Simply Dead

by Eleanor Kuhns

  ‘Where’re you taking my girl?’ Wootten asked.

  ‘To the coroner,’ Rouge said tersely.

  ‘Why?’ Wootten asked. ‘She and the babe – they just died.’ He turned his gaze away from the canvas-wrapped bundle as though he could not bear to see them. ‘We planned to bury her in the spring.’

  ‘Get in the wagon,’ Rouge said. ‘You and your boys.’

  For a moment Rees thought the Wootten men would protest. But Rouge prodded Jake and Jem forward with his meaty hand and they climbed in. Josiah hesitated but then, his shoulders slumping, he joined his sons by the bodies of his wife and daughter and baby granddaughter.

  Rees called for Jerusha. She took one look at the men in the wagon bed and scrambled into the front seat. He did not object; he did not want her anywhere near the Woottens. Thomas elected not to ride behind Rouge, squeezing in next to Jerusha.

  Rees lit the lanterns on either side of the wagon and the party started down the mountain. When he glanced back over his shoulder, mainly to see that the Wootten family were riding as comfortably as possible, he saw the mountain community, with Granny Rose at the front, draw together behind the departing group.

  Now that the sun had set, the air was bitterly cold. Jerusha snuggled close to Rees; he could feel her skinny body shivering. Wolves yelped in the distance but as far as he could tell none of the animals approached this large and well-armed party.

  THIRY-FIVE

  By the time Rees and Jerusha arrived home, it was well past nine. While Rees had delivered the Wootten men to the jail, and Mrs Wootten to the coroner, Jerusha had eaten in Rouge’s tavern. Therese had made much of her. But the day had been a long one for her and she dozed most of the way home, her body heavy against her father’s shoulder.

  Lydia came running through the door as they drove through the gate. Rees knew she had been listening for their wagon wheels. ‘Oh Jerusha, oh my dear,’ she said.

  ‘She’s fine,’ Rees said. ‘She wasn’t hurt. And she ate supper at Rouge’s tavern in town.’

  Jerusha climbed down, almost falling. Lydia put an arm around her daughter and led her, stumbling with weariness, into the house. Rees unhitched Hannibal, made sure he had food and water, and gave him a nosebag of oats. The last few days had been long and hard for the horse as well. Then Rees followed his wife and daughter into the house.

  Only Lydia waited for him. Coffee perked over the fire and as he entered and shed his coat, she put a dish of eggs and bacon on the table. Rees realized how hungry he was. ‘Where’s Jerusha?’ he asked as he began eating.

  ‘I put her to bed in the front room,’ Lydia said, putting a cup of hot strong coffee before him. Rees nodded as he dropped several chunks of sugar into the dark liquid and followed it up with cream. The first swallow was heavenly, hot and sweet.

  ‘Why did Wootten take her?’ Lydia asked. ‘Was it from simple spite? Or for some other reason?’

  Rees put down his cup and looked at her. Anxiety had worn grooves into her face and he knew she feared the worst. ‘They didn’t hurt her,’ he said. ‘Apparently Wooten has abducted young girls before because he needed help with his wife. She’s been sick a long time.’ He paused and then added, ‘Although Wootten may have chosen Jerusha out of spite. Because of me.’

  Lydia leaned forward and covered Rees’s hand with her own. ‘This wasn’t your fault. After all, if you’re right about Mr Wootten’s motivation, he would have taken some other girl if he hadn’t chosen Jerusha.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ he said, comforted. ‘Anyway, Sally Wootten helped Jerusha escape. I found her hiding in the barn.’

  Lydia blew out a long breath and sat back in her chair. ‘Well, that is good news.’

  He offered her a lopsided smile. ‘Someone set the Wootten’s cabin on fire. It’s totally destroyed. And Sally Wootten is dead.’

  ‘What?’

  Rees nodded. ‘Is there any bread?’ Lydia rose to fetch the loaf. As she cut a thick slice, he continued. ‘Her bedroom wasn’t completely burned. She used her drinking water to wet the door and keep the fire out. The smoke got to her, I think. And we found another body.’

  ‘What?’ Lydia turned in alarm, the knife still held aloft. ‘Who?’

  ‘Another daughter of the family. The youngest. And her baby. They were murdered, Lydia. Smothered.’ He paused and then added, ‘Jerusha found them.’

