“Hello, Brother Joseph.”
Joseph looked past Caroline into the room, and then his jaw dropped a little. “Oh, my!” he exclaimed.
“Hello, Brother Joseph,” Will said, looking embarrassed but coming forth to shake hands too.
Joseph peered more closely at the blackness that covered all of Will’s right eye and most of his upper cheek. Then he looked at the swollen nose. “Nathan wasn’t exaggerating, was he?” he said with a low whistle.
Caroline looked at her son. “No, and I think we haven’t seen the worst of it yet.”
Joseph reached out and barely touched the sling. “And how’s the arm?”
“Getting stiffer,” Will admitted. “But the doctor said that would happen.”
“Well,” Joseph went on with a rueful smile, “when Nathan told me that I had a defender of the faith in Warsaw, I thought I’d better come and offer my personal thanks.”
Will colored deeply. He had only told the family the details of what had happened under pressure from his father, who was still half-irritated by the whole affair and yet clearly proud of Will’s courage in the matter. Will didn’t want the incident getting around as common knowledge. “Uh, it just kind of happened,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” Joseph grinned. “That’s kind of how Nathan described it too.”
Caroline reached out her arms and Savannah transferred over from Joseph. “Come, Olivia. This is a good time to get those things from the store.”
“Oh, you don’t need to go,” Joseph said.
“That’s all right,” Caroline answered. “We really were just talking about getting some things we need. That will give you and Will a chance to talk.” Then to Will she added, “If you’ll listen for the baby, he should sleep for another half an hour at least.”
“Yes, Mama.”
As they left, Will came back into the room and showed Joseph to a chair. The Prophet sat down and crossed his legs. “Tell me what happened, Will. I’d like to get it straight from you.”
Will did, trying to explain some of his feelings as well as just reporting what had transpired. When he finished, Joseph was silent for a time. Then Will saw that his eyes were glistening a little. “Thank you, Will,” he finally said in a husky voice. “It is a wonderful thing to have a friend who’ll stand up for you like that.”
“Well, actually,” Will said with a deadpan face, “had I taken a little longer to size the man up, I may have decided just to mail in my complaint.”
That won him a quick grin and a nod. “Nathan says your father said the man was huge.”
“Ever seen one of those great big old bull buffalo out on the prairie?”
Joseph nodded.
“Well, I think this guy uses one of those for a back brush when he takes a bath.”
Joseph laughed merrily. “And you just up and ripped that paper right off the window, right there in front of him.”
“Yeah,” Will admitted, for the first time starting to see the humor in it, “I guess I did.”
“You’re lucky Joshua didn’t bring you back in a bucket.” Now Joseph sobered a little. “But thank you, Will. I really do appreciate it.”
“What made me the maddest was all that stuff about you sending people to burn your own houses. They were trying to make it look like the Mormons were to blame for everything. I think of Jessica at Haun’s Mill. John being killed. Then I remembered what happened to Rebecca and Lydia and Grandma there at Grandpa’s cabin in Far West.” He shrugged. “I just saw red, I guess, and went in to do something about it.”
Joseph leaned back in his chair, half closing his eyes. “You know, Will, it seems strange to me, though I am getting used to it now.”
“What’s that, Brother Joseph?”
He opened his eyes again. “I know you’re not sure if the Church is true yet, but Nathan tells me you’ve got a pretty good testimony of the Book of Mormon.”
Will nodded. “It makes me feel good when I read it.”
“That’s good. What I was going to say was, that first night in 1823, when the angel Moroni came to my room, he said something very significant to me.”
“What?”
“After telling me that God had a work for me to do, he said that my name would be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues.”
“Really? What did he mean by that?”
“I suppose that good and evil should be spoken of me among all people.”
“Well, Thomas Sharp’s paper calls you the ‘Superior Ugly Devil,’” Will said with a grimace. “I suppose that would count for evil, right?”
Joseph’s smile was fleeting. “I suppose. But Thomas Sharp is not the only one. Many newspapers are publishing lies about me by the wholesale. If I were to try to enumerate them, I could write nothing else. It would take all of my time. Suffice it to say that every falsehood wicked men can invent, assisted by their father the devil, is trumpeted to the world as sound and true doctrine.”
