Mother For His Children, A (5 page)

Chapter Five

L
evi recognized Eliza's sleigh as soon as she turned the corner half a mile away. Her feisty horse, Ginger, had a flashy step that matched Eliza's own personality. She never did anything partway.

He poured the bucket of slop he was carrying into the pig's trough and then went back out to the yard to wait for her. She slowed Ginger for the turn into the farm lane, but then the horse picked up speed again before he reached the barn. Levi caught the reins as the horse neared the buggy shed. How could he convince Eliza this horse was too much for her? Levi struggled to hold the horse still. He had never been able to convince his older sister of anything.

Eliza climbed down from the sleigh and looked him up and down. “Well, Levi, I guess you aren't starving yet. Waneta must be doing a good job feeding you.”

“
Ja,
Waneta's doing a fine job.”

His sister sniffed, looking from the barn to the house. “You're all well? The whole family?”

“
Ja,
Eliza. We're all well. And you?” Levi stroked Ginger's neck. What was Eliza doing here? It was an eight-mile drive from her home near Middlebury, and it wasn't like her to drive that far on a Thursday just to see if all the children were healthy.

“I'm well enough, considering. It isn't easy living alone, you know.”

He didn't know. He had never lived alone.

“I'll take care of Ginger if you want to go on in the house. I'm sure there's still coffee on the stove.”

Eliza moved closer to him, stepping around a clump of snow. “I heard you picked up a woman at the Shipshewana station last week.”

Levi sighed. Here it was. He had been wondering how to tell Eliza about his new housekeeper, but he should have known word would get to her.

“
Ja,
her name is Ruth Mummert. She's our housekeeper.”

“A housekeeper? You're spending good money on a housekeeper when you know very well I had everything arranged for you?”

That was just the problem. She had everything arranged, whether he liked it or not.

“Eliza, I want to keep my family together.”

“Humph.”

Ginger moved restlessly, reminding Levi the horse needed attending to after the long drive.

“Why don't you go on in the house and meet Ruth? She's been a
wonderful-gut
help to us already, and I think you'll like her.”

Eliza turned her bulk toward the house, but then looked at Levi. “I'll meet her, but I can't promise I'll like her. It seems like backward thinking to bring an outsider into your home while I'm here.”

Levi watched Eliza pick her way across the snowy barnyard to the house. At least Waneta was there to provide a buffer between Ruth and his sister. He started unhitching Ginger.

He'd better get inside as soon as he could.

* * *

“How many jars of chowchow?”

Waneta counted, bending down to see into the back recesses of the cellar shelves. “Twenty-four, and then there are ten jars of pickled cauliflower.”

Ruthy wrote the numbers down and glanced over the list. Green beans, navy beans, tomatoes, vegetable soup, plenty of pickled vegetables... “Is there any corn?”

Waneta searched through the jars. “
Ne,
no corn left.”

“What about fruit?”

Waneta moved to the next shelf. “Lots of prune plums.”

As she started counting, Sam clattered down the wooden steps.

“'Neta! Aunt Eliza's here.”

“
Ach, ne,
not today!” Waneta stood so quickly her head bumped against the shelf above her. “Ruthy, is my
kapp
straight?” She dusted off her skirt and retied her apron.

“You look fine. Why don't I finish counting the fruit while you go up to greet your auntie.”

Waneta laid her hand on Ruthy's arm, her voice an urgent whisper. “Don't make me face her alone!”

“You aren't afraid of her, are you?”

Waneta's gaze went to the ceiling as they both heard heavy footsteps in the kitchen above them. “I can never do anything right for her. I know she doesn't like me.”

“I understand. I have an auntie like that, too.” Ruthy smiled at Waneta. “Come, we'll face her together.”

Waneta led the way up the bare wooden steps, glancing back once to make sure Ruthy was following her.

“Go on, I'm right behind you.”

Ruthy smiled at Waneta's back. She remembered hating to face her overbearing Aunt Trudy when she was a young teenager, so Waneta's reaction didn't surprise her. Aunts could be very particular about a girl's behavior.

