An Amish Mother for His Twins Page 3

  Maisie laid her hand on his sleeve. “Nee, he did not. Nor did I.”

  She hoped that Nathan believed her because she spoke the truth. Nathan had adored Annie. She knew that.

  He shrugged off her hand. “How did Jacob die?”

  She clenched her fingers together in her lap. “His heart gave out. I think Annie’s leaving took away his will to live. If only she had written. He forgave her. I had to tell her about it when I spoke to her on the phone. I think she took comfort in knowing that.” Maisie had hated breaking the news to Annie about their father’s death over the phone. She hadn’t shared how their father’s last days had been spent calling out for Annie and begging to see her.

  “Have you forgiven her?” Nathan asked.

  “Of course. She was my sister. No matter how poorly she behaved, I loved her.”

  “We should get going.”

  They walked back to the buggy, where he settled her and the babies again. He got in on the driver’s side and turned the horse to head down the lane. They rode in silence for the first few minutes until his rutted lane met a narrow, paved roadway. It was Maisie who spoke up first. “What is it that you do now, Nathan?”

  “The same thing I have always done.”

  “Logging? Do you have your own business again?”

  “Nee, I’m a feller for Arthur Davis. He runs most of the lumber camps in this area.”

  “What exactly is a feller?”

  “I’m the man who cuts down trees with a chain saw. I’ve also worked as a choker, the fellow who hooks cables to the logs so they can be hauled out.”

  “Is it dangerous work?”

  “It can be.”

  “It must give you peace of mind knowing that your children will be cared for by your Amish community if anything should happen to you.”

  “I haven’t joined the church here. My job often takes me into the backcountry for weeks on end.”

  “That will have to change now that you have children to look after.”

  “I know that,” he snapped. She fell silent.

  Nathan’s daughter began to fuss. Maisie picked the child up. She glanced at Nathan’s stoic face and tried not to take his rudeness personally. He was suffering and she didn’t know how to help him. She patted the baby’s back. “I was wondering if you had chosen names yet. I hate to leave without knowing what to call my niece and nephew. I’ll want to write to them and send cards at Christmas and such.”

  “I haven’t thought about it.”

  “Your daughter looks like Annie. Maybe you could name her after her mother.”

  “Nee.” There was no compromise in his tone.

  “Well, after your mother, then. What was her name?”

  “Charity.” His tone softened.

  “Charity. I like that. It suits her.” Maisie hugged the little girl tightly. At least now she would have a name to add to her prayers.

  “It’s as good as any,” Nathan muttered, but Maisie heard the catch in his voice.

  She smiled at the baby trying to get her fist in her mouth. “Hello, Charity Weaver. I’m so very glad I got to meet you.”

  Nathan glanced at her. “I could call the boy Jacob, after your father, if that’s okay with you?”

  Maisie swallowed against the lump that formed in her throat. “I’d like that. I think Annie would have, too.”

  “I’d rather not talk about her.”

  “I know you are angry, Nathan. None of this is fair, but she was returning to you.”

  “Why was she coming back? Why did she leave in the first place? Why did she marry me if she didn’t love me?”

  “I wish I had answers for you.”

  “I wish you did, too.”

  They rode in silence until they came to the outskirts of a settlement a half hour later. Off to one side was a school where several dozen Amish children were playing at recess. Most of the children stopped what they were doing to wave. Maisie waved back. “Is this New Covenant?”

  “It is.”

  “So this is where your children will go to school.”

  “I guess they will someday.”

  “They will be school-aged before you know it.” Maisie looked back at the building as Nathan drove on down the highway. She would be able to imagine the children going up the steps on their first day of school when that day came, playing on the swings, laughing with the other children.

  She brushed aside the tears that gathered in her eyes. At least she’d had the chance to hold them and love them, if only for a few hours. It was small consolation compared to the magnitude of her loss, but she was grateful, anyway.

  Jacob began to fuss in his basket. Maisie laid Charity down and picked up the bag she’d brought with the formula. She opened a bottle and began to feed him. Before he was finished, Charity began crying. Maisie looked at Nathan. “Pull over, please.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t feed two babies at once. I need you to take Jacob.”

  Nathan turned off the road into a driveway. A large yellow dog came loping toward them, barking excitedly. An Amish woman tending to her flower garden straightened. She walked over, pulling off her gloves as she came.

  “Quiet, Sadie Sue. You’ll scare the horse.” The dog fell silent but stayed at the woman’s heels as she approached the buggy on Maisie’s side. “Can I help you?” she asked with a friendly smile.

  Maisie handed Jacob to Nathan and picked up Charity. “They both decided they want to eat at the same time. I don’t have enough hands.”

  “Twins. How wunderbar.” The woman leaned on the door to look inside. “Boys or girls?”

  Maisie glanced at Nathan, who seemed intent on ignoring the woman as he got Jacob to finish his bottle. “One of each,” Maisie said.

  “I’m Bethany Shetler. I don’t believe we’ve met. You must be new to the New Covenant area.”

