To Capture Her Heart (10 page)

September 25, 1653

Two hot pippin pies sat on Mary's windowsill to cool. The apple harvest had just begun, but she did not wait to bake the first fresh pies of the season. She'd picked one basket, brought them in, and sliced them up for the pies. And if she promised the boys a slice, they'd help harvest the bumper crop without much complaint. It was the same every year.

Between now and Christmastide the demand for her pippin pies would exceed everything else in the bakeshop, even Barney's little ginger cakes. Lizzie and Patience helped her each year with the baking and in return she sent them home with baskets of apples and all the bread they needed for the week.

Winnie usually made new apple baskets for her, but this year Lizzie and Patience helped her make them. Still, she'd send some apples and baked goods to Winnie and Heather Flower. Friendship meant not needing to be paid back. She remembered so many times that Winnie had given to her in just that spirit.

This year Lizzie suggested Mary put together a recipe book
filled with treats from the bakeshop, and she decided she might as well start now, with little Sarah still asleep and the pippin pie recipe fresh in her mind.

She found an empty journal that was just right for this project. She wiped her hands on her apron, picked up a pen, and dipped the nib into the ink bottle.

To Make a Pippin Pie

Take 6 medium pippins or any apples, peel them and mince or slice them very fine. Stir ¾ cup sugar, ¼ cup flour, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ginger, and a pinch of salt in apples to coat. Put your best pie pastry into a 9-inch pie pan. Pile apple mixture into pastry and dot with 2 tablespoons cold butter. Top with second pastry round, cut slits, and crimp edges. Bake in hot oven until crust is browned and juice bubbles. Halfway through baking, brush with rosewater and sprinkle with sugar.

There, she'd started it. If she wrote a recipe down each time she baked, it would probably be done in no time at all.

After supper, Caleb, Joshua, and Jonathan went out to the orchard with her and, with the promise of pippin pie, climbed the trees to reach the apples she could not. Together they picked enough apples to fill fifteen baskets while Hannah played next to Sarah, telling her baby sister all about pippins and poppets.

Mary was worn out by the time they gathered with Barney and Ben, but with Sarah in her cradle and Hannah already in bed, she sat with her redware bowl on her lap, paring and slicing apples as she listened to Barney read from the Bible. Each perfect slice fell into the drying basket next to her feet and would provide for good eating through the long winter.

She finished one basket that evening, and on the morrow, between baking, she would work her way through more. Even
after all the baking, drying, and sharing the bounty with neighbors, there would be plenty to trade for sugar when the ship came in from Barbados.

Caleb took Joshua and Jonathan off to bed, and Mary finally set her knife and bowl down, rubbing her sore fingers. Sarah would wake up soon for another feeding. When she did, she'd take her up to their room for the night. But for now she had a moment to visit with Ben.

“There will be a harvest moon on the morrow.”

Ben and Barney both looked up from their books and smiled.

“I imagine Jay and Jane will come over to help us bring in the pumpkins. Zeke and Lizzie too. We have a big crop this year. It must be the honeybees. They're thriving.”

“Yes, Mother. I was checking the pumpkins today—they're ready for picking and we could have an early frost this year so we need to get them in.” Ben glanced at her hands. “Your fingers look raw from cutting apples. At least the pumpkin needs to cure awhile before you do anything with them.”

Barney nodded and looked back to his book for a moment, then looked up again. “I'll have Caleb and Joshua help you with slicing apples tomorrow. And you should have Abbey help too. You take a nap when Hannah and Sarah nap and let Abbey work on the apples.”

Mary gave him a warm smile. “That is sweet, my husband, but as much as I or Abbey plan their naps, Sarah is not inclined to oblige and sleep when Hannah does. And Hannah is turning three. Her naps are shorter and shorter.”

He shook his head. “They grow up too soon, those poppets.” He raised his brow at Ben. “You did.”

“Ah, Father, and you're not rid of me yet, are you?”

Mary's eyes flew open. “We don't wish to be rid of you,
Ben. But we do wish for you to be happily settled with a good wife to keep you company. You must tire of sitting with us old folks, eh?”

“Not so much. I rather enjoy your company.”

She rocked for a minute. “You should go fetch Heather Flower and have her help us bring in the pumpkins. She could take some home for Winnie.”

“I could do that, although I imagine they have plenty of squash.” He winked and closed his book. “And now I am off to bed.” He kissed her good night and bade his father good night as well.

Sarah wiggled and sighed in her cradle, and Mary got up with her bowl of peels and apple seeds. “I'm going to dump these in the barrel and then take Sarah up. She'll be ready to eat soon.”

Barney jumped up. “Let me get that for you. You take Sarah up and I'll be along shortly.”

He gave her a hug and she picked up their little girl and headed for the stairs. She was blessed. But she wanted Ben to be blessed too. Barney was fond of saying “in God's own time.” She hoped God's time would be Ben's time soon.

