“Of course,” Rose said to reassure him. “You're doing a fine job.” Surely a little white lie was harmless. She would never want to hurt his feelings.
He chuckled. “
Nae.
I'm not. But you are very kind to pretend.”
Arie had found her thumb and made loud slurping noises between her upset hiccups. She was a chubby baby with kissable cheeks and peach fuzz on top of her head. The peach fuzz was a lighter version of Josiah's auburn hair, and she was adorable, even with a bright red face and a runny nose. Rose took Arie from Josiah's arms. “Is there a bottle?”
“Suvie said she wouldn't be hungry.”
“She's definitely hungry,” Rose said.
Josiah smoothed his hand along Arie's soft head. “There's formula, but Suvie has never been able to get her to take a bottle.”
Rose gave him a warm smile. He was doing his best. “We'll have to try.” A bottle and a can of formula sat on the counter, as if Suvie had expected Josiah might need it even though she'd said otherwise. Rose picked up the formula and handed the bottle to Josiah. “Fill it with four ounces of water. Warm water but not too hot.”
Josiah turned on the water. “How do I know if it's too hot?”
“Test it with your elbow.”
His face was a mask of concentration as he examined the bottle to find the four-ounce line and filled it with water. He tried to stick his elbow into the bottle. When he realized it wouldn't fit, he groaned and shoved his hand against his forehead.
Rose couldn't help herself. Josiah was so earnest and so eager to do a
gute
job. He hadn't counted on his elbow getting in the way. Arie was crying, Aaron stunk like a manure truck, dinner was a glob of mushy macaroni and cheese, and Josiah was trying to stick his elbow into a hole the diameter of a silver dollar. He had obviously had a very hard afternoon.
Rose started to giggle.
He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. A low chuckle rumbled in his throat. The chuckle became gut-splitting laughter. Aaron and Alvin stopped wrestling and looked at their
onkel
as if he were doing tricks for their entertainment.
He laughed until tears sprang to his eyes. “I'm sorry, Rose. For sure and certain,
Gotte
brought you here to save my niece and nephews from their onkel Josiah.”
Rose laughed. “Maybe I came to save you from them.”
He smiled with a soft light in his eyes. “I've never heard you laugh before.”
“Really?”
“
Jah.
This is the first time.”
She was probably blushing all the way to her toes. He acted as if her laughing was the greatest thing to happen to him all week. Surely she was imagining things. She lowered her eyes and studied the words on the formula can. She didn't even know what she was reading. “Do you want to try the elbow thing again?” she said.
“What should I do?”
“Stick your elbow under the running water, then, when it's the right temperature, fill the bottle.”
He grinned. “Seems so simple.”
He emptied the bottle, turned the water on again, and stuck his elbow under the stream of water. He filled the bottle and studied it very carefully to make sure he'd gotten just the right amount.
“Put two scoops of formula in with the water and shake it,” Rose said, bouncing the baby with increased desperation. The baby's fussing would soon become screaming again.
Josiah shook the bottle, and little drops of formula flew all over the kitchen. Rose did not even comment on it. Neither did he. He simply wiped a spot of formula from his cheek and handed her the bottle. Rose sat down in the chair next to the sofa, cradled Arie in her arms, and pressed the bottle to Arie's lips. Arie clamped her gums together and arched her back as if Rose were trying to feed her a sprig of asparagus. Rose pulled the bottle away, and Arie started screaming.
Who knew such a little baby could make such a loud noise?
Rose stuck the nipple into Arie's open mouth, and Arie coughed and choked and screamed all the louder. Okay. Not a
gute
idea to trick a baby. Rose tried again. Arie would have none of it. She was hungry but wouldn't eat.
Josiah knelt beside her chair. Aaron immediately jumped on his back. “Do you want me to hold the bottle?”
“Okay. We can try it.”
Josiah growled like a bear, picked up giggling Aaron, and deposited him on the sofa before coming back to Rose and taking the bottle. Rose cradled Arie while Josiah tried to press the bottle into her mouth. Arie cried as if her heart would break.
