Kitabı oku: «The Amish Bachelor's Baby», sayfa 3
* * *
How was it possible the evening was growing colder by the second? Each breath Caleb took seemed to be more glacial than the one before. He hadn’t thought it could get any more bitter, but with the sun setting, the very air felt as if it’d turned to ice. He guessed by the time he’d left the bakery, got home and milked his cows, the mercury must have dropped to ten degrees below zero. It would be worse by the time he got up in the morning. The idea of heading into his comfortable house and calling it a day had been tempting, but he couldn’t cede his responsibility for his cousin and her kind to Annie. He’d told her he’d stop by, and he couldn’t renege on the promise.
As he led Dusty toward the Waglers’ barn so the horse could get out of the cold, Caleb glanced at the goats’ pen. It was empty, and he guessed the goats were huddling inside their shed.
Smart goats. He smiled at the two words he’d never thought he would put together.
Caleb’s shoulders ached by the time he walked to the house. Trying to halt the shivers rippling over him was foolish, because he couldn’t relax against the cold. His body refused to keep from trying to keep the polar wind at bay.
He climbed up onto the porch and rapped on the door. The faint call from inside was all the invitation he needed to open it.
Taking one step inside the mudroom connecting the kitchen to the porch, he was almost bowled over by a reddish-brown ball of fur. A sharp command from the table didn’t stop the excited puppy from welcoming him.
Kenny rushed into the mudroom to collect the dog. Caleb smiled his thanks to the dark-haired boy before shrugging off his coat. Watching Kenny try to get the puppy to behave with little success, Caleb wondered if the boy’s shoulders grew broader every day. Kenny wasn’t going to be tall, but he was going to be a sturdy adult. Hard work in the barn was giving him the strength of a man twice his age.
Caleb set his coat, scarf, gloves and hat on a chair by the door because the pegs were filled. He turned to walk into the kitchen and then stopped as he took in the sight of the families gathered around the table. Two families. The Waglers—Annie and her twin, as well as her grossmammi, sister and younger brother, who was sliding into his chair, holding on to the puppy—and two members of the Hartz family: his cousin and her son.
Yet they could have been a single family. No one acted disconcerted. One twin held Joey on her lap and offered him bites of her food while his cousin sat on the opposite side of the table between a girl close to her age and the other twin.
But which twin was which? He was embarrassed that he wasn’t sure.
His discomfort was overtaken by distress. He hadn’t been able to reach Becky Sue’s parents. He’d waited by the phone at the bakery for an hour, hoping for a call back. He’d left after that because his dairy herd got uncomfortable when he delayed the milking.
“Komm in...and join us,” Inez said, motioning to him.
The elderly woman was shorter than the twins, and though her hair was gray and thinning, she had the same blue-green eyes. It was more than a physical resemblance, because she said what she thought, exactly as Annie did.
“Komm...in, Caleb,” Inez urged again when he didn’t move. She paused often as if having to catch her breath. “Sit...so we...can thank God...for our food...before...everything...is cold.”
He entered the kitchen, which smelled of beef gravy and freshly baked bread. When his stomach rumbled, a reminder he’d skipped lunch, he was glad he was far enough away from the table so nobody would hear it. “You could have eaten without me.”
“See?” piped up Kenny. “I told you he’d be okay with it.”
“But...I wasn’t.” Inez’s tone brooked no argument, and the boy didn’t give her any as he bent to soothe the puppy, who was lunging to escape so it could greet Caleb as he neared the table. “Hurry. Join...us before hunger...makes Kenny forget...his manners again.”
When the twin holding Joey—Caleb was almost certain she was Annie—flashed him a quick smile, he dampened his own. He admired how Inez spoke her mind. Not that she ever was cruel or critical of anyone, though she denounced what she saw as absurd ideas. She, as one of his fellow firefighters was fond of saying, called it as she saw it.
The only empty chair was at the end of the table. He sat there and nodded when Inez asked him to lead grace. He was the oldest man present, and it was his duty. As he bowed his head, his thoughts refused to focus on his gratitude for God guiding his young cousin to the bakery where she could be found. He was too aware of both twins sitting at the table.
If he mistook one for the other...
Annie had given him an easy way to avoid admitting he hadn’t realized which twin he was asking to work for him, but he couldn’t depend on that happening again.
He cleared his throat to signal the end of grace. As he raised his head, he was startled by an abrupt yearning he hadn’t expected. A yearning for a life where he could sit with a family of his own at day’s end. Several of his friends had married in November and December and stepped into the next phase of their lives. He was moving forward as well, but not in the same direction. Was he missing his chance to have a family?
