The Believer (The Shakers 2)

by Ann H. Gabhart

  The sound of horses' hooves came from down the road, and without even thinking about it, Elizabeth grabbed Hannah's arm and pulled her out of sight into the trees. It wasn't Colton, but just the thought that it might be washed fear through her, until now with the horses gone and nothing but silence around them, she had to lean against a tree to gather the strength to keep standing.

  Hannah put her arms around Elizabeth's waist. "We can live in the woods. We'll build a shelter out of tree limbs like the settlers did when they first came across the Wilderness Trail. Soon there will be berries, and you know which roots we can eat:' Her face was animated. "We can catch fish and steal turkey eggs from their nests"

  Elizabeth managed to smile down at her. "Two wood nymphs"

  "That would be better than having to worry about burning up in our beds:"

  Elizabeth stared off into the trees. Didn't the Bible say the Lord would provide for his children? That he would supply the needs of those who trusted in him. But it didn't always tell how that would happen. One prayed and one got answers. She remembered Payton's prayers for them and felt hope opening up its wings inside her. At least they would have a destination.

  Perhaps the man in his kindness would allow them to stay for a few days in exchange for their labor in his store. Or they might find a way to live in the woods through the spring and summer where she could gather roots for sale. Sister Lettie said she had a gift for finding such. It sounded like a desperate plan, but no more desperate than going to Colton with the suspicion awake within her that he could have fed her father poison.

  The Lord clothed the world in beauty with flowers and trees and put ample food out for the birds to find each day. Would he not do the same for her and Hannah? Elizabeth ran her hands down the sturdy material of the skirt of her dress. Had he not already begun to supply their needs?

  She touched Hannah's springing curls and said, "Let's go see if Aristotle remembers us:"

  They reached Harrodsburg, the settlement closest to the Shaker village, in the middle of the afternoon in spite of stepping away from the road whenever they heard horses. They did not see Colton.

  In town, they could no longer avoid people, but at least if Colton saw them, he wouldn't be able to defy the law with so many witnesses on the street. They walked past the courthouse. Somewhere inside would be the sheriff who had come out to Harmony Hill after Colton and his cohorts had threatened the Shaker women last fall. He had seemed a fair-minded man interested in keeping the peace.

  Elizabeth hesitated, wondering if she should go in the courthouse and seek the sheriff to tell him about Colton setting fire to the Shakers' house and of her suspicions that her father was poisoned. But she had little besides her suspicions and Hannah's claim to have seen Colton the night before. Would the sheriff trust the eyewitness account of a child of eight? Especially when the only light had been that of the moon. It would be best to find the store first and see if they could obtain shelter there for the night.

  The town bustled with activity. People moved along the streets with purpose in their steps, but it was nothing like Harmony Hill. Here people talked and laughed and sometimes shouted at each other across the street. The noise was jarring after the quiet peace at Harmony Hill where the Shaker sisters and brethren went about their work duties with sparse conversation.

  Many curious glances came their way. A woman and a girl in homespun Shaker blue dresses without the wide white collars and no caps to cover their hair.

  Hannah edged over closer to Elizabeth. "How will we find him? There are so many people:"

  "Payton said he ran a store:"

  "But which store?" Hannah looked up and down the street. "We don't know the man's name"

  "We do know something:" Elizabeth squeezed Hannah's shoulder to give her courage. `Aristotle. Perhaps he will bark a welcome:'

  "How would he know we are here?"

  "Remember how he found us when we hid from him in the woods. His good nose or his ears"

  Hannah's face lit up. "I could whistle for him. He always came when I whistled" Hannah pursed her lips, but Elizabeth put her fingers over them before she could blow air out to make a sound.

  "It might be better if we don't attract the eyes of everyone in the town just yet. We are already getting more than a few curious stares:"

  "Maybe Mr. Linley is not here. Maybe he has gone back to his house:"

  "We can hope;" Elizabeth said. "But the town is not so large that we can't find the store without whistling up undue attention:"

  "How about if I whistle real soft?" Hannah demonstrated. `Aristotle always heard me when I did that in the woods:'

  So she whistled under her breath so low Elizabeth could barely hear her, but Aristotle's ears were better. They weren't halfway down the street when they heard frantic barks coming from a store two buildings on down the walkway. A man spoke sharply, but then the door was opening and Aristotle bounded toward them. He jumped right at Hannah and knocked her down on the sidewalk. He was trembling all over and his tail whipped back and forth as he licked every inch of Hannah's face before he leaped up on Elizabeth to wrap his front paws around her leg.

