Chapter Four
Edith stood beside her bed gazing down at the twins in awe. So small they were, and so sweet—like little angels—now that they’d eaten and fallen asleep. She’d arranged them in large cardboard boxes padded with towels, and finding them beds and more clothing was her first priority. Will’s box of supplies had included a very short stack of cloth diapers, half a dozen onesies, a blanket apiece, a half-used canister of powdered formula, and a few baby bottles—not much, considering she had two babies to look after. Molly had probably been too ill to sew for them, and not able to nurse them because of her cancer.
What a heartache that must’ve been for Molly—and for Will as he watched her weaken and die.
Edith sighed. So much about Will’s situation and these children was a sorrowful mystery.
I’m watching out for your best interests, Daughter. You entered into this agreement without considering the long-term consequences.
Edith frowned as her father’s words taunted her. Dat was right about her tendency to nurture hopeless souls and underdogs, but wasn’t that what the Bible urged Christians to do?
What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
The verse from Micah had been one of the earliest Edith had committed to memory—the watchword of her faith. Even as a child she’d rescued little birds that had fallen from their nests and had bottle-fed baby rabbits and deer after their mothers had been hit in the road.
Edith sighed. What future would these poor motherless children face if she didn’t care for them? She had to find a way around Dat’s refusal to keep them in the house . . . in her life. Already her heart swelled with love as she gazed at Leroy and Louisa.
The clatter of footsteps downstairs alerted her to her sisters’ arrival, and she hurried down the hallway. “Shh!” Edith insisted as she leaned over the stairway railing. “I just got the babies to sleep!”
Loretta and Rosalyn’s faces were alight with news—and secrets—when they looked up at her. “Where’s Dat?” Loretta asked in a loud whisper.
Edith pointed downward, indicating the workshop in the basement.
“
Gut
—you’ll never guess what’s happened!” her middle sister continued as the two girls removed their shoes.
“
Jah
, Andy from down the road—the nurse fellow who runs the clinic—had to leave the wedding feast to fetch some guy Bishop Tom’s wife found on the roadside,” Rosalyn went on after she and Loretta had tiptoed up the stairs in their stocking feet. “Nobody knows why he’s here—”
“But Jerusalem Gingerich was telling everyone he was thrown from the biggest black horse she’s ever seen—”
Edith’s breath caught as she followed her sisters into their room.
“—and then we saw him getting out of Andy’s clinic wagon on our way home,” Rosalyn went on in a low voice. “Luke Hooley was telling the fellow he could stay at their place until he’s recovered enough to travel.”
“Oh, Asa,” Edith whimpered before she could stop herself.
Her sisters’ eyebrows rose. “How do
you
know him, Edith?” Loretta demanded playfully. “We just caught enough of a glimpse to see that he was tall, dark, and—”
“Mighty handsome,” Rosalyn finished.
Edith’s throat had gotten so tight she couldn’t get the words out. Her heart was pounding so loudly she could hardly hear herself speak. “That’s the man who was arguing with Will about the babies. The one who asked me to take care of them until he came back.”
Loretta’s playful expression sobered as she crossed her arms. “And you’re already head-over-heels for him, ain’t so?” she demanded. “Edith, we don’t know this man from Adam. What if he recovers enough to go home and he doesn’t
intend
to come back?”
“He looks to be somewhat older than we are, so he’s surely got a home and a job somewhere else—and maybe a wife,” Rosalyn pointed out quietly. “What we don’t know about him—”
“What we don’t know can’t hurt us, because those babies aren’t staying here.”
The three sisters turned to find their father in the doorway, sternly shaking his head. Edith’s face went hot. How had Dat known to come upstairs, to catch them in this whispered conversation? She knew better than to ask, or to protest his ultimatum.
Dat cleared his throat. “If this man was thrown from his horse after a falling-out with Will Gingerich, why do I suspect Will was responsible for the accident?” he asked in a knowing voice. “And if this man is associated with Will and his deceased wife, in a triangle of sin and deceit, nothing
gut
can possibly come of getting further involved in this dubious situation.”
Edith knew better, because she’d watched Will leave town ahead of Asa. But she and her sisters remained silent, eyes upon their father.
