Living in Harmony by Mary Ellis

Author:Mary Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736942867
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.

Cold drops of water trickled down Thomas’s neck. He repositioned his felt hat and tugged up his collar to no avail. The way the wind whipped the rain around, he would find no protection from the sudden storm. The sooner he finished fixing the break in the fence, the sooner he could dry out in his warm kitchen. After one last twist with the pliers, tightening the top wire, he restored a barrier between his Holsteins and the rest of Waldo County—at least until his bull decided again to judge for himself whether the grass was greener elsewhere.

On his way back to the house, movement caught Thomas’s attention from the corner of his eye. He turned his face into a blast of cold rain and spotted Sally’s laundry still on the clothesline. Shirts, pants, and towels flapped in the wind, certainly wetter now than after Sally had cranked them through the wringer. Thomas looked down at the flagstone path just in time to avoid calamity. Aden’s blue plastic wheelbarrow, purchased last summer at a garage sale, had been left on the walkway. His son used the toy to haul stones in between the rows in Sally’s garden, providing hours of helpful distraction for mother and child alike. Now discarded and filled with muddy water, it almost sent Thomas stumbling.

He stomped his boots on the porch, shed his soggy coat while still outdoors, and stepped into a scene of chaos. A pot of something green and sticky bubbled and spattered on the stove. Jeremiah wailed from his cradle. Aden sat at the kitchen table, playing in rather than eating his oatmeal. And Sally? His fraa was up to her elbows in flour, baking powder, and solid shortening.

Thomas toed off his boots to leave on the rubber mat. He strode to the stove, waiting to converse until after pouring a strong, hot cup of coffee fortified with two spoonfuls of sugar. Then he cleared his throat. “It’s quite a downpour outside, and you forgot about your laundry on the line. Will you have to start from scratch?” He watched her over the mug’s rim.

“I don’t know,” she replied, not glancing up from kneading dough.

“I nearly broke my neck on Aden’s wheelbarrow. Why did he not put it in the shed or at least tuck it under the porch?”

“Dunno.” Her single word expressed no reaction whatsoever. But with the mention of the child’s name, Sally looked at her son and said in rapid-fire Deutsch the equivalent of “Stop playing with it and eat!” Then she slapped the dough ball down on her floured baking board, sending up a white cloud into the air.

Thomas took a long, slow sip of coffee. With Amy King gone for two days, his household had deteriorated into worse shape than before the sisters’ arrival. And his normally cheerful wife had turned snappish and sullen, a condition he was rapidly tiring of.

“Where is Nora on this fine autumn morning?” He leaned back on the counter and focused his attention on her.

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