The Innocent (41 page)

“Brother Benjamin gave her a draught to calm her. He assures us that it is not uncommon to be agitated after such an injury and to fail to remember what happened,” Eldress Lilith said.

Once more Sister Edna tried to get up. “Nay, he means her harm. She is in danger.”

“Ease yourself, Sister.” Eldress Lilith gently pushed her back down on the bed. “The young sister is quite safe here in the village.”

“Nay, you must find her posthaste, Sheriff.” Sister Edna focused her eyes on Mitchell. “I fear I will have her blood on my hands if you do not stop him.”

“I will stop him.” Mitchell made the promise to calm the woman, but inside he felt anything but calm or sure.

The eldress followed Mitchell back out into the hallway. She was unbelieving when Mitchell told her Carlyn was no longer in the vagrant house. “Elder Derron locked her there. He has the only key.”

“He says he left it here.”

“I did not see the key, but if he says he left it here, I am sure he did.” She didn’t quite hide the doubt in her eyes. “I will ask him where he left it when he comes and then see which of our sisters felt sorrow for Sister Carlyn and released her.”

Mitchell leveled his eyes on the woman. “I don’t think you can count on him showing up here.”

Eldress Lilith’s distress grew more evident. “You have to be wrong. Sister Edna has to be wrong.”

“Elder Derron was not himself when I saw him.”

She wrung her hands together. “But where did he go?”

“That I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”

“You have to be wrong,” she repeated, more as if her own ears needed to hear it than to convince Mitchell. “Elder Derron is a good and faithful Believer. He would never harm one of his sisters.”

“I hope you are right.”

“I am.” Eldress Lilith squared her shoulders. “If Sister Carlyn has left the vagrant house, it is to return to the world. She never fit into our Society here. It was only a matter of time before she deserted her calling here.”

Mitchell didn’t argue with her. “Send someone after Elder Derron. Whether he has done what Sister Edna says or not, he needs to tell what he knows.”

“Yea, I will have Brother Lyle find him.” She inclined her head in agreement. “Will you wait for him here, Sheriff?”

“No. I need to find your missing sister.”

“Then you best look in the world.” She turned on her heel and went back into the sickroom.

Hope and worry fought a war in Mitchell’s head as he walked to the other end of the village. Had Carlyn run away as the eldress suggested? Had he lost her before he could even offer her his love?

Frantic barks told Mitchell Carlyn wasn’t at the barn even before he went inside. Asher was up on three feet, staring intently at the stall door as though he could force it open.

“The dog is restless.” Brother Willis came up behind Mitchell. “He must be in pain. I brought him a draught to dull his senses.”

“No.” Mitchell held up his hand to block the Shaker. “I need him with all his senses alert to find his owner.”

“Do you speak of the young sister?” Brother Willis frowned. “Isn’t she about her duties?”

“There was trouble at the Gathering Family House in the night.”

“Trouble she caused?”

“Some have accused her, but the only sure thing is that she is missing this morning.”

Brother Willis gave a disgusted snort. “If she is gone, she will have run back to the world. Probably enticed one of our young brothers to go with her.”

“She wouldn’t have gone without Asher.” Mitchell stooped down beside the dog. “He found her here. He might be able to track her down now.”

“Take my word. She will be long gone by now.”

“Perhaps, but I must look.”

“Yea, I suppose it is your duty.” Brother Willis handed Mitchell a rope. “It would be best if the dog did not get his bandage wet.”

Mitchell looped the rope around the dog’s neck. Asher whined as though telling Mitchell to hurry. Once out of the barn, the dog gingerly put his injured paw down and strained against the rope.

“Easy boy,” Mitchell told him even as he too wanted to break out in a run. But it would be better to stay calm.

At the vagrant house, Asher sniffed all around it and sat down as though to wait for Carlyn to come back.

“She’s not here, Asher. You have to follow her trail.” Mitchell pointed away from the house.

The dog whined, but made no move to get up. Mitchell studied the buildings and trees in every direction. He saw nothing to indicate which way Carlyn might have gone from here. Nothing.

Then just as he had earlier that morning, the young Shaker, Brother Lyle, was running down the path. The boy’s face was red and his eyes wide.

“Sheriff Brodie. Eldress Lilith sent me for you. We found Elder Derron.”

“And the girl?”

“Nay. Only the elder.” Brother Lyle rushed out the next words. “He’s dead.”

“Dead?” Mitchell stared at the young Shaker. “Are you sure?”

“Yea, very sure.”

Mitchell had no choice except to go with Brother Lyle, but Asher would not. When the dog refused to budge, Mitchell picked him up and shut him inside the vagrant house.

The dog’s barks followed them as they hurried to the Trustee House where the Shaker doctor bent over Elder Derron’s body on the floor in his office. Brother Benjamin looked up when they came in. “Fetch Elder Marcus, Brother Lyle.”

The young Shaker was out the door before Brother Benjamin finished speaking. The doctor shook his head. “Death is not easy for the young to view.”

Mitchell looked at Elder Derron, his face contorted in death. “What happened?”

“Sin would be my first guess.” Brother Benjamin looked to be in his middle years. His gentle face was creased with concern.

“Are you saying he was murdered?”

“’Twould be better for him were that so, but nay, this was his own sin.” The man stood and pointed toward the desk. “He wrote some last words and then drank that bottle of poison.”

