“She sounds like a gut friend.” He would prefer a younger person but the woman’s nurturing skills would come in handy with his brieder.
Edna nodded. “She is. And she will be a gut person to take care of you and your brieder until my hand is healed.”
He raised a brow. “You mean take care of our house, don’t you?” Then he nodded. “Whatever the case, if you’ll vouch for her, then that’s gut enough for me.”
His response seemed to startle her. “It is?”
“Jah.” He spread his hands. “Of course I’ll need to discuss wages with her, but I’m sure we can reach a decision we can both live with.”
“Gut. Because I just spoke to her and she plans to arrive tomorrow morning.”
So she’d been coming back from the phone shanty when he spotted her. Edna leaned back in her chair, and her expression took on a pleased-with-herself air. He crossed his arms. “Not that I’m ungrateful, but that was a bit presumptuous, don’t you think? What would you have done if I’d said I preferred someone I know?”
She shrugged without any sign of repentance. “What’s done is done. I didn’t think you would turn down the help and I wanted to make sure Phoebe was willing before I got your hopes up.”
Recognizing that Edna was a force unto herself, he decided not to let her I-know-best attitude irritate him. Instead he’d just be glad she’d found a solution to their current problem so quickly.
“Of course she’ll stay in the dawdi haus with me,” Edna continued. “And I can show her around and explain what she needs to know here so you won’t need to worry about the time it’ll take to get her familiar with everything.”
“Sounds as if you have it all figured out. Is there anything I need to know about this friend of yours?”
“As I said earlier, Phoebe is kind and supportive. She’s also a bit unconventional, which in my estimation is a gut thing. As for the rest, I think I’ll let you discover it on your own.”
“Unconventional? You do understand that I prefer to have someone who’ll bring a sense of order to our home. My brieder need structure, not more chaos.”
“Don’t you worry, Phoebe will bring just what’s needed to this household.”
He had a feeling there was something she wasn’t telling him. “Do you mind if I ask why she would come all this way to help someone she doesn’t know, and during the Christmas season at that? Doesn’t she have familye of her own?”
“Of course. In fact she’s agreed to come here with the understanding that she’ll need to return home for two or three days around Christmas.”
He nodded. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Gut.” Edna stood. “Now I’ll let you get back to your work and I’ll get to mine, what little I can do anyway.”
Was she trying to avoid any more questions he might have? Seth stood and moved to the door. Then he remembered tomorrow was Tuesday. “I’ll make my weekly trip to town today so I’ll be here when she arrives tomorrow. Let me know if you need anything from the market.”
Edna nodded, then her eyes widened. “Ach, I almost forgot.”
Seth turned back to see her removing something from her sling.
“I fetched the mail while I was at the phone shanty. Looks like you have a couple of new orders.”
Seth smothered a groan as he moved to take the mail from her. New orders were a gut thing. The money he made on the chess sets he handcrafted went a long way toward supplementing their income. But he’d gotten a whole lot more orders this year than he’d expected and everyone wanted them delivered in time for Christmas. He’d just have to find a way to work faster and put in additional hours between now and Christmas.
As he headed toward his workshop Seth mulled over what Edna had told him. It was gut that they had a new housekeeper coming. He wondered if Edna’s friend would be at all like Edna herself. Hopefully she’d have his aenti’s energy if not her personality. And it would be gut for Edna to have a friend living here with her. It probably hadn’t been easy for her to be on her own in this all-male household.
His only concern was that, unlike Edna, she’d be too soft, too sympathetic to be able to keep up with his brieder.
Then his thoughts turned to what else she’d discussed with him. Much as he hated to admit it, she was probably right about him needing to consider marrying again. His brieder might be getting older, but the two youngest could definitely do with a woman who could fill the role of mamm in their lives. His and Dinah’s marriage had certainly not been a love match, but they’d been gut friends and each understood their roles. She’d genuinely loved his brieder as if they had been her own kinner, and his load had certainly been lighter when she’d been around.
He mulled the idea over the rest of the morning while he ran his errands in town.
When he returned and went inside to grab a sandwich for lunch, he spotted Edna reading her Bible in the living room.
“Aenti, I’ve been thinking over what you said earlier about me needing a fraa and perhaps you’re right. Life was certainly easier and calmer when Dinah was still alive.”
Edna set her Bible in her lap. “Easier and calmer—is that what you’re looking for?”
She said that as if it was the wrong answer. “Of course. After all, that’s what’s needed here.”
“I notice you didn’t mention anything about love.”
He spread his hands. “Naturally I would want someone who is loving and Gotte fearing, someone who can offer friendship and mutual respect.” He shrugged. “Other than that, I’d like to find someone just like Dinah—organized, confident, efficient.”
“And do you know of someone like that?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been thinking on that since we spoke this morning and no one comes to mind. Perhaps I need to look outside of Sweetbrier Creek to find such a woman. Would you know of anyone in Bergamot who fits that description?”
Edna nodded. “Let me think on it. I might be able to find just the girl for you.”
“Danke.”
In the meantime, perhaps he’d ask his cousin Caleb in Sugarcreek and his cousin Zilla in Franklin if they could recommend anyone. Actually, he’d go ahead and get letters out to them today.
With any luck he might be doing some long-distance courting by the time Edna’s friend was ready to return home. In fact, he might even be engaged before Edna herself left them.
This promised to be the answer to his problems—with a woman moving in as his fraa, what need would he have for a housekeeper?