This year the presents were already wrapped, though it had been done carelessly. They lay in a row on the varnished dresser. Ruth saw at a glance that again most of the labels had Eva’s name on them. So what if they did, she thought stubbornly. She had the best present herself, and she carried it around with her all the time. She passed a loving hand over her pregnant belly.
While Thomas sat down on the sofa right away with the others to join in a game of dice, Ruth sat in an armchair. The back of the chair was hard and pressed into her back, making her sit bolt upright. Her back had been giving her trouble for a few days now. She wouldn’t manage to sit here for long but she consoled herself with the thought that the family would be going down to the kitchen to eat soon, after which she hoped to be able to go join her sisters for a little while.
While the others called out their bets at the top of their voices, Ruth rubbed her back. As she did so she looked around the room. There was no point looking for a Christmas tree here, or even a couple of green boughs—somebody would have had to take the trouble to fetch them. Ruth was dismayed to realize that the Heimer family’s lack of imagination had already rubbed off on her; thinking back, she couldn’t believe that she had ever planned to redecorate this room. Even the idea of living in this house and having the family around at the end of a long workday was dreadful. The apartment over the warehouse was not as pretty as she would have liked, not by a mile—Thomas had no use for what he called “pointless prettification”—but at least they had the place to themselves.
She watched as Sebastian made a great show of counting out a few coins on the table, which Michel swiftly pocketed. After that the game started again. Even the old man had joined in with childlike enthusiasm though Ruth couldn’t say whether the flush in his cheeks was because of the game or the mulled wine that the men were drinking in such generous quantities.
“Well, what are you brooding over now, my chicken?” Thomas asked, laying a hand on her belly and making her jump. “She’s probably still thinking about what we should call him,” he told the room at large, grinning. “But we decided long ago! He’ll be called Wilhelm, like his grandfather.” He looked across at his father, eager for approval.
“Thomas!” She didn’t like it when he put his hand on her belly in front of everybody. “You keep talking about a boy. But we don’t know that for sure.”
“What else could it be?” her husband answered uncomprehendingly, then turned back to the others. “For a while I even thought our son would be born on Christmas, but it doesn’t look like it now.”
Ruth tried to nudge him in the ribs, but she was too big and clumsy these days to do so discreetly. He could hardly tell them any more clearly that the child had been conceived before the wedding!
“When’s it due then?” Eva asked, pursing her lips.
Ruth smiled. “I don’t really know exactly, but not before the middle of February.”
“Oh, we’ll likely find there’s two of them!” Thomas laughed at his own joke and the other men joined in. “Last year a woman had twins over in Rudolstadt, I hear. And the two of them—”
“Thomas, as if it isn’t enough that you talk about having a son all the time, but now you want two at once!” Ruth interrupted, half in jest but half in earnest too. “I think I’d better go downstairs and see how Edel’s getting on with the meal.”
They had hardly finished the Christmas roast when the men resumed their game of dice. While Eva helped the old housekeeper with the dishes, Ruth fetched her coat. “I’m going down to see Johanna and Marie for a while,” she said, kissing Thomas on the cheek.
“Do you have to?” he asked disapprovingly.
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised, and hurried from the room before he could say anything more.
Eva was standing in the hallway. “Let’s get one thing straight,” she hissed at Ruth. “Once that brat of yours is born, all your shirking is over and done with! You’ll do your share of the work!”
Ruth didn’t bother to answer. Eva’s accusation was completely unfounded, for she’d never missed a day in the workshop however much she might have wanted to sometimes. Besides, Eva was so envious of Ruth’s pregnancy that she took every opportunity to snap at her. Fortunately, she rarely had the chance. Eva would never say a word in front of Thomas; if he ever heard her say something nasty to the mother of his son . . . well, Ruth didn’t know what would happen. The mother of his son—now she was making the same mistake she so often chided Thomas for.