“I'm sorry,” Josiah said. “I don't know what to do.”
Rose took the bottle from Josiah and stood up. She bounced up and down while cradling Arie in one arm. With the other hand, she tried again to feed Arie. Arie smacked her lips and opened her mouth. Rose kept bouncing with one arm clinging to Arie for dear life. Arie decided she liked being fed while standing. She clamped down and started sucking.
Josiah cocked an eyebrow. “That is one determined baby.”
Rose smiled at him. “If she's happy, I'm happy.”
“Me too.”
While Rose bounced around the room and fed Arie, Josiah changed Aaron's diaper, cleaned up the ribbon of toilet paper, and led his nephews in gathering up the wet towels and putting down dry ones in their place. Once the floor was somewhat dry, the three of them played grizzly bear. Josiah made very realistic bear noises and tickled them until they begged him to stop and then begged him to do it again. Rose couldn't help but think of her own
fater
. Had he ever thrown her up in the air like that when she was little? Had he ever tickled her or read her bedtime stories? She had no memory of his loving her the way Josiah clearly loved his nephews.
It was just another way
Gotte
punished her for her selfishness. Her parents were lost to her in more ways than one.
Rose thought her arm might fall off, but she kept a determined grip on the baby while she ate. After a few minutes, Arie's eyes started to droop. Rose carefully and smoothly sat down in the chair but tried to pretend she was still standing. Arie didn't seem to notice a difference. Rose relaxed against the back of the chair while Arie finished her bottle and fell asleep.
Rose shifted Arie so the baby was snuggled against her chest and patted her back until she got a burp. She stood and looked at Josiah. “I'll put her down,” she whispered and pointed up the stairs.
Josiah nodded, looked at the boys, and pressed his finger to his lips to tell them they needed to be quiet. Alvin immediately began singing a loud song, but Arie didn't even flinch. With two older brothers, she had probably learned how to sleep through anything.
Rose found the crib upstairs and tucked a light blanket around Arie's chin. There was nothing more precious than a sleeping baby, especially with two busy toddlers downstairs. She massaged her arm while she gazed out the window. It would get dark soon. A tendril of anxiety crawled up her spine at the thought of taking the buggy out on the dark roads. She should leave before it was too late.
But there were still two hungry children and one very unsure uncle downstairs. What if Josiah tried to fix the boys something to eat and Arie woke up? Suvie only had so many pans to spare. Rose would just have to be brave for Alvin and Aaron's sake. And Josiah's sake too.
She went downstairs, where Josiah had one boy thrown over each of his shoulders and was spinning them around the room. She glanced out the window again. “Who wants pancakes?”
Josiah stopped spinning and set the boys on their feet.
“I do,” squealed Alvin.
“I too,” echoed Aaron.
Josiah placed his hands on his hips and studied her face. “Are you sure? You've already saved me. If you're more comfortable leaving, I understand.”
Rose managed to smile past her anxiety. “We don't want the boys to start eating the furniture.”
He stared at her for a few moments before nodding. “Can I help?”
“Can you crack eggs?”
“I scramble myself three eggs every morning,” he said.
Because he was an orphan and cooked for himself. The thought of Josiah all alone in that big house made Rose a little sad.
“Hey,” he said, leaning over to catch her eye. “Did I say something to upset you?”
She gave him a flicker of a smile. “Of course not.” Could he truly read every subtlety in her face like that? “I was just thinking that you probably keep a lot of chickens busy.”
“They do not like to see me coming.”
Josiah scrambled eggs and tried to keep the boys from tearing down the house while Rose made her favorite whole-wheat pancake batter and set the table. The pancake batter sizzled on the griddle while Josiah swooped both boys into their booster seats and put bibs on them. They said silent grace, and then Josiah served each of the boys a pancake with syrup and cut the pancakes into bite-sized pieces.