Benjamin hitched Star and started down the main town road toward the Corchaug fort. He was glad Mary suggested he ride out. As much as he'd tried to not think about Heather Flower, he did wonder if Van Buren had managed to stop and see her.

He also wondered what she would think about what he and Joseph had done. He didn't have to defend their actions, but he'd like the chance to warn her that the man kept lurking and he didn't like it. She probably didn't regard it as lurking at all. Fudge.

Last he'd heard about Winnie, she was feeling better, so mayhap she'd come with Heather Flower and pick pumpkins with them. It would do them both good to get away and visit.

He shifted his weight on the bench. It'd been a long day. He and James finished building the town's one-room schoolhouse, and he'd tried to help with harvest through most of the construction. Today he'd built a desk with the new schoolmaster, Mr. Howell. He leaned forward to stretch his achy back.

He entered the palisade and pulled up close to Winnie's wigwam. Heather Flower worked outside, under the shelter of a lean-to, stitching a pair of moccasins with white cylindrical beads. She didn't notice him as he walked up.

“You are hard at work this afternoon.”

She looked up with a smile. “You thought I did not see you. But my ears hear.”

Her glad-to-see-you smile made him forget what he intended to say and his face warmed. He collected his thoughts. “Mother told me I should come and ask you to help with our pumpkin harvest. It's the harvest moon tonight. It should be beautiful. You could stay with Jane and Joseph.”

She looked toward the wigwam. “I don't know if I should leave my aunt. I thought she did better after we came to Sarah's baptism, but now she weeps and sits.”

“Well, she should come with us then. It will be good for her to see Mother. And it's good to be busy, especially when you're hurting.”

Her small smile spread. “Do you speak of me too, Benjamin?”

Surely she heard the commotion his heart made in his chest, but he would not miss this chance. “Mayhap. Come on, gather your things and let's go get Winnie.” He followed her inside the hut.

Winnie refused, and after much persuasion, Heather Flower finally came with him. They rode mostly in silence back to the Hortons.

The family moved out to the pumpkin patch situated west of the orchard. Sarah was in a sling around Mary's neck and even Hannah was out to pick pumpkins. She ran ahead of everyone to find the biggest. A gleeful shriek announced her find and she tried to lift it. Benjamin took his knife out to cut the vine, then lifted Hannah's pumpkin for her. He lugged it to the cart as Heather Flower helped her choose a smaller one.

As the sun went down in the west, the full harvest moon rose in the east—a big sugar-cake moon—and they worked in its ethereal beauty until midnight.

Benjamin took her home, The night was still, save for Star's footfalls, and Heather Flower was quiet.

“Has Van Buren come to see you?” He could feel her eyes on him.

“When?”

“Well, anytime I guess. But in the last couple of weeks?” He looked over at her as Star followed the well-known path.

The moon lit fire in her eyes. “I have not seen Dirk in the last few days, Benjamin, but that should not matter to you, should it?”

“I'm only asking because Joseph and I had a run-in with him. I took my brothers out into the woods to spend the night and hunt. Van Buren was there, and we believe he was spying. We took him in, and he was interrogated and then released. I wanted you to know, in case you hear about it somewhere else. He was well treated.”

Now her eyes glittered. “I will see Dirk as I choose, and I will not tell you, my friend. I've no desire to hurt you, but there
is nothing to be hurt over. I've told you both I need you as my friends. But that was not acting like a friend.”

He slowed the wagon as they came to the fort.

“Heather Flower, it had nothing to do with you. And I only told you about what happened because you will find out about it one way or another. I'm not trying to pry.” But as she climbed down from the wagon without waiting for him to assist her, he wondered if his words were true.

October 3, 1653

Barnabas arrived early with his three youngest sons as Mr. Micah Howell prepared for his first day as the new schoolmaster. He had been instrumental in procuring the teacher and had pushed hard for the township to move forward with plans for a grammar school.

When he and Mary first came to Long Island, he schooled Joseph and Benjamin himself. One of the earliest laws he and the founding fathers enacted was the requirement of parents to teach their children to read. He taught them with the Bible and a copy of
Aesop'
s Fables
.

When Patience's parents died of the fever, Mary and Lizzie convinced her to open a Dame School for young girls, and she had even taught Caleb, Joshua, and Jonathan their alphabet and little rhymes she remembered learning at her mother's knee in England. “Thirty days hath September” was her favorite.

After the church, education was the highest priority for the men of Southold, and they soon put together the funding for
the first full-time teacher. They hired Mr. Griffing and provided him with a house where he both lived and taught. His classes for boys were the basic reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic.

But for Mr. Howell they approved funds for a schoolhouse, and Benjamin had been hired to build it. Now Barnabas looked around the room with its neat rows of benches for the boys, a hearth and chimney in the center, and a desk and chair for Mr. Howell. Benjamin had mentioned he was particularly happy at how the bookshelves he'd built looked, and Barnabas was pleased to see Mr. Howell had brought a box of books to fill them.