  ‘Dear Lord,’ she said, breathing out the words. ‘My poor daughter.’ After a moment of silence, Lydia asked, ‘Who do you believe set the fire? Mr Wootten?’

  Rees shook his head uncertainly. ‘I thought it might be one of the boys but now I’m not sure. They were doing everything in their power to rescue their mother. Besides, they – and Josiah Wootten – are all strong enough to strangle Sally as the Shaker Sister was strangled. Why set a fire and risk losing your home and all your possessions?’

  Lydia considered that. ‘Setting a fire is indirect. Maybe one of the boys couldn’t bear to see Sally’s face.’

  ‘True,’ Rees agreed. ‘But they worked as hard as they could to pull her out of that cabin. Their home is just ashes. And the hams they put up are gone so they have no food for the winter. It doesn’t make sense.’ He shook his head.

  ‘Who else would do this?’ She wondered. Rees turned to look at his wife, a terrible suspicion blooming in his mind. She met his gaze and he could see his own horror mirrored in her eyes.

  ‘Pearl,’ they said in unison.

  ‘That does explain why it was a fire,’ Lydia said, sounding reluctant. Rees understood; he didn’t want to believe it either.

  ‘And why Pearl is missing,’ he said.

  Lydia nodded. ‘But why? Why would she murder her mother?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I suppose she didn’t want to go home,’ he said. ‘We know both Jake and his father went to Zion to look for her.’

  ‘But that would explain their murders,’ Lydia said as she took Rees’s plate and brought it to the sink. ‘Does that mean that Sally’s death was accidental? Maybe Pearl was trying to murder her father and her brothers?’

  Rees thought of the hollow dug beneath the cabin and the sooty snow. The fire had been set as close to Sally’s room as possible. Still, it hadn’t been set under Sally’s room.

  ‘Pearl is probably miles away by now,’ he said. ‘We may never know.’

  Despite the long day and late night, he awoke early the following morning. He guessed he hadn’t slept for more than a few hours. But the terror of Jerusha’s abduction and now all the questions he had buzzing in his brain kept him from relaxing into slumber.

  He crawled out of the warm bed. Lydia turned over with a sigh. He looked into the cot where Sharon slept. She was really too old to be sleeping in her parents’ room but Lydia couldn’t bear to put her in the room with Jerusha and Nancy. Rees covered her again – the room was very cold – before descending to the first floor. When he looked into the front room Jerusha was sound asleep under a mound of quilts. She had burrowed into a nest and even her face was covered. A wave of gratitude that she had not been harmed swept over him. She could have died in the fire that killed Sally Wootten. For a moment his legs felt too weak to hold him and he clutched at the rocking chair for support.

  What had happened to Jerusha? He had not wanted to question her with the Woottens sitting in the wagon with them and the bodies. Jerusha said she had not been harmed and, to Rees’s eyes, she did not appear terribly scared. Yet Hortense had been so frightened she’d fled barefoot into the snowy forest. And Josiah Wootten had strangled a Shaker Sister in the mistaken belief she was Hortense. Was it all about an attempted rape?

  Rees went into the kitchen and stirred up the fire. Although dawn was still several hours distant, he lit a lantern and went outside to finish his morning chores. He needed answers. Jerusha had to tell him everything she knew.

  In the quiet in the barn, with his head planted against Daisy’s warm flank as he milked, he moved on to other questions. Jake had go
ne down to Zion in search of his sister. Had he found her? And how had he known she was in Zion? Was he in the habit of visiting her? Or had his father spotted Pearl at the same time she saw him murdering the Sister?

  Rees shook his head in frustration. Too many questions. And he could not avoid one final worry, perhaps the most important of all. Where was Pearl now? There were no safe havens for a young girl other than family or friends or the Shakers, to whom Pearl had made her way. But she had not been found at any of those refuges.

  Perhaps her father had seen her set the fire that took Sally’s life? Rees paused in his milking. He knew Wootten was a rough and violent father; Jake bore the scars of a quarrel that had become physical. Had Wootten, despite Granny Rose’s defense of him, attacked his daughter?

  Daisy lowed and shifted her feet and with a start Rees began milking again. After speaking to Jerusha he would drive into town and question the Woottens themselves.

