A Simple Shaker Murder (13 page)

“I'll be all right,” Rose assured the girl. “But I could use a hand. Let's get home and to bed, shall we?”

Quick as a chipmunk, Mairin scooted out from her hiding place and flipped off the lights, leaving the kitchen as it had been, lit by one small lamp. Before Rose's eyes had adjusted, Mairin was at her side, prying one of her hands loose from her tabletop anchor.

Voices floated down from the top of the stairs, and Mairin froze.

“I know another way,” the girl whispered. “Come on, come
on
.” She had already reached the south end of the kitchen when she turned back with impatience to a limping Rose.

“It's back here,” Mairin said. “It leads right outside.”

She pointed to a plain, narrow doorway that blended so well with the white walls that it was barely visible in the dimness. Rose remembered that it led to a series of rooms where vegetables and canned goods used to be stored to help the South Family survive the winter. She'd forgotten that the storerooms ended with a door leading to a few earthen steps and a cellar door. During the fall harvest, the brethren used to carry squash, onions, potatoes, and other storable crops directly down to the cool storerooms.

How many other forgotten passageways and hiding places had Mairin discovered during her brief time in North Homage? More disturbing, how many other secret meetings had she listened to, and what else might she have seen that she shouldn't have? It was then, as she limped after Mairin through dank, dark storerooms, that Rose vowed never to let the girl return to the life she'd been leading—either before the Griffiths or with them. Rose felt oddly confident that she would succeed in keeping Mairin with her, with the Shakers. Mother Ann would help her. Mother Ann would understand.

“I'm so very sorry, Rose,” Sister Charlotte whispered over the telephone line. Rose had taken the risk of calling her and awakening the children, rather than leave Mairin unsupervised again. “I had no idea she'd left the Children's Dwelling House, or even how she could have managed it. Nora must have been exhausted to have slept through it. She feels so responsible for watching over Mairin.”

“Don't even bother to blame yourself, and make sure Nora doesn't hold herself responsible, either. Mairin is far more clever and resourceful than Celia or Gilbert gives her credit for being. I wouldn't be surprised if she's found a secret way out of all the buildings in the village.”

“Heavens!”

“Indeed. But don't worry, I've got her with me, and I intend to keep her. I'll bring her to school tomorrow and pick her up after. Now I have just one more favor to ask of you, then go
back to bed. Please call Josie at the Infirmary and ask her to come to the Ministry House right away. I'll meet her at the door in ten minutes so we don't awaken Wilhelm.”

“Oh, Rose, don't tell me Mairin is hurt!”

“Nay, it was my clumsy self. I've twisted my knee, that's all. A poultice will fix me up.”

Rose replaced the receiver and limped back into her retiring room.

Mairin's tiny figure, curled up and fast asleep, looked like a small downy ball on Rose's narrow bed. Despite the ferocious ache in her knee, Rose did not dare crawl in next to the child. She'd just have to crawl out again to meet Josie downstairs, and besides, she didn't want to risk awakening Mairin.

Rose slipped out into the hallway again, softly closing the door behind her. The trip down the staircase took her several times as long as usual, but she told herself her knee would improve with the exercise.

She reached the front door only moments before Josie, who arrived out of breath and worried, carrying two baskets full of tins, bottles, bandages, and chunks of ice from an ice box. She knew enough not to speak, beyond a cluck at Rose's limp. In silence, they worked their way up the staircase. After a quick peek at the sleeping Mairin, the sisters closed themselves in Rose's workshop.

“Promise me you will stay in bed tomorrow,” Josie said. “And don't use heat. No matter what the doctors say, cold is best.” She removed the melting ice pack from Rose's knee and peered at the puffy, darkening skin. “It isn't broken, thank goodness, but that's a nasty bruise. Knees are tricky; one wonders what God could have been thinking. If you don't take proper care, you'll cause permanent damage, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself.”

