The Believer (8 page)

She told Hannah to choose one stone from her collection from the river and the woods before she helped the child carry the rest to arrange on their parents' graves. She didn't check what else Hannah packed other than to be sure she brought their mother's brush and comb, or what Payton had inside the quilt he'd wrapped around his pack although she could see the edges of books. It didn't matter. If the books got too heavy, he could leave them beside the road.

They hadn't gone more than a mile through the woods when Payton stopped and said he had to go back.

"We can't go back;" Elizabeth told him. She had been almost holding her breath fearing Hannah might run off into the trees, but she thought Payton had accepted their new path.

"I forgot something. You and Hannah go ahead and I'll catch up with you. It won't take me long' He would not meet her eyes as they stood on the trace through the trees. He was taller than Elizabeth but so slim that their father used to joke he could tell the direction of the wind by which way Payton was leaning.

Elizabeth gave him a long look. "I don't want to go on without you'

"I promise to come back, Elizabeth, but this is something I must do:' His brown eyes darted up to hers and then away just as quickly.

She didn't like the look on his face. It was furtive somehow, as if he carried a secret he didn't want Elizabeth to guess. But what else could she do but trust him to keep his word? She couldn't hold him on the path beside her.

"Very well;' she said. "But make haste. I wish to be far from here before night falls:"

"I'll hurry." Payton turned and loped off through the trees with Aristotle on his heels.

Elizabeth watched until he disappeared and then kept staring after him for minutes longer.

Hannah pulled on her hand and asked, "Will we be to the town where the Shakers live by night?"

"No:" Elizabeth picked up her pack. "It's a long walk. We'll have to sleep among the trees if we don't find a barn nearby before dark:" Elizabeth turned toward the northeast. She needed to keep the directions clear in her head. Once they were farther away from the cabin, she would find a road for them to walk, and then the way would be easier. But now she wanted the trees to hide her from Colton should he come back sooner than he said.

"I hope there is no barn. I want to sleep among the trees;" Hannah said, as if Elizabeth had just promised her a special treat.

"That might turn out not to be as much fun as you think. The ground is hard and the air will be chilly once the sun goes down, but at least the sky shows no sign of rain:" Elizabeth had prayed about that as she held the seed package in her hand the night before. Rain might be more than they could bear.

The trace of the path they were following got fainter and fainter until there was no sure sign of the way to continue. Elizabeth stopped.

"We'd better wait here for Payton. He might have a hard time finding us without a path to follow if we venture farther." She looked up through the tree branches to catch a glimpse of where the sun was in the sky. It had surely been more than an hour since Payton had run back toward the cabin. "I thought he would have caught back up with us by now. We've been slow on the path"

"Maybe he isn't coming" Hannah moved closer to Elizabeth as she peered through the trees back the way they'd come.

"He promised:" Elizabeth forced confidence in her voice as she added, "He will come. We can rest here and wait for him"

Elizabeth sat down on the ground and leaned back against a maple tree. Hannah dropped down beside her and put her head in Elizabeth's lap. Elizabeth picked out a twig caught in Hannah's curls and smoothed down her hair. The minutes crept by so slowly that Elizabeth counted to sixty five times just so she'd know how much time had actually passed.

"Will the Shakers like me?" Hannah asked without raising her head off Elizabeth's lap.

"They will feed us"

"But will they like us?" Hannah didn't wait for Elizabeth to answer, as if she knew there was no sure answer before she went on with more questions. "Will we have to spin and dance the way Father said they did? Will we have to wear caps on our heads?"

"Perhaps the caps. I know not about the dancing. But Father said there was singing too. You like to sing."

Hannah lifted her head up to look at Elizabeth. "Do you think a cap will stay on my head?"

"Perhaps:" Elizabeth smiled and pushed down on Hannah's hair and then let her hand spring away. "Perhaps not:"

Hannah laughed and the sound buoyed Elizabeth's spirits. Hannah didn't laugh often. The child's smile lingered as she put her head back in Elizabeth's lap.

Elizabeth was counting to her second set of five sixties when the girl spoke again. "How long has Payton been gone from us?" Every trace of her smile was gone.

"Too long:" Elizabeth did not hide her worry from Hannah. The girl would know anyway. She had a way of looking at Elizabeth or Payton and somehow divining their thoughts without them speaking a word.

"Do you think Mr. Linley has caught him?"

Elizabeth took hold of Hannah's shoulders and pulled her up until she was looking into her light blue eyes. "Caught him doing what?"

"I do not know. Whatever he went back to do:' When Elizabeth looked at her without saying anything, Hannah went on. "You fear him. Mr. Linley. Is that not why we go to the Shakers? But he only makes Payton angry. You are more like our father"

"What do you mean?"

"Our father feared him too"

"What reason would Father have to fear Mr. Linley?" Elizabeth frowned at Hannah.

"For you, he feared. I know. I saw his face:" Her eyes seemed to be looking inward at a memory of their father's face.

Elizabeth pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Perhaps we should go back to find Payton:"

Hannah stood up. "First let me climb a tree to see if I can see him coming. Mr. Linley may not have caught him yet:"

Hannah climbed up through the branches of the tallest oak near them. Elizabeth looked up at her far above her head and held her breath as the limbs swayed under Hannah's feet. "Be careful," she whispered under her breath, more a prayer than an admonition.

I see smoke;' Hannah called from her perch high above the ground. "Back to the west"

Back toward the cabin. Elizabeth's heart jumped up in her throat, but she made her voice stay calm as she called to Hannah. "Do you see Payton?"

"Someone comes, but I cannot see who. The leaves hide him" Hannah started down, moving as lightly as a squirrel between the branches.

