I'm sorry that it's been so long between updates. This is the last chapter of the "Thaw" series of this story, and as you'll see, Sarah and Frank's relationship has already fully "thawed" here. Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed!
When springtime finally arrived on the Pontipee farm after the long, bitterly cold winter, it felt almost like a miracle. On the first warm, clear, sunny day in May, the six girls all spilled out of the house with laughter and glad shouts, and they didn't even care when they dirtied their skirt hems in the patches of melting snow that still lingered here and there. They got busy right away with airing out their linens, beating the rugs clean, and other spring-cleaning chores, and they were so happy to be outdoors again that they didn't mind the work one bit.
But between their chores, the girls found plenty of time to spend with the boys, too. With spring in the air, the six young couples couldn't get enough of each other. Dorcas and Benjamin fed the new baby chicks in the hen house together, Gideon and Alice went tree-climbing together, and Ephraim took Liza to the same high meadow that they had visited back in March. Just as he'd promised when they walked through it in the snow, the place was now so thick with daisies that Liza almost couldn't see the grass between them.
None of them thought back to the night of the avalanche, which felt so long-ago now, and none of them thought ahead to what might happen when the mountain pass reopened. All twelve of them lived solely in the present, and they soaked up each bright spring day for all it was worth.
Everyone was happy that spring was finally here, but it soon became obvious to the Pontipee brothers that none of their sweethearts had ever spent springtime on a farm before. They didn't know the first thing about it. One day when Liza was picking flowers, she accidentally put her hand down right over a bumblebee and got a bad sting. One day when Ruth was pulling weeds to clear ground for a new spring garden, she ripped up a patch of poison ivy and got a rash of itchy red blisters all over her hands and wrists. Millie told Liza to be more careful next time, taught Ruth how to identify poison ivy, and treated them both with a wet baking soda paste.
When one of the farm horses delivered a new spring foal, the girls all cooed and exclaimed over how cute it was with its wobbly legs and big, soft eyes. Dorcas rushed right up to it and tried to pet it, not knowing how protective mother horses could be with their foals. The mare hissed at Dorcas and would've bitten her, but Caleb grabbed her arm and yanked her back just in time.
In front of the girls, the brothers were very careful not to act like any of this was funny to them. But on more than one night, as they bedded down to sleep in the barn hayloft, all six of them fell into fits of laughter over how clueless their sweethearts were. Imagine not knowing what poison ivy looked like! Imagine not knowing how to approach a new foal! They hooted and hollered until their sides ached.
But it turned out that the boys were clueless about some things, too. Sarah discovered this one afternoon while Frank was milking Daisy, one of the dairy cows. Daisy had been giving even more milk since she'd delivered a new calf, and as Frank finished milking her, Sarah joined him in the farmyard to help him carry the milk buckets back to the house. Their steps fell into sync as they walked, as if they had done this chore together for years, and to Sarah, it felt like they had. The night of the kidnapping was so long ago now that she wasn't angry or shy with Frank anymore. They had even been intimate together, and Sarah wasn't ashamed of it, for she and Frank were as good as married in her heart. Though not wanting to disappoint Millie, she'd told only two of the other girls and sworn them both to secrecy.
"Awful glad Daisy's givin' so much milk," Frank said, smiling in the spring sunshine, "what with Millie's baby comin' soon and all."
"Mm-hm," Sarah agreed, nodding. "Millie might have to give the baby some cow milk."
But Frank frowned at this, confused. Might have to give the baby some cow milk? What did Sarah mean by that? Frank was only a backwoodsman who knew next to nothing about babies, but he was almost sure that babies could only have milk.
"But I thought you couldn't feed a baby proper food..." he asked Sarah slowly, "or-or can you?"
"Well, no, 'course not, babies can't eat anything solid right off. I only meant... well, you know, Frank..." Sarah was blushing a bit now, and Frank couldn't understand why. "I only meant Millie probably won't be givin' it cow milk, not right away, least."
"Well, then, what's it gonna eat?" Frank burst out, now looking more confused than ever, and concerned, too. "We ain't got no milkin' animals on our farm 'cept the cows. We had a pair of goats a while back, but we traded 'em off."
Sarah both blushed and fought the urge to laugh, for it was embarrassing, but it was funny, too. Surely Frank wasn't so much of a man that he really didn't know how babies were fed? But she supposed that no, he probably really didn't. After all, he was the second-youngest brother before Gideon, and if their mother had nursed them – and surely she'd had to, living out here in the wilderness – then Frank would be too young to remember it.
Sarah bit her lip, trying to think up some way to explain it that wouldn't embarrass her or make Frank feel foolish. Millie was practically like a sister to her, and Sarah didn't want to talk about her uncouthly.
"Well, it's like with Daisy and her calf," she said, finally coming up with a metaphor that Frank would understand. She went on a bit awkwardly, "That is, once the baby gets born, Millie's body will make milk for it."
Frank said nothing for a moment, but he tilted his head and looked at Sarah almost suspiciously, as if she might be playing some joke on him. She almost did burst out laughing at his expression, and she had to purse her lips and look away quickly to hold it back. They kept on walking for a moment in silence, and then Frank bent down, plucked a tall stem of grass, and chewed it thoughtfully.
"Well," he mumbled at last, rubbing his chin. "Is that a fact?"
Sarah managed to hold back her laughter until that night, when she and the other girls were getting ready for bed. As they changed into their nightdresses, she recounted her conversation with Frank, and all six of them fell into fits of laughter over how clueless their sweethearts were. Imagine not knowing how newborn babies were fed! They hooted and hollered over that one until their sides ached, until Millie had to call from downstairs, "Girls, keep it down up there!"
"Oh, dear me," Alice said, still chuckling, as she wiped tears from her eyes. "What a bunch of men they all are."
"And you just should've seen Frank's face! He looked at me like I might've been makin' the whole thing up," Sarah added.
"I'll bet none of 'em know the first thing about babies," Ruth said, from where she was washing her face over the wash-basin.
"I'll bet when Millie's baby is born, they'll be expectin' it to get up and walk right away, like a foal!" Liza exclaimed, and they all burst out laughing again.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the farm, up in the barn hayloft, the Pontipee brothers were getting ready for bed, too. Frank didn't really want to mention his conversation with Sarah today, but he did want to know whether what she had said was actually true. His older brothers weren't experts on babies by any means, but they knew more about the subject than he did. He knelt down and washed his face in the wash-basin on the floor, then stood up and turned to his brothers.
"Say, fellas," he said slowly, "you'll never guess what Sarah told me today..."