by Jo Ann Brown
She must remember that when the interrupted tour of the bakery resumed. It’d been postponed for a few days because of extra work Caleb had at his farm, so Annie had used the time to figure out some ways to point out, while he showed her around his bakery, Leanna’s attributes.
Working to find joy and love for her sister was the best way to make herself happy, too. She had to believe that.
If only Caleb’s face didn’t keep wafting through her mind along with the sound of his voice when he spoke of his bakery. She inserted Leanna into the image each time his face reappeared. Once she became accustomed to thinking of Caleb and Leanna as a unit, Annie would be able to squash her attraction to him.
That was how it worked, ain’t so?
Pushing aside her thoughts as well as her blankets when Joey began to make soft sounds again, Annie rose and went to where the boppli was sitting up in the deep drawer. He regarded her, wide-eyed. She doubted he understood when she leaned close to him and put her finger to her lips. When he copied her motion and gave her a grin revealing his four tiny teeth, she hurried to dress.
Annie twisted her hair into place and secured it with the ease of a lifetime of practice and set her kapp on top of it. Joey continued to make cheerful sounds, each one making her move faster so Becky Sue could sleep.
Edging around the other bed, Annie scooped the boppli up. He needed to be changed, so before leaving the room, she grabbed clean clothes from the basket delivered by her sister-in-law. Annie closed the door behind them.
The little boy tugged at Annie’s kapp strings as she carried him downstairs. Getting a towel from the bathroom, she spread it on the floor. She changed him and tossed the dirty clothes into the washer. Once breakfast was over, she’d do laundry for him and Becky Sue.
She grimaced as she thought of hanging clothes out on another freezing morning, but Becky Sue was too tall for any clothing in the house.
She was surprised when Joey began to pull himself on his belly across the floor. At his age, he should be crawling on hands and knees. Instead, he seemed content to belly crawl to where she’d left his blue teddy bear.
When the door opened and her brothers entered, Annie had Joey on her lap and was feeding him cereal and pieces of toast.
Lyndon’s eyes lit up at the sight of the boppli. He was a doting daed who spent every moment he could with his own kinder.
“No!” Annie put up one hand to keep her brother away.
“Sorry.” He looked at his barn coat that was worn and stained everywhere. “Rhoda keeps telling me I need to wash before I hug the kinder so she doesn’t have to clean them up.”
“It’s not that. My little friend here is scared of men. He’s thrown a hissy fit every time Caleb comes too close to him.”
“But he likes me,” Kenny announced as he reached for a piece of toast in the middle of the table.
“Goes to show there’s no accounting for taste, ain’t so?” teased Lyndon.
Kenny stuck out his tongue and grimaced, bringing a laugh from his siblings.
Cold billowed off her brothers, and Annie got up, balancing Joey on one hip, to pour kaffi for Lyndon as her older brother continued to joke with Kenny. She hurried to the table when Joey began to fuss. Handing him another piece of toast, she set the cup by Lyndon’s right hand.
The food she put in front of her brothers vanished. They downed the oatmeal, toast and bacon she’d had waiting for them. She listened to their banter while her sisters made bleary-eyed entrances into the kitchen. Juanita offered to make eggs for anyone who wanted them, and Lyndon and Kenny raised their hands. They seemed to have bottomless pits inside them, because neither ever passed up food.
Grossmammi Inez was the last to rise, something that once would have been unthinkable. She smiled when Juanita placed scrambled eggs and toast in front of her. Leanna poured a cup of kaffi and set it next to her grossmammi’s plate.
“A soul could get accustomed to such service,” the elderly woman said with a smile.
Annie laughed along with her siblings, but was bothered by the uneven pace of her grossmammi’s breathing. Grossmammi Inez insisted it was the aftereffects of the cold she’d had before Christmas. Annie hadn’t argued, but was beginning to fear it was something more serious because Grossmammi Inez seemed to be getting worse rather than better.
Joey pushed away her hand holding another piece of toast topped with apple butter.
“Done, sweetie?” Annie asked Joey as she’d heard Becky Sue do at the end of each meal.
He nodded so seriously Lyndon chuckled.
Putting the boppli on the towel with a handful of the blocks sent over from her brother’s house, she went to the sink to wash off her sticky hands. She filled a bowl with oatmeal for herself and carried it to the table. Adding brown sugar and cream skimmed off the top of the milk Kenny brought in every day from the barn, she kept an eye on the boppli as she bent her head to thank God for her food, her home and her family.
And for a little boy who was chewing on one of the blocks as if he could gnaw off one side of it. He held it near his face, ran his fingers over it and then put another section in his mouth as if he thought it might have a different taste.
I’m going to need a lot of help with this, Lord, she added before she raised her head again.
Lots and lots of help.
* * *
“No goats trying to eat your laundry today?”
At the question, Annie looked over her shoulder. A pulse of happiness rushed through her when she saw Caleb on the porch steps behind her. She didn’t try to pretend it was because she could postpone hanging clothes while she spoke to him and found out what was in the small white box he held. Seeing his smile set off a low, long rumble within her, as if a distant thunderstorm hid on the other side of the mountains.