Rose knew better than to object, though she longed to ignore the injury and stay active, to keep Mairin and the village from danger. However, one day shouldn't matter.

“I'm keeping a close eye on Mairin,” she said, “so I'll need
to take her to and from the Schoolhouse tomorrow.”

“Nay, you will not,” Josie said, her plump, normally cheerful face puckered in disapproval. “
I
will take Mairin to and from school. It'll not be the slightest problem. I've some extra help these days from one of our visitors. She's trained as a nurse and wants to learn how we stay so healthy and live so long.” Josie arched an eyebrow at Rose. “Most of us, anyway.”

“Which one is she?” Rose asked, as she hoisted herself to her feet with Josie's help.

“Martha, her name is. Just a child, about your age or so,” said Josie, to whom anyone less than her own eighty years was young and untested. “A bit talkative and over-zealous, like all of them, but bright enough.”

“Do you sense she is trying to win you over to her side?”

“Convert me, you mean? Here, put your arm around my shoulders and let me bear most of your weight.” Rose hop-limped toward the door, leaning on Josie. “Well, she tried mighty hard for a while, but you know me, Rose, I've got my heart set on meeting Mother Ann and spending eternity with you and Agatha. I wouldn't even mind if Wilhelm showed up someday.”

Both women were laughing as they opened the workroom door and found themselves face-to-face with the subject of their mirth. Wilhelm had pulled his work pants and shirt over his nightclothes and left his feet bare. His thick white hair had flattened upward on one side of his head, which might have started Rose giggling again, exhausted as she was, had she not noted the glowing coals smoldering in his eyes. Behind Wilhelm, Rose's retiring room door opened and a small figure wandered out, wearing one of Rose's chemises and rubbing her eyes.

Wilhelm noticed that Rose's gaze shifted to Mairin, and he twirled around to face the girl. She shrank against the wall, crossing her arms over her narrow chest as if to create a barrier between her and the frightening man before her. Without a word, Wilhelm spun around to Rose again. His eyes no longer
smoldered; they had burst into flame. A swollen artery throbbed down the center of his forehead.

“What is the meaning of all this noise in the middle of the night? Has the Ministry House now become a nursery for the world's lunatic children?”

“Wilhelm, please don't—”

“Shame on you, Wilhelm!” Josie's curt interruption caught Wilhelm off guard, and Rose was glad to let her handle the situation.

“She's a sweet, innocent child,” Josie continued, “and she certainly doesn't deserve to be spoken about in that manner. How do
you
feel, for heaven's sake, when someone calls you names?”

Wilhelm's lip trembled with fury, but he kept quiet. Josie was the only one among them who'd ever been able to quell Wilhelm. Despite her soft and cozy exterior, she was every bit as tough as he was. She needed to be. Her charges often balked at putting aside their work to heal their bodies, never mind their belief in healthy living.

Wilhelm changed tactics. “Then tell me, Sister Josie, is thine eldress also an innocent? Just what has she been drinking that she giggles like a foolish girl and needs thy arm to hold her upright?”

Rose had no intention of letting Wilhelm know about her visit to the South Family Dwelling House, but she did not wish to lie, so she said simply, “I've been feeling unwell.”

“And I'm here to help her recover,” Josie said, “which she'll never do standing about in this drafty hallway. Surely anything you have to say can wait a day or two, Wilhelm. It would be unfortunate if the village found out you'd been wandering around the eldress's quarters late at night. Come along, Rose. And you, too, little one.” Josie held out her free hand for Mairin and led her charges into Rose's retiring room.

As Josie closed the door, Rose caught sight of Wilhelm's face reddening at an alarming rate. She half expected him to break down the door, but of course he would never commit such an act of sinful violence. Would he? As the moments
passed peacefully, she dared to believe that Josie had, in fact, vanquished Wilhelm. For the time being, anyway.

“Thank you, Josie. I am in your debt.”

