Philip and Thomas stomped into the house just as lunch was being served. Mark and Caleb followed close behind. Mark’s bottom lip was pooched out in a pout.
Josephine smiled at the little boy. “Mark, you are going to trip on that lip if you don’t pull it back in.”
Everyone laughed as he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. Mark ignored their laughter and climbed up on one of the logs that served as dining table chairs. “Philip wouldn’t let me help,” he told Bella.
“He wouldn’t?” she asked.
Mark shook his small head. “Nope, he said I’m too little.”
“He is too little,” Caleb said. “I’m not. I got to hand up the shakes to cover the holes.”
Philip ruffled the little boy’s hair as he walked past him. “He did a good job, too.”
“That’s good, Caleb. I’m proud of you.” Bella grinned. She looked back to the pouting Mark. “You are still too little to hand up those heavy pieces of wood. Don’t pout. You get to do lots of things.”
Mark didn’t look any happier, but honestly there wasn’t much Philip or Bella could do about it. The little boy was too small to be working on a roof.
Philip heard Bella try to distract Mark from his pouting. “You and Caleb get to have a picnic in the living room or on the front porch. Mark, where would you like to have it at?”
“I don’t care.”
“I want to sit by the fire, Aunt Bella. I’m a little cold,” Caleb answered.
Thomas and Philip returned from washing their hands. “Your turn, boys. Go wash your hands,” Philip ordered as he took his place at the table.
Bella looked from Philip to her nephews. Caleb ran to the washbasin in a hurry to do his bidding. Mark went also, but at a much slower pace. She turned questioning eyes on him. “Philip?”
He looked up at her. “Let it go for now, Bella.”
She looked from Thomas to Josephine. He had to admire them. They both seemed busy filling plates with food, obviously not wanting to get into their family affairs.
“All right,” Bella finally said as she walked into the living room and laid a blanket down for the boys to sit on while they ate. It was clear that she didn’t like that Mark’s feelings were hurt, but that she also knew now wasn’t the time to talk to him about it. She sighed.
When the boys came back, Philip handed each of them a plate. “Thanks, Philip,” they both said.
Bella returned to the table and sat down. She and Josephine had already set the table with coffee, tea and a full plate for the four adults. Philip said a quick prayer and they all began to eat.
“I think we did a pretty good job on your roof,” Thomas said before taking a big bite of roast.
Philip nodded his agreement. “Hopefully we got all the holes and cracks covered.”
Bella seemed to be listening as they discussed the roof. Philip watched as her gaze continued to move to Mark.
The little boy ate with Caleb and seemed to have forgotten his aggravation at being left out of the repairs. Philip wanted to include Mark, but the boy didn’t want to do what they asked him to and so finally Philip had simply banned him from helping at all. He felt bad about it, but Mark had to learn to do as he was told even if it wasn’t what he wanted to do.
“Bella?”
She turned back to Josephine. “I’m sorry. What?”
“I was telling you that Hazel and I have come up with a way to have fresh bread all the time without baking it ourselves.” Josephine grinned across the table at her.
“You did?”
Philip marveled that Bella seemed to be dismayed at the thought of someone else baking bread for her and the other ladies. From the confused look on her face, she simply couldn’t imagine someone else doing her baking. He knew she enjoyed it.
“Yes, do you want to know how?”
Bella nodded.
“It was really Hazel’s idea.”
“What was Hazel’s idea?” Bella asked, sounding a little frustrated that Josephine wouldn’t just tell her what their plans were.
“You will bake our bread!” Josephine giggled.
“What?” Shock filled his new wife’s voice.
Josephine’s giggle turned into a full belly laugh. The boys stopped talking to each other and turned their attention to the women’s conversation.
Once she’d gotten control of her merriment, Josephine explained. “We thought you might like to trade us bread for milk and eggs. You could send my bread by Philip and the boys when they come to the relay station to help Thomas, and I could send back eggs.”
“Well, I’ll be. That makes perfect sense.” Philip held up one of her rolls. “You make wonderful bread and we could use the milk and eggs, since we don’t have our own cows or chickens yet.”
Josephine nodded. “That’s what we thought and we both love her bread. Hazel said that Bella’s sweetbread was even better than hers and that Bella is using her recipe.”
Thomas laughed. “Will you two let Bella get a word in edgewise?”
Bella smiled at him. “Thank you, Thomas.” She turned her attention back to Josephine. “I think it’s a great idea, too. I love baking, so it wouldn’t be any trouble to make extra loaves for you two.”
