But—”
“Eli, could you take Dag to check the herd in the northwest pasture? I don’t need his help at all,” Cora said with a hint of hardness at the last words.
“But that would take hours to get there and back,” Mr. Hamner argued.
“Exactly. It will be hours before you need to come back to the house, Dag. Zach can stay within shouting range of the house if Amy or I need anything,” Cora waved her hand, but Amy saw she caught her breath as a contraction hit her body.
Amy moved in front of Cora to break Mr. Hamner’s hold on his wife, and to get her out of his vision.
“Cora, how about going into the kitchen for a cup of tea, to get to know each other?” Amy brightly said while steering the woman away from her worried husband. “You men can go on with your work. We’ll be fine,” Amy said over her shoulder.
The owner and the foreman looked dumbstruck at their dismissal. Zach winked and tipped his hat to her.
“Come on, guys. Miss Amy handled a railcar load of bulls. She can handle a tiny baby.”
Cora held her breath until she heard the door close behind the men, then she bent over while groaning in pain.
"Ready to go to your room now, Cora?" Amy asked, amused at the confidence she'd shown her husband to get him out of the house.
"Yes, let's go upstairs before the next contraction. Dag's been so worried about me that he's been downright annoying. I figured the babies would arrive early, but I was hoping Annalina would be back from her trip before they came," Cora stated, and she made her way to the staircase.
"Babies? Are you expecting twins, Cora?" Amy caught Cora's wording and started to worry herself.
“Dag's sisters are twins, and I'm positive there's been more than one set of feet kicking my insides the last few months. Annalina said her twins, Rania and Hilda, were born early, so I've been expecting this."
Cora stopped halfway up the steps, leaning against the railing to breathe through the next contraction. Cora's pains were coming at a fast interval.
"And no, Dag does not know I'm expecting twins. Annalina and I have kept that fact from him," Cora explained as she moved again. "He almost didn't marry me because he thought I'd die from having his big babies, silly man.
"My room's on the left. I believe I have everything ready. The contractions started very early this morning," Cora rattled on, apparently getting nervous now.
"Let's get you in a gown and into bed, then I'll wash up," Amy said, thinking of what she needed to do.
"If you want to change, now or later into women's clothes, the far bedroom to the left has trunks of clothing in them. Help yourself to whatever you want. My mother sends clothes from Boston for me to share with women in the community.
"Kaitlyn Reagan, the Clear Creek pastor's wife, brings brides out to the ranch before their wedding to pick out a dress. The dresser in that room is full of underclothing too," Cora said in a rush of words before her face scrunched up.
"I liked wearing trousers for my train trip up here, but I'd love to unbind my breasts, wash up, and put on a chemise and waistshirt again."
Cora lay back on the bed, sighing with a moment's reprieve from the pain.
"Dag said you were a friend of Tina's family. It doesn’t matter a wit to me, but why were you pretending to be a young man, delivering livestock to the ranch?”
“I—worked at an Austin saloon—as their cook and maid. Tina was moved to the saloon after that big train wreck she was in. I delivered her baby and was told to get rid of it. Mr. Osbourne, the owner, hoped it would make Tina stay and work as one of his upstairs girls since she’d lost everything and didn’t have anywhere to go.”
Amy stopped to wipe a wet cloth on Cora’s face but then continued to give Cora something to concentrate on besides her pain.
"I took the baby to the orphanage in town, but the place was filled past capacity due to the many orphaned children the wreck had caused. Not being able to take the infant back to the saloon, I put it in the back of a wagon which was parked in front of a store. I hoped whoever owned the wagon would take care of the newborn."
"Leif Hamner's wagon," Cora murmured between her breathy pants.
"Yes. Mr. Hamner took the baby back to the same orphanage and was turned away too. He'd seen my red dress when I sneaked away from the wagon and surmised I lived in one of the brothels in town."
"Luckily, he hunted you down," Cora concluded.
"Yes, and he was not a happy man. The man matches your husband in size, but with a brooding personality, at least when I met him."
