sound of a knock on her door, Ruthy opened it to find a little girl on the other side.
“Hallo. Nellie, right?”
The girl giggled. “Ne, I’m Nancy. Nellie is my twin sister.”
Eight children? This was really too much. Levi Zook should have told her.
Nancy’s cheeks were rosy and chapped.
“Have you been outside in this cold?”
“Ja, I was helping Elias with the chickens, but when Dat and the boys came home he didn’t need me anymore.”
A cold knot tightened in Ruthy’s stomach.
“Nancy, who is Elias?”
“My oldest brother. He and Waneta are twins just like Nellie and I are twins.”
Ruthy gripped the door, watching the eight-year-old bounce on her toes as she spoke. She counted up in her head. Nine. Nine children. She smiled at Nancy, the innocent bearer of this shocking news.
“Where is your daed now?”
“In the buggy shed. Do you want me to get him for you?”
“Ne, denki. I think I’ll go out and see the buggy shed myself.”
Ruthy closed the door of the Dawdi Haus and headed through the short breezeway to the kitchen, with Nancy following. Waneta nodded a hello to her as she peeled potatoes, the noise of the children’s voices making it impossible to say anything more. As Ruthy opened the door to the back porch, she kept Nancy from coming with her.
“I want to speak to your daed alone.”
Nancy nodded as she closed the door, and then she twitched her winter shawl from the hook and threw it around her shoulders as she barreled out the door. Five boys were throwing snowballs at each other in the yard as she passed. Would she ever remember their names? As she reached the door of the buggy shed at the side of the barn she stopped with her hand on the latch, trembling. Five boys? Sam was inside the house. She turned to the boys in the yard again, counting. There was James, David and Jesse, the three she had met in town, and two older boys with them. One of them had to be Elias, the oldest brother, but who was the other big one?
Just then one of the boys shouted to him, “Hah, Nathan, you missed me again!”
Biting back her anger, she swung open the door of the shed and stepped in, face-to-face with Levi Zook as he rose from wiping the buggy wheels with a rag. He loomed over her in the confines of the room, suddenly dark as she shut the door on the bright midafternoon sunshine. But for all his size, his eyes were the gentlest she had ever seen, with lines that crinkled when he smiled at her.
A snowball hit the outside of the shed with a thud, bringing Ruthy back to the anger that had propelled her in here. She opened her mouth to speak, but Levi Zook only bent down to wipe the wheel hub again.
* * *
“Levi Zook, just how many children do you have?”
Levi gave the freshly greased wheel hub a final wipe with his rag before he looked into the face of the furious young woman. He knew this confrontation was coming—he had been dreading it ever since before Christmas, when she had agreed to take the job. He should have told her, but he hadn’t wanted to risk her turning down the job. If Ruth weren’t here, Eliza would be sure to take the younger girls to live with her as she had insisted she’d do ever since Salome died a year ago.
“Only ten.” He stumbled over his words as her face paled and she reached out to the wall for support. “But they’re gut children and they won’t be a bother to you.”
“Only ten? You didn’t think you should tell me this before I accepted your job?”
Levi rubbed his hand across his face and through his beard, sighing. “Ja. I should have told you.”
She stared at him, her mouth twitching. Was she going to break out into tears? He wouldn’t blame her if she insisted on going back to Lancaster County, but then what would he do? Finding a wife who would take on ten children wasn’t as easy as he thought it might be when he first started looking. He pushed up the front of his broad-brimmed hat and rubbed his forehead. Tension made his head ache.
All the single women he knew were either much too young or they had better offers than he could give them. Hiring a housekeeper was the only alternative he could think of to keep his family together. This situation had to work, but how could he make her stay?
Ruth covered her mouth with her hand, turning away from him. When she glanced back he could see she was laughing. Laughing at him?
“I’m sorry,” she said, her laughter bubbling up so that she could hardly breathe. “Ach, Levi Zook, you should see yourself. You just wiped grease all over your face.”
Levi pulled his hand away from his face. She was right. It was covered with black grease. He wiped at his face with his rag, but Ruth stopped him.
“There must be a clean cloth here somewhere,” she said between gasps. She sorted through the rags on the workbench and found a folded scrap at the bottom of the pile.
“Denki.” Levi took the rag and wiped his nose and forehead. His beard would have to wait. What must she think of him? He must have looked like some schoolboy the way he kept spreading the grease around. He tried to wipe his hands clean and waited for her to stop laughing. Could he live with a woman who laughed at him, no matter how her eyes danced in the dim light of the shed?
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the children earlier. I meant to, but I just didn’t know how to do it in a letter.”
“So you thought you’d let me figure it out as I met them.”
“For sure, I didn’t plan it that way.”
She pulled her shawl more tightly around her shoulders. Her laughter still showed in the smile she gave him.
Levi turned the rag to find another clean spot and rubbed at his cheek. “I wouldn’t blame you if you decided not to stay. I shouldn’t have kept this from you.”
Glancing out the small window, she watched the boys playing in the yard. She chewed her bottom lip while he waited, and then she turned to face him. “You need me, Levi Zook, and your children need me. Waneta has been trying to run the house all on her own?”
He nodded and rubbed at the grease still covering his hands. “Ja, but it’s too much work for her at times.” At times? It was too much work for her all the time, even with Martha’s help. She needed a woman to guide her and teach her the things Salome hadn’t been able to during the years she had been ill.
Levi looked up to see Ruth regarding him with those blue eyes. She was nearly as tall as he was, and she held his gaze with a half smile. Her anger had disappeared quicker than ice melted on a summer day.
“You don
’t need to worry about me running away from a little work, but please tell me you aren’t hiding more children in the hayloft.”
“Ne, no more surprises.”
“We’ll start fresh then, now that I know what to expect.”
As she went back to the house, Levi watched her through the open door. Ruth Mummert was enough of a surprise all by herself.
Copyright © 2014 by Jan Drexler
ISBN-13: 9781460337509
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Copyright © 2014 by Barbara Phinney
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