  To his surprise, when he went into the house with his brimming pail of milk, he found Jerusha and Lydia sitting at the table together. The fire had already warmed the room and he removed his coat.

  ‘Jerusha has something to tell you,’ Lydia said. Rees looked at her. His daughter met his gaze, her eyes brimming with tears.

  ‘I slapped Babette first,’ she said.

  ‘What?’ Rees, whose thoughts had been focused on murder and the Wootten clan, stared at her in incomprehension. ‘I thought you threw a book at her.’

  ‘I did. But I also hit her. The widow chose her, you see. And then her big brother always came to fetch her from school. And Simon was gone. And my only job was helping Nancy and Judah …’ Jerusha’s voice trailed away and she lowered her eyes to her lap.

  Rees stared at her. He was not quite sure what to say. ‘I told her we will take her to school to apologize to the widow Francine today.’ Lydia said. ‘On Monday she will apologize to Babette.’

  ‘But she had a terrible experience yesterday,’ Rees said.

  ‘It’s best she finish this as soon as possible,’ Lydia said. ‘At least with the widow.’

  ‘Very well,’ Rees said. A tear leaked out from underneath Jerusha’s eyes and ran down her cheek. He felt sorry and reached across the table to take her hand. But he didn’t dare contradict Lydia.

  ‘We will hear no more of quarrels,’ she said, staring hard at her daughter. Jerusha kept her head bowed.

  Rees broke the moment of silence. ‘What happened when Wootten abducted you?’ he asked

  ‘Nothing,’ Jerusha’s voice squeaked in surprise. ‘I told you …’

  ‘From the very beginning,’ he said.

  ‘He came to the door,’ Jerusha said, raising her eyes. Rees had not known how she would react but she seemed glad of the change of subject rather than afraid. ‘He said you wanted me and told me to fetch my cloak.’

  ‘You didn’t wonder why I would ask you to leave your sisters and brothers?’ Rees asked. Jerusha bit her lip and shook her head.

  ‘Then what happened?’ Lydia asked. She poured another jot of hot coffee into her husband’s cup.

  ‘As soon as we went outside he threw a sack over my head and put his arms around me.’

  ‘He threw it?’ Rees repeated. ‘The boys weren’t there?’

  ‘No. I don’t think they knew he was going to kidnap me,’ Jerusha said. ‘When we got back to the cabin, Jake, the oldest one you know, started yelling at his father.’

  ‘Where were you?’ Lydia asked. Her voice was stiff with fright.

  ‘In the room with Miss Sally. She told me to come with her.’

  ‘Let’s back up a bit, shall we?’ Rees said, holding out his hand to stop the flow of words. ‘How did you get back to the cabin? Buggy?’ He knew he hadn’t seen one.

  ‘No. He had a horse. He threw me over it. I threw up.’ Jerusha leaned into Lydia’s arm, her cheeks coloring.

  ‘Good,’ Lydia said vehemently. ‘I’m glad you didn’t make it too easy for him.’

  ‘Did Wootten tell you why he wanted you?’ Rees asked.

  ‘He said he needed my help, that his wife was sick and couldn’t manage on her own,’ Jerusha said.

  ‘So what did you do?’ Lydia asked. ‘To help Miss Sally, I mean.’

  ‘I kept her water barrel filled. She drank a lot of water,’ Jerusha said, her voice rising with remembered amazement. ‘And she made a lot of water too. I had to take her chamber pot to a barrel in the cabin. Either Jake or Jem emptied it several times a day. I helped her dress and I combed her hair.’

  ‘Did they feed you?’ Rees asked.

  Jerusha nodded. ‘That was another of my duties; I did some of the cooking. The night I was taken Jake had roasted a turkey but the next morning I cooked ash pone. Then I brought some food into Miss Sally.’

  ‘She ate alone, did she?’ Lydia asked.

  ‘Mostly. She didn’t walk good—’

  ‘Well,’ corrected Lydia.

  ‘She didn’t walk well. She said her feet and legs always hurt her. So I brought the food in for her and me and we ate together.’

  ‘Where did you sleep?’ Rees asked.

  ‘In Miss Sally’s room. She told me to share the bed but there wasn’t really enough room so I took my blanket and slept on the floor. Right next to the chimney. It was warm there.’