“Good, we’ll need to let Hazel know you’ve agreed to our bargain.” Josephine picked up her fork and began eating also.
Philip loved the way Bella’s eyes lit up when she was talking about bread. The woman truly loved to bake. He knew she’d worked in a bakery before she’d taken on her nephews’ raising. Had she dreamed of running the bakery someday? For the first time, he realized exactly what all Bella had given up to raise the boys and marry him.
His heart went out to her. She was willing to allow him to follow his dream of furniture making but may have given up hers of owning or running a bakery someday. Could he help her fulfill her dreams? What were her dreams? Philip decided then and there to find out what they were.
* * *
Bella finished cleaning up the kitchen. Thomas and Josephine had left a few minutes earlier. Josephine had offered to stay and help her clean up, but Thomas was in a hurry to get back to the relay station. A Pony Express rider would be coming through soon and he had to be there to meet the rider with a fresh horse. Bella assured her new friend that she understood and to go on home.
The boys lay on their pallet. Mark was already asleep.
Caleb got up and walked over to her. He whispered, “Aunt Bella, I’m not sleepy. Can I go see what Philip is doing in the barn?”
She gave him a quick hug. “Yes, I think I’ll go, too. I can use the fresh air.”
Together they walked quietly to the door and put on their coats and gloves before heading outside. Bella inhaled the fresh, cold air. She supposed their warm spell had vanished. Wrapping her coat closer to her body, Bella followed Caleb to the barn.
It wasn’t a whole lot warmer in the barn and she couldn’t help but shiver. She heard hammering toward the back of the barn and followed the sound. Caleb hurried ahead of her.
“What are you making?” Caleb asked as soon as he saw Philip.
“A rocking chair for your aunt Bella.”
She came around the corner. “Oh, good.” Bella looked forward to having furniture in her house. The kitchen table was nice, but she was tired of always sitting at it or on the floor.
“I didn’t realize you were out here.” Philip stood.
Bella shivered. “It’s cold out here.”
Philip agreed, “Yes, but with the boys napping I thought I’d work out here.” He looked at Caleb. “Why aren’t you napping?”
“I wasn’t sleepy. Aunt Bella said I could come out here with you.”
She rubbed her arms. “I didn’t realize it had turned so cold outside.”
“Why don’t we all go back inside? I think I’ll go downstairs and start the fire.” Philip stepped out of the little room he’d been in and closed the door.
Bella didn’t have to be asked twice. She walked at a swift pace back toward the house. Caleb and Philip hurried up the steps behind her. Just before opening the door she shushed them. “Mark is sleeping, so be as quiet as you can.”
They nodded and she opened the door.
Mark sat in the middle of his pallet looking disheveled. “Where have you all been?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mark. We didn’t mean to wake you,” Bella said as she hung up her coat.
“We was in the barn with Philip,” Caleb said, answering Mark’s question.
“I thought we were supposed to take a nap,” Mark accused, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
Caleb answered again, not giving the grown-ups time to respond. “Aunt Bella said I didn’t have to nap. So I went to the barn. Philip is building a rocking chair for Aunt Bella.” He dropped down on the quilt beside his brother.
Hurt filled Mark’s sleepy eyes. “Oh.” He lay back down and turned his back on them.
Bella went to the kitchen and made a cup of hot tea. She looked to Philip, who had followed her. “Would you like a cup of coffee before you head down?”
“I’ll take it with me, if you don’t mind pouring me a cup.”
She poured the rich brew into a large mug and handed it to him. Then Bella turned to her recipe box and brought it to the table.
Philip took a sip and sighed. “Thanks, that’s just what I needed to warm up my insides.”
“You’re welcome.”
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She smiled up at him. “I’m going to decide what kind of bread to make this week.”
Philip shook his head. “Plain ol’ white bread would be nice.”
She’d really hoped to try something different, but if he wanted ordinary bread, she could make that, too. “I can make white bread.”
“No, make whatever you want. I like it all.”
Bella looked at her recipes. They were written on small pieces of paper, some in her handwriting and others in Hazel’s. “I’ll make white bread and maybe a sweetbread, too. As a treat.”
“I like your sweetbread,” Caleb said in a soft voice.
Philip looked to the boy and grinned. “Me, too.”
Bella bent her head to the chore at hand. She wanted to start on the bread as soon as Mark got up. His even breathing told her he’d gone right back to sleep.
“I’m going downstairs now,” Philip remarked.
“All right.”