They despaired of finding a gentleman who could teach their boys the Latin and ciphers needed to prepare them for college. The hope of the next generation lay with education, so Barnabas sent letters as far away as London in search of the right candidate.

But he'd found him straight out of the graduating class of Harvard College, and now the boys of the town filed in for their first day of instruction with Mr. Howell.

The Indian summer would not last much longer, and each student brought a log so that when it was time to light a fire for warmth, the teacher would have a supply. The students brought their own ink as well and reams of parchment.

As class began promptly at seven o'clock, Barnabas gave one last lecture on the importance of school and reminded his sons they must not waste a minute of their opportunity to learn as he bid them goodbye . He chuckled as he told Mary when he got home about their serious faces as he left them in the schoolroom with their quills, ink, and hornbooks.

Caleb and Joshua brought the hornbooks that had belonged to Joseph and Benjamin when they were little. The wooden
boards were trimmed in leather and had a transparent sheet of horn over the front that held parchment paper. On the backs were written The Lord's Prayer. Jonathan had a brand-new one, and his was made to match the first two.

The boys came home for dinner. After they returned to their classroom, Abbey gathered Misha, Hannah, and Sarah up for their naps, and Mary and Barnabas spent a rare afternoon together in the bakeshop. Mary sighed as she checked her pies in the oven. Two more were on the oak table waiting to be baked.

He watched as she sprinkled the tops of her baking pies with rosewater. “We have done the right thing in hiring Mr. Howell, I believe. He is well read and his collection of books is impressive. He'll teach our sons well.”

“'Tis good to know. Mr. Griffing was certainly excellent until he went back to England. Do you think Southold attracts the best because it's such a lovely place?”

“No doubt.” He took a couple of slices of apples from the basket and ignored the look Mary gave him as he took a bite. “Benjamin did a good job with the bookshelves.”

“I'm not surprised. I hear the whole schoolhouse is very nice. He learned from you, did he not?” She smiled as she crimped the edges of her pies.

“That he did.”

Mary straightened from the table, her ear toward the front of the house. “What was that? The boys? Why are they home so early?”

Barnabas strode toward the parlor and Mary followed, wiping her hands on her apron. One look at Jonathan's and Joshua's face told her something tragic had happened at school.

“What's the matter? What has happened?” Barnabas looked from one boy to the other. “Joshua, speak. Tell me.”

“Mr. Howell didn't look so well. He told us to practice writing the list of words with one syllable he posted on his desk. I couldn't see them so I raised my hand like he told us to do. He said, ‘You may come up to the desk and read it, Master Horton.' But he didn't sound very good.”

Mary grasped his shoulders. “What happened? Is he all right? Tell us, Joshua.”

His voice trembled. “I got up and walked to his desk and then Mr. Howell made a funny noise. Mr. Howell's face was red and sweaty and he started to stand up, but then he just fell over.”

Jonathan started to cry.

“We ran as fast as we could.”

Mary went pale. “Oh no. I hope it's not fever.”

Barnabas hoped not too, but most likely it was. They'd heard there'd been a big outbreak up in Cambridge, but Mr. Howell had assured them of his health and he seemed very hardy and full of vigor. Certainly he did not look sick this morning.

“We need to get the doctor. Joshua, go. I'll go to the schoolhouse. Have Doctor Smith meet me there.” He turned to Mary. “Here now, sit. Are you all right?”

“I think so, Barney.”

“I must go.” He took out the door quickly, but decided to first go to the meetinghouse to fetch Reverend Youngs. The two ran next door and found Mr. Howell lying on the floor. He appeared in a faint. The reverend sent the class home and Barnabas went out to the well to get a bucket of fresh water.

The doctor arrived and, after examining him, diagnosed the measles. Mr. Howell would need to be quarantined and the children in the classroom as well, until they knew if any of them would become ill. He asked the reverend and Barnabas if anyone else had been close to the schoolmaster.

“Benjamin. He helped him do some work in here on Saturday. Would Mr. Howell have been communicable then, Russell?”

Doc rubbed his forehead. “Could be. Hard to know. You and your boys, including Benjamin, need to stay away from Mary and those little girls until we figure out if this is going any further.”

Barnabas's heart beat like it was in his throat. He could not bear the thought of any of his children or Mary getting this sick.

Doctor Smith scratched his head. “You ought to take the boys and stay at Joseph's until this is over, and have him and Jane stay with Mary. I'll take Mr. Howell here with me. We need to get word to the other parents that their children need to be isolated.”

Reverend Youngs volunteered to notify everyone. They helped the doctor carry poor Mr. Howell to his house and then Barnabas walked home. The doctor said they would have to be on the watch for any illness for two weeks, and he dreaded telling Mary.

She took the news calmly but made him wait outside while she gathered nightshirts and clothes for him and the boys. She told him that with harvest almost finished, she looked forward to spending a little more time with Jane and Jay anyway. He knew she was in a panic. He could see it in her eyes. But he allowed her to be brave, because to take her in his arms for comfort might make her sick. And he could not risk that.