Ru had dragged a stool to the stove and stood on it, stirring something in a pot too large for his hands.
His face was red from heat and concentration.
His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows.
He was so focused he didn't notice them at first.
Then he looked up, and Norah saw what would haunt her for weeks.
Not fear.
Not curiosity.
Resignation.
The expression of a child who'd already learned that adults rarely helped when you needed them most.
"Hi," Ru said softly. "Are you the new Ma?"
"I'm Norah."
She moved closer slowly, the way you'd approach a wounded animal.
"What are you making?"
"Beans."
He stirred again, his small arms straining.
"They're supposed to be soft, but I don't think I did it right. They're still hard."
Norah looked into the pot.
The beans were indeed hard because they'd been cooking without enough water and were now starting to burn at the bottom.
She could smell it.
"May I?" she asked gently.
Ru hesitated, then nodded and stepped back.
Norah took the spoon, added water from the bucket, adjusted the heat, and scraped the bottom to prevent further burning.
The beans were salvageable.
Barely.
"You did well getting them started," she told Ru. "But beans need more water and lower heat, or they turn into rocks."
"I didn't know."
His voice was so quiet she almost missed it.
"Now you do."
Norah glanced around the kitchen, taking inventory.
Limited supplies.
Less organization.
No real system for anything.
"Have you eaten today?"
Ru shook his head.
"None of you have eaten?"
She turned to face the older boys who'd gathered in the doorway, watching.
"Pa left bread this morning," Thomas said defensively. "We had that."
"Bread for six growing boys. One meal."
Norah felt something sharp and angry rise in her chest.
Not at them.
At the situation that had taught children to accept hunger as normal.
"That's not enough."
"It's what we got," Cade said with a shrug.
"It's what you had," Norah corrected. "Now you have me."
She rolled up her sleeves.
The kitchen was a disaster, but Norah had worked with worse.
She sent Thomas to the smokehouse for salt pork, had Eli fetch vegetables from the root cellar, half of them borderline rotten, but enough were salvageable.
Put Cade on water duty.
Told Porter to clear the table and Reeve to gather clean plates, if any existed.
Ru stayed beside her, watching everything with those enormous eyes.
"Can I help?" he asked.
"You can hand me things when I need them," Norah said. "But first, tell me, when's the last time you had a real meal? Not bread. A real meal."
Ru thought about it.
"Christmas."
It was March.