“Jah, we don’t know who Betsy’s mamm is, so we’re her family now,” Stevie piped up from the porch. “We got baby goats and ducklings, too! Wanna see ’em?”
Lenore released Leah to focus on the young boy. He still regarded her cautiously, but he’d become much more confident since the wedding, when he’d spent the day clinging to Margaret. “Baby goats and ducklings?” she repeated eagerly. “I’d love to see them sometime, Stevie, because I sort of miss having those animals at my house. Right now, though, I could use some help carrying boxes and bags—and then you can park my rig for me and tend my mare, Flo.”
With a little whoop, Stevie sprang from the porch and shot toward her buggy. Lenore chuckled. “Stevie’s come a long way,” she remarked as she and Leah followed him. “I hope Alice and Adeline are as eager to please as he is?”
Leah let out a humorless laugh. “You warned me, Mama,” she said sadly. “Jude and I are pulling out our hair over the twins’ escapades. They’re home today—but only because he took the back wheels off their buggy.”
Lenore’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh my. So the rumors about them running with English boys are true?”
“Jah, not that we have any idea who those boys are.” Leah stopped a few yards from where Stevie was taking a plastic bin from the rig. Her eyes took on a sad desperation as she shook her head. “They despise me, Mama. But you’re here now, so let’s not waste a minute churning sour butter. Plenty of time for details about the girls on a day when they’re not home—although Jude has grounded them indefinitely.”
Lenore sighed with regret. See there? You should’ve been coming for visits all along, knowing Leah would be too proud—or stubborn—to admit all the trouble she’s been dealing with.
“Gut heavens, Mama! Your rig’s chock-full of boxes and bins,” Leah exclaimed when she peered inside it. “What all did you bring?”
“I think she’s stayin’ a long time!” Stevie said as he headed toward the house with a bin of fabric. “I saw two suitcases and a whole lotta other stuff!”
Lenore laughed, gratified by the boy’s excitement. “Well, I had more jars of peaches and vegetables than I can possibly eat this season—and I figured I’d make myself useful by sewing some clothes for the baby, as well as for you and Jude and the kids,” she replied. “So I brought fabric and—”
“Oh, Mama.” Leah’s embrace was tighter this time, and she was breathing shallowly . . . as though she was trying not to cry. “Denki so much for thinking of us all. I’m so sorry I didn’t invite you here sooner, but—but I didn’t want you to know just how awful things have been with the girls. There. I’ve said it.”
Lenore wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter and rocked her gently, as she’d done when Leah was growing up. Her daughter might have grown into an adult body, but inside she was still vulnerable and sensitive and just enough like her dat that she would never ask for help. “I’m sorry you’ve had such a tough time of it, Leah,” she murmured. “I’m here to help in whatever ways you need me to, sweetheart.”
Leah eased out of Lenore’s arms to flick away tears with her thumb. “Unfortunately, Margaret doesn’t share your helpful attitude—nor does she believe Adeline and Alice would sneak out of the house or get matching tattoos, amongst other things. But those are stories for another day,” she added as she reached into the rig for a sturdy cardboard box filled with jars of food.
Tattoos? On Amish girls? Once again Lenore couldn’t imagine what Leah and Jude had been going through, and she felt even more determined to make her time here count for something positive and productive. This visit would be a gift only she could give to the daughter she’d missed so badly the past three months.
When Lenore followed Leah to the back door and into the kitchen, she immediately noticed the empty baby bottles drying in the sink drainer, along with the deep pot used to sterilize them on the stove. A plate of cookies on the counter caught her eye, too. “Those snickerdoodles look heavenly,” she said as she set her suitcases on the floor. “I confess that I haven’t baked cookies since you left home, Leah, because it would take me forever to eat a whole batch.”
“I could help ya eat ’em!” Stevie blurted as he grabbed two of the cookies from the plate. He smiled mischievously at her. “I like Alice’s snickerdoodles, but peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips are my favorite—in case you’re wonderin’.”
Lenore laughed out loud, delighted by Stevie’s way with words. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “After all, baking cookies is one of the things a mammi does best, ain’t so?”
Stevie’s hand stopped halfway to his mouth, his cookie suspended as he considered what she’d said. “Jah, if you’re Leah’s mamm—and she’s my mamm now—that makes you my mammi,” he reasoned softly. “That’s gut to know.”
Lenore’s heart stood still. For years she’d dreamed of spoiling grandchildren, while wondering if Leah would ever marry. The way Stevie gazed at her with his eager blue eyes, wrapping her in his wondrous, innocent love, suddenly made her feel like the most special woman in the world. “You have your mammi Margaret, too,” she pointed out.
“Jah, but she doesn’t wanna live with us no more—and Mammi Lovina moved away to Ohio, wherever that is,” Stevie said wistfully.
“She and your Dawdi Cletus went east to live with their son after your mamm passed,” Leah clarified gently.
“Oh. Jah, that’s how it was.” Stevie’s face lit up with boyish joy as he looked at Lenore again. “So, see there? We had an opening for another mammi, and
