“Ja. I’m glad to be here.” She gazed after Levy’s buggy as his horse trotted away. “But I’m worried about the baby.”
“So are we. He just got her a few days ago. ” Her uncle walked up the porch steps. “Come inside, your aunt is most anxious to see you.”
Within moments Jane found herself enveloped in her aunt’s embrace. “Welkom! Welkom!”
Jane hugged the woman hard and gave her a smacking kiss. “Danke! It’s been so long.”
Catherine’s smoothed-back hair was still brown, but now laced with gray. Her blue eyes twinkled through the creases on her face. Motherly in the extreme, she insisted Jane sit and have tea and cookies.
Jane leaned back with a sigh. “Ach, it’s good to be here. I’m grateful for the chance to get out of Jasper.”
“It was that bad, then?”
“Nein, but it was getting…lonely. All my friends are married. Most already have babies. Hannah is expecting her first. Mamm thought I was becoming brittle. That’s the term she used, brittle. She said my humor was getting sarcastic, and that would soon turn to bitterness. I had to ask myself, at what point do I give up and realize I have nothing in front of me? Mamm said I needed a change of scenery, so here I am.”
Uncle Peter patted her hand before reaching for his mug of tea. “You’re welcome to stay with us as long as you wish. With your cousins all out on their own, it will be nice to have a youngie in the house again. In the store too. We’ve been busy so far this summer.”
“I’m looking forward to it. You’ll have to teach me what to do, of course. My only job experience up to this point has been working with children, mostly babysitting.”
“You always were gut with babies.” Catherine chuckled. “I wonder if you shouldn’t ask Levy whether he needs help. He’s had a hard time coping, and the youngie he hired isn’t very dependable.”
“But what about the store? I don’t want to leave you two in the lurch, since you’re being kind enough to give me a place to live.” Jane kept her voice casual. “Where’s the baby’s mother? Levy didn’t go into any details.”
Catherine exchanged a lightning glance with Peter. “I don’t want to gossip, liebling, so that’s a story you’ll have to get directly from Levy.”
“I’m a stranger, so I don’t think he’ll tell me. We only just met, after all.”
“Ja, true.” Peter stroked his beard. “But he’s determined to raise the baby himself, which is causing all sorts of concern among the elders. The bishop tells him he should simply give the boppli to a family to raise.”
“That makes sense,” said Jane. “So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is, he won’t do it.”
Jane raised her eyebrows. “He’s going against the recommendation of the bishop?”
“Ja.” Peter looked troubled. “The bishop is looking at what’s gut for the baby, but Levy insists his guardianship of the baby is only temporary and his sister will be back soon.”
“I’m guessing Mercy was born out of wedlock?” It happened sometimes, Jane knew.
Catherine nodded and her eyes moistened. “We can only assume so. An Englisch woman knocked at Levy’s door a couple days ago, handed him the baby and a note, then disappeared. The note only said the baby was Eliza’s, but she was unable to care for her, so she wanted Levy to raise her since he was the one person she trusted above all others.”
“Oh my.” Jane whispered the words. “How sad.” No wonder the man was at his wit’s end.
“I know Levy blames himself for Eliza’s behavior.” Peter spoke into the poignant silence. “It’s hard to watch him suffer, harder still to know what’s happening with Eliza. I remember her as a sweet young woman. But after her parents died, she snapped. She became rebellious and fascinated with the Englisch world. Then one day she was gone. No one knows what happened to her, until suddenly a boppli shows up.”
“It certainly puts things into perspective,” ventured Jane. “What I left behind is nothing next to what Levy is facing.”
“Jane.” Catherine put down her mug of tea. “I know you’re upset by what happened back home, when that man—what was his name, Isaac?—married your best friend. But you’re here now. You can have a useful life with us.”
Useful. Jane was coming to hate that term. It seemed being useful was all she was good for. “Of course, Tante.” Useful, not pretty. Useful, not interesting. Useful, not marriageable. “But I do find it humiliating that Isaac never had eyes for me, only my best friend. Sometimes I get a little mad at Gott for making me so plain.”
“Liebling, I don’t think you’re plain.” Catherine looked troubled. “Besides, you know Gott sees what’s on the inside, and someday you’ll meet a man who sees that too. Have you prayed?”
“Of course. But if Gott has answered my prayers, I haven’t noticed yet.” The moment the words were out of her mouth, she felt ashamed. Her mother had warned her that her sharp tongue was changing from witty to harsh. “I’m sorry, Tante Catherine.”
“Gott is bigger than us. I’m sure He understands being angry.”
A clock chimed over the kitchen sink, and Catherine and Peter both glanced at it.
“The chores!” her uncle exclaimed. “I have to get to the milking.”
“Can I help?”
“Ja, danke. Sometimes I get a little tired of doing the milking all by myself.”
Jane rose from her seat.
“I’ll take your suitcase upstairs.” Catherine also stood up. “Go on, get the chores done and I’ll have a nice meal ready when you’re finished.”
Jane followed her uncle and took a clean bucket from the kitchen counter, then strode behind him toward the small barn behind the house. “How many cows do you have?”
“Just three now. We’re slowing down. How many does your father keep?”
“Ten, so milking three won’t take long with both of us.”
The doe-eyed Jerseys chewed their cud in the shade of a