"Time, Tina, and three wonderful children have changed Leif's demeanor, but he'll never be as happy-go-lucky as Dagmar."
Amy couldn't help playfully asking. "How's your husband going to act when he finds two children in bed with you?" She wanted to keep Cora from panicking as the hard labor would start soon.
"I warned him I wanted a big family, even a dozen children. Personally, having babies two at a time seems better than going through this agony twelve times!"
"I've helped deliver six babies at the saloon while I lived there, but none of them were twins," Amy stated. And she'd had to take all of them to the orphanage, breaking their mothers’ hearts and her own.
"It was God's intervention, fate, and luck that you left Oliver in his wagon. Did Tina write what happened after Leif took Tina from the saloon?"
"Yes, she mentioned being united with her older children, Robby and Emma."
"Yes. Leif realized two of the injured children at the orphanage could be Tina's. They went back to the place, and they were hers," Cora finished in a rush.
"Thank God the family is together again. I look forward to meeting all of them."
"Amy...I need to push now!" Cora screamed out, and Amy concentrated on this Hamner wife instead of her sister-in-law.
Chapter 6
I'm scared to go into the house.
I shouldn't have left Cora.
What if it's a girl? I can't handle a tiny baby girl in my big clumsy hands!
I shouldn't have left Cora.
We haven't decided on the baby's name yet. I thought we had time.
I shouldn't have left Cora.
Eli and Dagmar had only ridden an hour before Eli suggested they ride back toward the ranch. Dag’s rambling commentary of fear, wonder, then worry made Eli just as concerned as the soon-to-be father.
Eli tied their horses’ reins to the hitching post by the house door while Dagmar ran up the steps, tripping over himself as he pulled off his boots.
“Calm down, Dagmar. I don’t want to tell Cora you broke your neck,” Eli told Dagmar as he put a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Take a deep breath. And now another. Good.”
Now Eli felt better too. “You know birthing can take hours. Cora and Amy might still be sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and chatting.”
“I don’t care what they’re doing. I need to see Cora,” Dagmar said while hyperventilating.
Eli followed Dagmar through the downstairs, as they searched for the women. There was no one screaming in pain as Eli had expected. Was everything all right?
We shouldn’t have left Cora.
They tiptoed up the stairs—as quiet as two men could be—and looked down the long hallway.
“Oh! You’re back,” Amy said as she closed the door on one of the spare bedrooms. Amy fidgeted with her short hair, now embarrassed by its length.
Eli stared at the transformation of Amos changed into Amy. How had she concealed her hourglass figure in boy’s clothes? Her chest now had a bosom, and her thin waist flared out to lovely hips. The deep emerald-green dress turned her into a feminine wonder.
“Where’s Cora? How’s Cora?” Dagmar stammered.
“Cora is sleeping in your bedroom. Go on in and meet the addition to your family,” Amy quietly announced, with a big smile on her face.
Oh, gosh. Was it a girl?
Dagmar timidly opened the bedroom door and peeked around it be
fore going inside.
“Herregud. Det finns två barn!” Dagmar said in Swedish before shutting the door again, taking a step back into the hallway, and leaning his head against the door frame.
What? Eli looked at Amy, who had her hand over her mouth trying to contain her laughter.
Eli knew Dag used the first word when he was agitated. It meant “oh my God.” Två meant…two. Eli’s eye widened as he turned back to Amy.
“Did Dagmar just say, two babies? Twins?”
“Yes, Cora had two boys shortly after you left,” Amy answered.
“Right after we left?” Now Eli was starting to hyperventilate too. If Amy hadn’t been here, who would have delivered the babies? Well, Zach since he was the most level-headed of the three men working around the ranch yard today.
Dag swung his head up to ask, “Two boys? Not two girls?”
“Yes, boys,” Amy confirmed.
“Thank you, Lord. I don’t think I could handle two girls at the same time if they are anything like my sister Hilda,” Dagmar breathed out.
