The Believer (18 page)

The day was young with the sun not yet breaking through the morning clouds. Elizabeth looked toward the window and hoped it would. She had need of the sunshine. For days the clouds had hidden the sun, and with the clouds, gloom gathered over her and made her hours toiling in the washhouse long and tiresome.

The morning meal had been eaten and the brethren had left for their workshops and some to the fields to finish the gathering of the corn and to sow the last of the fields with a winter crop of wheat. She wished she could be one of the sisters out trimming the dead plants from the gardens to make them tidy for the coming winter months. Order was important in every aspect of a Shaker's life. Perhaps if she were outside, she might feel less out of order. More in tune with those around her. But instead she had another week of service in the laundry, and then Sister Melva said they would be on kitchen duty for a month.

As loud voices rose up from outside the house, Sister Melva, her eyes wide open in alarm, rushed into the room where Elizabeth was gathering the soiled bedclothes.

"You must stay calm;' she said in a frightened voice that belied her words. "Men of the world are encircling our house on their horses"

Elizabeth looked up. "Why?"

"Some of the world take pleasure in persecuting us for our beliefs" Sister Melva looked over her shoulder nervously as if fearing one of the men might already be running up the stairs. "Come, we must make a unified front against them and not allow them to desecrate our house:"

At the top of the landing, they joined several other sisters standing shoulder to shoulder on the steps, ready to block the upper floor from the intruders. Outside, horses raced around the building and men shouted. Elizabeth couldn't make out any words, only the noise of their voices that was so out of place in this village where peace and quiet was sought at every moment of the day.

Eldress Rosellen turned from the closed door and held her hands out palms down toward the sisters anxiously watching her. "We must remain calm, my sisters" She herself seemed an island of such calm amidst all the worried faces.

Sister Ruth and some of the older sisters stepped up beside her. "What do they want?" Sister Ruth asked.

"What do they always want? To cause us trouble" Eldress Rosellen's face showed a mixture of disgust and dismay. "I went to the door when I first heard them. At his first sight of me, one of the men began shouting all sorts of twaddle about us stealing young sisters from their families and holding them here against their will'

"That is foolishness," Sister Ruth said.

"Yea, but foolishness they cling to instead of accepting the truth"

"What are we going to do?" one of the other sisters asked. Her voice sounded small and timid. "The brethren are in the fields"

Eldress Rosellen squared her shoulders at the sound of banging on the door. "Remember, my sisters, engaged in our duty, we have no reason to fear. Mother Ann will watch over us:" She spoke the words quietly but with great assurance as she turned to reach for the doorknob.

Before she could pull it open, a rough-looking man pushed through the door to the sisters' side of the house and came inside, followed by a man in a dark suit and hat. Elizabeth gasped and shrank back at the sight of Colton Linley. She peeked around the sister in front of her, hoping against hope her eyes had deceived her. But no, it was Colton. He swept off his hat and ran a hand over his hair to settle it into place as his eyes searched through the sisters standing in the entry hall. There could be little doubt he was looking for her.

He started toward the stairs, but Eldress Rosellen stepped in front of him to block his way. "You have no proper business here. We must ask you to leave." She pointed toward the door still standing open to the chill air outside.

He stared down at the little woman as if she hadn't spoken. "Where are you hiding them?" he demanded as two more men who looked as rough as the first man came through the door.

"We hide no one" Eldress Rosellen spoke calmly. "All who come to us are free to leave whenever they so wish. We keep no one against her will"

Colton looked twice as big as the eldress and completely out of place in this Shaker house where peace was advanced at all times. The other men were even worse, giving every appearance of being highwaymen with no respect of property or person. They circled around Eldress Rosellen and the other sisters on the bottom floor like wolves around sheep. Elizabeth felt sick. She couldn't let them hurt these women if it was in her power to stop them. She would have to face Colton.

"Don't put on your holy act with me," Colton was saying. "I've been told what you do here. Killing babies and dancing naked and claiming to worship all the time. Stealing girls for your preacher men to do what ought not to be done"

Several of the sisters drew in shocked breath, and the color drained from Eldress Rosellen's face as she stared at Colton. "Nay, there is no truth in any of that. We serve the Lord in peace here"

"Well, you won't be having any peace today." Colton pushed past her and came toward the sisters' stairway with the other men trailing behind him.

The sisters on the stairs moved shoulder to shoulder to block the men. Sister Agnes, who barely stood a head taller than the handrail, stared up at Colton and said, "Get back from me, Satan"

"Satan, eh?" Colton let out a short laugh that did nothing to soften the hard lines on his face. "Well, I'm not the old devil, but I'm more than any of you can handle" He reached out to shove the old sister aside.

Elizabeth pulled in a breath as she summoned up her courage. She forced her feet to move and stepped in front of Sister Melva out where Colton could see her. "Leave her be, Colton"

Colton stared at Elizabeth as if he didn't recognize her. Then he snorted a little as the dark anger on his face changed to condescending amusement. "The cap doesn't become you, Elizabeth:" His smile faded as he shook his head. "The man with your dog told me you must be among the Shakers, but I thought he had to be wrong. I couldn't believe you'd join up with these religious fanatics instead of keeping your promise to me. And now here you are in your cap and apron:'

"They have taken me into their family." Elizabeth kept her eyes on Colton's face. Around her the sisters were silent and unmoving.

"I'm here to take you away." He made a move to push past the sisters standing between them.

Elizabeth spoke quickly to stop him. "I have no desire to leave with you:"

"You owe me a debt:" Colton's eyes narrowed on her.