The woman waiting for them in the kitchen didn't look anything like thin, pinched Aunt Trudy. Eliza stood in the middle of the floor, still wearing her woolen shawl and black bonnet, leaning heavily on a gnarled cane. Her expression was the same as Aunt Trudy's, though, as she surveyed the spotless kitchen shelf. If she were looking for a fault with Ruthy's housekeeping, she certainly wouldn't find it in the kitchen.

“Aunt Eliza, you should sit down. Would you like some coffee?” Waneta hurried to the stove and moved the coffeepot to the front.

Eliza's cane thumped as the woman turned to inspect Ruthy.

“So you're the housekeeper my brother hired.” Eliza's gaze took in everything from Ruthy's heart-shaped
kapp
to her shoes, dusty from the cellar.

“
Ja,
I'm Ruth Mummert.”

“You're from Lancaster County?”

“Ja.”
Ruthy smiled. Eliza was gruff, but didn't seem to be as scary as Waneta acted. Sam had disappeared into the front room.

“I once met a Mummert from Lancaster County.” Eliza let Ruthy take her shawl and untied her bonnet.

“You did? I wonder if they could be related to us.”

“I hope not.” Eliza sniffed and thumped toward the rocking chair in the corner. “They were
Englisch.
” She turned to Ruthy again, narrowing her eyes as she studied her. “You don't have
Englisch
relatives, do you?”

Before Ruthy could think how to answer this, Eliza sank into the rocking chair with a groan.

“Here's your coffee, Aunt Eliza.” Waneta handed the cup to her aunt. “And here's the footstool.” She brought the small stool from its place next to the wall.

As Ruthy poured herself a cup of coffee, she watched Eliza lift her left foot onto the stool with one hand and lean back in the chair, her lips pinched together. Raising the cup to her mouth, she blew on the hot liquid before taking a sip.

“Waneta,” Ruthy said, sitting on the bench with her back to the table, “will you get a plate of cookies?” She took a sip of her own coffee, and watched Eliza's face relax as her body eased into the chair. The older woman appeared to be in much pain, but no complaints escaped, except for her gruff demeanor.

“You need to know up front that I don't approve of what my brother's done.” Eliza took a cookie from the plate Waneta set on the small table next to her. “We could get along just fine without the expense of hiring someone from outside.”

Ruthy kept a smile on her face as Eliza paused to take a bite of her cookie. Did the woman have any idea the hurt her words caused? Without a family of her own, Ruthy would always be an outsider.

“I told him I would take the little girls to live with me.” Eliza spoke around her cookie, unaware of the crumbs that fell as she gestured. “Those two will never learn to be good wives, growing up without a mother as they are.”

A small sound escaped from Waneta, who was sitting next to Ruthy on the bench. Ruthy glanced at her, but the girl's head was down, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“I don't think Levi Zook wants his girls to live away from him. Isn't your house quite far?”

Eliza grunted and shifted her bulk in the chair. “Not so much. It's only eight miles, and that's close enough to visit several times a year.”

Waneta jumped up from the bench and went through the doorway to the front room. Ruthy heard her feet pounding on the stairway as she ran to her room and slammed the door behind her.

“Now, what's wrong with her?” Eliza gazed through the doorway where Waneta had vanished.

“I don't think she wants her sisters to live that far away.” Ruthy took another sip from her coffee, and then set the cup on the table behind her. Irritation at this woman's callous behavior rose with each moment, and she didn't want her shaky hand to betray her feelings.

“Humph.” Eliza took a bite of her cookie and inspected it as she chewed. “There's nothing wrong with making sure those little girls have all the advantages a mother can give them.”

Ruthy clenched her hands together on her lap. “I'm sure Levi Zook has considered what his daughters need.” She lifted her chin, looking at Eliza. She was beginning to understand why Levi was so anxious for her to stay here. “This family suffered a loss when their mother passed on, and it wouldn't help anyone to separate them now.”

Eliza deflated in her chair, the corners of her mouth quivering. “
Ach,
you're right. I hadn't thought of that.” With the bluster gone, Eliza was just a lonely old woman.

