“How would I know? I have nothing to do with dogs. No proper Shaker does.”
“Then we better go see.”
“Go if you want, but I am too busy to look for dogs.” Elder Derron’s voice was still too loud. “I must clean my shoes and be ready for my morning duties.”
“Your duties can wait. You need to come with me.”
“Nay.” The elder glared at Mitchell. “I have to clean my shoes.”
“Elder Derron.” A young brother ran down the path toward them. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“You have found me now. Here with the sheriff.” Elder Derron’s greeting was curt. “What say you?”
The young Shaker gave Mitchell a sideways look, but he didn’t allow his curiosity to distract him. “Eldress Lilith insists you must come right away to help with Sister Edna.”
“Why does she need the elder?” Mitchell asked.
“Sister Edna is distraught and keeps calling for Elder Derron.” The boy shifted his eyes from Mitchell to the elder. “Eldress Lilith hopes the sight of you will calm the sister, Elder. She says they can barely keep her restrained.”
“She is awake?” Elder Derron’s voice was faint, almost as if he were talking to himself. “Mother Ann allowed her to wake?”
“Come,” the Shaker boy said. “Eldress Lilith will be unhappy that I have been so long finding you. She’s in the infirmary.”
“I know where she is.” Elder Derron’s voice was firm again. “I cannot go there with dirt on my shoes. Tell the eldress I must clean my shoes.”
“If you come, I will clean your shoes,” the boy said.
“Nay, I must do it myself.” Elder Derron turned and ran across the road.
Mitchell considered going after him, but it would be better to question the eldress. She might know where Carlyn was.
“The eldress is not going to be pleased.” The boy blew out a breath. “But if you come with me, she may be less upset. After I found Elder Derron, I was to ride into town for you.”
“Is Sister Carlyn there with her?”
“Who?” the boy asked, then answered his own question. “Oh, you mean the sister they locked up here last night. Is she in there now?” He peered toward the house.
“No.”
“Then I guess I better tell the eldress that too.” He turned and started toward the stone building in the center of the village.
Mitchell caught up with him. “Did you think Elder Derron was acting oddly?”
“All the elders are odd,” the boy said. “You stay here long enough, you are going to be odd. I don’t plan to stay that long.” He glanced over at Mitchell. “I would just as soon you didn’t tell anybody that. I wouldn’t want them getting all upset. I plan to take off without having to hear them crying woe and telling me I’m on a slippery slope to eternal damnation.”
“I doubt I’ll have need to mention it.”
“Good.” The boy looked back over his shoulder to where Elder Derron had disappeared into the shadows. “But you are right. Elder Derron was acting stranger than usual. But if he said he had to clean his shoes, then he had to clean his shoes. These people make war against dirt.”
36
Carlyn awoke with her head against the door and the shard of glass in her lap. Daylight pushed though the crack in the door that she might have made a fraction of an inch larger with all her gouging. When the moonlight had been blotted out by the dark hours before dawn, despair had overtaken her and she had whispered into the black air pressing in on her. “I am in my grave.”
Pray anyway. Her mother’s words echoed in her mind. So very slowly she whispered the Twenty-Third Psalm. How often had she heard her father read that at funerals? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That was where Ambrose was. Joyful in the house of the Lord. It was a house she wanted to dwell in someday, but not yet.
What would her mother pray? Carlyn shut her eyes as one of her mother’s oft-spoken prayers echoed in her memory.
For trials, I give thee thanks, for such hard times make us depend more on thee. I thank thee for love, for without it we are but sounding cymbals. I covet thy watchcare over these, my children. And I pray for the morrow, that thou will give us another day to try to serve thee better. May we dwell in thy hope, O Lord.
“I pray the same. I need hope, Lord, that Mitchell will find me,” Carlyn whispered. It didn’t seem wrong to reach for Mitchell. A friend the Lord had put into her life. A man she might yet love if she were delivered from this tomb. She shut her eyes and his face was in her mind. He would find her. The Lord was giving her that hope. With that thought, an unexpected peace settled over her and she had dozed off.