Amy looked confused, so Eli explained. “I gather his sister, Hilda—”
“Was a wild child and still a handful for her husband, Noah,” Dagmar concluded as he straightened.
Dagmar took a deep breath, and his face broke into a wide grin. “I have two sons!”
“Congratulations, Boss,” Eli said as he stuck out his hand to shake Dagmar’s. Eli grimaced as Dagmar squeezed his hand too hard.
“I have two sons!” Dagmar said again as he opened the door and tiptoed toward the bed. Eli watched as Dagmar smiled, studying his wife and then his babies, one tucked protectively under each of Cora’s arms.
Cora opened her eyes and smiled at her husband. “I told you I’d be fine having babies. Here’s the first two of our dozen.”
Eli stared at the intimate scene until Amy quietly pulled the door closed. If Rebecca, his intended, hadn’t left him at their wedding, they could have had a child by now.
Eli sighed, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to clear the daydream from his mind.
“All three of them are fine. Cora guessed she was having twins but hadn’t told Dagmar.”
“Which was probably a good thing or else Dagmar would have been twice as worried as he was anyway,” Eli said, and then paused to think about what he’d just said.
Two babies, twice as worried. Eli would have been the same way.
“I was about to do down to the kitchen to start supper for everyone. Want to join me? I made a fresh pot of coffee earlier,” Amy suggested.
Eli was taken back by this confident woman, but then he was comparing her to the Amos version.
“Yes, sure,” he waved for Amy to walk down the stairs in front of him.
Neither of them spoke until Amy had set two cups of coffee on the table and sat down across from him.
“I’m sorry to have deceived you as to my identity, but the bulls did arrive in good shape,” Amy stated, a bit defensibly.
Eli couldn’t help staring at her short locks again. Why did it bother him? Probably since where he came from women never cut their hair.
“Yes, they did. I assume you grew up on a ranch?”
“I grew up on a ranch near Austin, Texas…uh…doing more than a child’s share of work. I was forced off the ranch last year and have been trying since then to escape the situation I was in.”
“Why didn’t you leave the situation if you didn’t like living or working there?” Eli countered back, wondering why Amy stayed there.
“If one doesn’t get a salary, and no one else will hire someone who has worked in a saloon, it’s tough to change one’s situation,” Amy answered with a glare.
True. A woman didn’t have the choices a man did.
“I’m glad you’re away from Texas then,” Eli confessed but then thought of something else. “Are you safe here, or will someone come after you?”
Eli didn’t want danger to be following Amy now that the safety of two newborns crossed his mind.
Amy shook her head. “There is no reason for the saloon owner to go to the cost of chasing me down. I cooked and cleaned, rather than bring money in by working ‘upstairs.’”
“Good, good,” Eli answered, then sipped his coffee, wondering what to talk about next.
“Cora has asked me to stay in the house and help her with the babies. I’ll also cook for everyone, although meals will be simple sandwiches for a few days,” Amy said, watching for his reaction.
“Whatever Cora and Dagmar want, the rest of us abide by,” Eli murmured.
“I’m used to hearing Spanish in Texas but got an earful of Swedish today. You have an accent too. Where are you originally from? I’m guessing it isn’t Kansas.”
Eli hedged answering, not sure what he wanted to reveal to this woman. The people on the ranch knew some of his past, but other things he’d never spoken about.
“I’m from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. My ancestors came from Switzerland to America back in the 1700s. They talked a…German dialect, I’ll call it.”
“Why did you leave your home and end up in Kansas?” Amy asked before she took a sip of coffee.
It was discerning the quiet way she watched him as if she could tell if he told the truth.
“I’ll just say a personal situation lead me to question how I was raised. I was baptized in the Amish faith. Instead of staying in my community, I took a job with a nearby cattle breeder. I accompanied a railcar of three Hereford bulls the Elisons, Cora’s parents, bought for the ranch, similar to what you did.
“Because of Cora and Dagmar’s marriage, Mr. Elison asked that I stay on as foreman, giving Cora and Dagmar the opportunity to travel to Boston whenever they wanted to.”
