Edna’s question brought Phoebe’s thoughts back to the present. She grabbed a couple of pot holders and pulled the cheesy, bubbling dish from the oven and replaced it with the dish holding the cobbler Edna had talked her through preparing earlier.
She liked Edna’s way of instructing. Rather than using measuring cups and spoons, Edna showed her how to approximate measures in the palm of her hand, or with a coffee cup for larger quantities, and then mix by hand and “feel” when it was right.
As for side dishes, she’d decided to make green beans and copper pennies, a carrot recipe she was able to prepare with just a little help from Edna.
As she worked at the stove, Phoebe hummed. She felt a sense of satisfaction in what she was accomplishing. This was the first time she’d actually planned and cooked an entire meal herself. True, she’d had some help from Edna, but it had been instruction, not hands-on. And she’d carefully tasted each dish, just to make sure, and they were gut. Maybe not as gut as if Mamm had prepared them, but more than passing gut. It was a meal she was looking forward to serving the Beilers.
She just hoped it would make a gut enough impression to make up for her earlier mishaps.
At the sound of a knock, Seth looked up from his desk. Mark poked his head inside with a quick “Supper’s ready,” then disappeared, leaving the door open a crack.
Seth finished making a note in his invoice ledger then stood.
He hadn’t gotten quite as much work done as he’d intended. He blamed it on the break in his routine—having a new person in their household always took a little getting used to.
And the encounter in the kitchen earlier had left him on edge. Because of her strange reaction of course—it had nothing to do with the feel of her trim waist in his grasp.
Why had she immediately felt called upon to explain that she wasn’t clumsy when the thought hadn’t entered his mind? Was it because she’d dropped the cookies when she arrived this morning? He hoped she wasn’t someone who needed constant reassurances.
Seth stepped into the kitchen a few moments later to find that Daniel had arrived home while he was in his office. And apparently he’d been introduced to Phoebe because he was already talking her ear off about his work on the Fretz apple orchard, including how he was trying to convince John Fretz to try some new grafting techniques.
Seth decided to rescue her. “Daniel, why don’t you let Phoebe set the table while you get the milk out.”
Phoebe gave him a smile then moved to the sideboard. “Your brieder tell me you don’t normally wait very long for Levi to arrive.”
“That’s right. Levi knows what time we eat. When he has to work late we just make sure to put a serving aside for him.”
“I’ll do that right now.” And she grabbed a tin pie plate and scooped up a generous serving of each dish, then covered it with foil and set it in the still-warm oven.
Seth took his place at the head of the table. Two chairs to his right were open. The one next to him was where Edna normally sat and the one to her right was Levi’s place.
He caught Phoebe’s gaze and waved to the second chair. “You can just take Levi’s seat since he’s not here. I’ll pull up an extra chair before breakfast.”
Phoebe nodded and moved to the chair he’d indicated, but before she could sit, Edna slipped over and took that seat instead.
“You take that one on the end,” she said as she settled in more comfortably. “It’ll be easier since you’re left-handed.”
Seth saw the pink bloom in Phoebe’s cheeks. Was she self-conscious about being left-handed? Truth to tell, he hadn’t noticed it until Edna pointed it out.
As soon as she settled in her seat they bent their heads for prayer. When Seth looked up again he turned to Phoebe. “So what have you prepared for our meal?”
The new housekeeper smiled. “There’s a cheesy chicken and macaroni casserole, green beans with bacon, and copper penny carrots.”
Copper pennies! Seth tried to maintain his smile while his stomach rebelled. He’d had a bad reaction to that particular dish several years ago and hadn’t been able to stomach them since. There were a couple of snickers around the table—all of his brieder knew about his feelings on the dish.
“Well, that all sounds delicious,” Daniel said, coming to his rescue. “I’ll dish up the macaroni casserole since it’s here by me and too large to send around. You all just pass your plates this way.”
Edna dished herself some green beans and passed the bowl, while Kish did the same with the carrots.
Seth kept his eyes on the bowl of carrots as it came closer and closer to him. When the bowl made it to Mark, who sat to his left, he thrust his plate at Daniel, asking for a generous portion of the casserole. When Mark passed him the carrots, his stomach rolled over and he quickly passed it along to Phoebe.
“But you didn’t get any for yourself,” Phoebe protested as she accepted the bowl.
He waved to his plate, still in Daniel’s hand. “No need to wait on me. Go ahead and pass it along.”
She gave him a searching look, then nodded, serving herself and passing the bowl on to Edna.
Seth was careful to get a large serving of green beans when that bowl made it to him.
As they dug into their meal, Kish piped up from across the table. “Hey, Seth, I see you missed getting carrots. Want me to pass the bowl back your way?”
There was a snicker in the boy’s voice and he saw several other of his brieder hiding smirks. It wasn’t often they were able to get the best of him, and it seemed they were enjoying this.
“Nee. I believe that this delicious casserole and these green beans will be enough to fill me up.”
He resisted the urge to glance Phoebe’s way, instead giving Kish the full force of his glare.
This was normally one of his favorite times of the day. When all his brieder were gathered together—well, almost all—and they were talking about how their day had gone. It kept him feeling connected to them, made him feel like all was as it should be in his home.
But this evening he was worried about having insulted Phoebe, which for some reason made him irritated with her.
The moment of awkwardness was broken when Edna spoke up. “That just leaves more for the rest of us.” She pointed her fork at Seth’s plate. “Unlike the green beans, which seem to be going fast.”
After that the conversation moved on to other topics and no further mention was made of the copper pennies.
