Sins of a Shaker Summer (6 page)

“Perfect.”

A tinkling sound announced the arrival of a customer, so Rose gave Gennie a quick hug and followed her out to the salesroom. Now that her plan was going into operation, Rose felt torn. She was relieved to have Gennie's help. But
she hoped and prayed that she wasn't placing her young friend in danger.

Rose parked the Plymouth next to the Trustees' Office just as the bell rang for the evening meal. Before leaving, she had sent a message to Elder Wilhelm that she would be absent for a time, doing errands in Languor. He wouldn't expect her at the Ministry House, so she decided to dine at the Center Family Dwelling House, a short distance away. She joined the fine of sisters gathering at the women's entrance to the house. In a quiet interchange with Gretchen, Rose discovered that Nora's and Betsy's conditions had not changed and Josie would be staying with them through the meal, until Patience went back to relieve her.

The Believers' subdued chattering resolved into silence as they entered, single file, and stood at their places in prayer. Meals were always taken in silence, the sisters at one end of the room, brethren around one table at the other end. The cold meal looked surprisingly good to Rose, who relished the creamy iced potato soup as it cooled her throat.

Rose seemed to be the only sister, besides Elsa, with any appetite. Gretchen, after working in the heat of the Laundry, passed up the soup altogether, and the others took only small servings. No Believer would dream of putting more on her plate than she could finish. Patience took the smallest portions of all, just a few leaves of lettuce and a spoonful of soup. She lifted one lettuce leaf on her fork, nibbled a corner, then put it back down again. She merely touched her lips to the soupspoon, and Rose wondered if she was swallowing anything but air. Between each tiny bite, she bowed her head for several moments of silent prayer. Her cheeks flushed a pale pink, as if she might be overheated.

Rose chewed on a bite of salad and let her gaze roam around the long table. Elsa ate hungrily, the next bite waiting on her fork before she'd finished chewing the last one. Most Shaker sisters remained fairly slender from long hours of physical labor. Elsa had been plump when she'd joined
them a couple of years earlier, and now she was even huskier. But for all her unpleasant characteristics, she worked hard, and it wasn't as if anyone in the Society were starving.

Sister Irene Dengler sat toward the end of the table, so Rose could see only her profile. Irene had approached Rose a few times for brief confessions, but she never revealed anything about her past—or, in fact, about herself. Andrew had questioned Thomas's calling, but Irene seemed a devoted Believer. Did she suffer, giving up her children? She had come with Andrew's group to North Homage, yet she did not participate in the medicinal herb industry. Might she still be bonded to her husband and children by affection, despite her vows?

Rose finished the last of her salad and laid her used utensils and white cloth napkin over her empty plate. As if she had given a signal, the other sisters imitated her movements. They all rose from their benches and filed out. As Rose walked the length of the table, heading in single file toward the sisters' door, she glanced down at Patience's plate. The napkin crumpled on top did not hide the lettuce leaves and spoonful of soup left to be thrown away. It looked very much as if Patience had eaten nothing.

Believers often went back to work after the evening meal, before settling down for prayer and an early bedtime. But tonight was Thursday. For the past year, at Wilhelm's insistence, the North Homage Society had reinstated the Union Meeting. With the exception of the leaders, sisters and brethren were required to keep their distance from one another at all times. Most of the buildings had two entrances and two staircases, to ensure the separation between men and women. A brother and a sister might greet one another briefly in passing during their workday, but extended conversations were forbidden. In such a small community as North Homage, this restriction grew tiresome, and over the years, compliance had loosened. The Union
Meeting was a time-tested way for brethren and sisters to meet their need to converse socially with one another, to get it out of their systems for another week.

In the old days, when Shaker villages were larger, small groups had met in retiring rooms to chat. But North Homage contained only thirty-four full members, including the new souls from Mount Lebanon. So they all met together in the family meeting room in the Center Family Dwelling House. Two double rows of ladder-back chairs faced each other down the length of the room. One side of each row held fewer chairs. These were for the eleven remaining brethren, who had to stretch out and talk to more than one sister at a time.

