The Uncharted Beginnings Series Box Set

by Keely Brooke Keith

  She had worked this hard through a difficulty no one knew about, except Doctor Ashton. If the other elders knew, they would respect her less. Not that she had increased their respect last night, but she’d at least won the chance to have her cause heard. Her work was not done yet. It might never be, especially if some of the other women had building projects they wanted prioritized in the settlement.

  She would do everything in her power to increase respect for education in the students. She needed to capture their imaginations in one class time per week. And the lessons had to be relevant enough to settlement life to make the parents want the children to have more lessons… daily lessons… a proper school.

  What could she teach the children that would interest them, benefit them, and incorporate language and arithmetic? She leaned her head back and stared at the crossbeam in the ceiling as she tried to think.

  The rhythmic sway of the rocker relaxed her. She’d barely slept last night after barging into the elder meeting and now her mind wanted a break.

  So many thoughts and voices swirled in her head. Gabe had asked her father for his blessing. She had broken one of the settlement’s rules. Her mother said her lessons were boring and irrelevant. Mrs. Susanna Vestal was ill and no one knew but her, the doctor, and Mr. Vestal. Marian said Gabe was trustworthy and in love with her. Her father was angry with her. Women in the village were gossiping about her. She wanted to be free from the impairment that stole her ability to read. Gabe wanted more for her… more from her…

  The late afternoon sun peeked out beneath the cloud line to the west. It shone through the front window, sending dust-speckled chinks of light across Olivia and the chair. The rocker was still. Her open mouth wet her sleeve. She lifted her head and glanced around the empty house.

  It was late. The afternoon was almost gone. Precious working hours had been slept away without her knowledge or permission.

  Her lesson planner was upside down beside her stocking-covered feet on the rag rug. She wiped the drool from her chin. As she leaned down to pick up the journal, her hair fell loose across her shoulder. She reached for the ribbon that she always kept tied around the end of her long braid. It was gone. She pulled the loose strands in front of her face. Her hair was ten inches shorter than it should be.

  Her breath caught as she shot to her feet. She searched the chair, the rug, the folds in her clothing, but couldn’t find any cut pieces of hair. Someone had come in the house while she napped and cut off half of her braid.

  And they had taken her hair with them.

  Who would be so cruel and daring and violate a person in her sleep? Had an elder attacked her femininity in retaliation for her interrupting their meeting? Had her growing relationship with Gabe driven Peggy to maddening jealousy? Had her father wanted to punish her? No, he might have been perturbed by her behavior last night, but he would never lift a hand against her. Maybe it was Mrs. Cotter. She’d been rude and hateful toward her since school started. But would Mrs. Cotter leave her family during the day, sneak into the house, and defile a person so brazenly?

  Children’s voices rang outside the house.

  Olivia ran up the stairs with her lesson planner in one hand and the other hand buried in her now shoulder-length hair. Once in the bedroom, she darted for the basket on the foot of Alice’s side of the bed and rifled through her sister’s things until she collected several hairpins.

  She stepped to the washstand and swirled her hair into a knot behind her head. Her fingers shook as she pinned her hair into a chignon. Loose strands fell out to frame her face. She pinned them back too, as not to draw attention to the shorter length.

  The door opened downstairs and her sisters surged in the house all talking at once. As the girls climbed the stairs and ran into the room, Olivia tucked in the last strands of her straight black hair.

  “What’s this?” Alice cooed as she spotted Olivia. “Trying a new hairstyle?”

  “I borrowed a few of your hairpins. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Martha gazed up at her in the mirror. “You look like a grown up lady.”

  “I am a grown up lady.” She tried to sound unaffected, but her voice broke. “I just wanted to do something different.”

  Almeda snickered. “Now you look like a schoolteacher.”

  “I am a schoolteacher.”

  Alice craned her neck to see the back of Olivia’s hair. “It doesn’t look as bulky. Did you cut it?”

  Olivia scrambled for a true but simple explanation. “My braid was damaged.” She gave each of her sisters a quick look. They had no idea what had happened to her. “It’s time I start arranging my hair in a more mature fashion anyhow.”

