He started to respond but she held up a hand. “Yes, I know there are consistency and quality issues that whoever helped would need to be aware of, but that’s something that can be emphasized. In fact, you can check behind us the first few times we perform the task.”
He shifted slightly, unable to find a strong argument to counter her proposal. But apparently she wasn’t done yet.
“There’s something else I’d like you to think about.”
What now? “I’m listening.”
“When I’m doing the mending, I like to work on all the pieces that need to have buttons sewn on first, then all the ones that need to have seams restitched, then all the ones that need to be patched, and so forth. Do you know why I approach it that way?”
She was comparing mending to carving chess sets? Didn’t she know how to stay on topic? “I suppose it’s because it’s easier to do one type of task at a time than to switch back and forth.”
She beamed at him as if he were wonderfully clever. “Jah. And what if you approached your work the same way. Rather than doing one set from start to finish you did it by part?”
“I’m not sure—”
Before he could finish, she again jumped in. “Suppose, for instance, you made all the boards and storage drawers first? Then, while you move on to making the chess pieces, I could line all the drawers. And someone, say Jesse, could hand-polish the finished boards and pieces. And Kish could cut the blocks you need. Levi, Daniel and Mark could help as available and as needed.”
He stroked his beard. It wasn’t the way he liked to work, but how to let her down gently? “It sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.”
She nodded. “Most of last night. To be honest, I wasn’t sure you’d really want to listen to my advice on matters of business.”
That hit him wrong. “I like to think I’m always willing to listen.”
Her chin came up. “That’s gut. Because I decided if Gotte had placed it on my heart, I had no business keeping it to myself. What you decide to do with my suggestions, however, is up to you.”
He could tell she was earnest and obviously meant well but she had no idea what implementing this would take. “I appreciate you trying to help. Changing my entire process might be a gut idea if I had time to play with this awhile and could take the time to get everyone trained and make tweaks to the process where needed. But since I’m already backlogged, I don’t see that I could take the risk right now of getting even further behind.”
He saw the disappointment clearly displayed on her face and posture but she nodded. “It’s your business so of course you must do it as you see fit.” She moved to the sink. “Now I need to get the breakfast dishes clean and then tackle the laundry. And I’m sure you have things to do as well.”
Seth headed out into the windy day, turning his jacket collar up against the cold. It wasn’t raining or snowing but there was a touch of moisture in the air.
He knew his response had disappointed her but there was no help for it. What she’d proposed sounded gut on the surface but she really didn’t understand the way he worked.
Besides, he liked to have his hands on the whole process, it was important to him to know that his standards of quality were upheld in every part of it.
That would be impossible if he parceled out the work.
Did that make him prideful?
Chapter 19
Phoebe attacked the dishes with a little more vigor than was absolutely necessary. That conversation hadn’t gone as well as expected. He hadn’t brushed her suggestions off entirely but she suspected that was just him being kind. From his demeanor she didn’t think he would ask for much help even after Christmas when his backlog was under control.
But she would respect his decision and just do her best not to add anything extra to his workload. And maybe she could help him in other areas so he had more productive time for his work on the chess sets.
For now she would make sure she got her own work done. Which meant tackling the laundry, and with a household of six active men and boys, that was quite a chore. But Phoebe tackled it with gusto.
Because it was too cold to hang the laundry outdoors and have any chance it would dry, she planned to use the lines that were hung in the basement for just that purpose. She tackled the clothing first and then went on to wash and hang the towels and bedding.
By the time she finished, it was nearly lunchtime. She barely had time to throw together a fruit salad, complete with some chopped pecans tossed in, to go with their sandwiches.
She hoped when Seth came in for lunch there wouldn’t be any awkwardness based on their earlier conversation.
When Seth entered the house for lunch, he nodded Phoebe’s way as he headed for the stack of mail on the counter.
There were three envelopes addressed to him. The first two contained final payments for chess sets he’d shipped last week. The third was an order from someone who wanted to know if he could produce four sets for him before Christmas. The man even said that since it was a last-minute order, he would pay a 50 percent premium.
“Is something wrong?”
Seth looked up to see Phoebe watching him with a worried frown as she set the small platter of ham on the table. He grimaced as he moved to fetch the bread. “I just received a generous offer for four of my chess sets.”
“Isn’t that a gut thing?”
“Jah, normally it would be.” He set the loaf on the table. “But since I’m already so backed up, I can’t possibly accept another order.”
“Ach, that’s too bad.”
To her credit she didn’t bring up their earlier conversation, but the memory of it hung in the air between them. Especially since this order could have made a big difference for him and his entire household.
Once they’d served their plates, Phoebe brought up a different subject entirely. “I realized this morning that I never asked you what space you hold the service in when it’s hosted here.”
“The basement. It’s a bit crowded but we manage.”
“Then I need to study the space and figure out what can be moved somewhere else temporarily.”
“Jah. But my brieder can help with that. And there’s a spare room upstairs that can be used for temporary storage.”