The Believer (21 page)

"I suppose I've already caused them some trouble as you know from my confession at meeting. But I had to go after Hannah:" Elizabeth didn't know why she was explaining to Payton. He should understand if no one else did that Hannah was not the ordinary child. "Hannah isn't happy."

I have seen that. She's tried to talk to me at meetings, but the sister in charge of her won't allow it. That's probably for the best. In time she'll settle in and be all right:' Again he sounded as if he was repeating words he'd been told.

"We can hope," Elizabeth said, then realized she didn't hope that at all. She didn't want Hannah's spirit to be broken. She didn't want her own spirit to be broken. "I've promised her we will leave in the spring if she continues to be unhappy."

"Then we would be winter Shakers." Payton sounded truly distressed by the thought. "Brother Micah speaks poorly of them:"

"If we leave, you would go with us, wouldn't you?"

He hesitated before he answered. "You said yourself we have nowhere to go. Nowhere but Colton Linley."

"He was here. He saw Aristotle with the man in the town and that's how he knew we were with the Shakers:"

"So I heard:" Payton stared down at the ground a moment before he looked back at Elizabeth. "Brother Micah says he spoke of our cabin burning."

"He did. What else did your Brother Micah tell you?"

"Nothing. Except that Colton brought some rough characters with him who threatened the sisters and that later the sheriff came to check into the accusations of sisters being held against their will. Brother Micah said that was ridiculous nonsense:"

"Yes;' Elizabeth said.

Payton let silence fall between them for a moment before he asked, "Did you have to talk to the sheriff?"

"I did'

"Did he speak of the fire with you?" There was the hint of a tremble in his voice.

"He did. I said I knew not how it started" Elizabeth stared at Payton in the near darkness. "And I do not:"

"Nay, you do not:"

Elizabeth couldn't see in the shadows, but she knew Payton's face would be burning hot with guilt. "It would be best if you say the same if you are asked of it"

"But Brother Micah says I must confess all my sins before I can find salvation:"

"That one can wait at least until spring and perhaps forever. That one and this-our talking to each other-they would also call sin, but it's not. You are my brother. It's not wrong for me to speak to you:"

"But Brother Micah says-"

Elizabeth interrupted him. "I don't care what Brother Micah says:' She stopped at the shrill sound of her voice and took a deep breath before she went on in a quieter tone. `About this you must listen to me and promise. You could go to jail and Brother Micah could do nothing about that:'

"Perhaps I should go to jail. I did wrong"

"You didn't think it so wrong at the time"

"That didn't make it not wrong. I let my grief for our father overpower my good sense:"

"So you did;' Elizabeth agreed. "But perhaps it was no more than Colton deserved after the way he acted. Remember you said so at the time:"

'And you said not' He stood up straight and stared down at her. He looked to have grown even taller in the time they'd been with the Shakers. After a moment he sighed a little as he said, "But all right, Elizabeth. If you want me to promise, I will"

"Good:" Elizabeth pulled him close in a quick hug that he allowed but didn't return before she turned him loose. He peeked around the edge of the building to be sure no one was in sight before he stepped back up on the path and hurried toward the West Family house. The Shakers had moved him there to separate him from easy contact with Elizabeth or Hannah. Elizabeth watched him from the shadows until she could no longer see his shape in the moonlight. She whispered, "Oh my brother, I do miss you"

The next night during their time of rest after supper before they gathered with their families to practice the dance steps, the bell began tolling. Sister Melva jumped to her feet.

"It must be a fire;" she said. "Hurry, we must give aid if we can.

They joined a stream of sisters and brothers rushing out of the house. No flames could be seen, although there was the smell of smoke in the air, but that could have been drifting down from the chimneys.

Word soon flew through the number that the fire was in the Carpenters' Shop. Sister Ruth, who was hurrying along with Elizabeth and Sister Melva, peered over at Elizabeth and said, "Our new Brother Payton is working there now, is he not?"

When Elizabeth made no answer, Sister Ruth went on. "Perhaps he was careless with a lamp. Isn't that what you told the sheriff may have happened at the cabin you left? The one that horrible man of the world said burned:"

I know not how the cabin burned," Elizabeth said quietly. "But we were always careful with our lamps and candles" She spoke the words without letting the worry inside her show. Surely Payton had nothing to do with this. He'd been excited about the chance to work with wood.

Payton was in the center of the men in front of the building when they got there. The smell of smoke was strong now. Different from what would drift down from the chimneys, but the outer building looked undamaged. In the lantern light, Payton's soot-smudged face looked too pale, and his eyes were stretched wide with excitement or maybe fright. Elizabeth breathed easier when she saw the brethren who surrounded him only looked concerned, not angry.

Brother Joseph raised his voice to address those gathering around them. "There is no cause for alarm, my sisters and brethren. There was a fire, but Brother Payton discovered it and put it out before it could burn anything but the floor and one of the tables. Please return to your houses and give thanks in your prayers that we were spared an unfortunate disaster. Surely Mother Ann is watching over us. At our next meeting we will labor a song of thanksgiving"

"But how did the fire start?" one of the brethren asked.

"We'll have to investigate to see if it was due to carelessness on the part of some of our workers or if it was due to those of the world intending to cause us trouble. Now go back to your houses"

Elizabeth tried to catch Payton's eye, but he kept his head down as Brother Micah took hold of his arm to lead him away. The rest of the brothers and sisters began turning away to go back to their houses.

