Gideon began noticing certain low sounds through his left ear. He could sometimes distinguish a horse’s hooves on hard ground or the distant rumble of a wagon.
He continued using his notebook, but he no longer depended on it for every conversation. He and Rosalie developed simple hand signals, and she learned to face him when speaking.
One afternoon, they were sitting outside the cabin while the cattle grazed in the pasture.
Rosalie was repairing a torn sleeve.
Gideon was carving a small wooden horse for the child she had recently discovered she was carrying.
She had told him the news that morning.
He had read the words in her notebook, stared at them for nearly a minute, and then laughed silently with joy.
Now he placed the finished wooden horse in her lap.
Rosalie turned it over in her hands.
“You made this for our child?”
Gideon watched her lips and smiled.
