A Time to Love (13 page)

"True." Jenny got up to check on the ham and potatoes. "I thought I would put the apple crisp in when I take the other things out of the oven."

Phoebe nodded. "Would you like me to set the table?"

"Absolutely not. You go back to your quilting and let me take care of things. Tonight, you're a guest in your own home."

Jenny set the table and then checked on the ham and potatoes again. Funny, they weren't getting done as fast as they should. She turned the temperature up and went to change.

When she returned to the kitchen a little later, she took another look in the oven. Things were progressing better, she saw. Then she realized she hadn't thought about bread or rolls. She didn't want to use the loaf her grandmother had made that day, just as she hadn't wanted to use the cake because someone else had made it. But there wasn't time for bread to rise.

Once again she consulted the recipe box. Biscuits. They were simple and quick. She never helped her grandmother make them as she had bread, but the recipe didn't seem much different. In fact, it looked easy.

Getting out a big bowl, she sifted flour and baking powder, then cut in the shortening. The recipe said to stir in just enough milk to wet the ingredients, form a ball, knead the dough, then roll it out. Jenny kneaded the dough vigorously for a few minutes before rolling it out. She cut the dough in rounds and placed them on the tray. The whole process took longer than she thought it would. When she opened the oven, she was horrified. The ham was burned in places on top, and the potatoes looked awfully dry. She pulled them both out and put them on top of the stove.

She wanted to cry.

"I smell something burning—" Phoebe stopped in the doorway."Oh." She walked in and hugged Jenny. "Now don't be upset. Everybody has a time like this. Sometimes lots of times like this. It's how you learn. We can fix it."

They cut off the burned places on the ham, coated it with a honey glaze, then used toothpicks to stick store-bought canned pineapple all over it. The dry potatoes got some cream and extra dots of butter.

"Just turn down the oven and put them back in for a little while longer."

"Oh." Jenny pressed her fingers to her lips. "I turned the oven up when things weren't getting done."

"Then you didn't check to see how things were going?"

"I got busy making the biscuits." She eyed her grandmother who was pressing her lips together, trying not to laugh.

Phoebe brushed the flour from Jenny's cheek as she chuckled."You always were impatient."

"I know." Jenny put the biscuit bowl in the sink and looked again at the time. "Everyone will be here in a few minutes. I can't wait."

A
s Jenny welcomed them into the kitchen, Matthew couldn't help noticing the faint burnt odor on the air. He glanced at Hannah, who, he saw, had noticed the same thing. She shot him a warning look. He knew he'd teased her a lot about her cooking when she first started. Her look told him not to do that with Jenny.

Fortunately, Jenny didn't see their exchange. She was too busy receiving exuberant hugs from the children, especially Annie.

"It smells good," said Mary, the family diplomat, as she took off her coat.

"I'm
hungerich,"
Joshua told her. "I can't wait to eat what you've made, Jenny."

Annie tugged on Jenny's skirt. "Did you make Thrwee Beawr Soup?"

"Oh, no, I don't know how to make that. Maybe you can tell me how to make it sometime?"

Sometime.
Matthew wondered when that would be. He still believed that when she went to New York City she would not return.

After all, it had happened before, hadn't it?

"Jenny, it was so nice of you to invite us to supper," Hannah said as she and the family took their seats.

"It was about time," said Jenny. "I've lost count of how many times you've had me to supper at your home."

Hannah smiled. "The children loved helping with the cooking on the nights you came." She gazed at them fondly. "They are always good helpers, but those nights they wanted things to be special."

"That's so sweet," Jenny said.

Matthew could see that Jenny was affected by his sister's words. Her eyes grew bright with tears as she turned back to the oven. When he saw her set her cane aside so that she could lift the ham's platter, he jumped up and tried to take it from her.

"She wouldn't let me help her," Phoebe warned Matthew.

"Jenny, please," he said quietly.

Their eyes met. After a long moment, Jenny nodded and relinquished the platter. As she did, she caught Phoebe and Hannah exchanging a glance. Before she could wonder about it, Matthew held out his hands for the big casserole of scalloped potatoes.

When all of the food was on the table, Jenny smiled at her guests. "I hope you like it. I don't cook much." She laughed self-deprecatingly. "Mary probably knows more about cooking than I do."

Mary straightened and sent Jenny a smile. "I like to cook."

"She makes good Thrwee Beawr Soup," Annie volunteered.

"It's vegetable soup," Joshua leaned over and whispered to Jenny. "Annie was sick one day and wouldn't eat so Daedi called it that."

Jenny looked at Matthew and her heart warmed. He really loved his children. And it was so obvious they loved him.

