Levi’s fork sliced through the crumbly topping and the gooey layer of molasses pudding. He hesitated before he put the bite of pie into his mouth, teasing Martha with his delay. The girl wiggled in her seat, her eyes glowing as she watched him. He took the triangle off his fork and chewed slowly, tasting the blend of molasses and the crumb topping.
“Mmm.” He closed his eyes and nodded. “Mmm, ja this is perfect. Even better than last week.” He opened his eyes to see Martha’s face blushing.
“Dat, it’s really good?”
“Martha, this is the best shoofly pie I’ve ever had.”
Martha turned to Ruth Mummert with a grin. “Then I guess we can serve everyone else, if Dat likes it.”
David reached for the pie plate. “I won’t complain if Martha turns out to be a pie baker. I could eat pie for every meal.”
“It was Ruthy’s recipe,” Martha said, her ears turning red at the praise. “She’s the one who taught me.”
“And Martha is an excellent student.” Ruth started clearing the supper dishes as the pie was passed. “She will be a wonderful-gut baker.”
Levi took another bite and savored the sweetness. Pie was the best end to a meal. Pie and coffee, he amended as he sipped the fresh cup Ruth put in front of him. He took his time to finish his dessert, listening to the conversations between the children. The girls discussed which kind of pie Martha should try next, while the big boys argued about who had won the game that afternoon. He couldn’t hear what the little boys at the end of the table were talking about, but they were deep in conversation.
He took the last bite of pie as the girls rose to wash the dishes. Ja, with pie for supper life was gut. He had done a wonderful-gut thing when he brought Ruth Mummert here. If she could teach Martha to make pie, she could teach his girls everything else they needed to know. There would never be a reason to send any of his children away.
“Do you want some more coffee?” Ruth asked, appearing at his elbow with the coffeepot in hand.
“Ne, it will only keep me awake.”
“It would me, too.”
Levi let her take his empty plate and swallowed the last of his coffee. “Boys, you can start on your studying. Martha and the twins will join you when the dishes are done.”
“Dat,” said Jesse, “I need help with my arithmetic. I got all the problems wrong today.”
“I’ll help you. Bring your book in here.”
When Jesse brought his book, he opened the page and showed Levi where he was having difficulty. “It’s here, Dat. I added one plus one, but Miss Shrock said the answer was eleven, not two.”
Levi smiled. Ja, it was the same with all his children when they encountered adding ten and one for the first time. “Go in my bedroom and get a dime and the pennies off my dresser.”
Jesse brought them and Levi showed him how ten pennies turn into a dime. “Now, if I add one penny and one dime, what do I get?”
“Eleven cents.”
“Ja, gut. Now look at your arithmetic. If you add ten and one, what do you get?”
“Eleven?”
“Ja, that’s it. Now try the next one.”
While Jesse worked on his arithmetic problems, the girls joined them at the table, and Levi’s eyes strayed to Ruth. She was setting the sponge for tomorrow’s bread, her movements quick and practiced.
As he watched her, the memory of her tall, graceful form in the flowing white gown hit him with full force. How could he put it out of his mind? Or did he even want to? Her golden hair gleaming under her heart-shaped kapp, her efficient hands, his children content and well-fed, the worry lines disappearing from Waneta’s face... Ja, he had done right when he brought Ruth Mummert here.
“Dat, is this right?”
Jesse’s question brought him back to the present. As he looked over Jesse’s arithmetic paper, the reality of what he had been thinking hit him square in the jaw. Ruth Mummert wasn’t much older than his Waneta. A grown woman, ja, but still a young woman. A beautiful young woman. How long would she be working for him? The first Singing she attended, she’d have a flock of young men buzzing around her.
He glanced back at Ruth, noting how quickly she had brought the kitchen to order after feeding all twelve of them. After less than a week, she had settled into the role of housekeeper very easily. Not just housekeeper, he amended as he surveyed the row of heads around the table, his scholars busy with their evening studies. She was taking his daughters under her wing like an older sister.
Ruth took off her apron, and after hanging it on the hook next to the sink, came over to look at Nellie’s homework. Levi watched Nellie’s face light up when Ruth whispered in her ear and gave her shoulders a hug. He swallowed the lump rising in his throat.
Ne, not an older sister. More like an aunt or...
Ruth turned to Nancy and laid her hand on the girl’s shoulder as she leaned down to catch Nancy’s explanation of her homework.
Ne, not even an aunt. A mother. The mother he had been hoping to find for his children.
But wasn’t she too young to take on such a responsibility?
Levi turned back to Jesse’s paper as Ruth left the girls and walked toward him.
“I’ll say good-night now, Levi Zook, unless you have anything else you need me to do before morning.”
Levi glanced up at her, his mouth dry. Would his thoughts show on his face?
“Ne, denki.” He cleared his throat to stop the adolescent squeak that threatened to escape. “That was a fine meal.”
She blushed and lowered her eyes at his praise. “Your daughters were a wonderful-gut help. Good night.”
The kitchen table filled with children was silent as she closed the door to the Dawdi Haus.
“Dat,” Sam said, standing in the door of the front room with a drawing tablet in his hand, “why didn’t she stay with us?”
“Ruth works hard. She probably wanted to rest or write letters before she went to bed.”
Nellie, his quiet Nellie, said, “She could have stayed and written her letters here.”
“Tomorrow we’ll ask her to stay.”
But would she? Levi had the sudden urge to follow her, to ask her to stay tonight. But he sat, the final snick of the Dawdi Haus door latch echoing above the children’s voices.
* * *
Ruthy leaned back against the kitchen door before heading down the short hall to the Dawdi Haus. The kitchen had been cozy and warm, and the lantern hung over the table had enclosed them all within its light. The scholars bent to their studies, Waneta copying recipes, Elias and Nathan sharing sections of The Budget—they were a family, but not her family. From the table-flat farmland outside the window, to the stark stiffness of the girls’ kapps, to the flat tones of their words, every moment she spent with Levi Zook’s family showed her just how far from home she really was.
But this is where God wanted her to be, wasn’t it? And she was needed here. Even after this short time, she could see how much this family needed her help, especially the girls and little, lonely Sam. Several times during the day he would come to her and she would take quick breaks from her work to sit down and hold him on her lap while he chatted with her or showed her his drawings. His little-boy body had molded into hers, showing her how he missed the comfort of a mother’s arms.
They