Rose finished flipping pancakes and sat down to eat with Alvin on one side and Aaron on the other. Aaron ate three pancakes and polished off a good portion of the eggs. Alvin couldn't stop talking about his pet snake that his
mamm
made him keep in the backyard and how it ate mice and rabbits. Josiah listened with patience to Alvin's stories, and Rose did her best to understand what Aaron said. Aaron was just learning to talk, and sometimes Alvin had to interpret for him.
“These aren't just pancakes,” Josiah said. “These would make an Amish
mammi
cry, they're so
gute
.”
Rose tried not to notice the darkening sky outside the kitchen window. It would be okay. Surely she would make it home this one time, and then she'd never have to go out in the dark again.
Aaron was more syrup than boy by the time he finished. Rose gave him a kiss on the top of his head. “Do you think Suvie would mind if I gave them a bath?”
“You've done so much, Rose. How could I even ask?”
She forced another reassuring smile. The boys needed her. “If you'll carry them up, I'll wash them.”
Josiah grabbed a boy in each arm and practically flew up the stairs. He deposited them in the bathroom. “I'll do the dishes.”
Alvin looked a little concerned about being left with a strange girl in the bathroom. “But Onkel Josiah,” he said. His lip quivered slightly.
Josiah squatted next to Alvin and helped him take off his shirt. “When you have taken a bath, I will come and read you a story.”
“Will you read the one about the wolf?”
“
Jah.
Take a bath first.”
Rose filled the tub and washed the boys while she heard dishes and pans clattering in the kitchen. How many young men would babysit and do the dishes?
Rose helped Aaron out of the tub first and cuddled him in his fluffy towel. She dried his hair and put on his diaper. After draining the tub, she lifted Alvin into a towel, giving him a warm hug. He wiggled his arms out of his towel and hugged her back. “I love you,” he said and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“I love you too,” she said and kissed him right back.
Rose looked out the window again. It was almost full dark, but she couldn't leaveânot until the boys were in bed and there was no danger of Josiah's starting a fire.
As soon as the boys were in their nightclothes with their teeth brushed, Josiah came tromping up the stairs. He placed a hand on Rose's arm and sent a jolt of electricity all the way to her toes. “Rose, I don't know how to . . . you are like an angel sent from heaven. You always have been.”
Her heart felt lighter than air and heavy as a stone at the same time. She had watched Josiah deal so nobly, so faithfully, with the death of his parents, never questioning
Gotte
, never saying an unkind word, even in his pain, reaching out and pulling his sister through her grief.
Rose was the weak, fearful one. Josiah was the one with a
gute
and faithful heart, and yet he was looking at her as if she were indeed an angel. She didn't know what he wanted, but she knew she'd be a disappointment to him. She almost melted into a puddle of nerves and impossible expectations, but there'd been enough puddles in the house for one day. She'd have to fall apart in the privacy of her own home.
If she ever got home. It was going to be dark as pitch by the time she left.
Alvin handed Josiah the wolf book, and he sat in the rocker and cuddled the boys on his lap. Rose felt as if she were intruding on a very private moment. Maybe she should slip downstairs.
“Don't go,” Josiah said.
“
Ach
. I don't mind waiting downstairs.”
He studied her face with a grin playing at his lips. “Don't you want to hear the wolf story?”
“He barks at the moon,” Alvin said.
Aaron clapped his hands.
Rose sat on the edge of the bed. “Then I better stay and listen.”
Josiah, so mild-mannered and unassuming, turned out to be a very
gute
storyteller. He did all the voices, including a high-pitched one for the farmer's wife and a low, gravelly voice for the wolf. Rose was just as mesmerized as the boys were.
She lingered in the doorway as Josiah tucked his nephews into bed and kissed them good night. He followed Rose out the door and shut it behind him. “Suvie always tells me that bedtime is her favorite part of the day,” he whispered. “Now I understand why.” They stood facing each other in the hall, and Josiah seemed to get closer without even moving. “I'm sorry that you've been here hours longer than you planned. I'm hopeless as a babysitter. But . . . I'm not sorry you came. You saved me. I just hope you didn't have somewhere you had to be tonight.”