Stop it! He was meant to be Leanna’s match and her way to happiness, not Annie’s. How could Annie be content if her sister was lost in her grief at Gabriel Miller’s betrayal?
“No wind today,” she replied. “That means I don’t have to chase the sock carousel across the yard.”
“Looks like you didn’t get your laundry done earlier in the week.”
“These are the clothes Becky Sue and Joey had with them.”
He came to stand beside her on the porch. “I didn’t mean to dump this extra work on you, Annie.” He paused, and she could tell he was giving consideration to a thought he’d been wrestling with. “Look. I know I offered you a job at the bakery, but if you’d rather, I can pay you for taking care of my cousin and her boppli and find someone else to help me at the bakery.”
“No!”
His eyes widened at her vehemence.
Telling herself to be cautious or she’d give away her true reason for accepting his job offer, she reached for another tiny garment in the basket. At supper last night, Leanna had said less than a half-dozen words to Caleb. She hadn’t greeted him, but she’d wished him gut nacht, and she’d told him danki when he passed something to her at the table.
Yet each time he spoke to her twin, Leanna flushed. Annie wondered how anyone could fail to see her sister had feelings for Caleb. They needed a gentle shove toward each other. Working with Caleb would be Annie’s best opportunity to do that before he found someone else to wed.
“I want to work with you at the bakery,” she replied as if it were the most important oath she could take.
And it was, because what she did while in Caleb’s company could mean the difference between healing her sister’s heart or not.
* * *
Caleb searched Annie’s face, wanting to be sure she was being honest with him. Not that he had any reason to doubt her because she was the most forthright person in Harmony Creek Hollow. He wouldn’t have to worry about her manipulating him as Verba had when she tried to convince him to follow her plans for them.
Verba h
ad hated the idea he’d have a business where he wouldn’t be around the farm all the time. He’d seen that as a sign she loved him and preferred they spent time together. But as their courtship had gone on, he’d begun to believe that what he’d considered affection was, instead, a determination to mold him into what she deemed would be the perfect husband.
Why was he thinking of Verba? Or marriage? He must concentrate on the reason that had brought him to the Waglers’ farm beneath the hills lifting toward the Green Mountains a few miles to the east.
He looked at Annie. A faint wisp of wind tugged at her kapp strings beneath her black bonnet while it played with the edges of the shawl she’d secured around herself in two places with clothespins. Her cheeks were almost as red as the sky at sunset, but her eyes, which seemed to vary in color between green and blue, were warm.
“Are you certain you want to take on both jobs?” He hoped she was. Trying to find someone else for the bakery could set back his plans and he’d miss the opening day he’d be announcing in the ads he’d ordered.
“Ja, Caleb. I gave you my word I’d take the job at the bakery, and it’s not as if I’m alone in helping Becky Sue and Joey.”
“Miriam hopes to be on her feet by the end of the week, and she’ll be glad to have them come to her house.”
“A house that’s undergoing so much renovation isn’t the best place for a little boppli who puts everything in his mouth.” She hooked another clothespin onto a small garment.
“You sound as if you want them to stay here.”
“Grossmammi Inez has mentioned several times in the last couple of days how nice it is to have someone around while Juanita and Kenny are at school.”
“Leanna—”
“Has jobs of her own. She cleans houses for some of our Englisch neighbors.”
“I didn’t know that.” Again he thanked God for leading him to the correct twin to ask for help at the bakery.
Annie bent to pick up the empty laundry basket. Straightening, she grabbed the clothesline near the pulley on the porch post and pushed the clothing along its length toward a huge maple tree. She grimaced and braced her feet as she tried to give the line a bigger shove outward from the house.
“Let me help,” he said.
“Danki.” She handed him the empty basket and grasped the line with both hands.
He stared at the laundry basket, then laughed.
She paused and asked, “What’s funny?”
“You. Me. I thought you’d let me push the clothes out for you.”
“Oh.” The color on her cheeks deepened.
He hadn’t intended to put her to the blush with his comment. For a moment he was as flustered. He hadn’t imagined candid Annie Wagler was ever embarrassed. He had to wonder what other assumptions he had of her that would be overturned in the weeks to come.
He began to apologize, but she cut him off. Motioning him toward the line, she stepped back as she told him that she’d appreciate his pushing the clothes out another few inches.
Feeling like the world’s biggest dummkopf, he handed her the empty basket and pushed the line out as she’d asked.
“Would you like to come in and have something warm to drink?” Her gut spirits seemed to revive themselves when she added with twinkling eyes, “It’s the least I can do when you’ve helped so much.”
“Hey, I pushed the last of the clothes clear of the eaves.”
“Something for which we’ll be forever grateful.” She edged past him and opened the door. “I doubt we’ll ever be able to repay you for this, Caleb.”
He laughed, the cold air searing his throat. This was the Annie he knew, and he hoped she would continue to be irrepressible when she worked at the bakery with him. Laughing would make the time pass faster and the hard work more fun.
Caleb was still chuckling after he’d hung up his coat in the mudroom. He watched as Annie set the laundry basket by the washing machine.