“Nonsense. It is good for Wilhelm's soul to be reminded now and then that we are all equal in the sight of God. He forgets his humility more than most, I'm afraid.” Josie helped Rose limp to her bed, lift off her work dress, and settle down with a rolled-up blanket under her injured knee.

“Now, I assume there's a spare bed or two in the empty rooms? Good, I'll roll one in and make it up in a jiffy for Mairin. Then we'll see to a comfrey poultice for that knee of yours, and some strong valerian tea to help you sleep.”

Josie bustled out the door and returned in minutes pushing a narrow bed on wheels, on top of which lay a pile of fresh white linens.

Rose watched groggily, thankful to be who she was, where she was. “Josie, was Wilhelm—”

“Gone, of course, my dear. Even Wilhelm knows when he is hopelessly in the wrong.”

“And hopelessly outmaneuvered,” Rose said quietly.

“Come along, little one,” Josie said to Mairin, “hop into bed. That's a good girl. You can say your prayers from under the covers tonight.”

Mairin grimaced. “I don't know how to say prayers,” she said.

“Oh, you poor child,” Josie said. “Never mind, we'll teach you in no time. You'll wonder how you ever did without them.” Then, seeing the child's eyelids flutter and droop, she added, “But we'll save the lessons until another day. Just sleep now.” Mairin's eyes closed at once.

“Now we'll set you up with that poultice,” Josie whispered, and got to work wrapping Rose's knee. By the time she'd finished, the valerian tea was unnecessary.

R
OSE
'
S DREAMS PILED UPON ONE ANOTHER, ONE GROWING OUT
of the last, to form a chaotic tapestry. Her knee was trapped under a fallen tree; the tree was growing out of her knee; she was limping through a wood, frantic to escape some unknown pursuer, gasping, clutching at saplings to pull herself along. Then she was back in the South Family Dwelling House kitchen, lying on the floor and listening to a rat scratch, scratch, scratch at bits of food.

She groaned and awakened herself, and the scratching sound stopped . . . then started again. Rose opened her eyes. Across the room, huddled close to a small circle of light from a bedside lamp, Mairin sat on her bed, her head bent over what looked like a piece of cardboard. Her hand flew over the flat surface in drawing motions.

As if sensing Rose's gaze on her, Mairin's head popped up. The lamplight caught the sparkle of copper in her eyes and transformed her hair into a feathery halo. Still half-submerged in a dream, Rose wondered if Mairin might truly be an angel, sent by Holy Mother Wisdom to guide them through this difficult time.

“I'm sorry,” Mairin said, sucking in her lower lip. “I woke you up.” Her head moved away from the lamplight, and she became, once again, a shy young girl, scared of being punished.

Rose eased herself to a sitting position. The pain in her knee
had subsided to a dull throb, and she was able to shift her leg.

“Nay, I was about to wake up, anyway,” she said, not sure if it was the truth or not, and not caring. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Mairin tossed her work onto her bed, away from the light. She curled herself into a tight ball, wrapping her arms around her legs, and began rocking herself back and forth.

“Were you drawing? It's quite all right you know. I'm not the least bit angry with you. If you were drawing, I'd love to see it. Would you bring it over to me? I'd go over there, but my knee still hurts.”

Mairin stopped rocking and sucked on her lip a while longer. Without a word, she uncurled and slid off her bed. Holding the cardboard against her chest, she approached Rose. She started to lay the object across Rose's knees but stopped herself, apparently remembering the injury. Instead, she held up a large pad of paper on a cardboard backing, which Rose recognized as coming from the Schoolhouse storeroom. Usually Charlotte wrote lessons on the blackboard, but sometimes she used paper pads for individual tutoring. Mairin probably noticed them as she went through the storeroom from the back door. She must have gone back on her own, when the building was empty, and taken one.

Rose turned on her own lamp and took the pad. Mairin had rummaged through the storeroom and unearthed some precious Crayolas, too, because the paper was covered with colored slashes.