"Matthew, would you say the blessing?"

They bent their heads and as he spoke, his voice was rich and warm with praise for God's abundance. Then everyone was piling food on plates.

"Oh, I almost forgot the biscuits," she said, getting up. She wished she'd had time to sample one. They didn't seem light and fluffy like her grandmother's, though she had used her recipe. She brought the basket lined with a checkered napkin and filled with biscuits to the table. "Joshua, why don't you take one and pass the basket?"

He did as she asked but the biscuit he lifted from the basket slipped from his fingers and landed with a big
Clunk!
on his plate. Picking it up, he tried to pull it apart.

Matthew didn't need to look in Hannah's direction to see that she was watching. He took a biscuit when the basket was passed to him and used a knife to split it open so he could butter it. Then he handed half to Joshua and took a bite from the half he kept. The biscuit was hard as a rock. He prayed that his teeth wouldn't crack.

"Delicious," he said, crunching away.

Jenny served Annie a small slice of the ham and cut it up for her. Then she put a spoonful of potatoes on the child's plate. Looking around, she made sure her guests filled their plates and had begun eating before she put food on hers. She tried to open her biscuit, then did as Matthew had and cut it open. It should have easily separated in the middle like Phoebe's. Instead, it was a hard lump. Her heart sank.

She buttered it and took a bite. It was hard as a rock. Looking around the table, she saw the family gamely eating theirs. A lot of loud crunching was going on.

Picking up the basket, she passed it to Joshua sitting on one side of her.

"Oh, no, thank you," Joshua said. "I haven't finished my first one yet. But it's very
gut."

"It's very awful," she disagreed, smiling wryly. "Put it back in the basket, please, then pass it along so everyone else can do the same."

Joshua looked to his father, and only when he got his nod did he put his biscuit back into the basket. Then he passed it along as Jenny had requested. When the basket was handed to her, she went to the door, opened it, and threw the biscuits out.

"Maybe there's some wild animal desperate enough to eat them," she told them as she shut the door.

"With strong teeth," Joshua said.

"Joshua!" Matthew admonished.

Laughing, Jenny patted Matthew's shoulder as she walked past him. "It's okay; it's true."

"It's not easy to learn to cook," Hannah put in.

"She'd know, she's still learning," Matthew told Jenny. "Ouch! You kicked me!"

Hannah looked at him with an innocent expression. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"
Aenti
Hannah kicked
Daedi
under the table!" Mary said with a giggle.

Jenny grinned as she got out the loaf of bread her grandmother had baked that morning. Knowing how well prepared the older woman was, another loaf was undoubtedly tucked away in the freezer for when they needed it. She sliced the bread and brought it to the table.

"This is safe.
Grossmudder
baked it, not me."

"Jenny, the ham is delicious," Hannah told her. "I love the glaze on top."

"You've probably eaten it many times like this," Jenny said."It's Grandmother's recipe."

Phoebe smiled and took another bite. "You did a good job with it, Jenny."

Annie speared a piece of potato with her fork and the fork stuck straight up in it. She jiggled the utensil and laughed when it bobbed but didn't fall over.

Jenny took a bite of the potatoes and had to take a drink of water to get the gooey lump down. She looked over and saw Matthew eating it heartily. Well, perhaps if you were really hungry from a day's hard chores it wasn't so bad.

The canned tomatoes and the bread went fast. Both were her grandmother's contributions. But the ham was delicious, even if it had a slight smoky taste and was a bit dry.

Time for dessert. As Jenny pulled it out of the oven, she saw that the top was golden brown. She prayed that it would be good. Then she thought: Ice cream. Put some ice cream on top. Nearly everything was better with ice cream.

The apples could have benefited from being baked just a little bit more,
she thought, tasting the crisp. They were . . . what was that phrase people used to describe pasta that was still just a little firm to the bite?
Al dente.
That was it. The apples were
al dente.
Well, that might have been a good term with pasta, but it wasn't exactly what apples should be. Still, they weren't bad. To her relief, everyone was scraping their bowls.

Matthew wiped his mouth with his napkin and set it down beside his plate. "It was very
gut,
Jenny."

Relieved, she beamed. "Coffee?"

Without being asked, the children began clearing the table.

"I have some games set out for you to play in the other room," Phoebe told the children.

"Shouldn't we do the dishes first?" Mary asked.

Jenny shook her head and smiled. "You go have fun. We'll do them later."

The adults enjoyed coffee while the children laughed and bickered good-naturedly over the games in the living room.

"When are you leaving for New York City?" asked Hannah.

Jenny saw Matthew's frown. "Day after tomorrow," she said, pushing the cream and sugar toward him.