  A man came out of the store and ran toward them. "Aristotle, what in the world has gotten into you?"

  Elizabeth laughed as she scratched the dog's ears while he licked her sleeves. "Do not be concerned. He knows us. He used to be our dog:"

  "I see' The man gave Elizabeth and Hannah the once-over before he said, "Well, then, any friend of Aristotle is a friend of mine. Come on into the store and we'll sort things out"

  Felix Wiley was every bit as kind as Payton had suggested he might be. He looked to be in his sixties, with gray hair lapping his collar and a mustache that didn't hide the deep lines around his mouth. Lines that fell naturally into a smile as he talked about Aristotle. "Your dog has been a godsend to me" He paused while his smile faded and his eyes turned sad. "My wife, she died last summer. Sudden like:"

  "I'm sorry;" Elizabeth said as they followed him into the store where he sat crackers and cheese in front of them on the counter and waved away Elizabeth's protests that they had no money to pay for the food.

  "Well, death comes to us all. And the store keeps me busy, you know;" he told Elizabeth as he leaned back against the counter and smoothed down his mustache. "But the people, they all go home at the end of the day, and the night hours stretched out long in front of me before Aristotle came to keep me company. Besides, Aristotle is the best listener I've ever been privileged to know. He's yet to disagree with a single thing I've told him except, of course, about chasing the cat out in back of the store"

  "He's always been bad to chase things;' Hannah said as she slipped the dog one of the crackers. "Squirrels. Foxes. But we never had cats. I don't know why."

  "Perhaps because Aristotle didn't like them,' Mr. Wiley said, his smile firmly back on his face again.

  A small bell jangled over top of the door as two men came into the store. Elizabeth and Hannah moved to the side out of the way as Mr. Wiley stepped behind the counter to wait on the men. Elizabeth kept her face turned away, but she felt their curious glances. As one of the men picked up his parcels to leave, he asked, "These girls kin to you, Felix?"

  "Distant kin;" Mr. Wiley told them without a second's hesitation. "Relations of relations of mine"

  "They look to be part of those Shakers out at Harmony Hill," the man said.

  "You ever see a Shaker woman without a cap and apron? They're peculiar about that sort of thing, you know." Mr. Wiley laughed a little as he walked the men toward the door. He pushed the door firmly shut behind them before he turned to Elizabeth and Hannah and crossed his arms over his chest. "It wasn't a lie. We're both related to Aristotle:"

  Elizabeth smiled. "We have no problem with that:"

  "But you do have a problem unless I miss my guess"

  Elizabeth's smile faded. "True. It's as your customer said. We were Shakers, but we are no more:"

  "Did they kick you out?" He ey
ed Elizabeth. "For an indiscretion?"

  Elizabeth looked down at her hands as a blush warmed her cheeks. "Not the sort of which you speak. But there were fires and some thought-"

  Hannah interrupted her. "They thought I had a demon because of my hair." Hannah yanked her curls up away from her head. `And because I didn't always want to do what they said. I didn't set the fires. Well, only one little one, but it did no one harm. I saw men setting the other fires'

  Mr. Wiley frowned as he tried to sort out Hannah's words. After a moment he asked, "Have you come for Aristotle?" At the sound of his name, the dog wagged his tail and went to the man who reached down and rubbed Aristotle's head.

  Elizabeth could tell he cared more about that answer than why they had left the Shakers. "No. We have no way to feed him. We have no money, no place to go. We only hoped that since you were kind enough to take in our dog, you might let us stay in the room we'd heard you rent out to travelers in exchange for us cleaning your house or store:" He looked at her without saying anything and she hurried on. "Not forever. Just for a few days until I can find some other way to get by."

  Aristotle looked up at him and whined, then went back to nuzzle Elizabeth's hand until she scratched his favorite spot behind his ears. She didn't look at Mr. Wiley. Perhaps she asked too much.