Rose entered with the rest of the sisters and made straight for an empty seat next to Irene Dengler. Even though they would be talking to a brother, not to each other, Rose was certain she could learn much about Irene from listening to her. As Rose approached her quarry, she was startled to see Benjamin Fulton bypass several empty chairs to sit across from Irene.
Ah, so I have learned something already,
she thought,
and I'm afraid it does not bode well.

A grimace of irritation crossed Benjamin's handsome face as Rose took the seat next to Irene. Rose glanced to her side. Irene's impassive expression told her nothing. Either Irene did not feel toward Benjamin as he seemed to toward her, or she was skilled at subterfuge.

Neither of her companions rushed to speak, so Rose asked, “How are your experiments in the Medicinal Herb Shop coming along, Benjamin?”

Again irritation flashed across his face, but it cleared almost instantly. “Quite well,” he said, “as you know, of course, since we spoke of them only this morning.”

Rose smiled as if he had said something charming. She heard a small intake of breath from Irene.
Good,
Rose thought. Such rudeness would surely prevent Irene from feeling tempted by a forbidden relationship with Benjamin. At least, she hoped so.

“We never really spoke in depth about your work,” Rose said. “Have you a special interest you are following, or do you simply conduct the experiments Andrew chooses for you?”

Benjamin reddened as the gentle jab hit its mark. “Andrew knows nothing about my work,” he said. “He's got some pharmacy training, book learning, but that's about it. He's a businessman.”

“I see. So you must have a more extensive background in medicinal herbs?”

“Indeed I do,” Benjamin said, arrogance marring his smooth voice. His gaze flickered to Irene and back to Rose. “I've studied the ancient uses of herbs as curatives, both in Europe and here among the Indians. I'm building on all that, and I'm close to developing some remarkable medicines.”

Rose nodded, momentarily speechless in the face of such pride. Had he confessed it to Elder Wilhelm? She thought not. He probably did not recognize hubris in himself. Moreover, she was sure this display was meant to impress Irene.

“Have you found anything that can help those poor little girls?” Irene asked.

“My guess is they don't need anything else besides what Josie already did for them—a good, old-fashioned emetic and a sedative. They'll come around when they've had enough rest, and maybe they'll remember the emetic next time they're tempted to get into the cleaning supplies.” Benjamin's face softened as he spoke to Irene, but Rose thought she heard wariness in his voice.

“So you think that's what happened?” Rose asked. “They sampled a cleaning solution? Those solutions are hardly appetizing, I'd think. Why would they do such a thing?”

“Why do children do anything?” With a wave of his hand, Benjamin dismissed the rationality of all children. “They probably did it to get attention. They need to be watched more carefully.”

“Those girls have suffered dreadfully, and I hardly think they knew what they were doing!” The forcefulness in Irene's voice grabbed the attention of several Believers seated around her, who interrupted their own conversations to glance over with interest. Benjamin was too startled to speak. Rose settled back against the slats of her chair and waited a few moments before breaking the impasse.

“I was wondering, Benjamin,” she began when the interest around them had waned, “could the girls have gotten into something in the Medicinal Herb Shop or garden?”

“Nay, impossible. Their silly . . . I mean, their adventure took place in the afternoon, when all of us were in the shop. We can see the garden through the east window. The door and all the windows were open to let in some air, so we would surely have heard if children were giggling away outside.” He grimaced and glanced at Irene as he realized that more harsh words about children would likely displease Irene. Irene sniffed but did not speak. Rose tried to keep from smiling.

“When Gretchen found the girls, she said Nora thought she was a monster,” Rose said, “and at the healing—”

Benjamin's lip lifted in a cynical arch, which hardened his attractive features.

“At the healing, Nora kept talking about a bad angel. Does any of that mean anything to you, Benjamin?”

“Nay, why should it?”

“I just wondered if, in your extensive study of the medicinal properties of herbs, you might have run across anything that might cause such a reaction.”