"I'll drive you to the train station if you like," he told her.

"Thanks, but David said they're sending a car."

Disappointed, Matthew nodded and stared into his coffee for a long moment.

When he glanced up, it was to look at Phoebe with a worried expression. "Phoebe, I noticed that some of the church elders were here. I've been worried about you ever since."

Phoebe looked at Jenny, then Matthew. "You need to talk to Jenny about that."

She stood and spoke to Hannah. "Come look at the quilt I'm making for Fannie Mae's new baby. You can bring your coffee."

As they left, Hannah glanced over her shoulder at her brother and her expression matched his.

Jenny sighed. "Josiah saw David here last week and was concerned that I came here to call media attention to your community."

"That's ridiculous." He thought about it for a moment. "And I'm surprised that he got Isaac and Benjamin to agree with him."

"I don't think he did," Jenny said, remembering the way they had asked her questions and seemed more open-minded. She told him what Phoebe had suggested she do to allay their fears, described the meeting, and finished by telling him that while Josiah had left his, the other two men had taken the materials she'd given them.

"Let's hope that's the end of that."

Jenny bit her lip. "There was something else that Josiah was concerned about, Matthew. He asked me about our relationship. You remember he frowned at us when he saw us on the porch that Sunday. He thought you shouldn't have been touching my face—he felt it was inappropriate."

"What did you say?"

"That you're my friend. That it was a gesture of concern, not flirting. And that whether you are a friend or something more is between us."

"He should have come to me," Matthew said, frowning. "I can understand he might have concerns—"

"Matthew!" she cried, shocked.

"I'm not saying he
should
have concerns, just that I understand he might be concerned," he said firmly. "I know you so I know that you are not a woman who would ever do anything to hurt the community. Josiah does not know this."

Leaning back in his chair, he sighed. "Josiah is elderly. He has talked about how our children are being seduced by the
Englisch
way of life."

"He doesn't need to look to me as a corrupter of your youth.. . . Or of you."

Annie came in just then and tugged on Jenny's hand. "Can I go with you?"

"With me?" Jenny stared at the child. "Where?"

"Wherwe you awre going. To the New City."

Helplessly, Jenny looked at Matthew, then back at Annie."No, sweetie, I can't take you. But I'll only be gone a few days."

Tears welled up in the little girl's eyes.

"Annie?" Matthew held out his arms. "Come, child, what's wrong?"

"Mommy gone. Jenny gone." Annie pressed her cheek against her father's chest and wept.

Seeing the little girl in such distress had Jenny fighting tears herself. She pressed her fingers against her trembling lips.

"Annie, calm down. Jenny is just going to go do some work. She'll return." He drew her back so that she would look at him."But Jenny doesn't live here, Annie. She's been visiting Phoebe. One day she will have to go back home for good."

"No,
Daedi."

"Yes, Annie."

"But I wove Jenny."

Matthew looked at Jenny, and she saw such emotion in his eyes. "I know. I know." He swallowed and broke the eye contact."Annie, it's time for us to go home. You're tired, and it's bedtime."

When she started to protest, he shook his head. "Annie, if Jenny has time tomorrow, I will let you and Mary and Joshua come over to see her so you can say good-bye. But there is to be no making Jenny feel bad about leaving, do you understand?"

Annie wiped her eyes with her hands. When she went to swipe her runny nose with one, Matthew quickly drew his pocket handkerchief and took care of that.

"Now, we must do the dishes and then we have to go, all right?"

Jenny shook her head. "No, I'll do them. You get the children home to bed."

He regarded her gravely. "Are you sure?"

When she nodded, he set Annie down and told her to go get her brother and sister.

She scampered off.

"And get
Aenti
Hannah," Matthew called after her.

Matthew picked up the coffee cups and carried them to the sink as the children returned with Hannah.

"
Daedi,
we must wash the dishes," Mary said.

Jenny touched her head. "I can do them. Annie is tired, and you children need to get to bed. Thank you for coming."

"Thank you for having us," Hannah said. "We had a wonderful time."

Without being prompted, the children nodded and thanked Jenny politely.

Jenny stood at the door, watching them leave. When she turned, she saw her grandmother watching her. Was it her imagination, or did Phoebe wear an expression of sadness?

"What is it?"

"They love you."

"I love the children, too."

"They are not the only ones who love you," she said obliquely.

Jenny stared at her grandmother. "What?"

"I'm feeling tired," Phoebe said. "Would you mind if I didn't help you with the dishes?"

"Of course not. Are you all right?"

"Yes. Just tired." She hugged Jenny and left the room.

Jenny stared after her.

Phoebe didn't mean that Matthew loved her, did she?