There wasn’t time for such thoughts. Between the farm and the bakery, he had too much work to do every day. The responsibilities of a family would require more of his nonexistent time. He’d made his choice, and he shouldn’t second-guess himself.
Caleb took the bowl of fragrant stew. He spooned some onto his plate, then more when urged by Inez, who told him in her no-nonsense voice not to worry if he emptied the bowl because there was extra on the stove. When he sampled it, he was glad he’d listened to the old woman.
He focused on eating as conversation went on around him. He looked up when Inez spoke.
“Leanna...pass the basket...of rolls...to Caleb.” Inez gave him a wink as she spoke with her usual interruptions. Seeing how the twins glanced at her, he wondered what her pauses to take a breath meant. “I’ve...never met a...man who doesn’t...have room for...another roll...or two.”
“Especially with apple butter,” he replied as he waited to see which twin did as her grossmammi had asked. When it wasn’t the one holding Joey, he was relieved. He’d guessed Annie was the twin bouncing the little boy on her knee and keeping Joey entertained with pieces of soft carrot she’d fished out of her stew. He watched, amazed at how she kept the kind fed while she ate her own supper. He was beginning to wonder if Annie was gut at everything she did. She’d handled the touchy situation with Becky Sue with a skill he didn’t possess.
“I’m not as out of practice as I thought,” Annie said with a laugh. Was she trying to put him at ease for staring? That she might be able to discern his thoughts was disquieting. “I used to feed Kenny this way when he was little.”
Kenny grumbled something, and Caleb swallowed his chuckle. No boy on the verge of becoming a teenager wanted to be reminded about such things.
As the meal went on and Caleb had another generous serving of the delicious stew, laughter came from the Waglers. But Becky Sue was reticent, and every movement she made displayed exhaustion. He wondered when—and where—she’d last slept.
A quick prayer of gratitude for their food, their families and for shelter from the cold night ended the meal. Leanna offered to help Becky Sue upstairs so she could rest, and Inez took the boppli into the living room to rock him until he became sleepy. Kenny wandered off somewhere with the puppy he called Penny.
Annie began to clear the table, carrying the dishes to the white farmhouse sink. “Did you get in touch with Becky Sue’s parents?”
“No answer yet.”
“As soon as they get the message, they’ll call. I can’t imagine how happy they’ll be to discover their daughter and kins-kind are safe with you.”
“With you, actually.”
“We’re happy to help.” When he picked up his dishes, she said, “You don’t have to clear the table. I know you’ve had a long day.”
“No longer than yours.”
“But I didn’t have to milk,” she laughed. “Lyndon, Kenny and Leanna milk every day, and Juanita will help sometimes. I always try to find somewhere else to be.”
“Why? There’s something wunderbaar about being in a warm barn and spending time with animals willing to share their bounty with us.” He set the dishes by the sink. “For me, it’s one of the clearest symbols of God’s gifts to us.”
She turned on the water and squirted dish detergent into the sink. “That’s a much nicer way of looking at milking.”
“But not your way?”
“Definitely not.” She chuckled as she reached for the dishrag.
“You may have your mind changed one of these days.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
He smiled. Trust Annie Wagler not to withhold her opinion! It was one of the reasons his sister liked her, and working together at the bakery was going to be interesting. At least he wouldn’t have to try to guess what she was thinking.
“So you prefer spending time with a boppli who spits up on you rather than a nice, clean cow who gives you milk?”
“Spits up?” She glanced at the spots of orange on her black apron. “I didn’t notice. Oh, well. It’ll wash out,” she laughed. “Joey should be glad he wanted to sit on my lap rather than Leanna’s.”
“Why?” He was curious how the little boy had figured out which twin was which. And a bit envious of the kind’s intuitive ability.
“Leanna prefers boppli goats to boppli humans because she spent most of her teen years babysitting for an Englisch family who had a ton of rules about their kinder. They insisted she carry the boppli in some sort of contraption that wrapped around her shoulders. Half the time when she came home, she was covered with formula because they believed she should feed the boppli in the getup.”
“That’s enough to put anyone off from kinder.”
Annie flinched, surprising him before she went to the table to collect more dishes. “She won’t feel that way about her own bopplin. She’ll be a wunderbaar mamm, I know.”
“But you’ll never like milking?”
“Never!” She carried the other dishes to the sink.
“Don’t you know you should never say never?”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“It might be.”
“It’s one you’re guaranteed to lose. Cows and I agree we’re better off having as little to do with each other as possible.”
“You’re going to make me prove that you’re wrong.”
“About what?” asked Inez as she came into the kitchen. She set Joey on the floor and pressed one hand to her chest. An odd wheezing sound came from her, and she sat in the closest chair.
Annie rushed to her side. “Are you okay, Grossmammi?”