  "You're a pretty girl," he said thoughtfully. "You could marry. Best I remember, early on after Issachar brought me the dog, there was a man here looking for you. He saw Aristotle and knew him. He seemed very keen on finding you"

  Elizabeth kept her eyes on the dog's head and answered carefully. "That must have been our neighbor from Washington County. He has indicated his wish to marry me, but I do not have the same wish:"

  Hannah jumped in. "He was the one who started the fire at Harmony Hill last night. We're scared of him"

  Elizabeth looked at her and spoke sharply. "Hannah:" While there was truth in Hannah's words, some things were best left unspoken.

  Tears popped up in Hannah's eyes. She looked very tired. "Well, we are," she said with a little pout. She put her hands over her face to hide her tears. Aristotle tried to climb into her lap as he licked her hands.

  Elizabeth reached across the divide between them to touch her shoulder. She too was very tired. If not for the storekeeper watching her, she would have dissolved into tears along with Hannah.

  "Is it true? What your little sister says?"

  Elizabeth shut her eyes and swallowed hard. Why did she fear admitting the truth? She opened her eyes to look straight at the man. "Yea:" She shook her head slightly at her lapse into the Shaker talk. "Yes, I fear him"

  "With reason, it seems," Mr. Wiley said. "I knew that man was trouble the first day he stepped through my door. He's done nothing to change my opinion in the weeks since:"

  "He's still here in town then?"

  "I couldn't say for sure. I've seen him out on the streets now and again. He doesn't come in here anymore. Not since he kicked Aristotle and I threatened him with the sheriff. He laughed at me until he found out the sheriff's my cousin. Then he quit laughing. Seems he and John had already had some kind of run-in:"

  Mr. Wiley went to the door and turned over his closed sign and pulled down the shades. "It is near enough closing time;" he said as he went to the counter and began straightening things there without looking back at Elizabeth and Hannah. "Fact is, the room I let out is upstairs here and the whole place could use a good cleaning. Me and the wife lived in the two rooms in back of the store. Of course, it's just me and the dog now, and I never was much for keeping things as clean as I should, and a dog, even a good dog like Aristotle, has a way of tracking in extra dirt. Hilda was always the one who did the cleaning and such. Hilda, that was my wife" He looked up at Elizabeth. "You know how to fry chicken?"

  "I can fry chicken:"

  Her answer seemed to please him. `And pies? How about brown sugar pie? My Hilda could make the best brown sugar pie in the state' Mr. Wiley got a longing look on his face.

  "I've baked pies, but mostly apple"

  `And blackberry cobbler;' Hannah put in. "With whipped cream when the cow was fresh"

  "You're making my mouth water." Mr. Wiley rubbed his stomach. "I'd ask you to marry me, but relations can't be marrying relations" He smiled at Elizabeth. "Not to mention I'm old enough to be your granddaddy. But great uncle might be better. You can be the children of my Hilda's long-lost sister's daughter. We haven't heard from that girl since she and her husband moved off some years back. Hilda always figured she died:'

  "Our mother died;' Hannah said. "When I was four."

  "Well, see there. The story works"

  "The man who was looking for me, our neighbor, he will know who we are," Elizabeth said.

  "I never said you'd have to change who you are. Just change who your dear mama was kin to. I'll wager you don't even know who that was anyhow, do you?" He raised his bushy gray eyebrows at them.

  "She used to talk about her mother back in Virginia. She was a midwife and herb doctor."

  "Not my Hilda's sister for sure then, but we don't have to tell everything, do we? Just until you find that better way. Or the right fellow to marry."

  Elizabeth's smile faded as she stared down at her hands. "That might not ever happen"

  "Uh-oh;' Mr. Wiley said. "Fell for one of them Shaker fellows, did you? Those boys aren't the marrying kind" He put his hand on her shoulder. "But buck up. You've got old Uncle Felix watching out for you now, and in time you'll see there are plenty more fishes in the sea. And a good number of them come right through those doors over there:" He pointed toward the front of his store.

  "Thank you, Mr. Wiley;" Elizabeth said.

  He interrupted her. "None of that `mister' stuff. Uncle Felix, remember."

