Rose looked around her. The Ministry dining room, a reduced version of the Center Family House dining room, felt cozy and warm. It sparkled from regular cleaning and the bright light from the large windows. Wooden pegs, mostly empty, rimmed the wall, as they did in all other rooms. Wilhelm’s straw hat hung on a peg on one side, and Agatha’s heavy, outdoor bonnet hung on the other. The eldress rarely used that bonnet anymore.
In this room, the Ministry discussed the spiritual direction of North Homage, unrestricted by the silence and strict separation of the sexes imposed on the larger dining room. Rose had never eaten in the room before, and the significance of her being there now was plain. The ailing Agatha wanted Rose to succeed her as eldress. Torn by conflicting feelings about Agatha’s desire, Rose wished the meeting could have taken place in the Trustees’ Office. That was her home territory, where she felt in command and at ease. She loved being a trustee, enjoyed watching over the day-to-day existence of her community, keeping the books, doing business with the world. It suited her. If she were eldress, she would feel isolated and more responsible for spiritual decisions that came uneasily to her practical nature. And Wilhelm would be her partner in this enterprise.
“Now then, Wilhelm,” Agatha said, when the young sister had withdrawn to the small Ministry kitchen, “I understand that you released Elsa from kitchen duty for an entire morning of solitary prayer.” Her voice was firm and strong, and only Rose guessed what the effort must cost her.
Wilhelm broke off a piece of bread and let the crumbs fall into his soup. “And what is thy objection to prayer, eldress?” he asked.
“Work is prayer, too. What kind of prayer is it that requires a sister to leave her work undone?” Agatha snapped. “Worse yet, what kind of sister leaves another to do her work while she wanders off to pray alone?”
“It was necessary.”
“The sisters are my concern. I will decide what is necessary for them.” Agatha slapped her thin, white hand flat on the table in a gesture of angry authority. The tremor was hardly noticeable. Agatha was drawing upon reserves of strength that would soon be gone.
The expression on Wilhelm’s face moved swiftly from surprised to irritated to conciliatory. He carefully placed his utensils on the table and leaned toward the eldress.
“I wish that I could make thee understand,” he said. “What I do is for the good of the Society. Agatha, we are dying. Surely I don’t need to tell thee how weakened we have become. We have dwindled to only thirty Believers, many growing too old to work.” He raked a hand through his thick white hair and slumped back. “What few new Believers join us usually leave within a year or two. Most newcomers are no more than Winter Shakers, at the worst they are liars and fornicators, like that Fredericks man. The few children we bring up leave as soon as they are able. The fire is gone, Agatha, it has gone out, and we must relight it. We must. And we can do that only if we withdraw from the world. We must remember who we are, who we were at our strongest.” Wilhelm tightened his hand into a fist and held it in the air between himself and the eldress.
“We have discussed this before, Wilhelm,” Agatha said. “You know my views. Our strength has always been our adaptability, our ability to accept God’s will for us. The world is changing, but it still needs us, I believe that. But the world will only accept our guidance if they respect us. All this traveling back in time to old Shaker dress and speech and ways of behaving, it makes us seem strange, even frightening. I’ve gone along with it so far because, well, I suppose because it’s how I was brought up and part of me yearns to be young again. But I cannot allow you to take charge of the sisters, nay, that is going too far, Wilhelm. Elsa must be returned to my care at once.”
Wilhelm smiled. “It is too late.”
SIXTEEN
RELEASED FROM KITCHEN DUTY, GENNIE BROKE INTO a skipping run which carried her toward the Meetinghouse, her cloak bouncing around her. The chill of early morning had brightened into a crisp, sunny afternoon.