“Nay.” Benjamin's gaze wandered off into the distance. He fidgeted with the round collar of his clean work shirt. He was hiding something; Rose could sense it. But she also knew this was not the time to push the issue.

T
HE RINGING OF THE BELL OVER THE
C
ENTER
F
AMILY
Dwelling House told Rose it was 4:30
A.M
. Time to get up. She was already awake, though groggy after a restless sleep. The air had barely cooled through the night. Rose had longed to toss off her cotton nightgown and let her bare skin breathe in what little breeze fluttered through her open windows, but that would have been far too immodest. After all, she never locked her retiring room door. What if an emergency brought another Believer barging into her room while she was unclothed?

She slid out of bed and to her knees for a few moments of prayer, which she directed to Holy Mother Wisdom, the female aspect of God. Rose asked for insight as she sought to solve the riddle of Nora and Betsy's illness.

Her work clothes hung on one of the wall pegs encircling her room. She eyed them with misgiving. They'd be hot, she knew, despite the loose fit and the light weight of the blue cotton. She pulled the long dress over her head and tied the white apron around her waist. Selecting a large white kerchief from a drawer, she arranged it over her shoulders and crossed the ends in a triangular pattern over the bodice of her dress. She pinned the ends under her apron, making sure to keep the kerchief loose over her bosom. The ensemble was designed to hide the female form to keep the brethren from temptation.

Though she was now eldress, Rose worked at daily chores, as did all able-bodied Believers. To consider herself above physical labor would be the height of hubris, and neither Rose nor Wilhelm would have entertained such a thought.

Already the room felt oppressive. Rose was grateful to lift her thick red hair off her neck and stuff it into her thin white cap. Folding the sheet at the end of her bed for airing out, she faced her morning chores, which had changed once she'd moved to the Ministry House. In the Trustees' Office, she had shared a large building with a few other sisters, so mornings were spent in general tidying. Now she shared a small dwelling house with Elder Wilhelm, who lived on the ground floor. By now he would be out helping the rest of the brethren to feed the farm animals.

Rose slipped downstairs and entered Wilhelm's empty retiring room. Her responsibilities included doing his cleaning and mending, as other sisters did for the brethren in their building. Being in Wilhelm's room always felt uncomfortable to Rose because their relationship had been strained for years. Although she did not question her duties, caring for his clothing seemed like a step back to the time before she was eldress, when Wilhelm made sure she never forgot her lesser place. Shaking off her discomfort, she swept and straightened the two rooms and swiftly re-attached a button to a work shirt. As she knotted and snipped the thread, the bell rang for breakfast.

She quickly turned down the sheet of Wilhelm's bed. As she did so, Rose noticed a book open and facedown on his bedside table. Submitting to a twinge of curiosity, she picked it up and turned it over, rather than leave it or simply close and reshelve it. Wilhelm had been reading the
Testimonies of the Life, Character, Revelations and Doctrines of Mother Ann Lee.
This was not unusual reading for a serious Believer, and Rose would have thought nothing of it, but the chapter he'd been studying was entitled “Prophecies, Visions and Revelations.” Again, if Wilhelm had
been any other Believer, such reading would have been natural, especially for a spiritual leader. However, this was Wilhelm. In his longing to return to the past, he had become increasingly obsessed with a period one hundred years earlier, known now as Mother Ann's Work. It had been a time when Mother Ann's spirit had often been among them, inspiring almost constant trances, hundreds of new songs and dances, and scores of new converts. In her heart Rose wished she could have been part of that era, a time of growth and vibrancy in the Society. But she knew that, practical in nature as she was, she would probably have been more observer and recorder than participant. She served her people in other ways.

Wilhelm's soul lit up at any hint that Mother Ann had returned to do her work again among Believers. Because Elsa had exhibited such gifts of the spirit, Wilhelm protected her from Rose's legitimate authority over her. And now Sister Patience seemed to demonstrate these same gifts, but in more depth and abundance than Elsa. Despite the growing heat, Rose shivered with both fear and excitement. She replaced the book as she had found it. With relief, she left Wilhelm's room and headed for the Ministry dining room.