“And have they left the ranch yet…to travel? Spending time with Cora, I’d say she prefers Kansas to Boston. Or maybe that’s because the inside of this house already looks like how I imagine a Boston home would be furnished?”
“Dagmar said all the home’s furnishings, crystal included, was left behind when the Elison’s bought the ranch from the English family.”
Eli guessed the fancy displays would disappear once the twins started crawling and reaching for things.
Amy chuckled. “I think things will change with a dozen kids tearing through the house. I know my little brother would have caused havoc in this house when he was a toddler.”
“Do you still have family living in Texas?” Eli was curious about what she left behind.
“Yes, my parents, a younger sister. And Amos, although he ran away from home, and I don’t know where he is.”
“Ah. So, there is an Amos. You didn’t make him up,” Eli had to tease her.
Amy nodded. “Do you still have family in Pennsylvania?”
That was one way to close off the subject of her family.
“My parents, a brother, and three married sisters. I was the youngest.”
“Have you been back to see them? Or have they traveled here?”
“No, neither. Maybe someday,” Eli answered as he finished his coffee and stood from the table.
“I better take care of the horses. Have you talked to Zach since the twins were born?”
“Yes, he checked on us several times, thank you.”
Eli walked toward the door but turned back when Amy spoke.
“Thank you, Mr. Fisher, for all your help, and for being so understanding. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. I’m just so grateful you were here to take care of Cora.”
“Maybe that was the reason I arrived today.”
Amy’s sweet smile caused Eli’s heart to thump a little harder for some odd reason. He hadn’t felt any interest in a woman since Rebecca. Why this woman?
“I’d like for you to call me Eli, if I may call you Amy?” Eli felt bold asking that, but he felt compelled to get to know her better.
“Thank you, Eli. That would be fine.” Amy glanced at the loaves of bread on the counter. “Well, I better get s
tarted on the meal. Can you and Zach come back over later to bring the meal over to the bunkhouse this evening?”
“Yes, I’ll see you again then.”
Eli walked back to the front door, picking his hat off the hat rack and pushing it on his head. He paused as he opened the door, realizing how things had changed since this morning.
He’d ridden to Clear Creek this morning to collect a group of bulls. After lunch, he and Zach drove them home, besides the young male who accompanied the livestock from Texas.
This afternoon, once back to the ranch, Amos changed into Amy when Cora went into labor.
This evening, Dagmar and Cora started their new life as parents to twins, with Amy’s competent help.
Eli’s chest tightened, feeling a pang of loneliness for his own family. How many new nephews and nieces did he have back home? Did his siblings think about him, wondering if he ever married and had children?
Chapter 7
You’ll never guess who my midwife was!” Amy heard Cora exclaim as Amy walking in the back kitchen door.
“I assume it was Rania or Hilda since I wasn’t here,” a more mature woman, with a Swedish accent replied.
Amy had seen the group of riders and the chuckwagon pull into the ranch yard as she hung clean wet diapers on the clothesline behind the house. Because of Amy’s position, she could see them, but they couldn’t see her as she was behind the cloths, peeking around them.
She’d guessed the travelers were Dagmar’s parents and his brother’s family, but Amy gave them time to visit with Dagmar and Cora before intruding. They needed time to catch up with each other before she added to the mix.
“Amy? We’re in the living room,” Cora called out. “Please join us.”
Amy pushed her hair back over her ears, brushed her damp hands down her skirt and hesitantly stepped into the room. Besides the six adults sitting in the settee or various chairs, two children played on the floor with a baby. The older couple, no doubt Oskar and Annalina Hamner by their resemblance to Dagmar, each held a sleeping infant.
She scanned the room, meeting Tina’s eyes at the same time.
“Amy? From Texas?” Tina stood and walked to Amy, enveloping her in a tight hug. “You got my letter!”
Amy Admires an Amish Man: A Historical Western Romance (Brides with Grit Book 12) Page 4
