Perhaps a little long, but that wouldn’t matter for chores. Now where to change? Ella glanced around. There was no way she could undress in here. She made a quick dash upstairs to the spare room, changed, and then came back down again.
Ella left the kerosene lamp burning in the living room in case the girls should awaken before she came back. A search in the closet by the front door revealed an old coat and boots, no doubt the ones Lois used to wear. Ivan apparently had never gotten rid of any of his wife’s things.
A picture of Ivan’s face rose before her. The distress in it, the words he had spoken to her in anguish, “I loved Lois too much. And this is why Da Hah has taken her from me.”
Yet Da Hah had also taken Aden, and she loved him just as much. Perhaps that’s why they were safe together, she and Ivan. Ella felt a touch of her old bitterness rising as she stood in the cold mudroom. What a messed-up world, but there was one small comfort. At least she would never be able to love Ivan as much as she had loved Aden.
With coat and boots on, Ella opened the front door, kicking a small drift of snow away with her foot and finding the steps already cleaned. Ivan must have made another round through the path this morning after the snow stopped. At the junction toward the barn, Ella expected to follow only footsteps, but she found a freshly shoveled path. Gratefully she made her way to the barn door.
For a moment she paused to look toward the east. Gray clouds still hung heavy on the horizon, but she could see small patches of dark blue here and there. The sun would soon be up, and the snowfall obviously was over.
The smell of the barn greeted her as she opened the door and stepped inside. The scene was familiar, with the line of cows tied to stanchions. Ivan, sitting on a three-legged stool, had his back turned toward her and one knee was propped against a cow’s leg. He must have heard her but likely thought she was Susanna.
“I told you I could handle the chores.”
“It’s me,” Ella said. “I can help.”
Ivan jerked his head up, scraping it on the cow’s belly. The animal lurched forward. Only his knee held the cow’s leg back long enough for him to snatch the half-filled bucket of milk to safety.
Ella laughed.
And Ivan turned red.
“That’s not nice,” Ivan said. “I wasn’t expectin’ you.”
“I wasn’t expectin’ to come out, but I thought you could use help. And I hope you don’t mind the dress. It was Lois’s.”
His eyes swept her figure. “You’re wearing her dress and coat.”
Yah,” she said. “Is it wrong? If so, I can change back into my own clothes. I only had my good clothes to wear.”
He swallowed hard, his blue eyes finding her face. “No…” He forced a smile. “That’s as it should be. Are the girls still asleep?”
“They were when I checked last, and I left the light on in the living room…just in case.”
He nodded, seeming to approve, and turned back to the cow.
“Have you let people know yet?” Ella asked.
He shook his head but didn’t turn around.
“Let me finish the milkin’ then. And you can go tell them. The undertaker needs to be told.”
“It’s still early, and the roads aren’t passable.”
“The people need to be told. And the undertaker can be called from the pay phone. Surely you can reach that far,” she said, surprised at her boldness.
“Yah,” he said, considering her words. “In this you are right. I guess I was still in my own world of chores and things.”
“They would have come to help if you had let them know.”
“The snow just quit, so I couldn’t go before. It passed suddenly, like these storms do.”
“Were you up all night?” she asked. “You poor man.”
His back relaxed and he shrugged. “Maybe I got an hour or so in the rocker. Daett was mourning most of the night.”
“Let me milk the rest of the cows then. I grew up around this.”
“This one’s almost done.” He got up and