Thankfully Caleb followed him down. Bella wanted to study her recipes in peace. Sometimes she wondered if Caleb deliberately baited his brother, hoping for an argument. Or had he just been so happy to get out of taking a nap that he’d shared the information with Mark?
Her gaze lifted from the recipe in her hand. Was she doing a good job of raising the boys? What could she do that would be better?
* * *
Philip had the fire pit going downstairs in no time. He opened the curtains around the bedrooms so that the heat would fill them, as well. His gaze moved about the spacious room. “What do you think of it down here?” he asked Caleb.
The little boy looked around. “It’s kind of scary but kind of fun.”
The fire cast shadows on the wall. Philip laughed. “Yeah, I understand what you mean.”
Caleb went to the room that was to be his and Mark’s. “I wish we had real beds, like at home.”
Philip had followed. He laid his hand on the boy’s shoulder and said, “You will have. Would you like to help me make them?”
“Uh-huh.”
He grinned. “Then you will. I hope you enjoy making stuff out of wood as much as I do.”
An hour later, they climbed back up the stairs. Caleb had told Philip all about his parents’ deaths and how he and Mark had been put into one of his pa’s employee’s homes before Bella had arrived to take them with her. The little boy missed his papa and said that someday he wanted to grow up to be just like him.
When they walked into the main part of the house, they found it empty. Both Bella and Mark were gone.
Philip frowned.
“I wonder where they went,” Caleb said, looking around the room. “And Mark didn’t make up the pallet.” He walked over to the blankets and began folding them.
Philip found that odd also. Bella insisted that the beds be put away as soon as everyone was up. Why would she and Mark have left the house before it was made? Then it dawned on him that they probably had gone to the outhouse.
He walked to the stove and poured himself another cup of coffee. Philip glanced around his warm home. Bella’s feminine touch could be seen in each area. She’d made paper flowers and put them in clear jars about the sitting room. In the center of the table she’d placed a bowl and put colorful balls of yarn inside it to create a splash of color in the otherwise dull room.
The door opened and Bella hurried inside. She shut the door as fast as she could. “It’s getting colder out there.”
Philip pushed away from the counter he’d been leaning on. “Where’s Mark?”
Her gaze moved to where Caleb stood, folding the last quilt and laying it on top of the others. She turned stricken eyes on Philip. “I left him sleeping. Isn’t he here?”
“Evidently not.” He started toward the door. “You stay here. I’ll go search for him. He can’t be far.” Philip grabbed his coat off its hook, thrust his arms into the sleeves and then pulled his gloves out of the pocket. His heart beat fast as he tried to imagine where the boy might have gone.
“He’s probably in the barn,” Caleb said.
Bella turned toward Philip. “I’ll go with you.”
Philip shook his head. “No, you stay with Caleb. If he comes back, you will need to come tell me. Caleb will need to stay with Mark. He’s too young to be out on his own.” Caleb was too young to be outside on his own also. The two boys would be better off in the house.
At her nod of understanding, he pulled the door open. “I’ll find him. Don’t worry.”
Philip hurried to the barn. “Mark!” he called as he opened the door.
The horses stomped their feet, but Mark didn’t answer.
He stood in the yard trying to think where the little boy could have gone. Had he gone to the outhouse and then, finding Bella there, ventured into the woods to do his business? Philip hurried to the outhouse.
“Mark!”
Still no answer. The wind had picked up and now carried Philip’s voice back to him. He went around to the back of the small building and searched the ground for prints. Seeing none, he turned back to the house.
Would Mark go to Thomas’s? Or Hazel’s? Why hadn’t Mark come down to where he and Caleb had been? Had the little boy run away from home?
Philip knew Mark had felt left out earlier, but that was no reason to run away. He decided to tell Bella Mark wasn’t in the barn. The little boy may have thought he could go to Thomas’s and help with the chores.
He entered the door and was immediately questioned by Bella.
“Did you find him?” Her lips trembled.
“No, I’m going to saddle up my horse and ride over to Thomas’s. It’s time to do chores over there. Mark might have thought to help.” Philip walked over to Bella and pulled her into a tight hug. “You know how much he loves horses.” He pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes. “We’ll find him.”
Her blue eyes filled with tears, but she raised her head and said, “I know we will. Hurry.”
Philip didn’t need any further prompting. He spun on his heels to leave. Then turned back to look at Caleb. “Take care of your aunt while I’m gone.”
“I will.”
He hurried back to the barn and began to saddle his horse. As he worked he prayed, asking God to watch out for Mark. The temperature was dropping with the sun. Philip fought down the panic that threatened to overwhelm him.