Gennie felt the sun without seeing it. She was almost sure that Grady would be at the worship service. She raced past the Sisters’ Shop and the Infirmary, smiling to herself. She was so distracted by her daydreams that she had nearly reached the Meetinghouse when it struck her that she was passing more and more strangers. She slowed to a walk. It looked and sounded like market day in Languor, with people jostling each other for walking space, horses tied up to any post or bit of fence available. A few cars had pulled onto the lawn near the Meetinghouse, gouging ruts into the lush Kentucky bluegrass. Groups of ten or fifteen, some holding children on their shoulders, clustered around each window, jockeying for the best view.
A sudden prick of fear pushed Gennie through the crowd toward the west doorway, where two sisters tried to convince a group of loud men and women that they would not fit inside. People were packed so tightly in front of the door that Gennie could only stand on her tiptoes and wave at the nearest sister to get her attention. When the sister turned toward her, Gennie recognized Josie, the infirmary nurse, her normally genial face tight with tension. “Look, it’s one of them,” a male voice close to her said. The voice didn’t sound friendly.
“She’s just a slip of a girl,” said another voice, a woman this time. “Someone oughta take her away from these Shaker people; this ain’t no place for a young’un.”
Gennie waved frantically and called Josie’s name.
“Eugenie! Oh, child, come through quickly,” Josie shouted, her eyes wide with alarm. “Move aside now, let the girl through.”
Gennie recognized the clipped, firm voice that Josie used with recalcitrant patients who did not respond to gentleness. She had heard that even Elder Wilhelm took his tonic when Josie told him to. It worked here, too. A small crack appeared, through which Gennie could see Josie, small and round and determined, hands on plump hips, facing down a husky man more than a head taller.
“Young man,” Josie said, “stand aside this instant. A strapping man like you should be protecting the young ones from this crowd, not making such a fuss all for yourself. Now let the girl through.” He shrugged and moved aside. Josie’s hand shot out to grab Gennie’s and pull her quickly through the door.
“Well, then, that’s that!” Josie said with a hint of her normal joviality. “The children’s seats have all been grabbed up by those selfish . . . well, just run along and sit with the sisters. Were any more Believers behind you?”
“None that I saw.”
“We’ll bolt the door, then. That it’s come to this . . .”
Gennie made her way to the sisters’ benches, choosing a seat near the back. Rows of benches lined both ends of the large meeting room. Visitors filled every inch that wasn’t reserved for Believers. They stood around and behind the benches, and even crammed into the deep blueberry-trimmed windowsills. Only the center was empty, the polished pine floor waiting for softly shod dancing feet.
A clear, strong tenor rose above the din and began singing “Simple Gifts,” a sweet tune that never failed to please visitors from the world. Many had heard it so often that they knew the words, though they did not understand the meaning.
’Tis the gift to be simple,
’Tis the gift to be free,
’Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
’Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
By the end of the short song, the room was quiet. The brother began the tune again, and other Believers—and even some outsiders—joined in, so captivated by the melody that they could put aside fear and anger for the few moments it took to sing it.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend, we shan’t be ashamed.
To turn, turn, will be our delight
’Til by turning, turning we come round right.
The murmuring began again as the singer fell silent. Three of the sisters, including the one sitting next to Gennie, rose from their seats and moved to
stand near the tenor, who had been joined by two more of the brethren to form a chorus.
Gennie glanced at the visitors on the women’s side. Most were dressed in their Sunday finery, probably worn earlier to their own church services before they came to North Homage for some free entertainment.
She saw no red dress, but wedged between two plump matrons she found her roommate. Molly craned her neck as though searching for someone on the men’s side. She reached up to the strings of her bonnet, gave a tug, and pulled it off. Crushing it under her arm, she slipped off the thin, white cap underneath, then yanked out the pins holding back her hair. Piles of thick, black hair slid to her shoulders. Face powder muted the darkness around her eye.
She’s done it this time, Gennie thought, and glanced automatically at the Ministry’s observation window, built into the wall near the two-story-high ceiling. Molly was on her own now; Gennie couldn’t protect her after such a public display of defiance.
“Will you dance with us, Gennie?”