When she heard the Shaker bell, the sound was so faint she wondered how far from the center of the village this cellar was. But the night before, she had heard the clank of a shovel when Elder Derron must have been digging Curt’s grave somewhere near here. Would he come back tonight to dig hers? She shook away the thought. It was only the heavy door that muffled the ringing of the bell.
She would wait and pray and rejoice in the light pushing through the crack in the door to prove the Lord had gifted her with another day. She picked up the shard of glass and began whittling at the door again. Hands to work. Heart to God. She could embrace that Shaker teaching. Diligently, she continued to work with her hands while prayers without words rose from her heart.
When Sister Edna saw Mitchell, she tried to sit up and reach for him. Two Shaker women murmured calming words and kept her from rising.
“Don’t upset yourself, Sister. Brother Benjamin says you should lie still and rest,” Eldress Lilith said.
“You don’t understand.” Sister Edna pushed at their hands. “I must get her help. He means her harm.”
“Who?” Mitchell asked.
She fell back on the bed, her face as pale as the white case on her pillow. “Sister Carlyn. I was wrong to not tell.”
“Tell what?”
“About him.” She shut her eyes. For a second, Mitchell thought she might have lost consciousness, but then she muttered, “Elder Derron.”
The eldress leaned near Mitchell to speak close to his ear. “Sheriff, the poor sister is out of her head. Speaking such. Elder Derron would harm no one.” She looked around at the young Shaker who had explained why the elder hadn’t come with them. “Even now cleaning his shoes so that he wouldn’t bring dirt into our presence.”
Sister Edna must have heard at least some of what the eldress said. “There is dirt only Mother Ann can clean away.” Her voice was weak.
“Brother Benjamin gave her a draught to calm her. He assures us that it is not uncommon to be agitated after such an injury and to fail to remember what happened,” Eldress Lilith said.
Once more Sister Edna tried to get up. “Nay, he means her harm. She is in danger.”
“Ease yourself, Sister.” Eldress Lilith gently pushed her back down on the bed. “The young sister is quite safe here in the village.”
“Nay, you must find her posthaste, Sheriff.” Sister Edna focused her eyes on Mitchell. “I fear I will have her blood on my hands if you do not stop him.”
“I will stop him.” Mitchell made the promise to calm the woman, but inside he felt anything but calm or sure.
The eldress followed Mitchell back out into the hallway. She was unbelieving when Mitchell told her Carlyn was no longer in the vagrant house. “Elder Derron locked her there. He has the only key.”
“He says he left it here.”
“I did not see the key, but if he says he left it here, I am sure he did.” She didn’t quite hide the doubt in her eyes. “I will ask him where he left it when he comes and then see which of our sisters felt sorrow for Sister Carlyn and released her.”
Mitchell leveled his eyes on the woman. “I don’t think you can count on him showing up here.”
Eldress Lilith’s distress grew more evident. “You have to
be wrong. Sister Edna has to be wrong.”
“Elder Derron was not himself when I saw him.”
She wrung her hands together. “But where did he go?”
“That I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”
“You have to be wrong,” she repeated, more as if her own ears needed to hear it than to convince Mitchell. “Elder Derron is a good and faithful Believer. He would never harm one of his sisters.”
“I hope you are right.”
“I am.” Eldress Lilith squared her shoulders. “If Sister Carlyn has left the vagrant house, it is to return to the world. She never fit into our Society here. It was only a matter of time before she deserted her calling here.”
Mitchell didn’t argue with her. “Send someone after Elder Derron. Whether he has done what Sister Edna says or not, he needs to tell what he knows.”
“Yea, I will have Brother Lyle find him.” She inclined her head in agreement. “Will you wait for him here, Sheriff?”
“No. I need to find your missing sister.”