“This is why we’re returning the babies to Will, before you girls get attached to them,” Dat went on firmly. “And this is why you’re all forbidden to have any further contact with Will or the man he apparently stranded on the roadside. I can see his appearance has already affected the three of you.”
Edith’s cheeks prickled with heat, and she looked down at the floor. She’d never been able to tell even the tiniest fib, and Dat had always been able to anticipate what his three daughters were cooking up before they got away with much. She didn’t protest her father’s ultimatum—but she didn’t agree to it, either.
“Now that you’re home from the wedding and those babies have stopped howling, maybe we could have some supper,” Dat suggested.
Loretta’s hand fluttered to her stomach. “I’m still so stuffed with pulled pork and baked beans—”
“Not to mention those two pieces of pie and the wedding cake you ate,” Rosalyn added with a chuckle.
Dat’s lips twitched. “Some of us haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
Edith stifled a sigh. She wasn’t hungry, either, but at least Dat was more interested in eating than returning the twins to Will right away. “I’ll fix us something—maybe slice and fry those leftover baked potatoes and some bacon.”
“I’ll gather some fresh eggs to go with those,” Loretta chimed in.
“We’ll be downstairs as soon as we’ve changed out of our church clothes,” Rosalyn said, gazing intently at their father.
After a moment Dat took the hint and left so the older girls could get dressed. Rosalyn and Loretta carefully hung up their best dresses and grabbed the clothes they’d worn before the wedding, intent on keeping their father pacified.
“Hoo-boy, he’s wound up about those babies,” Loretta whispered.
“If Dat thinks Will’s such a bad apple, why does he insist on taking the twins back to him?” Rosalyn asked with a shake of her head. “I know you’ve gotten yourself—and the rest of us—into a bit of a bind here, Edith, but I’d have done the same thing as you. It’s not the babies’ fault that they need care neither one of those men can give them.”
Edith flashed her eldest sister a grateful smile and went downstairs to start supper. Neither Loretta nor Rosalyn ate much, and Edith was too lost in her swirling thoughts to do more than pick at her meal. Dat, however, took his time over two platefuls of scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries, and bread with butter. Then, after offering them some, he polished off the two slices of cherry pie and the large slab of wedding cake her sisters had brought home.
“I’ve been thinking about a suggestion Nora Hooley made,” he said as he pushed back from the table. “She wants to display some of my clocks in her store. It’s a sure thing that potential buyers would see them better there than in my workshop.”
Loretta snatched at this thread of conversation like a hen snagging a worm. “Simple Gifts is such a wonderful shop,” she replied. “When I was in there last week, Nora was hoping Edith would take in some of her baskets—”
“And your rugs would be just the thing to consign there, too, Loretta!” Rosalyn put in. “Nora sells so many pretty linens and household things. I was thinking to buy a few to use here in the kitchen and—”
“The rugs and curtains your mother made are just fine.” Dat focused intently on Rosalyn. “You know how it goes, Daughter. Once you start shopping at Nora’s, a lot of money will slip through your fingers before you realize it.”
Rosalyn’s crestfallen expression tugged at Edith’s heartstrings. The cotton curtains were faded from the sun, and the woven rag rugs were patched on the back, so threadbare the girls avoided standing on them when they were washing dishes or cooking at the stove. When they’d moved to Willow Ridge, she and her sisters had hoped Dat might be able to part with some of the items their mother had made, but he seemed determined to keep Mamm’s memory alive by clinging to every little thing associated with her—even though those items were falling apart.
The kitchen fell silent, so stuffy Edith longed to open a window—except Dat had always insisted that no one else rise from the table until he did. He didn’t like to feel rushed by women clearing away the dishes and removing leftover food.
Finally, he stood up. “After this afternoon’s work, I realize how short on replacement parts I am, so I’ll be leaving early tomorrow,” he remarked. “I like it that the trip to Kansas City is a lot shorter from here than it was from Roseville.”
Edith and her sisters nodded mutely.
“Make something substantial for breakfast so I won’t have to buy lunch along the way,” Dat continued. “I’ll let my new driver find his own meal while I’m at the clock-repair store. Every little bit helps when it comes to economizing. Your mother stretched a dollar farther than anyone I’ve ever known.”