Sister Ruth stayed close by Elizabeth's side. "I see not how one of the world could get into the middle of our village and start a fire without anyone noticing him. A barn on the outer edges perhaps. But not the Carpenters' Shop. I really cannot fathom how that could happen:'

"Perhaps it was an accident," Elizabeth said.

"Yea, accidents do happen. Especially when one is careless" Sister Ruth peered over at Elizabeth. "As you said, your cabin may have burned for the same cause. If not with a lamp, some other lapse of caution with fire:"

"Nay, that was not what I said. I said I didn't know how the fire in my old cabin started. Any more than I know how this fire started. I see not the connection between the two" Elizabeth met the woman's eyes in the near darkness.

"Nay, no connection:" Sister Ruth pulled her cloak closer around her against the chill of the evening. "Nay, none but your brother of the world:"

The New Orleans dock was such a bustle of activity as Ethan walked down the gangplank, he hardly knew which way to look first. To his right, a bare-chested brown man in pants held up by suspenders strummed a banjo. A passerby pitched a coin at his feet. Another man snaked through the crowd after a rooster that kept one flap of its wings ahead. Laughter followed the man, but nobody made a move to help him capture the bird. A woman with her head uncovered and paint on her face clung to her male companion's arm as if fearing she might fall off the dock.

When a rhythmic beating noise came to his ears, he asked Brother Issachar, "Is that a drum?" While the Shakers often made drumming sounds with their feet to accompany their songs, Ethan had never seen an actual drum.

"Yea, it sounds it. There's always revelry going on in New Orleans. Pay it no mind" Brother Issachar looked over at him and laughed out loud. "Brother Ethan, I fear your eyes may pop clear out of your head:"

"Yea" Ethan didn't try to deny his wonder. "I have never seen such'

"It is strange;" Brother Issachar said. `And worldly. It has nothing to do with us. We are simply passing through it' He led the way out onto the dock.

Men and women pushed past them to get somewhere urgent or so it seemed by their hurry. They wore every manner of dress, and some looked as strangely out of place as surely he and Brother Issachar did. Ethan peeked over at Brother Issachar, who paid no notice to the crowd teeming around them like ants spilling out of a disturbed anthill as he calmly counted the crates of their products to be sure they had it all.

"Is it always like this?" Ethan asked when Brother Issachar paused in his counting to pull out his recording book to write down the numbers. Even the weather seemed totally wrong for December. It was warm, not at all like it would be back at Harmony Hill where snow would likely be on the ground.

"What?" Brother Issachar looked up from the book. "Oh, you mean the crowd. No, sometimes it's worse:" He smiled and looked back at the figures he was writing down. Without looking up again he added, "Have you been listening?"

"Listening?" Ethan was confused by the question.

"Yea, you can't deny there is much to hear." Brother Issachar glanced up at Ethan with raised eyebrows. "Remember how you learned to listen so that you would know the sounds of the woods? You can do the same here, although the songs of man might not put the same peace in your heart as a birdsong can:" He laughed as he turned back to his figures. "Now leave me be so I won't lose count again. If I have to keep starting over, we'll be here on the dock all night"

"Sorry," Ethan mumbled as he stepped away to listen as Brother Issachar had taught him to do long ago when each new noise in the woods had made him jump for fear of meeting up with a bear or perhaps his father of the world coming back for him. To hear it all and then slowly pick out the individual sounds.

Among the trees, Ethan could identify most everything he heard. Here the cacophony made him wonder if he should clap his hands over his ears to keep out the noises of the world. He could imagine Brother Martin doing so, but Ethan did not turn from the sounds. He was too amazed by them all, from the blasting of the steamboats' horns to a young boy's shouts as he tried to hawk newspapers. Horses whinnied as they clomped past, pulling wagons with wheels that needed axle grease. The workers on the dock kept up a steady refrain as they hauled crates off the boats. Two hatless men with dark hair and skin browned almost to leather by the sun passed close in animated conversation, not one word of which Ethan could understand.

Ethan looked at Brother Issachar who had finished his counting and was watching Ethan with his mouth twisted to the side as if to keep from laughing.

"We are no longer in Harmony Hill, my brother," Brother Issachar said.

"Don't they speak English here?" Ethan looked after the men who had just passed him.

"Yea, their peculiar brand of English with a smattering of French and Spanish and who knows what else mixed in. In New Orleans you'll find it all:" Brother Issachar looked around. "Be thankful it's winter and not just because of the heat that can melt a man. The mosquitoes are big as birds here in the summertime, but in the winter they shrink to more normal size'

"Big as birds?" Brother Issachar must be exaggerating to see just how much Ethan would believe.

"Perhaps not that big, but no matter their size, they are always hungry for a taste of your blood any time of the year. So be wise and rub on the ointment Sister Lettie fixed up for us to keep them away. Best watch for snakes too"

Ethan looked down as if expecting to see snakes at his feet. When Brother Issachar chuckled, Ethan said, "I'm not afraid of snakes." But then he laughed at himself as he added, `Alligators maybe:'

"Let your mind rest easy about them. We won't be going out in the bayous. Our customers come to us. Praises be. I'm way too old for alligator wrestling" He looked past Ethan and out at the people. "We'll have need of a wagon:'