She held him to her, not doing anything more than that. Ruth let the man cry into her hair, closing her eyes as her arms stayed still around the man. Then she felt his form relax against her as his sobs stopped. She continued to hold him like that for a few minutes longer until she was sure it was alright to let him lie back. She eased him down as gingerly as she would have done with her son. She fought the temptation to tuck an errant curl away from his face, but she let it be. Then she quietly pulled away and moved over to Jacob, lifting him and his blanket to her.

The young mother turned her gaze one more time toward Edward, and then she left him to rest.

The next few days proved to be quiet. Ruth started to keep Jacob in her company more and more as she cleaned, for the boy was starting to crawl and she would rather he be out of the way of shuffling feet in the kitchen since he was less inclined to stay in the basket. This was also partially because she just didn't want to talk about herself for the moment as her mind was occupied with Edward.

Finally, she had done all of her work for the day even after doing some extra just to keep her mind occupied, she settled into a chair in the kitchen and was drinking tea to calm her nerves. She looked tired.

For the moment, nobody else was in the kitchen as it was toward the end of the night and people were doing the things that needed to be done otherwise. She finished her tea and then moved to wash the dishes in the sink since she was there and had nothing to do otherwise. She took her time, not really looking at the dish in her hand as she scrubbed.