A/N: I have to apologize! Not only have I been lack in updating, but when I originally wrote the story, I got two of the girls names mixed up!

For some reason, whenever I watched the movie, I thought that Ruth's name was Sarah and that Sarah's name was Ruth. Hence part of the reason that people have been mad at me for mixing couples up.

I've gone back and fixed this is all the previous chapters, as well as edited them a bit. Don't worry, the main points are there still.

I also want to write a bit about the timeline. This is part of the timeline that I've created for the movie:

August – Milly and Adam Married, Barn Raising

September

October – Kidnapping

November – Milly finds out she's pregnant.

With that said: on to the rest of the story!

-7-

It had been two weeks since the kidnapping, now it was the middle of October. The snow had fallen steadily. The only good thing was that the snow was dry and light, easy to sweep and shovel.

We had fallen into a routine. Since there were seven of us, every day we rotated chores. That way one person wasn't stuck doing the same thing every day.

Milly had invited the boys in after supper, to spend a few hours inside, everyone together. There was a rather awkward silence as none of the boys dared to speak, and none of the girls wanted to speak to the boys. I could see by the look in her eye that Milly was determined not to say anything. She sat in the rocker with her sewing in her lap and glanced up occasionally.

Finally I couldn't stand the silence any more. "For goodness sakes," I exclaimed. "We're going to be here for several months, the least we can do is be civil towards each other."

I turned to Frank and asked "Is it usual for the snow to start this early? I've never spent a winter here, so I don't know what it's like."

He grinned in relief of having something to talk about. "Well, no. Usually the snow doesn't start until November, but we've been expecting a hard winter for a long time now. Luckily for us, that'll give us some time to catch up on some extra work that we haven't been able to get to during the rest of the year."

"Oh?" I wondered. "What do farmers do in the winter?"

I shifted my gaze to Caleb and leaned forward expectantly. This was part of my training from back east. We were all taught how to keep the conversation going. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ruth quickly look down at the floor.

"Lots of things: for one, winter's when we repair all of our tools and build new ones if we need them." Caleb spoke easily, but facing Ruth as if he were talking to her.

Ruth quickly looked up, "Caleb I want to thank you for shoveling the pathway to the well this morning. I really appreciated it." She blushed and turned her gaze downwards again.

"How are you girls for wood? Do you have enough for the next few days?" Gideon asked anxiously.

Alice smiled shyly "we have plenty for right now." Gideon's returning smile made me chuckle.

By this time the others had all started talking, softly and unsurely, but they were talking and that was a start. I sighed in satisfaction and, looking around the room, caught Ben's eye.

He wasn't talking to anybody, he was content to sit there and watch. He gave me a small smile which I returned.

It was enough for me, for then.

-7-

Any time you have six girls staying together things can get a bit… tense. When you have six girls staying together with hardly any room or any place to be private, then things are even worse.

To my shame, I found myself reacting to this just as much as the others. With Milly still doing the bulk of the work, there was a lot of free time on our hands.

But then we found out the joyous news. Milly was pregnant! We all promised her that she wouldn't have to do any work for the rest of the winter, but Milly is very stubborn. We were finally able to convince her to let us do the work while she supervised. She still did the bulk of the cooking, until we pleaded with her to give us cooking lessons.

Often I found my thoughts drifting to Ben, especially at night. I would lie in his bed, dreaming of the life we could have had together.

During our nights with the boys, I would often wonder what he was thinking. He hardly ever spoke, only when he was asked a direct question, which he answered in the fewest syllables possible. The little I learned from our conversation at the barn-raising piqued my curiosity. Every day I became more and more determined to find out just what the real Ben Pontipee was like. After all, if he wouldn't open up to anyone else, why shouldn't he confide in me?