“I guess I’m not as young as I used to be.” She glanced at the boppli, who dropped to his belly. “Chasing a young one is a task for someone with fewer years on her than me. So, what you are going to prove our Annie wrong about, Caleb?”
“That milking is a pleasant chore,” he replied, though he wondered how Inez had failed so fast.
Beside her chair, Annie looked worried, but she kept her voice light. “That is something he’ll never prove to me. Grossmammi, I can finish up if you want to go to bed.”
He thought Inez would protest it was too early, but she didn’t. Coming to her feet, she said, “A gut idea. These old bones need extra rest to keep up with a boppli.” Before he could say he’d make other arrangements for Becky Sue, she added, “Caleb, we’re glad to have your cousin and her kind stay with us.” She wagged a gnarled finger at him. “Such things should go unsaid among neighbors, ain’t so?”
Again, as he bade Inez a gut nacht, he was discomfited at how the Wagler women seemed to gauge his thoughts.
At the very moment Inez closed the door to her bedroom beyond the kitchen, Joey began to crawl toward them on his belly. Caleb bent to pick up the little fellow, but froze when Joey let out a shriek. The boppli clenched his fists close to his sides as his face became a vivid red.
“What’s wrong?” Caleb asked as he reached again for the kind.
With a screech that rang in Caleb’s ears, Joey cringed away.
Annie scooped up the boppli and held him close as she murmured. Joey’s heartrending screams dissolved into soft, gulping sobs as he buried his face in her neck. She patted his back and made soothing sounds into his hair. When the boppli softened against her, she looked over his head toward Caleb.
Sympathy battled with dismay in her expressive eyes. Caleb had never guessed a mere look could convey such intense emotion. Or maybe it was as simple as the fact he felt sorry for the toddler, too.
Becky Sue burst into the kitchen, wearing a borrowed robe over a nightgown too short for her. Her hair was half-braided and her kapp was missing. “What’s wrong with Joey?”
“I think he’s overtired,” Annie said. “Bopplin get strange notions in their heads when they’re Joey’s age. Some don’t like men. Others fear dogs or cats or tiny bugs.”
“Do you know why he’s scared of men?” Caleb didn’t want to admit how relieved he was Joey’s antipathy wasn’t aimed solely at him, because he’d always got along well with kinder.
Becky Sue shrugged. Or she tried to, but her shoulders must have been as stiff as his had been outside in the cold, because they curtailed the motion. Instead of answering him further, she hefted her son and walked away.
Caleb watched her climb the stairs at the front of the house and vanish along with the boppli. Her lack of answer told him plenty. She was hiding even more than he’d guessed.
Chapter Four
The soft chirp from the makeshift crib beneath the dormer window woke Annie two days later. Though the sun hadn’t risen yet, she guessed it must be after 5:00 a.m. because lights glowed in the barn. Her brothers were already milking. They’d be ready for breakfast when they were done, so she should get started on her day.
She glanced at the extra bed between her and the window. Becky Sue was burrowed beneath the blankets, her knees drawn up under her and her rear end in the air, as if she were no older than her son who’d been in the same position when Annie checked on him last night.
The two had settled into the Waglers’ home more easily than Annie had dared to hope. Last night, Grossmammi Inez had come into the bedroom to bid them a gut nacht and had asked pointed questions about Becky Sue’s trip north. Their guest refused to share where she’d stayed during her journey from Lancaster County or how she’d traveled. While Grossmammi Inez didn’t push, neither did she hide her annoyance. However, nobody asked why the girl said nothing about Joey’s daed. It was as if the man didn’t exist.
Becky Sue would learn keeping such secrets was futile in a household run by Grossmammi Inez. The elderly woman wouldn’t be denied getting her way. She’d astounded everyone in the family when she announced she wanted to move with Annie and her siblings to New York. No arguments would persuade Grossmammi Inez to remain in the dawdi haus, where they had lived with her youngest son and daughter-in-law and their eight kinder. This drafty old farmhouse was now home, and Annie was glad they had enough room for Becky Sue and Joey.
Last night, when Caleb had again joined them for supper, Leanna hadn’t said more than a handful of words, but Annie had seen her twin glance at him. Had he noticed, as well?
Annie chided herself. Why had she talked about Leanna staying away from other folks’ kinder? She had to be cautious. Caleb might have mistaken her jest for the truth. If he wanted a family, why would he marry a woman who’d had her fill of kinder?
With a soft groan, Annie asked God to help her curb her tongue. By His bringing Caleb’s cousin into their lives, He was offering Annie a chance to find the perfect way to open Caleb’s and Leanna’s eyes to what a great match they’d be. She couldn’t mess that up.
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 had 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.”
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