“Would you like more coffee?” Ruthy rose and went to the stove. Eliza wouldn't want a stranger to be a witness to her emotions.

“Ja, denki.”
Eliza sniffed, and the chair creaked as she shifted. By the time Ruthy refilled the two cups, Eliza was back to her old self. “You seem like a young thing to be taking on a job like this.”

“Not so young. I'll be twenty-four this spring.”

“Twenty-four? Why aren't you married?”

Ruthy flinched at Eliza's blunt words, but the other woman took another cookie from the plate and tackled it with relish. If she hadn't seen the vulnerable crack in Levi's sister a few moments ago, she might have run out of the room the same way Waneta had. But the downturned corners of Eliza's mouth revealed more than a demanding aunt who was used to riding roughshod over everyone around her. Something else made her very unhappy.

Ruthy considered this as she took another sip of her coffee. Eliza may be a lonely old woman, but that gave her no excuse to be cruel to her brother. Eliza wasn't going to bully this family while Ruthy was around.

“If I wasn't a
maidle,
I wouldn't be able to help this family, would I?”

Eliza raised her chin and regarded Ruthy through narrowed eyes, but Ruthy pressed on.

“If I wasn't around, your brother would need you to help,
ja?
Is that why you came today? To see if you could get me to run back to Lancaster County?”

The other woman's eyes narrowed further, and then a sudden smile broke over her face.

“You've got spunk. I like that. Maybe you will work out here.”

Ruthy nearly dropped her cookie. Instead she brushed nonexistent crumbs off her lap. What was going on? A chuckle from the other woman made her look up.

“My dear girl, I'm not nearly as grumpy as everyone thinks I am.” She tapped her knee with one hand. “Arthritis keeps me from getting around as I like, and sometimes the pain is unbearable. I try not to complain, but I know I can be short-tempered. I also know I stick my nose in where it doesn't belong at times, but I love my brother. He has a long row to hoe in front of him, and I was just trying to help.”

Pieces fell together like a quilt top as Eliza paused to take a sip of coffee. Levi's crafty sister used her cranky attitude to get her own way, just as Laurette used her pretty face. Was this nothing more than concern for her brother and his family?

“Don't think I'm soft, though.” Eliza's sharp eyes peered at Ruthy over the rim of the cup. “Levi's my little brother, and I'll take care of him just as I always have.” She lowered the coffee cup to her lap and regarded Ruthy, her eyes narrowing. “You are much too young and pretty for this job, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

Eliza's head tilted toward her. “We are to avoid the appearance of evil, but here you are, living in this house with a single man...”

Ruthy felt a cold lump turn in her stomach. “But I live in the
Dawdi Haus.
Surely that can't be construed into anything wrong.”

“You know how people can talk, dear, and it only takes one comment to start rumors flying.”

Ruthy concentrated on brushing a crumb off her knee as Eliza took another sip of her coffee. The woman was right. Even if she and Levi Zook avoided each other, her presence in this home could appear improper to anyone in the community. But what could she do?

As the other woman finished off her cookie, Ruthy caught a hint of a smile on Eliza's face, and the cold lump of dread turned to seething irritation. What a wily fox she was! Her attempt to bully hadn't worked, so she had changed tactics and had almost succeeded. Levi's sister didn't know her at all.
Daed
had always said she was stubborn as a mule, and she would keep her heels dug in. Levi Zook had hired her to be his housekeeper, and that's what she would be as long as he wanted her to stay.

Thumps and stamps from the porch told her Levi was coming in, so Ruthy rose to refill the plate of cookies and pour his coffee. How easily was he swayed by his sister?

* * *

Levi took a deep breath, his hand on the kitchen doorknob. He had put off facing Eliza for as long as he could, but now worry set in. Had she already succeeded in running off Ruth? Would he be searching for another housekeeper before the day was out?

Pushing the door open, he sought Ruth's face first. She glanced at him from the stove, where she was pouring a cup of coffee, her face pinched. At least Eliza hadn't reduced her to tears.

His sister, on the other hand, was settled into the rocking chair like a toad that had just snagged a fat moth. Whatever they had been talking about, it looked like he had come in just in time.