  “I’m only visiting. I’m Maisie Schrock. This is my brother-in-law, Nathan Weaver.” She nodded to Nathan, who still didn’t speak.

  “I believe my husband, Michael, mentioned meeting Nathan not long ago. You have the place out beyond the Arnett farm, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  “We haven’t seen you at our church services yet.”

  “That’s because I haven’t attended one,” Nathan said sharply.

  Bethany’s smile faded. “I see. You are welcome anytime. And you, Maisie, if you are still here on Sunday next.”

  “He’s done with his bottle,” Nathan said, settling the baby in his basket again. “We need to get going.”

  Maisie smiled at the friendly woman and waved goodbye as Nathan turned the buggy onto the highway again.

  Neither of them spoke until the outskirts of Fort Craig came into view. On one side of the highway, Maisie noticed several Amish men putting together a small shed on a lot with a half dozen similar buildings.

  “Is that an Amish-owned business?” she asked.

  “It belongs to Bishop Schultz. He sells garden sheds and such on the side. He’s a potato farmer, like most of us. He has a farm near New Covenant.”

  “It looks like a prosperous business.” She took note of several buildings in various stages of completion. One in particular caught her attention. “Is that a little house?”

  “The Englisch call them tiny homes. Some new fad, I reckon. The bus station is just there.”

  “Where?”

  “In that shopping center.”

  Her bus driver had dropped her at the New Covenant corner yesterday, so she hadn’t been to the one in Fort Craig before. There was a small sign at a convenience store with gas pumps just off the highway. Nathan pulled in and stopped. She got out with one of the babies. Nathan took the other and her suitcase. They gathered a few curious stares from the patrons in the store as they went in.

  Na
than headed to a desk at the end of the room. There wasn’t an attendant. A man behind the main counter looked his way. “Be with you folks in a minute.”

  He finished ringing up a customer and came over. “How can I help you?”

  Nathan nodded toward Maisie without looking at her. “My sister-in-law needs a ticket to Seymour, Missouri.”

  “One way or round trip?” The man sat behind the computer and began typing.

  “One way,” Nathan said. “How much?”

  “It’ll take me a few minutes to figure the best way to get you there, ma’am.”

  Nathan finally looked at her. “Do you have enough money for food on the trip?”

  “Ja.” Annie had sent money for a round-trip fare. Maisie had spent only part of it getting to Maine.

  “Goodbye, then.” Nathan put her suitcase on the floor and took Charity’s basket from her. He headed for the door. Maisie reached for him. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the children yet.

  “Sir, there isn’t a bus going south until Friday afternoon,” the ticket agent said quickly, stopping Nathan in his tracks.

  “Are you sure?” Maisie asked, her hopes rising.

  “Positive. There’s a bus going south on Friday afternoons and Monday mornings.”

  Maisie grinned, almost giddy with relief. She didn’t have to leave today. It was only Tuesday. She would have three days to spend with the babies. She glanced at Nathan. He was glaring at her.

  Maisie didn’t care. She had until Friday to prove to him how much easier his life would be with her help. She glanced at his unyielding expression again. Would that be enough time?

  Chapter Three

  “This was a wasted morning.” Nathan tossed Maisie’s suitcase into the back seat of the buggy and climbed in front beside her. She ignored his sour look. She didn’t have to leave today. God was good to her.

  “Next time I’ll stop at the phone shack and call to make sure there is a bus before I drive for a two-hour round trip.”

  “It doesn’t have to be wasted.” She was smiling at the babies, not the least bit upset with the turn of events. She couldn’t have been happier.

  “What do you mean?” he snapped.

  “Is there a fabric store in town?”

  “Are you joking? You want to make a new dress while you’re here?”

  Her smile vanished as she turned in the seat to glare at him. “This may not have occurred to you, Nathan Weaver, but your children are in need of clothing.”

  He leaned away from the anger in her eyes.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “They will soon outgrow the little T-shirts that seem to be all you have for them. I will gladly spend my extra time in Maine sewing for them so they will be comfortable long into the winter months.”

  She took a deep breath. “I know you are not happy that I will be here until Friday. I’m thrilled that I can spend a few more days with the children, but believe me when I say I am not thrilled to spend that time watching you pout. I can’t help that I look like Annie. If you think I’m going to wear a sack over my head to appease you, I won’t. You will just have to bear that disappointment.”

  She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and turned away to stare out the side of the buggy. None of it was her fault and he was acting as if it was.

  “I don’t want you to wear a sack over your head,” he said at last.

  He waited for her to say something. She didn’t.

  “I’m sorry.” He opened the door to get out.

  “Where are you going?” she asked in a voice that trembled.

  “Into the store to see if they know where the closest fabric shop is. And I don’t pout.”

  “You had me fooled.”

  His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. When he returned to the buggy, he got in and picked up the lines. “There’s one down the street.”

  He drove into the parking lot in front of a shop called Sew Fine. Maisie got out without a word to him.