“That must get awfully discouraging,” Will said, thinking of the terrible feeling he had experienced just by reading the slanderous things Sharp had said, and it wasn’t even about him personally.
Joseph brightened. “Do you have a Bible nearby, Will?”
Will pointed to the piano where their family Bible sat. Joseph stood and retrieved it, opening it even as he sat back down. He thumbed a few pages, then ran his finger down the page. Will saw that he was in the Gospel of John. Now Joseph looked up at him. “I
would
get discouraged, except for these words. It is the Savior speaking to his disciples the night before his life was taken.”
He looked down again, found his place, and began to read. “‘If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.’” Now his voice slowed a little. “‘Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.’”
Will was nodding. “Yes, I understand, Joseph.”
The Prophet shut the Bible and returned it to its place. He did not sit down again. “Well, I won’t keep you, Will. I just wanted to personally come and say thank you and tell you that I’m really glad the man knocked you out with that first blow.”
Will laughed softly. “I was afraid he was going to sit on me.”
Joseph pulled a face. “Then Joshua wouldn’t even have needed a bucket for you.” Then he leaned forward a little. “Nathan also tells me you’re having a bit of a struggle getting an answer to your prayers.”
Now Will looked glum, an expression made all the worse by the huge black eye. “It just doesn’t seem to come.”
“Do you remember Brigham’s advice to you on the ship?”
Will looked up in surprise. “You know about that?”
“Yes, Brigham has a great affection for you, you know.”
“I think a lot of him too,” Will said, greatly pleased.
“Well, you just remember that advice. You don’t hurry the Lord. All you need to do is make sure you’re listening when he finally speaks.”
“And if the answer
does
come,” Will said, quite depressed now, “I don’t know if Pa will allow me to get baptized.”
Joseph nodded slowly. “I know. I know what your mother is going through too. But your pa is a good man, Will.”
“I know that. It’s just that he’s as stubborn as four span of mules.”
Joseph laughed right out loud at that.
“What?” Will asked.
“It takes more than four span of mules to light into a man who uses a bull buffalo for a back scrub.” And then he sobered again. “Just don’t hurry the Lord, Will. He knows your heart, and he knows your mother’s heart. And . . .”
Will thought he was going to say, “And he knows your father’s heart,” but he didn’t. He just smiled and finished with, “And he knows a good man when he sees one.”
It was just past noon when Joshua came running into the house. He stuck his head in the parlor and saw Will there. If he saw the Book of Mormon in Will’s hands, he gave no sign of it.
“Will, where’s your mother?”
“Upstairs with Charles.”
“And the girls?”
“Over at Lydia’s.”
Joshua’s voice dropped and he grinned openly. “He made it, Will. He’s here.”
For a moment that lost Will; then his eyebrows shot up. “Pickerell?”
“Yes. He was on the ten o’clock boat. He’s down in the field behind the stables setting up right now. You get your mother. I’ll go tell the rest of the family.”
“All of them?” Will asked in surprise.
“You bet! We promised Pickerell we’d make it worth his while. Who better than the whole Steed clan to make that promise good?”
“Yes!” Will agreed instantly. “That’s a wonderful idea.”
As his father spun around and started out again, Will called after him. “Pa?”
Joshua stopped, turning back impatiently. “What?”
“You brought Livvy and Savannah back new dresses again from St. Louis. And Mama too.”
“Yes.” Joshua always did that. Every trip without fail. “So?”
“You have another daughter too,” Will said quietly.
Joshua visibly flinched.
“I know why you don’t talk about it much, Pa, and that’s all right. But did you see Rachel’s eyes last time when she saw Livvy’s new dress?”
Joshua stood there for a moment, his face a mask. Then he looked down. “Sometimes a man can make a fool of himself by sticking his hand into a sack when he doesn’t know what’s in it.” There was just a touch of bitterness to his voice now.
“I understand,” Will said, accepting the rebuke. “Just remember that she’s your flesh and blood too.” And then he hauled himself up and started toward the stairs. “I’ll go tell Mama.”
