"What on earth...?"

"That old couch of yours, Nora-it just has to go! Your table and two chairs aren't in much better shape."

And in that rented trailer were a sofa, a chair, a side table, a lamp, small kitchen table and four chairs.

"No, you didn't," she said in a whisper. "Jed, you have to stop this or I'll be taking care of you in your impoverished old age!"

"I can't stop-not until I see you and the little girls comfortable. I don't mean with extravagance-this stuff was on sale and wasn't expensive as furniture goes. I just want to help you get on your feet."

"But I can never repay you for this!"

"All I ever wanted was to have you in my life again," he said. "I never counted on the bonus of granddaughters."

When the furniture was brought into the house, Berry was absolutely thrilled. She climbed right up on it, her little eyes so round and happy. Fay immediately pulled herself up, too, and patted it.

Rain or not, nothing got past her neighbors. Martha and Adie were outside, checking out the delivery and from down the street Leslie and Conner arrived-Conner wanted to help Jed get the new furniture in and the old furniture out. The ratty old couch went in the U-Haul. "I'll drop this off at the dump unless you have other plans for it," Jed said.

"Nothing is thrown away around here without permission from Reverend Kincaid," Nora said. "In fact, in a couple of months I will have been here a year and without the charity of my friends and neighbors, I don't know if we'd have survived the winter."

It was hard to imagine anyone being more needy than Nora had been but sure enough, Noah wanted that couch. "I think I know just the place for it," he told her over the phone. Conner and Jed carried it through the drizzle for a block to the church where it would sit until it could be delivered further.

Her children were outfitted for the cold weather, there was new bedding, warm blankets and good food in the house. Just when Nora thought she couldn't possibly wish for more, Maxie asked her, "Nora, do you bake?"

"Welllll," she said doubtfully. "When I was a girl I made cookies, but it's been a long time."

"Do you think you'd like to?"

"If I had the time, I would," she said. "I can follow directions, I think. But Maxie, I don't have much cookware on hand."

"Here's what I'd like to do-and I've spoken to Tom about my idea. I have a couple of very big weekends coming up. If you're agreeable, you could pick apples until lunchtime, run to town and fetch Adie and the little ones and come back. We'll give them lunch and I think they'll either nap or maybe Berry will even help. I think a few of my friends will arrive later in the week-you'll like them. They're as ancient as I am, catty as can be, a little on the doting side when it comes to small children and they give Tom as much grief as they can get by with. Would you like to help me in the afternoons this week?"

"Oh, Maxie, I would love to!"

"I think Martha would rather hike than bake, but I'll leave you to extend an invitation to her, as well."

It seemed to be the natural order of things in Maxie's house that afternoon just stretched into evening-everyone gathered around her dinner table for a meal that had been started in the afternoon along with the baking. The little girls napped and when they didn't, Berry stood on a stool in the big kitchen, stirring, and Fay sat in her booster chair amidst the commotion, playing and snacking.

By dinner on Wednesday, they had accomplished a great deal-there was apple butter, apple pies stored in the root cellar where it was cool, all kinds of cookies for the weekend festivities. Nora had also learned to bake bread and make cinnamon rolls; the fall vegetables had come in, so there was zucchini bread galore.

Nora worked as hard in the kitchen as she did in the orchard. "Pace yourself," she said to Maxie. "Don't wear yourself out before your big weekend."

"Oh, darling, this doesn't tire me-it energizes me! I love feeding people."

Nora looked forward to dinnertime the most-the leaf was put in the table and everyone gathered around it, laughing, eating, telling tall tales. Adie was in her element-she couldn't do things like this at home alone and loved being with friends. And when Tom came in cold and tired after a long day in the orchard, he was not the same man Nora had met when she first applied for the job. He was cheerful and playful and she tried valiantly to tamp down fantasies of being the woman in his home when he finished his day's work.

But it was when Berry held out a cookie and said, in a voice loud and clear, "Tom! Eat dis! I maked it!" Nora just kind of went over the edge. And she had to run and hide.

"Where's Nora?" Tom asked.

The women all looked around. "Bathroom?" Adie suggested.

"No one in there," Tom said. "Keep an eye on the girls, I'll find her." He took a beer with him through the living room, dining room, even upstairs. Finally he grabbed his jacket off the hook by the door and went outside to find her huddled in a wicker chair in a far corner of the porch. Crying and shivering.

"Hey, now," he said, whipping off his jacket and wrapping it around her shoulders. He pulled a matching chair close to her. "What's with this? Why are you crying?"

"It's complicated," she said with a hiccup in her voice. "It's just that I started feeling so...so safe. So much like being a part of a big, wonderful family. And then Berry..."

"What about Berry?" he asked. "She's having fun."

"She's having so much fun," Nora said. She sniffed. "Honestly, what a wimp I am. I held it together through new toys, clothes and even furniture, but this week..." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a hanky, handing it to her. She looked at it cautiously and said, "You sure?"

"Blow," he said. "Then talk to me."

She blew her nose. Hard. A little laugh escaped through her tears.

"Now talk," he said.

"I don't expect you to understand, but when I was growing up and it was just my mother and I, we didn't have fun times like this. We didn't have people around. And Berry..." She crumbled again.

"What about Berry?" he pushed.

"Did you hear her? Did you hear her talk? Like she was giving orders? She's growing out of that severe shyness, Tom."

"Sure," he said, baffled. "She's getting used to all of us. She's been around us a lot lately... ."

"I was so worried about her," Nora said. "I was worried about all of us-about us ever getting it together, having enough to get by, to stop being afraid!"

He wiped a tear from her cheek. "Were you afraid?" he asked softly.

"Oh, you have no idea... ."

He smothered a chuckle. "You always act so brave," he said.

"Yeah, I act," she told him. "What else am I gonna do? Growing up I was timid, scared of everything."

"You?"