When he left the kitchen, Edith and her sisters sprang from their chairs. Rosalyn ran dishwater while Loretta scraped plates and Edith gathered the silverware and glasses. “I need to buy another canister of formula powder,” she murmured. “Dat will raise a ruckus if he sees the price sticker on the can Will left, so I’ll pay for it out of our stash.
Please
don’t tell him I’m buying it, or he’ll think we intend to defy him and keep the babies longer. But what else can I do? We don’t have enough to feed them through tomorrow.”
Rosalyn glanced out the kitchen window. “Folks are still over at the Grill N Skillet for the wedding, so Zook’s Market’s not open, most likely.”
“
Jah,
the stores are all closed for the day,” Loretta reminded Edith. “The Witmers have closed the Grill N Skillet for its supper shift so folks can stay at the wedding party as long as they want to. Lydia and Katie Zook plan to help with the cleanup, too.”
“Hmm.” Edith stood between her sisters, assessing the wedding guests who sat clustered in lawn chairs behind the café. “Maybe if I ask Preacher Henry nicely, he’ll let me into his store just long enough to . . . or maybe I’ll have to go when they first open in the morning.”
“Go now, while Dat’s downstairs working,” Loretta suggested in a low voice.
“We’ll keep the babies quiet for you,” Rosalyn chimed in under her breath. “I haven’t gotten a
gut
look at them yet.”
“Me neither. What’re their names?”
Edith gratefully grasped her sisters’ shoulders. “
Denki
so much—I won’t be long,” she promised. “Leroy and Louisa are such sweet little things. You can’t help but love them.”
Before any more time slipped away, Edith grabbed a couple of twenty-dollar bills from the plastic coffee canister where they kept the money from selling their cage-free eggs to the Hooleys’ mill store—a sideline Dat’s cousin Reuben had left behind when he’d returned to Roseville. Her pulse pounded as she hurried across the lot behind their house and then strode past the Brennemans’ cabinetmaking shop, toward the back door of the café.
As she’d hoped, Lydia Zook was helping in the kitchen and was sympathetic to Edith’s need for formula. As the storekeeper’s wife walked her down the road to the white market with the blue metal roof, Edith answered her questions about the babies with what little information she had. It seemed Asa Detweiler was all the talk among the curious wedding guests, but Luke Hooley and his aunts had learned very few details about the man they’d rescued from the roadside.
Once inside the store, Lydia showed Edith to the baby supplies. Plain women didn’t use a lot of formula mix, so Edith chose one of the three cans on the shelf and quickly paid for it. “
Denki
so much for helping me out,” she said as they left the market.
“Come back tomorrow afternoon,” Mrs. Zook suggested. “I’ll ask the local gals to bring whatever baby things they can spare to the store for you. You’re a saint for taking on a dead mother’s twins.”
“That would be such a help,” Edith murmured. “I can’t thank you enough.”
As she headed down the road with her sack, Edith felt a surge of gratitude for the folks in this town. Tomorrow was Friday and Dat was going to Kansas City—he’d be gone until evening—so she hoped she’d be caring for the babies at least another day . . . and maybe this outpouring of sentiment and assistance from the neighbors would soften her father’s heart. Or maybe, if they heard he was returning the twins to a home where they wouldn’t be properly cared for, Lydia and the other women would express their disapproval and change Dat’s mind. There had to be a way. . . .
Edith blinked. She’d been so lost in thought that she’d headed the wrong way down the county road—toward Nora and Luke’s house on the hill instead of her own home.
Your feet knew where your heart wanted to go. But you can’t stay long. Folks will talk
—
and your sisters are babysitting.
Before she lost her nerve, Edith hurried up the driveway toward the attractive two-story house where she’d heard Asa was staying.
* * *
After taking a hot shower to soothe his aching body, Asa put on one of Luke Hooley’s plain green shirts and then pulled on a pair of his trousers. He and Luke were nearly the same size, and Asa was grateful that his host had loaned him some clean clothes. Despite a killer headache, he chuckled at the assortment of bold prints hanging in the closet—and at the fact that some of Luke’s shirts and Nora’s dresses matched. Not every Mennonite husband would be pleased that his woman had sewn such striking garments for him, but Asa suspected Hooley was too enamored of his attractive redheaded wife to fuss about it.