I have seen no proof of that. I searched through my father's papers and there was nothing indicating he owed you anything. Father was a lawyer. He would have made a contract in regard to any debts:'

Elizabeth fought to keep her voice from trembling. But Sister Melva must have heard her fear, for she stepped nearer Elizabeth and brushed against her arm to lend her courage.

Elizabeth pushed out the question she dreaded to hear answered. "Can you show proof?"

"We had an understanding. You were to be payment if he couldn't come up with the money. And now sadly, he has passed on without paying that debt"

Colton's eyes on her made her stomach twist inside her, but she didn't look away from him. "My father wouldn't have made such an arrangement. Not without my permission"

°A desperate man can be forced to do surprising things:'

Eldress Rosellen spoke behind him. "A person cannot be given in satisfaction of a debt"

Colton looked at her before his eyes went to Sister Annie's black face as she stood behind the eldress. "What about her? They sell the likes of her as slaves in the town square:"

"Nay, not here at Harmony Hill. She is as free as the rest of us here. As free as Sister Elizabeth who has joined with us:" Eldress Rosellen eyed Colton a moment before going on. "If you have proof of some debt our sister's father owed you in the world before she came to us, bring it and the Ministry will consider payment"

"I said it was an understanding. A deal agreed to with a handshake"

"Then as there is no proof of what you say, I must ask you to leave and not return" Eldress Rosellen stepped over to the door and pulled it open wider.

"I don't think you have it in your power to make me do anything, granny;" Colton told the little woman scornfully. "But my grievance is not with you, but with your sweet little Sister Elizabeth as she well knows." He turned back to Elizabeth. He was like a wolf with his paw already on the neck of the choicest lamb, and when his lips turned up in a small self-satisfied smile, it was all Elizabeth could do to stand still and not run from his eyes on her. "Don't you, Sister? There's more than the matter of your father's debt to me, isn't there? There's my cabin burned to the ground"

"Your cabin burned?" Elizabeth tried to sound surprised and then sad. "If that is true, we have lost all we left behind as well"

"Do you expect me to believe you knew nothing of this?"

Colton's eyes bored into her, but she didn't shrink from his look as she answered, "Believe what you like. The cabin was standing when I shut its door behind me"

"Then perhaps I should ask your brother what he knows of it. Perhaps I should have the sheriff come ask the questions"

"Do what you will. We did no harm to your cabin before we left it. And you say it burned? When was that?"

Colton smiled slightly. "As if you don't already know. Our innocent young Payton has always liked fires, but I fear he won't like jail."

"Go away, Colton:" She managed to sound sure and determined without letting even a hint of the trembles she felt inside sound in her voice.

His face darkened. "You will come with me, Elizabeth. I've given you much more than the week you asked to mourn your father." He pushed past the first sisters on the stairs as the other men began to throw down the chairs from the pegs.

Suddenly Elder Homer stormed into the house with a pitchfork. He did not hold the pitchfork menacingly, but he did grip it tightly as he said, "What goes on here?" Other brethren filed in behind him to quickly move between the men and the sisters.

The men with Colton looked at the Shaker brethren's somber faces and backed slowly away from them toward the door. Colton stopped on the stairs. Four sisters still stood between him and Elizabeth. He looked down at the brethren, then back at Elizabeth. "I will have you, Elizabeth. One way or another."

"Nay, I will never be yours, Colton. Never."

He made a sound of disgust before he said, "You even try to sound like one of them, but you're not. You're mine. Rest assured of that"

Without waiting for her to reply, he turned and went down the stairs. He looked neither left nor right as he strode out the door.

When Elizabeth heard the horses' hooves carrying the men out of the village, she looked at Sister Melva. "I didn't mean to bring you trouble," she said. "I didn't think he would find me here"

"Worry not, Sister Elizabeth. We will stomp out the evil brought into our house" And down below the Shakers circled the room in a stomping dance so full of spirit and fury that Elizabeth expected to feel the house shake. But it did not. It was built too solidly.

"Come add your feet to the dance" Sister Melva took Elizabeth's hand and led her down the stairs where she joined the others stomping and pushing with their hands to shove the devil away. If only she could believe it might work.

Ethan watched the wheel of the steamship churn the river water, lifting and dropping it over and over. Ever since he'd stepped aboard the riverboat for their trip down the river to New Orleans, he had been aware of the water flowing under his feet. Aware of it taking him away from all he'd known, and yet somewhere within his soul there was a glad yielding to the pull of the water.

It worried him. This feeling of one with the river. This excitement each time they reached a new port. He feared his father's seed had sprouted unbeknownst to him, and now the river was watering it, making it grow. He feared falling from grace.

Brother Martin had seemed to have the same fear for him after Ethan had confessed the struggle he felt whenever he was near Elizabeth. Ethan had told him of his encounter with Elizabeth in the woods. He had to. Unconfessed sin kept one from living the perfect way, the Shaker way. While he hadn't planned to meet Elizabeth in the trees, they had met. Without supervision. Without control.

"You should have gone to get Brother Issachar before you approached her." Brother Martin had taken off his spectacles and rubbed his forehead as if Ethan's confession hurt his head.

"I thought she was going to jump. If I had gone for Brother Issachar, I would have had no chance to save her"

The lines between Brother Martin's eyes deepened. He blew out a puff of air from his nose and sat in thought a moment before he said, "Yet you tell me she was not going to jump at all:"

"Yea, but I feared that was what she intended:"

"It could be you should have spoken a prayer for guidance to our Eternal Father or Mother Ann. Did you do so?" Brother Martin peered across the table at Ethan.

"Nay, I was only concerned with pulling my sister back from the edge of danger;" Ethan admitted.