“Good morning, Moses,” she said.
“Morning, Mamm.”
“Is that all of your dirty clothes?” Delia asked.
“Yah.”
“Will I find any socks or shirts behind your door?”
“No.” But he stopped on the staircase.
“Are you sure?”
Moses turned around and headed back up. Yah, that was what she thought. Aaron and Thomas came back up from the basement, and Ezekiel Jr. came down the stairs with his own hamper. She never had to check up on Ezekiel. His side of the room he shared with Thomas would be neat and clean, and his clothes would be hung up and put away. The minute he’d started dating a girl in the community, he’d suddenly gotten more responsible and neat. He never wanted Beulah to catch him looking rumpled.
Delia got the plates to set the table and snagged a jug of syrup on her way past. When Ezekiel was coming up from the basement, Moses was headed back down the stairs again.
“Hurry up, Moses,” Aaron said. “We’re hungry.”
“I’m hungry, too!” Moses retorted.
“Hurry up, then,” Thomas said.
“Here—pass me your hamper,” Ezekiel said, and he took the clothes hamper from his brother. “Go sit down.”
Ezekiel was a little bossy, but he did streamline things around the home, and he trotted down the basement stairs, returning a couple of minutes later with a pair of suspenders in one hand. He handed them over to Moses, whose face went red. Moses was at a sensitive age, and he was easily embarrassed.
“Okay, boys, let’s say grace before the food gets cold,” Delia said, and they all bowed their heads.
The boys ate quickly, and it seemed that their earnestness about helping out more from the night before hadn’t faded away, as she’d expected. They finished eating, and Ezekiel started barking orders.
“Moses, clear the table. Aaron, you start washing dishes, and Thomas—you dry. I’m going to sweep the kitchen,” Ezekiel said. “Then we all head out and clean the stable together—it’ll be quicker that way, and Mamm won’t have to clean up after us like a bunch of babies.”
“Thank you, boys,” Delia said. “I appreciate this.”
They got to work with a lot more clatter and banging than she would have liked, but she wasn’t about to say anything to stop this wonderful display of helpfulness. Delia went down to the basement to start the water filling into the wringer washer, and when she heard a knock, she came back upstairs.
Ezekiel was just letting Violet and Elias into the house.
“Morning, Elias,” Ezekiel said brusquely, sounding a little too much like he thought himself an equal, to Delia’s ear.
“Good morning!” she called, trying to offset her son’s sternness.
Elias smiled, and Violet glanced between them uneasily. Had he dropped the news on his daughter that he’d be “courting”?
“I thought I’d come by and say hello, since Violet was coming to start work.”
Elias shot her a conspiratorial smile, and she found herself smiling back. This might be fun...pretending to be something more than they were. She did miss having some male company. Men were different than women when chatting in a kitchen. They saw the world differently, and she missed having a grown man to discuss things with—more than she’d realized.
“That’s very nice,” Delia said. “I’m glad you did. My boys are just finishing up a few chores, and if you’d like some coffee, I was about to start some.”
“Coffee would be great,” he said with a nod.
“I could even whip up a fresh batch of muffins. The kinner will need some snack food later, as it is,” she said.
“Mamm, you don’t have to do that,” Thomas interjected from the sink where he and Aaron were doing the dishes. “There’s plenty of leftovers. Plus the dry bread. We’ll make milky tea and dip bread in it.”
“Yah, that’s what we’ll have,” Aaron agreed quickly.
“I like muffins—” Moses started and was knocked between the shoulder blades by Ezekiel’s broom. “Oh, I mean, I don’t want them.”
Delia rolled her eyes. “Boys, I love you all so much, but you need to focus on your own work and let me plan my own day.”
Ezekiel finished filling a dustpan, then put the broom away in a cupboard. He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed Elias. She’d made it clear the night before that she’d be spending some time with Elias, and now she could see how her sons were going to react to that.
“Sorry, Mamm,” Ezekiel said. “We just don’t want to make more work for you. You work hard enough as it is.”
“And I’ve survived this long,” Delia said. “You’re very sweet to worry about how hard I work, but I want muffins to snack on for myself, too.”
Ezekiel smiled a little bashfully, and her heart gave a tumble. These boys could do that so easily!
“Nice day out there,” Ezekiel said, turning to Elias.
“Yah, very nice,” Elias agreed. “How is my daughter doing with her job?”
Elias looked fixedly at Ezekiel, not at Delia, and she waited for her son to answer.
“She’s doing all right. She’s learning as she goes,” Ezekiel said.