“Inez, it’s always a pleasure to see you,” he said when he went into the kitchen and set his white box, which was full of cookies, on the counter.
“Aren’t you a charmer today?” She motioned at the chair next to hers.
He looked around before he took another step.
“Becky Sue and Joey are resting upstairs,” Inez said, as if he’d announced his thoughts aloud. “You won’t upset the boppli when he can’t see you. Sit and tell me the news while it’s quiet.”
Caleb smiled, not at her words but at how Annie rolled her eyes out of her grossmammi’s view. He wanted to assure them he understood the importance of patience when dealing with Joey. He needed the same forbearance when speaking with Becky Sue, who changed the subject or ignored his questions whenever he spoke to her.
He settled himself into the chair while Annie made and served fragrant hot chocolate to the three of them. Inez kept up a steady chatter of the latest tidings. Though she’d asked him for news, she had more than he did. Not just from their settlement, but from families beyond Harmony Creek.
“You are as full of information as The Budget,” Caleb said between sips of delicious hot chocolate.
“Much of it comes from the circle letter Annie has kept going for almost ten years. Her cousins are scattered from here to Colorado.”
He looked toward where Annie was by the counter. “I was hoping to work at the bakery tomorrow. Will you be able to come?”
“Ja.” She opened a cupboard door, blocking his view of her face. “Are you starting early?”
“By seven.”
“I’ll be there.”
“No, I meant I’d pick you up at around seven.”
She turned, and he saw her astonishment. “You don’t have to pick me up. It’s not a long walk to the bakery.”
“It’s close to a mile, a long distance in this cold. I don’t mind.”
“Say danki to Caleb, Annie,” said her grossmammi before she could reply. “You’ll do neither of you any gut if you take a chill and sicken as I did last month.”
“Danki, Caleb. Leanna will be happy she doesn’t have to worry about me.” She came to the table and held out a plate of the oatmeal-raisin cookies Caleb had brought with him along with some snickerdoodles. “Leanna worries about us. Her heart is big, and she always has room for one more.”
He nodded as he took a snickerdoodle, then a second one as Inez raised her snowy brows. He’d sampled cookies from the Waglers’ house before, and they always were delicious. A quick bite told him these were better than he remembered.
“Astounding!” He finished the cookie. “Is that molasses I taste?”
“Ja.” Annie sat facing him. “I’ve tried making cookies with molasses and with honey. I like the molasses version best. I like using variations in old cookbooks.”
“Both honey and molasses are gut ideas.”
“Our Annie always has ideas,” Inez interjected with a smile. “Most of them are gut.”
Reaching for another cookie, he replied, “If your other ideas are as tasty as this one, Annie, I hope you’ll share them.”
A pretty flush warmed Annie’s cheeks again, and he realized his request had pleased her. Knowing he’d brought a soft smile to her pleased him. More than it should for a man who didn’t want to get involved with a woman. He’d have to be on his guard, but later...after he’d learned the recipe from her. The cookies would be a popular addition at his bakery once it was open.
Chapter Five
Except for the bone-gnawing cold, the day was perfect. No clouds marred the bright blue sky. Sunshine glistened on the snow along the mountains, turning each into a huge multifaceted diamond. The creek was almost silent as it ran between the thickening sheets of ice reaching out from both banks. Traffic was busy on the main road. Again Caleb had to wait before it was safe to pull out.
As he steered his buggy around the tall snowbanks an
d into the parking lot of his bakery, Caleb wondered how everything could be the same as the last time he’d brought Annie to the old railroad depot...and how everything could be so different. He glanced at where she sat next to him.
Her face was shadowed by her black bonnet, but he could see enough to know she was as anxious as he was. Maybe more, because she was dealing with Becky Sue and Joey. This morning, when he’d stopped to give Annie a ride, he’d seen only the back of Becky Sue as she rushed out of the kitchen.
“We’re not going to find someone else lurking in the bakery,” he said.
“Promise?” She gave him a faint smile. “Leanna is helping take care of Joey today, but she won’t be able to most days. The people she cleans for depend on her, and she doesn’t want to let them down.”
“I’d like to say ja, that I promise no surprises at the bakery.”
“But stranger things have happened.”
“Stranger than finding my cousin with a boppli in my bakery? I hope not!”
When she chuckled, he relaxed. He couldn’t say why he’d felt on edge as they approached the old depot building. He didn’t expect anyone would be inside. He’d installed locks on both doors. But he couldn’t push aside his uneasiness. He hoped Annie would see something he hadn’t. Something—anything!—to give them a clue why the girl had run away.
Annie had used the word coincidence, but Caleb wasn’t ready to accept that the encounter had been accidental. Becky Sue had chosen to come north. She’d admitted she knew about a new settlement but asserted she hadn’t known it was the one he organized. That didn’t add up.
Maybe if he had a chance to talk—really talk, one-on-one—with his cousin, he’d be able to get to the bottom of the tangle of half-truths and evasions Becky Sue used to keep him from learning why she’d left home. But his cousin was careful never to be alone with him.