“We’ll go, too,” Thomas said. “It’s only right.”
“And I’m going!” Moses added. “If they’re all going, I want to, too!”
“Fine, fine, but stay together and bring Violet straight back,” Delia said. “And if she won’t come, then Elias will go, and I’ll go find Liam’s grandparents. Liam has to go back home sometime, and I know Art Speicher won’t be allowing that kind of behavior to continue.”
And somehow Delia’s no-nonsense plan soothed his frustration better than anything else could. She was thinking ahead about things he wasn’t even considering yet in his shocked state. Her head was more level than his was right now, and he was grateful for her in this moment.
“Do you think this will work?” Elias asked.
“I think so,” Delia replied, and she put that reassuring hand on his arm again. “Give her the chance to do the right thing, Elias. I think she has it in her.”
Chapter Twelve
Delia set a cup of tea in front of Elias and nudged a plate of bread closer to him. He recognized this loaf as one his mother had sent over the other day, and he picked some up. They’d been waiting now for nearly half an hour, and Delia was mentally calculating how long it would take her boys to get to the creek and back again.
From the wall next to the calendar, the clock ticked softly, but oh, so slowly. She could only imagine his worry right now, and all she could do was try to comfort him with what she had on hand—his mother’s baking and a cup of tea.
“We had just talked about this, Delia,” Elias said, shaking his head. “We’d just talked about what it would mean if she jumped the fence. How she’d be leaving her family behind, and how I couldn’t be there for her the way she’d need. I really thought I’d gotten through to her!”
Delia sat down in the seat kitty-corner to his, and she felt some heat in her own face. “I think we both know that understanding there is no future with someone doesn’t take away the feelings...”
Elias paused, then smiled ruefully. “Yah, but that’s no comfort right now, Delia.”
“My point is, tonight doesn’t mean she’s making any permanent decisions. She’s just...reacting. Not thinking. Like teenagers do.”
Elias sighed. “Would you be this calm if this were one of your kinner?”
If this were Ezekiel or Thomas or Aaron? She’d be hopping mad, and she’d be looking to Elias for some sort of perspective on how teenage boys thought.
“No,” she said. “If this were reversed, you’d be calming me down. I’d be a wreck.”
“Somehow, that makes me feel better,” he said, and he cast her a tender smile.
“I was going to tell you that my stepfather came by today,” she said.
“Joseph? Is your mamm okay?” he asked.
“Yah. There is medication that will help her,” she said. “Thank Gott!”
“That’s good news,” he said.
“But more than that,” she went on. “I had a good talk with Joseph about what it was like after he married my mamm. I felt ignored, but so did he.”
“He really opened up?” Elias asked.
“He did.” She felt her eyes mist with the memory. “He didn’t know how to be a stepdaet, and I realized that I didn’t know how to accept another father into my life. He meant well, though. Joseph is a good man.”
“I always thought he was, too,” Elias said. “Does that mean you and he have...made peace?”
“I think we have,” Delia said. “He pointed out that sometimes what we need most is to learn how to accept someone into our lives—not to avoid it. And he had wanted to be more in our lives, but he hadn’t known how.”
“That’s insightful,” he murmured.
“He also said that kinner don’t know what they need. They just...need! And sometimes what they need is to have a stepparent know how to love them, and accept them. I know that for me, I lost out on a lot of love and support that could have been mine if I’d only known how to accept a new daet in our home.”
Elias stilled, and for three ticks of that clock, he didn’t move. Did he understand yet what she’d realized? She wasn’t sure how to bring this up—not gracefully, at least. His gaze moved up to meet hers, questions shining in his eyes.
“Do you mean—” he started, but then the sound of hooves and wheels cut him off. She sighed. There was no more time. Maybe Gott was intervening, and she shouldn’t tell him what she’d realized. There were kinner who needed their parents right now. Just because they loved each other didn’t mean they belonged together, either.
Elias stood up and went over to the window, shading his eyes. For a moment he stood there with the tension of a coiled spring, and then his shoulders relaxed.
“There she is...” he said.
His daughter. That was where his heart belonged. Delia joined him at the window. Ezekiel had already gotten out of the buggy, and Violet was climbing down with a hand from Ezekiel. Her face was tearstained, and the other boys hopped down after her. There was the sound of boys’ chatter, and Violet wiped her face with the flat of her hand.
Delia put a hand on Elias’s shoulder, and he looked down at her.
“Okay... Okay...” He swallowed hard. “I can’t mess this up.”
Delia knew what he was worried about—saying the wrong thing, showing anger or maybe not showing enough! She knew he was worried about getting this wrong and having it affect Violet for the rest of her life, but from where Delia stood, what Violet needed was her daet’s love. That was it.
“Just go hug her,” Delia said.
He nodded and headed for the side door, but before he could get there, it was flung open and Moses came in, followed by Aaron. The other boys would be unhitching the buggy, Delia imagined. Violet came up behind, and when she appeared in the doorway of the mudroom, her face crumpled, and instead of going to her father, she dashed past him and flung herself into Delia’s arms.
Delia instinctively wrapped her arms around the girl, and she shot Elias a look of wide-eyed surprise. He just shrugged, and Delia patted the girl’s back.
“I think this calls for a girl talk,” Delia said quietly. “It’s okay.”
