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“I do,” Lewis said proudly, walking her to the bathroom and showing her. “Susan said it was the best thing that could have been waiting for her when she married. So, she insisted we put them into our homes for our future wives.”
“I need to thank her again. How many times can I thank her? I cannot believe all she’s done to make my life easier.”
Sydney hurried to the kitchen and looked inside the ice box, praying he had something she would know how to cook. There were eggs in a bowl on the counter, and there was a small bit of bacon. There was no other food she could see. “What do you usually eat?” she asked.
“Whatever Mrs. Hackenschleimer cooks. I don’t have any idea how long those eggs have been there, and I think the bacon in the ice box could walk away on its own.” Lewis shrugged. “It was easier eating at my parents’ house.”
“Do you consider Susan your mother?” she asked.
He frowned at the question. “I was six when my mother died. I have vague memories of her, but Susan is responsible for making me who I am. She is the one who drilled manners into our heads and who taught us right from wrong. I do think of her as my mother, but I just never started calling her Ma. It was different for the twins. Our mother died when they were born, and Susan is the only mother they’ve ever known. But Albert and I…we should have called her Ma. I don’t know why we didn’t.”
Sydney nodded. His round-about answer told her what she needed to know. He considered Susan his mother, just didn’t call her that. Easy enough. “I want to look at everything. Is that all right?”
“Of course. There are two bedrooms up and one down. We have the downstairs room. It’s big enough for a cradle in the corner so that we can keep the babies in our room until they are big enough to be upstairs on their own.”
“That’s a good plan. I really love the idea of having several children. Don’t you?”
“Definitely. If my family isn’t bigger than my pa’s, I’ll feel like I’ve failed as a man.”
Sydney’s jaw dropped. “You want more than eleven children? I was thinking four or five.” She’d joked about having a dozen or two, but she hadn’t meant it!
Lewis grinned. “Why don’t we just wait and see how many God blesses us with?”
“That’s a great idea,” she told him, still a little wary of the idea of so many. Though Susan was expecting child number eleven, and she didn’t seem even a little upset about it.
Lewis waited as she ran up the stairs and looked at the bedrooms there, and then she explored the entire first floor. The kitchen, the parlor, the bathroom, and the bedroom, as well as a large pantry off the kitchen.
“Cellar?” she asked. At that point she didn’t know if she was exploring because she was curious or because she was trying to put off their wedding night, but it didn’t matter. She had to see every inch of the house, and it had to happen right then.
He went into the pantry and lifted the cellar door for her. “You’re not going to be able to see down there.” It was already getting dark, and he could barely see upstairs. “Let me get you a lantern.”
He hurried and got the lantern, and then he lit a second one for the upstairs. “There you go.” Instead of following her down, he waited upstairs.
“There’s no food down there!” she exclaimed.
“I’m aware. We’re going to have to go into town for provisions, but perhaps you could just give me a list, and we can send Walter. I’m not leaving your side, but I’m also not taking you into town with those men looking out for you.”
“But you’ll leave me at your mother’s house for the sewing party, right?”
He frowned. “As long as Alice has her gun, I suppose that will be all right.”
“Why would Alice having her gun have anything to do with it?” Sydney asked.
He grinned. “Alice is a crack shot. She had to shoot the same man twice when she first got here, and she hit him just exactly where she was aiming. She’s a better shot than Albert, who is the best shot of us boys.”
“She told me she could teach me to shoot, but I didn’t think she was really serious.”
“Trust me on this. She’s serious. I would rather she was with you than I was at this point. Alice won’t let anything happen to you.”
Sydney shrugged. “Sounds like she really knows what she’s doing.”
“She does.” He looked at her for a moment. “Are you done stalling?”
Embarrassed he’d seen right through her, she blushed. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He chuckled, took her hand, and led her into the only room of the house she hadn’t investigated, his bedroom. “This is our room,” he said. “Look at the drawers I emptied just for you. Your trunk can go in that corner, and there’s a wardrobe here that I keep my dress clothes in. Plenty of room for dresses.”
“I think it’s a very nice room.”