“Then you best look in the world.” She turned on her heel and went back into the sickroom.
Hope and worry fought a war in Mitchell’s head as he walked to the other end of the village. Had Carlyn run away as the eldress suggested? Had he lost her before he could even offer her his love?
Frantic barks told Mitchell Carlyn wasn’t at the barn even before he went inside. Asher was up on three feet, staring intently at the stall door as though he could force it open.
“The dog is restless.” Brother Willis came up behind Mitchell. “He must be in pain. I brought him a draught to dull his senses.”
“No.” Mitchell held up his hand to block the Shaker. “I need him with all his senses alert to find his owner.”
“Do you speak of the young sister?” Brother Willis frowned. “Isn’t she about her duties?”
“There was trouble at the Gathering Family House in the night.”
“Trouble she caused?”
“Some have accused her, but the only sure thing is that she is missing this morning.”
Brother Willis gave a disgusted snort. “If she is gone, she will have run back to the world. Probably enticed one of our young brothers to go with her.”
“She wouldn’t have gone without Asher.” Mitchell stooped down beside the dog. “He found her here. He might be able to track her down now.”
“Take my word. She will be long gone by now.”
“Perhaps, but I must look.”
“Yea, I suppose it is your duty.” Brother Willis handed Mitchell a rope. “It would be best if the dog did not get his bandage wet.”
Mitchell looped the rope around the dog’s neck. Asher whined as though telling Mitchell to hurry. Once out of the barn, the dog gingerly put his injured paw down and strained against the rope.
“Easy boy,” Mitchell told him even as he too wanted to break out in a run. But it would be better to stay calm.
At the vagrant house, Asher sniffed all around it and sat down as though to wait for Carlyn to come back.
“She’s not here, Asher. You have to follow her trail.” Mitchell pointed away from the house.
The dog whined, but made no move to get up. Mitchell studied the buildings and trees in every direction. He saw nothing to indicate which way Carlyn might have gone from here. Nothing.
Then just as he had earlier that morning, the young Shaker, Brother Lyle, was running down the path. The boy’s face was red and his eyes wide.
“Sheriff Brodie. Eldress Lilith sent me for you. We found Elder Derron.”
“And the girl?”
“Nay. Only the elder.” Brother Lyle rushed out the next words. “He’s dead.”
“Dead?” Mitchell stared at the young Shaker. “Are you sure?”
“Yea, very sure.”
Mitchell had no choice except to go with Brother Lyle, but Asher would not. When the dog refused to budge, Mitchell picked him up and shut him inside the vagrant house.
The dog’s barks followed them as they hurried to the Trustee House where the Shaker doctor bent over Elder Derron’s body on the floor in his office. Brother Benjamin looked up when they came in. “Fetch Elder Marcus, Brother Lyle.”
The young Shaker was out the door before Brother Benjamin finished speaking. The doctor shook his head. “Death is not easy for the young to view.”
Mitchell looked at Elder Derron, his face contorted in death. “What happened?”
“Sin would be my first guess.” Brother Benjamin looked to be in his middle years. His gentle face was creased with concern.
“Are you saying he was murdered?”
“’Twould be better for him were that so, but nay, this was his own sin.” The man stood and pointed toward the desk. “He wrote some last words and then drank that bottle of poison.”
“Where did he get it?” Mitchell picked up the bottle. Arsenic.
“Perhaps from the tannery. Such is needed for curing the leather, but it matters little where he got it. He must have been tormented to commit such a sin.”
“Do you know why he might be tormented? Did he write anything about the girl?”
“The girl?” Brother Benjamin’s forehead wrinkled in a frown.
“Sister Carlyn.”
“The one Sister Edna is fearful for? Eldress Lilith says they locked her in the vagrant house. That Elder Derron insisted.” The doctor’s frown deepened.
“So he did, and now she is gone and he’s dead by his own hand.” Mitchell looked down at the elder’s body.