“What?” Gennie dragged her gaze from Molly and tried to focus on the speaker. Sister Theresa half stood, her arm curved outward toward the dancing area in the center of the room.
If she saw the mixture of emotions in Gennie’s eyes, she was too polite to say so. She only repeated, “Will you dance with us? We will guide you in the steps, if you don’t yet know them.”
“Um, no, I think not,” Gennie fumbled. She swiveled her knees to one side to allow Theresa to pass.
The sister nodded and made her way to the end of the bench. She took her place in a long, straight line of sisters which stood facing a shorter line of brethren across from the center of the room. All wore brand-new, pure white worsted Sabbathday outfits, fashioned over the past weeks by the tailors and seamstresses from patterns used in the 1830s. This was Wilhelm’s idea, of course. He wanted to display the Believers’ simplicity and purity. But to Gennie they looked as if they were all dressed up like ghosts for Halloween.
Gennie sat alone on her bench, too aware of the hostile hiss of voices around her. She searched the room for someone friendly and saw two elderly sisters, too frail to dance, sitting together in the front row. To reach them, she would have to walk up five rows, all under the gaze of dozens of outsiders. Her feet refused to budge.
The six-voice chorus, three men and three women, began to sing a cappella and in unison. The first song sounded more like dance instructions than worship.
One, two, three steps, foot straight at the turn,
One, two, three steps, equal length, solid pats.
Strike the shuffle, little back, make the solid sound,
Keep the body right erect with ev’ry joint unbound.
Gennie knew the song well. Wilhelm had often used this march to teach Believers the square-order shuffle, one of the structured dances the Shakers developed soon after the early years of wild dancing worship.
“Might as well go to a square dance,” a woman said.
“Just you wait, it’ll git better. I seen the service last week,” another, more knowing, voice answered.
After four repetitions, the song stopped. The line straightened and immediately the chorus began another brisk tune. This time the words were clearly Shaker.
Who will bow and bend like a willow,
who will turn and twist and reel
In the gale of simple freedom,
from the bower of union flowing.
“Here it comes,” said the knowing woman. “This is a better dance, you wait and see.”
Oh ho! I will have it, I will bow and bend to get it,
I’ll be reeling, turning, twisting,
Shake out all the starch and stiff’ning!
“Huh,” the woman’s companion answered. “Don’t look like much to me.”
Gennie bristled. She forced herself not to turn and frown at the women. She thought the dancing was pretty, if not very exciting. As the song spoke of “reeling, turning, twisting,” the dancers made stylized, coordinated movements, bending from the waist in a way that seemed to represent reeling and twisting without actually doing it.
Each time the dancers bent, Gennie could see across to the men’s side of the room, and to Grady. Now and then, he caught her eye, and once he gave her a careful half smile. But mostly his eyes darted around the room. She saw him look up at the Ministry’s observation window, nod faintly, and move to the far corner of the room. She lost sight of him as the gentle dance quickened.
Rose frowned as Grady, on her signal, moved toward the edge of the room to keep an eye on Seth Pike. Seth stood off to the side, observing the dancers, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. He had never before attended a worship service, and Rose didn’t like it.
“I do enjoy seeing the dancing again,” Agatha said. She sat beside Rose at the observation window, high above the heads of the dancers. She leaned back in her rocking chair and pulled the lap rug tighter around her. “I haven’t seen it so much since I was young. It makes me want to shake these old bones till the sins rattle out of them.” She laughed softly. “Though I suppose I shouldn’t tell that to Wilhelm. This is just what he wants, all the Believers singing and dancing again, like we used to.”
Wilhelm wants more than singing and dancing, Rose thought. She noticed that Wilhelm and old Brother Hugo filled out the contingent of male dancers. But the sisters still outnumbered the brethren by at least two to one. What would they do if no new brethren joined the Society?