"Were they on a horse, do you think?"

"No, on foot:" Hannah reached the bottom branch and swung out of the tree to let Elizabeth catch her.

Elizabeth set her down on the ground. "Then it has to be Payton. Colton would be on his horse"

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she heard the crashing through the trees. Payton was running up the path toward them. His eyes were wide open as if he had just witnessed something fearful. His shirt was torn, and he smelled of smoke. He stopped in front of them and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. Aristotle came out of the bushes behind him and ran to Elizabeth. The dog's eyes were glassy with fear the way they were when the sky was heavy with dark clouds and thunder.

"What have you done, Payton?" Elizabeth asked. She dreaded hearing his answer.

Payton stood up straight and looked at her. His gasps for breath were not so desperate now, although his chest still heaved in and out. "Father wouldn't want Colton Linley to have our things"

"But he'll see the smoke, Payton. He will come after us:"

Payton stared at her without remorse. "Then we best stop talking and move on toward the Shakers' town'

Elizabeth shut her eyes and tried not to feel panic. She wouldn't allow herself to think of what Colton might do if he knew Payton had set fire to the cabin. Perhaps it would appear to be an accident. A candle they'd forgotten to extinguish in their haste to leave. A spark that had escaped the fireplace and been unnoticed.

She opened her eyes and said, "You must find a creek and wash the smell of smoke off you and your clothes. Then we will find the road and walk into the night. Father said the road went straight through the Shaker village. We can't get lost if we stay on it"

Hours later when even the moon had sunk in the west, leaving only the stars to light the way, and Hannah was leaning against her half asleep, Elizabeth allowed them to stop. They went into the woods beside the road and pushed up a pile of the newly fallen leaves for their bed. And then they slept even as the sky began to lighten in the east.

After the morning meal on Monday, Brother Issachar caught Ethan on the path heading out to the fields to help with the harvest of the seed corn. "Elder Joseph has given permission for you to come with me today," Brother Issachar said.

"Do you have a log you wish me to help haul into the village?" Ethan was glad Brother Issachar had sought him out, glad to feel the same comfort between them as they talked. He had feared a division between them the day before, even though Ethan signing the Covenant should surely be reason for them to draw closer as brothers and not be a reason for separation.

"Nay. The sisters have a load of spices, potions, and baskets, and the brethren have brooms ready to be taken to White Oak Springs. The man who runs the resort there says the people from the North who come for the healing power of the springs enjoy carrying back the work of our hands with them when they leave"

Ethan fell in beside Brother Issachar and tried not to let his eagerness for this first trading trip show on his face or in his voice. "Do the springs really have healing power?"

"Nay, I think not. While our Eternal Father grants special gifts and powers to those he chooses, I don't believe he has placed such healing power in the springs coming up out of the earth. But some who think the water holds special power are healed by their own thoughts of healing. Or perhaps they weren't so ill as they thought." Brother Issachar smiled and punched Ethan with his elbow. "Better yet, it could be our own Shaker potions that make them well"

Ethan laughed. "That could be. It certainly sounds more reasonable than the water. The potions stand us in good stead here in the village"

"That they do. Along with right living. Look at an old man like me nearly sixty and still able to labor and do my part. With a little help from my younger brothers" Brother Issachar smiled again. He seemed to be in a particularly good mood on this Monday morning.

Ethan had long suspected Brother Issachar enjoyed the trading trips out into the world, although many of the Shaker brethren claimed not to like being away from the fellowship of the Society. But then as Brother Martin said, Brother Issachar was a little different. Even so, he was still a Shaker. So it could be with Ethan. He could take a few peeks at the world without desiring to become part of it.

One of Brother Martin's most oft-repeated warnings was how curiosity could lead a boy into trouble. As it had Ethan many times when he first came to live with the Shakers. He had made his confessions to Brother Martin and paid the price for that trouble. Not with any kind of punishments from Brother Martin, but from the guilt he felt in his own heart for doing wrong. There had even been times when he'd felt so pulled toward anger at one of his brothers, he worried that the seed of the man who claimed to be his father was sprouting meanness in him.

He'd once confessed that worry to Brother Issachar, for Ethan had never told anyone but him about how the man who'd stolen him from Preacher Joe claimed to be his father. He trusted Brother Issachar not to hold that truth as a black mark on Ethan's soul, and he did not. Instead, he assured Ethan that his father's meanness would not sprout inside him.

'A man has many seeds within him. It is the seeds that are watered that grow. We know not what happened to your father that caused the wrong seeds to grow within him. Perhaps it was simply meanness as you say. Perhaps he was treated cruelly himself as a child. Either way, he wasn't in your life long enough to water any of those wrong seeds within you. You were treated with kindness and love by your Preacher Joe and his wife. You have been nurtured in peace here among the Believers. If those cruel seeds were ever within you, they've surely been crowded out by the growth of the good seeds:'

It was something Ethan liked to imagine. The good seeds growing in him. The Shakers worked hard to produce good seeds for their crops and their gardens. They cast out the seed from the varieties of plants that didn't thrive in their soil and kept the seed from the plants that produced abundantly. That was what he wanted to do. Cast out the bad seeds within him and cultivate the good seeds so that he could better live the simple life of a Believer. It was a gift to be simple. To take joy in the shaping of a piece of wood into an axe handle or a bowl. To know that the work of one's hands would be used for the good of all the brethren and sisters.

He and Brother Issachar loaded the wagon with the crates of spices and potions. They laid the flat brooms in the wagon bed beside the boxes and filled in the middle with baskets. They covered it all with the heavy cover the sisters had woven especially for the purpose of protecting their baskets from the weather on the way to market.