“Surely you can’t think Elder Derron did her harm.”
“Sister Edna thinks it possible.” Fear that it might be true stabbed Mitchell’s heart. “You said he wrote something.”
“Yea, there on the desk. But nothing about Sister Carlyn. Only Mother Ann.”
Mitchell went to the desk and read the elder’s last words, written in neat script.
I faithfully performed my duty as revealed to me by Mother Ann. Even this. Yea, even this. In her sight, I am without blemish.
“Deluded thinking.” Brother Benjamin stepped closer to peer down at the elder’s words. “A sorrow. We will have to labor many songs to bring peace back to Harmony Hill after the events of the last week.”
Mitchell didn’t care about the Shakers’ peace at that moment. He only wanted to find Carlyn. Alive. He was wasting time here. If the elder had answers, he could no longer tell them. He took one last look at the man’s body and could not help noting his shoes. They were scrubbed clean.
37
When Carlyn heard the dog, she knew, without doubt, it was Asher. But he sounded so far away.
Despair lurked in the dark dankness of the cellar behind her, but she kept her eyes on the bit of light forcing its way through the crack in the door. She needed hope. Asher might be nearer than he sounded. The heavy door had muffled the dongs of the rising bell. She couldn’t be that far from the village.
She tried to think about how long she had followed Elder Derron blindly through the night. It was all such a blur. Her fright. Her misplaced trust. If only she had run the other way when she first wondered about the direction they were going.
She stood up and rammed her shoulder against the door. The door barely shook. It was useless. Just as whittling out the crack in the door was useless. She couldn’t escape through a crack no bigger than a pencil.
But she could peek out at the world. She leaned down to put her eye to the small opening. All she could see were the stone steps down to the cellar door splashed in sunlight. If only she could feel that sunshine on her face and be free from this place before the shadows returned with the night.
She wouldn’t think about that. She couldn’t think about that. Instead she sank back down on the floor beside the door and cupped her hands around the light coming through the crack as though she could gather it up to save for later. A gift from the Lord to keep her from losing hope.
Mitchell would come. He’d open the door and b
ring her back out into the light. She had to believe that.
She heard the barks again. Asher had tracked her to the Shaker village. He might do the same now. She listened with every inch of her being, but the sound seemed so faint.
Carlyn put her ear flat against the crack. If she could hear him, he might hear her and find the cellar. Then others might notice his barks. But what if the one to notice was Elder Derron? Would his unbalanced visions tell him to silence the dog? Silence her?
She had to take the chance. She couldn’t bear another night of darkness.
She put her mouth close to the crack and attempted to whistle. Her mouth was so dry it took three tries before she managed to make a sound. Then she put her ear next to the hole again. Asher heard her. His barks changed, became high-pitched, but no nearer. He must be trapped and as helpless to open the door to freedom as she was.
“Dear Lord, let someone turn him loose,” she whispered. Then she picked up the broken top of the jar and took up position beside the door. If Elder Derron had heard her whistle and came to silence her, she would be ready.
When Mitchell came out of the Trustee House and heard Asher’s frantic barking, he pushed past the two Shakers coming up the steps. Brother Lyle called to him, but he didn’t even look back as he ran toward the vagrant house.
The dog leaped out the moment Mitchell opened the door and landed on his wounded leg with a piteous yelp. He struggled up on three legs and looked around at Mitchell.
“Easy, boy.” Mitchell stroked the dog’s back. Suddenly the dog perked up his ears again. “What do you hear?” Mitchell held his head up to listen, but he heard nothing but the normal sounds of the day.
The dog limped away from Mitchell down the pathway. He looked back and barked as though to tell Mitchell to follow. Then he tried to run, but fell again. He scrambled back to his feet, but stood trembling, panting. Ears flat against his head, he sat down and raised his nose in a mournful howl. The sound pierced Mitchell. It couldn’t be too late.
“Come on, boy. You can do it.”
The Innocent Page 30