A few Believers were not dancing, Albert Preston, the carpenter, among them. He occupied a back bench on the edge of the men’s side, near the door. Despite his strongly professed desire to become a Believer, he seemed uninterested in the dancing. His head moved constantly, as though the crowds fascinated him.
The chorus sang about bowing and bending like a willow, and the heads below Rose bowed and bent and twirled in lovely symmetry, like weaving on a winter loom. She was spellbound and for a moment wished that she, too, could dance with them.
The dancers’ pace quickened. A few sisters twirled more and faster, their white skirts creating whorls in the moving fabric. Elsa’s movements were more exaggerated than the others’. When the chorus sang of twisting, Elsa swiveled quickly from side to side. With each repetition of the song, she flung her body with more energy, so finally the sisters around her spread away to give her more room. Rose felt her stomach tighten.
“Agatha, can you see what is happening?” Rose asked.
Agatha opened her eyes and leaned forward to view the scene below. Rose peered over her shoulder. The third dance began. Once again the sisters prepared themselves, and the chorus burst into a spirited song.
Come dance and sing around the ring, live in love and union, and the dancers flowed into two circles, an outside ring of women around a smaller, inner ring of men, neither sex touching the other.
Sing with life, live with life, sing with life and power, sing with life, live with . . . The chorus stumbled to a halt. Inside the circle of dancers, Elsa bobbed up and down from the waist while she twirled feverishly, her skirt billowing out around her. Continuing to twirl, she leaned backwards with eyes closed and arms spread wide. Her clear voice broke the silence with an unfamiliar song in a minor key and then in no key at all. The lyrics weren’t even words, but loud, guttural, meaningless sounds. Radiance gave to Elsa’s plain features a contour and beauty that only Rose could see fully as she stared at the spinning face from her perch above the room. Other Believers writhed and shook around her.
Elsa stopped twirling and stretched her arms toward the ceiling. Then she crumpled from the waist, and her body shuddered as if she had thrown herself into a pool of ice water.
The dancers, recovered from their confusion, followed her lead. One by one, both men and women began to quiver and bend, forming a chaotic ring around Elsa. A sister, then several brethren, collapsed on the floor and writhed as if in agonizing pain.
In the midst of them, Elsa pulled herself upright again and stiffened her arms against h
er sides. She began to hop, her sturdy legs like coiled springs, thrusting her high off the floor.
“Wilhelm is responsible for this,” Rose said somberly. “He warned us, remember? He has taken control of Elsa. We haven’t done this kind of dancing worship for at least a hundred years, have we, Agatha? I’ve never seen it.”
“Not since before I was born,” Agatha said, very softly. “Oh, how I do wish it were real.”
“This is part of Wilhelm’s plan to take us backward in time, to make us strong again, his way,” Rose said, anger tightening her jaw. “He has twisted Elsa into his image of the perfect Believer. He is using her to show the world how special we are. He believes they will beat down our doors to join us, if they just understand.”
“They may indeed beat down our doors,” said Agatha.
Rose turned quickly at the shakiness in Agatha’s voice. The eldress had shrunk back under her rug. One hand rested on the chair arm, its tremor noticeable.
“I should have let you rest after that lunch,” Rose said. She reached over to touch Agatha’s arm. “Don’t be concerned, my friend,” she said with gentleness. “That young deputy, Grady O’Neal, is down there, I’ve seen him. He’ll see that nothing happens.”
“One young man, what can he do?” Agatha sounded old and tired, worn out by her failing influence with Wilhelm. And by everything else, thought Rose, the Society’s struggle to survive, her own declining health.
“The world is an evil place, Rose, and it is down there now. I can feel it.”
Rose squeezed the thin arm. She never knew what to say when Agatha spoke of feeling evil. She never had feelings like that and very much feared that it was a requirement for being a good eldress.
Rose turned back to the observation window and anxiously scanned the room. The monitors had tried their best, but the room was filled to capacity and beyond. She located Gennie, sitting alone on the sisters’ benches.
Death of a Winter Shaker Page 13