Was that the squeak of a floorboard on the other side of the wall? Jude ignored it, determined to help Leah be a happier wife so his children couldn’t drive a wedge between them—or drive Leah away.
“I love you for who you are, Leah. When I married you, I knew you’d never play me false,” he said, reveling in her warmth as she wrapped her arms around him. “Starting right now, I’m going to pay more attention to Alice and Adeline’s comings and goings and hold them responsible for helping you around the house. Will you believe that, sweetheart? Will you stay with me so we can work this out?”
When he felt her body relaxing against his, Jude gave thanks for Leah’s willingness to try again.
“I really want our marriage to be a happy one,” she stated, caressing his chest with her small, sturdy hand. “I knew it would take time and effort to become your kids’ new mother, and now I’m more realistic about what that means. You’re not the only one who didn’t listen when folks told you we’d have a long row to hoe, adjusting to the fit of our new family.”
Jude kissed her until they forgot about the kids. As they succumbed to the pleasures of being a man and a woman, a committed husband and wife who were very much in love, he knew he’d been blessed beyond belief by Leah’s sweet, stalwart belief in him.
Chapter 5
Alice waved Adeline into their room and silently shut the door behind her. “Do you believe that—what he said about Mamm?” she whispered angrily.
“And that he’s not really our father?” Adeline shot back. “Why was he telling her that, when we’re the ones who ought to know?”
“I can’t believe Mamm wouldn’t have told us if Dat—or that man we’ve been calling Dat—wasn’t really our father. Mamm told us everything,” Alice added, crossing her arms hard across her chest. “What if it’s not true? What if he’s just saying that to Leah to make her feel sorry for him? Phooey! For a while there, I thought we’d be able to get rid of her. Scare her away.”
“Puh! Dat’s hot for her body. He’ll never let her go.”
“Gut thing it’s dark, so he can’t see how ugly she is.”
The two of them stifled a fit of giggles as they scurried back into the double bed they’d shared since they were small girls. Their bedroom was on the north side of the house, always the coldest room in the winter, so it felt good to be back underneath the layers of quilts and blankets after their visit to the guest room, which shared a wall with the bedroom where their parents had always slept. Since Leah had arrived, Alice and Adeline had felt compelled to eavesdrop every now and again, even though they knew their curiosity was improper.
Alice grimaced in the darkness. “What if they make a baby?”
“What if Dat really isn’t our father?” Adeline said without missing a beat. “Think about what that could mean for us.”
“Like, maybe we could find our real father and go live with him, instead of being stuck here with her?” Alice savored the way her disgusted sigh lingered in the chilly air. “Now that she’s ratted on us, Dat’s going to be on our case constantly. We only threw those chicken bones at her once, for Pete’s sake.”
“Well, the second time it was pork chop bones,” Adeline recalled with a chuckle. “But we made our point. She knows we hate her guts and we want her gone.” She tucked the covers under her chin to stay warmer. “And if Dat’s not our real father, well, neither of them are our parents, so that means they have no say about where we go or what we do, jah? I mean, we’re sixteen—and we’re in rumspringa. They can’t touch us.”
“Makes sense to me. But it was easier to get away when Mammi Margaret lived here,” Alice put in wistfully. “She’s old and clueless—”
“And she was busy with Stevie, and the cooking, and the housework. The new wife doesn’t do any of that stuff, so she has too much time to spy on us from the barn and the animal pens.”
“She’s where she belongs out there. Just another one of the goats.”
The twins pondered their situation for a few moments before Adeline grabbed the wind-up alarm clock on the nightstand beside her. “Almost five o’clock,” she said. “Stevie’s going to be pounding on our door—”
“I’m not getting out of bed until we have our plan in place,” Alice interrupted tersely. “If we don’t pack up and leave, we’re going to have to put up with Dat’s lecture while she squirms in her chair and can’t look us in the eye. Bwawk-bwawk-bwawk,” she squawked, bending her arms and flapping them beneath the covers.
Adeline sighed. “Where would we go? None of our friends’ parents would allow us to live in their homes for more than a day or two—and they’ll ask a gazillion questions before they send us back here.”
“Why should we be the ones to leave?” Alice challenged, mostly because it felt good to ask belligerent questions. She let out another loud sigh. “But truth be told, it’s too cold to sleep out in the loft of the barn—unless Dexter and Phil are with us!” she added with a mischievous laugh.
“Forget that. We don’t want them coming around here, because then Dat will know who they are,” Adeline pointed out. “He’ll lock us in our room until we have gray hair if he gets a look at them and sees how old they are.”
“They’d take us to a motel to live, if we asked them.”
“And how would we pay for that?” Adeline asked. “It would only be a matter of time before Dat or Uncle Jeremiah would come looking for—”
“Shh!” Alice clapped her hand over Adeline’s mouth, listening to the footsteps in the hallway. The even, heavy tread