  "Uncle Felix;" Elizabeth said with a smile.

  Hannah laughed and jumped up to give Mr. Wiley a hug. "I think I like having an uncle:' She looked up at him and her laughter died away. "Promise me you won't die like Brother Issachar, Uncle Felix"

  Mr. Wiley frowned. "The last Shaker brother who was in here told me Issachar was poorly. I'm sorry to hear he passed on. When did that happen?"

  'A few days ago;' Elizabeth said.

  'A shame. He was a good man. A friend' He patted Hannah's head before she stepped back from him. "I wish my Hilda could have seen your hair, child. You put me in mind of a little lamb'

  "Except my wool grows longer," Hannah said. "Did you and your Hilda have a little girl like me?"

  "We weren't blessed with children of our own, but my Hilda loved the children who came into the store"

  "Do you think she would have liked me?"

  "I'm pretty sure she would. She'd have given you a piece of rock candy and maybe a ribbon for your hair"

  "I'm sorry she died;' Hannah said. "I always wanted a ribbon for my hair"

  "What are you talking about, Hannah?" Elizabeth gave her a look. "You know you've always pulled out every ribbon I put in your hair."

  Hannah lifted her chin and looked defiantly at Elizabeth. "I wouldn't have pulled them out if our Aunt Hilda had tied them in my hair."

  Mr. Wiley laughed. "I think my life just took a turn for the better." He put his hand on Hannah's shoulder. "Come along and Elizabeth can start earning your keep by making us some biscuits"

  Elizabeth stood up to follow them back to the kitchen behind the store. She could hardly believe their luck. Not luck, she told herself. She slipped her hand in her pocket and wrapped it around the heart Payton had given her. The providence of the Lord. He had answered their prayers. He had opened up a way for them. A way that had nothing to do with Colton Linley.

  Ethan watched Elizabeth and the little sister until they disappeared from sight. It was over. She was gone. He could go on about his life as a Believer. He could push away the carnal temptations of the world and concentrate on working for the good of his brothers and sisters. He could listen to Elder Joseph in meeting and not be tempted to let his eyes stray to the benches where the
sisters sat. The one who drew his eye would no longer be among the sisters.

  He could pray again and have faith the Eternal Father would hear his prayers. Lately his prayers had been running into the stone barrier of sinfulness in his heart and shattering before they reached the Lord's ears. Brother Martin had often reminded Ethan that he who sinned had no reason to expect his prayers to be answered. Not until he made confession of those sins and determined to turn from his wrongs. A man had to make his decision to live the right way, the only way. He had chosen to be a Believer. The one who had enticed his eye off that proper path was gone from their midst.

  That was good. His mind knew that. His heart did not. His heart chased after her, and it was all he could do to stay still and not call out to her. She had seen him, but she had not let her eyes linger on him. She had not lifted her hand in farewell. Her step had not faltered as she walked away from him.

  In the woods she had professed her love for him. He hadn't made the same profession back to her, but the kiss had revealed more than his words could have ever said. He did love her. In a worldly way. In a wondrous way. Yet he had not chosen her. He had chosen the Believers and the life he knew. How could he choose other? It was sin to commit matrimony. As amazing as it felt, that fire that raced through him when their lips touched was wrong. A sinful fire that would surely consume him if he kept lusting after worldly ways.

  He wanted no part of the world. In the world, men had no peace in their hearts. Men of the world, men like Hawk Boyd, thieved and murdered and lived only for themselves. He could not go into that world. He didn't want to become a man such as his father. He was a Believer. He had told Elizabeth that there on the cliff after they kissed. She hadn't condemned him for lacking the courage to follow his heart. She'd simply opened her hands and set him free, the way a child might release a firefly caught at dusk.

  Yet he did not feel free. He felt as if the weight of a whole wagonload of rocks sat upon his heart.

  "Our former sister never had intent to walk the Shaker path. That is too bad, for no doubt she will reap sorrow from her worldly choices. Praise Mother Ann that sorrow won't touch us. It is good the fallen one is gone out from us," Brother Martin told him when he found Ethan in the graveyard, staring down at the mound of dirt that covered Brother Issachar.