“Where did he get it?” Mitchell picked up the bottle. Arsenic.

“Perhaps from the tannery. Such is needed for curing the leather, but it matters little where he got it. He must have been tormented to commit such a sin.”

“Do you know why he might be tormented? Did he write anything about the girl?”

“The girl?” Brother Benjamin’s forehead wrinkled in a frown.

“Sister Carlyn.”

“The one Sister Edna is fearful for? Eldress Lilith says they locked her in the vagrant house. That Elder Derron insisted.” The doctor’s frown deepened.

“So he did, and now she is gone and he’s dead by his own hand.” Mitchell looked down at the elder’s body.

“Surely you can’t think Elder Derron did her harm.”

“Sister Edna thinks it possible.” Fear that it might be true stabbed Mitchell’s heart. “You said he wrote something.”

“Yea, there on the desk. But nothing about Sister Carlyn. Only Mother Ann.”

Mitchell went to the desk and read the elder’s last words, written in neat script.

I faithfully performed my duty as revealed to me by Mother Ann. Even this. Yea, even this. In her sight, I am without blemish.

“Deluded thinking.” Brother Benjamin stepped closer to peer down at the elder’s words. “A sorrow. We will have to labor many songs to bring peace back to Harmony Hill after the events of the last week.”

Mitchell didn’t care about the Shakers’ peace at that moment. He only wanted to find Carlyn. Alive. He was wasting time here. If the elder had answers, he could no longer tell them. He took one last look at the man’s body and could not help noting his shoes. They were scrubbed clean.

37

When Carlyn heard the dog, she knew, without doubt, it was Asher. But he sounded so far away.

Despair lurked in the dark dankness of the cellar behind her, but she kept her eyes on the bit of light forcing its way through the crack in the door. She needed hope. Asher might be nearer than he sounded. The heavy door had muffled the dongs of the rising bell. She couldn’t be that far from the village.

She tried to think about how long she had followed Elder Derron blindly through the night. It was all such a blur. Her fright. Her misplaced trust. If only she had run the other way when she first wondered about the direction they were going.

She stood up and rammed her shoulder against the door. The door barely shook. It was useless. Just as whittling out the crack in the door was useless. She couldn’t escape through a crack no bigger than a pencil.

But she could peek out at the world. She leaned down to put her eye to the small opening. All she could see were the stone steps down to the cellar door splashed in sunlight.
If only she could feel that sunshine on her face and be free from this place before the shadows returned with the night.

She wouldn’t think about that. She couldn’t think about that. Instead she sank back down on the floor beside the door and cupped her hands around the light coming through the crack as though she could gather it up to save for later. A gift from the Lord to keep her from losing hope.

Mitchell would come. He’d open the door and bring her back out into the light. She had to believe that.

She heard the barks again. Asher had tracked her to the Shaker village. He might do the same now. She listened with every inch of her being, but the sound seemed so faint.

Carlyn put her ear flat against the crack. If she could hear him, he might hear her and find the cellar. Then others might notice his barks. But what if the one to notice was Elder Derron? Would his unbalanced visions tell him to silence the dog? Silence her?

She had to take the chance. She couldn’t bear another night of darkness.

She put her mouth close to the crack and attempted to whistle. Her mouth was so dry it took three tries before she managed to make a sound. Then she put her ear next to the hole again. Asher heard her. His barks changed, became high-pitched, but no nearer. He must be trapped and as helpless to open the door to freedom as she was.

“Dear Lord, let someone turn him loose,” she whispered. Then she picked up the broken top of the jar and took up position beside the door. If Elder Derron had heard her whistle and came to silence her, she would be ready.

When Mitchell came out of the Trustee House and heard Asher’s frantic barking, he pushed past the two Shakers coming up the steps. Brother Lyle called to him, but he didn’t even look back as he ran toward the vagrant house.

The dog leaped out the moment Mitchell opened the door and landed on his wounded leg with a piteous yelp. He struggled up on three legs and looked around at Mitchell.

“Easy, boy.” Mitchell stroked the dog’s back. Suddenly the dog perked up his ears again. “What do you hear?” Mitchell held his head up to listen, but he heard nothing but the normal sounds of the day.

The dog limped away from Mitchell down the pathway. He looked back and barked as though to tell Mitchell to follow. Then he tried to run, but fell again. He scrambled back to his feet, but stood trembling, panting. Ears flat against his head, he sat down and raised his nose in a mournful howl. The sound pierced Mitchell. It couldn’t be too late.

“Come on, boy. You can do it.”

A Shaker man came across the road. “Where are you trying to take the dog?” he asked. Then before Mitchell could answer, the man looked down the path. “Nothing down that way except an old home place, but the cabin’s long gone. We used the logs for a barn years ago.”

“Are you sure nothing’s there now?” Mitchell asked.

“Naught but an old cellar. Not used for anything these days. Could have fallen in by now.”

“How far?”

The man pointed. “See those walnut trees yonder? You used to be able to see a dirt path along about there.”

“Show me,” Mitchell said.

The Shaker looked past Mitchell toward the village. “I have duties.”

“Your first duty is to help me find one of your sisters who is missing. And this dog, her dog, thinks she went that way.”

“Unlikely, but I will show you the path.” He looked back at the dog and pulled out his handkerchief. He ripped it into three strips and tied them together. “Slip this under the dog’s belly to keep the weight off that sore leg.”