  Rees and Lydia exchanged a glance; Jerusha’s experience was a far less frightening – or dangerous – one than either had supposed.

  ‘Did anyone ever talk about other girls?’ he asked.

  ‘Like Hortense, you mean? Yes. She did what I did. And there was someone before her. A girl called Bathsheba.’

  Rees rose and went to stand behind Jerusha. He put his hand fondly on her braided hair.

  ‘Ouch, you’re pulling my hair,’ Jerusha said in a muffled voice.

  He realized he had pulled the girl close in his spasm of relief. ‘Sorry.’ He relaxed his hold and took a step back.

  ‘And how did you escape the cabin?’ Lydia asked.

  For the first time Jerusha’s eyes widened in fear. ‘The room was filling with smoke. When I put my hand on the wall it was hot. Miss Sally took her dipper and flung water all over the wall. In some places it sizzled.’ She shook her head, remembering. ‘Then Miss Sally said, “Girl, no point in you burning to death in here. Can you climb through that there window?” So I said, “Can you get through?” And she said, “No, I’m too portly. You go on now.” So she helped me climb up to it and she boosted me through it.’ Her eyes filled with sudden tears. ‘She was kind to me.’

  ‘And I shall be grateful to her for the rest of my life,’ Lydia said.

  Rees nodded and for a moment they all sat in silence. Then Lydia said, ‘However, although your father and I love you and are grateful to Miss Sally, that does not excuse your behavior. You engaged in fighting and quarreling and you lied to us about the causes. Your father and I will have to consider an appropriate punishment.’ Jerusha, turning white, gulped and nodded.

  Rees looked at Lydia. With her mouth turned down and her forehead furrowed she looked grim and unyielding. He hoped she did not intend to whip the girl.

  ‘She has had quite a scare,’ he began. But the words died on his lips under the force of Lydia’s frown. He changed his speech to a cough instead. ‘I will be driving into town,’ he said. ‘I intend to question Wootten and his sons. After all, there have now been several murders …’ He stopped short, recalling the young girl and her baby lying on the table in the cold cellar. Why, that girl was only a few years older than Jerusha.

  ‘Were the mother and her baby murdered?’ Jerusha asked now in a soft voice, almost as though she could read his thoughts. When he turned to look at his daughter her eyes were huge in her white face.

  ‘Probably not,’ he said, striving for a light tone. ‘Birthing babies is a dangerous business.’

  ‘Will you take us to the school?’ Lydia asked her husband. ‘It is best we finish that chore first.’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, wat
ching nervousness play across Jerusha’s face. ‘I’m driving into town anyway.’

  ‘Go on, get ready,’ Lydia said. As Jerusha left the kitchen Lydia added, ‘Annie will be here soon. I asked her to help while we went out. She can watch the younger children.’ She smiled tremulously. ‘I don’t plan to leave my children alone again …’ Her voice broke. Rees touched her shoulder, understanding how frightened she’d been. Her face contorted with the effort of controlling her emotions. ‘Then we will walk back,’ she said, forcing herself to speak calmly.

  THIRTY-SIX

  When they drove up to Widow Francine’s little house, she stepped outside and asked them in surprise, ‘What are you doing here? There’s no school today; it’s Saturday. And I thought, after Jerusha’s experience yesterday, she might stay home for a while.’

  ‘You heard?’ Rees asked as he climbed down from the wagon seat.

  ‘Yes, I heard.’ She directed a very sympathetic look upon Jerusha. The girl looked down at her hands, her cheeks coloring.

  ‘She wasn’t hurt,’ he said as he helped Lydia to the ground. Jerusha followed, slow with reluctance.

  ‘I think you have something to say to Mrs Francine, Jerusha,’ Lydia said with a stern nod.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Jerusha mumbled, staring at the ground.

  ‘I don’t believe Mrs Francine can hear you,’ Lydia said.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ the girl said more loudly. ‘I lied. I slapped Babette first.’ For the first time she raised her eyes and looked directly at the teacher. ‘But she was so … so …’ Words failed her.

  ‘Violence towards another is never acceptable,’ Mrs Francine said, ‘especially for a young lady. I expect you to behave with more decorum in future. You can apologize to Babette when you see her next.’