“Tell her that everyone’s got to be in their best dress,” Joshua said, his enthusiasm returning now. “She’ll shoot us if she finds out what this is all about and the girls don’t look their best. I’ll send Livvy and Savannah back here to change clothes.”
Joshua shook his head, feeling a sense of uneasiness even as he swelled with pride. Olivia was up on the driver’s seat of the buckboard with Savannah and Peter, who was driving the team. Joshua was in the carriage with Caroline and baby Charles, which left him free to study this stepdaughter whom he had adopted as his own. It was eerie. With every passing day, Olivia was looking more and more like Caroline. People who didn’t know Livvy at all would come in the store and instantly say, “You’re Caroline Steed’s daughter, aren’t you?” And there was no denying it. Her auburn hair, straight and past her shoulder blades now, had that same lustrous quality of her mother’s, glinting like burnished copper in the sunlight. She had the same large green eyes that could be so arresting, the same flawless complexion, the same slenderness of body—though she would pass her mother by an inch or two before she was through growing. It was this similarity to her mother that gave Joshua his sense of uneasiness. Though just now becoming a young woman, Olivia was already keenly aware of her effect on the young men of Nauvoo, and what was worse, he knew she absolutely gloried in it.
He smiled at her as she turned to him, eyes pleading. “How much longer, Papa?”
“Yes,” Savannah cried, turning now too. “How much longer?”
“It’s just a few more minutes. It’s down by the stables.”
“What is it?” Caroline said.
Joshua laughed, delighted that he had her as completely mystified as the children, and just about as excited.
Caroline could see that there was no point in pressing Joshua further, but Savannah was dauntless in her attempts to get more information from her father. She climbed down from the seat and crawled up into his lap. She took his face in both of her hands and pulled him down to look into her deep blue eyes. “Please, Papa. I can’t wait another minute. I’ll give you a kiss if you tell me.”
“You are shameless, you little imp,” Joshua laughed. “No. You just wait.”
Savannah would never be the striking beauty that her half sister was going to be. But both Caroline and Joshua knew that with Savannah it wouldn’t matter one iota. The words which invariably were used when people talked about her were things like
adorable, enchanting, delightful.
In the last few months her hair had become long enough that Caroline now curled it into long ringlets at the back of her head. They danced and swayed whenever she moved, almost as alive as those mischievous blue eyes. Her face was more expressive than those of the traveling minstrels who went from town to town putting on shows from the back of their wagons. As comfortable around adults as she was around children, she could cajole, plead, persuade, rebuke, censure, or praise with the expertise of a born politician. She could be impudent and coy in the same moment; exasperate in one instant and totally melt the heart in the next. She was the pride and joy of both her father and her grandfather, and expertly milked their adoration on a regular basis.
Joshua turned his head, the excitement in him building. The whole family was stretched out in a small caravan behind them. They were all there but two. Melissa’s husband, Carl, was delivering a load of brick out of town somewhere, and Derek was working in the fields and they decided it was better not to send for him. Jenny Pottsworth had been left in charge of the store so that no one in the family had to be there. With a nod to himself, he turned back. He felt like rubbing his hands. This was going to be the best surprise ever.
By the time Pickerell had his tripods in place and the camera ready on its perch, the Steeds had been joined by a small crowd. No one knew what was going on down behind the Steed freight stables, but whatever it was, word was spreading fast.
Joshua had given Pickerell strict instructions. No one was to have a clue. He would take the first picture—of Savannah, Joshua had decided—and they would wait while Pickerell went in the tent and “fixed” the image, as he called it. That way, the first unveiling of the daguerreotype would have the maximum effect.
“All right, Mr. Steed,” Pickerell called out. “I’m ready for our first candidate.”
The crowd went quiet as Joshua turned around. “All right,” he said with great solemnity, “who shall we have be the very first?”
Instantly the children were dancing up and down. They didn’t know what Joshua was up to, but they knew it must be something wonderful. Savannah was fairly leaping in front of her father, waving both arms. “Me, Papa. Me!”