  Inside the door, she was greeted with the smell and sight of stacks of new fabric in a rainbow of colors and prints, button displays, craft items, a bin of quilt square bundles and an elderly clerk who nodded. “Welcome. Just shout if you can’t find something.”

  “Cotton and flannels?”

  “End of aisle two, deary.”

  Maisie picked up a red plastic shopping basket from the stack by the cash register and headed to the back of the store. She paused to look at a solid, royal-blue polyester bolt and walked on. She wasn’t shopping for herself. The bolts of flannel were jammed in together at the end of the display. Red plaid seemed to be the most popular, but she chose a few pastel colors. She carried them to the front and left them with the clerk to cut while she went in search of thread and ribbons to make the drawstring closures.

  She rounded the end of the aisle and came face-to-face with her sister. Maisie stopped in shock. “Annie?”

  She reached out and realized and instant later that she was seeing her own reflection in a full-length mirror on the wall beside ready-made scarves and shawls. It was heartbreaking to see her sister and realize she wasn’t real. Tears gathered in Maisie’s eyes. She had seldom seen herself in a large mirror. The only one at home had been a small oval one in the bathroom, where her father shaved.

  She would never come face-to-face with Annie again. Maisie pressed her hand to her heart. This must be how Nathan saw her. As a painful, unreal reflection of Annie. No wonder he didn’t want her to stay.

  * * *

  Out in the buggy, Nathan glanced at the babies and prayed they would stay asleep until Maisie returned. His headache was back. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the side window. Nothing was going right today. Why hadn’t he thought about clothes for the children? They’d need bigger beds soon, too. They couldn’t stay in the small Moses baskets the nurses at the hospital had given him. It was all so complicated. Annie should be here to take care of these things.

  Twenty minutes later Maisie opened the back door and put several packages on the seat, then she got in front. She appeared subdued. He straightened and cleared his throat. “Now where?”

  “A grocery store, if you don’t mind. We need more formula and your cupboards are almost bare.”

  “I wasn’t expecting to feed company.” He slapped the lines against Sassy’s rump to get her moving. Why did he find Maisie so irritating? Annie had never irritated him. She had been easy to get along with. If they had quarreled, he might have understood her leaving, but they never did. Not once. It made her running away that much harder to understand.

  He headed Sassy out of town. He passed the local market without stopping. Let Maisie assume he didn’t care what she wanted. When they passed the last of the houses along the highway, he glanced at her set face and decided it wasn’t worth the energy it took to stay angry with her.

  “Mr. Meriwether has a grocery in New Covenant. His prices are a little higher, but he’s good to the local Amish who want to sell items at his place. I like to give him my business. In case you were wondering why I didn’t turn in at the market back there.”

  “I was,” she admitted softly.

  “But you were afraid I’d snap your head off if you asked.”

  “Something like that.” She cast a sidelong glance his way.

  He allowed his sour mood to soften. She shouldn’t be afraid of him. “I’ll try to be less irritated during your remaining days.”

  A tiny smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I shall do my best to be less annoying.”

  As if that was possible. He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.

  Maisie gave him a long look. “Headache?”

  He nodded. “Ja, I get them when I’m short on sleep.”

  “Would you like me to drive? You can lie down on the back seat. The fabric bundles
will make a decent pillow.”

  He glanced at her and saw concern in her eyes. For him. Guilt rushed in to push aside his aggravation. He was trying to get rid of her, and she was worried about his comfort. He shook his head. “I’ll be fine, but danki.”

  “As you wish.” She turned away.

  When they arrived at the Meriwether Market, he pulled in and stopped. “Let me give you some money.” He pulled out his wallet.

  Her chin came up. “I have enough. I don’t wish to be a burden.”

  “I will pay for what the babies and you need while you are here. Keep in mind I only have a small icebox, so don’t get a lot of perishable items.”

  “Of course.” She took his money, got out and entered the store.

  Nathan massaged his neck again. His headache hadn’t let up. It probably wouldn’t go away until Maisie left.

  Charity began to fuss. He reached over and gently rocked the basket as he had seen Maisie do. Thankfully, his daughter quieted. He wondered how long it would be before both babies slept through the night. A few weeks? Surely not more than that. He had been so overwhelmed during the first few days with them that he hadn’t had time to consider what he was going to do about work.

  He would need to find someone to take care of them eventually. Arthur Davis had been good about giving him time off. He had offered Nathan a month’s leave, but without pay, since the other feller on the crew was experienced enough to handle the extra workload alone. Nathan hated to ask for more time, but he might have to if he couldn’t find someone quickly.

  He rubbed his tense neck again. Having Maisie to help would have worked, if only she wasn’t the spitting image of Annie. He didn’t need the added pain.

  Charity squirmed in her sleep. Maisie’s suggestion for his daughter’s name had been a good one, though. His mother would have loved having babies to spoil. God had taken her and Annie much too soon. The Lord hadn’t shown Nathan Weaver much mercy in his life.

  Jacob stirred. Nathan rocked him until he settled. It wasn’t so hard to care for them now that he knew what to do. Nathan sat back feeling pleased with himself. Then Charity started crying.