“You calm her,” Gerard said, following Nicole down the stairs. “I haven’t seen her so relaxed in a long time.”
Her mind reeling, Nicole went across the room calmly. Her mother still believed she lived in a time when she had fine servants who had nothing to do except help her dress. Nicole had been young enough to adjust to a harsh, cruel world where she wasn’t pampered, but she doubted if her mother could do so.
Slowly, Nicole took a small skillet from the wall, then began breaking eggs for an omelet. Clay, she thought, wiping tears away with the back of her hand, how can I go away with you now? Her mother was here, and she needed her. Janie needed her, the twins needed her, Isaac was her responsibility, and now Gerard and Adele also needed her. What right did she have to feel sorry for herself? She should be grateful that she wasn’t alone in the world.
A sharp sound from the attic signaled that Adele was impatient that her meal was taking so long. Suddenly, the front door burst open, the cold air rushing in.
“Excuse me, Nicole,” Isaac said. “I didn’t know you had company, but there’s a man here with some new bolting cloth. He needs you to look at it.”
“I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“He said he’s in a hurry, since it looks like a big snow’s comin’. He wants to get to the Backes’s before it hits.”
The tapping from the attic became more insistent. “Nico
le!” Adele called loudly. “Where is my maid? Where is my breakfast?”
Quickly, Nicole loaded the food on a tray and hurried past Isaac up the stairs to her mother.
Adele looked at the plain wicker tray, the brown-glazed earthenware, the hot omelet oozing cheese for only a second before she picked up a piece of toasted bread between her thumb and forefinger. “What is this? Bread? Peasants’ bread? I must have croissant!”
Before Nicole could say a word, Adele had smashed the bread into the omelet.
“The chef has insulted me! Send this back, and tell him that if he values his job he will not serve this swill to me again.” She picked up the pot of tea and poured it over the contents, the hot tea running through the wicker and onto the bedcovers.
Looking at the mess her mother was creating, Nicole began to feel very tired. The covers would have to be washed—by hand. The breakfast would have to be recooked, and she’d have to persuade her mother to eat it, somehow without making her start screaming again. And Isaac needed her at the mill.
She carried the dripping tray downstairs.
“Nicole!” Janie nearly knocked Isaac down as she ran into the room. “The twins have disappeared. They told Luke they were going to run away because a crazy lady had come to live with them.”
“Well, why didn’t Luke stop them?” Nicole slammed the tray on the table. Already, Adele was tapping on the floor.
“He said he thought it was a joke, that no crazy lady lived here.”
Nicole raised her hands in helplessness. “Isaac, get the other men, and let’s start searching. It’s too cold for them to be outside alone.” She turned to Gerard. “Would you prepare my mother something to eat?”
He lifted one eyebrow at her. “I’m afraid I do not do women’s work.”
Janie gasped. “Listen, you!”
“Janie!” Nicole snapped. “The twins are more important now. I’ll take her some bread and cheese. She’ll have to make do with that. I’ll join the search as soon as possible. Please,” she added when she saw Janie glaring at Gerard. “I need help now. Please don’t add to my problems.”
Janie and Isaac left the house as Nicole began tossing bread and cheese into a basket. Adele’s tapping was urgent now, and Nicole was unaware of the way Gerard watched her as he leaned nonchalantly against a wall cabinet.
Nicole felt guilty about the way she had fairly tossed the food into her mother’s lap, and she could see the hurt in Adele’s eyes. Leaving her mother added to her guilt feelings, but the twins must be found. Even as she ran out the door and started calling the twins, she saw the two wayward children running across the yard toward her.
Chapter 17
GLANCING AT THE CLOCK ON THE CABINET BY THE door, Nicole moved slowly from the fireplace to the kitchen table. She must remember to punch down the brioche dough in ten minutes. The twins were playing quietly in the far corner of the room, Alex with several carved wooden animals and Mandy with a wax-faced doll that was supposed to be a farmer’s wife.
“Nicole,” Alex asked, “can we go outside after we eat?”
She sighed. “I hope so, if the snow stops falling. Maybe you can get Isaac to help you build a snowman.”
The twins grinned at each other as they returned to their play.
The door opened, and the rush of cold air threatened to extinguish the fire. “This is the coldest March I have ever seen,” Janie said as she held her hands out to the fire. “I don’t think spring will ever come.”