  The girls tossed their bonnets and shawls onto the bed and chatted about their time with Mrs. Foster. Martha held up a piece of burlap. “Look what I made.”

  “Very good,” Olivia said as she sat beside Martha on the edge of the bed. She reached out to feel the freshly woven material, but her fingers were shaking. She rubbed her hands together. “My, it’s cold in here.”

  Her sisters didn’t know someone had been in the house and mistreated her. But someone knew. Whoever did this was capable of anything. They had cut her hair this time. What if they hurt her or one of her sisters next time? She should tell someone, but whom? If she didn’t know who did it, how could she know who to trust?

  Surely the perpetrator would give away his or her guilt. They would say something to someone or reveal themselves somehow. She would wait and watch for a clue.

  She stepped to the window and looked out. Gabe was walking toward his family’s house next door. He would notice her hair had been cut. He noticed everything about her.

  Chapter Nine

  Olivia smoothed her hair while she waited for Marian to answer the door. In a week’s time, she’d grown used to her new hairstyle, but her fingers continually checked the pins. The new gesture was becoming a habit. Other than the initial you’ve changed your hair comments, no one in the settlement had seemed to give it another thought. Or at least they didn’t let on if they did.

  After staying home last Thursday afternoon and having someone sneak in and chop off half her hair, she couldn’t bear the eerie stillness when the house was empty, especially with the heavy autumn clouds outside. She’d endured another week of wearisome house-to-house teaching, whispering women, and disapproving glances. And Gabe was still out on his property, hewing lumber for his house.

  She missed him. She didn’t want to miss him. It might mean something that she wasn’t ready to accept.

  She needed the company of a friend, and Marian needed pencils. Thus, she knocked again.

  Marian opened the door with a naked baby in her arms. “Olivia, what a nice surprise! Come in,” she said over her shoulder as she took the baby back to the bed where a clean diaper had been laid out.

  Olivia stepped inside the warm cabin. It must be pleasant to be the lady of the house, no matter how small the home. She imagined having her own cabin. She could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted without dodging parental scowls and snide sibling remarks. She could keep the lamp on and read all night when the monster was away instead of squinting to see the words in the moonlight as she had last night.

  No wonder she was tired. She sniffed the air. “Do I smell coffee?”

  “In aroma only,” Marian said with a wistful smile. “Jonah is finally letting me experiment with the coffee-scented leaves from the bush down shore, but he made me promise not to ingest it and to keep it away from the baby.”

  “Smart man.”

  “I pressed the leaves and blended their oil into our candle wax. I was hoping the smell might hide some of the diaper stench.”

  “It had me fooled.” Olivia pulled off her gloves one finger at a time as Marian scooped the freshened baby from the mattress. She stuffed the gloves into her satchel and withdrew a string-tied bundle of a dozen graphite pencils. “I brought you something.”

  “Gracious!” Marian widened her ey
es as she accepted the pencils with her free hand. “Are you sure you can spare so many?”

  “I should think so. I brought ten gross with me from America.”

  “Smart woman.” Marian examined the red cedar pencils. “Mr. Roberts said he knows how to hand make them—”

  Olivia gave her voice a masculine affectation. “Once we locate a graphite deposit—”

  Marian also mocked a baritone. “And once we perfect our paper making process.”

  They laughed together, and it felt good.

  When their laughter died out, Marian thanked her for the pencils and placed them on the Davenport desk in the corner of the room. Olivia pointed at the desk. “Wasn’t that in the captain’s cabin on the Providence?”

  Marian nodded and nestled baby Frederick into his bassinet. “Remember when we didn’t know if we would ever make it to land? And here we are, two years later with a little village.”

  “And a lot of problems.”

  “Indeed.” Marian frowned and motioned for Olivia to sit at a table. “Jonah told me what happened at the elder meeting last night.”

  “Last night?” Olivia had not been informed. Her father was barely speaking to her as his way of punishing her for the interruption of last week’s meeting. He probably told Walter every detail of the elder meetings, and maybe her mother, but certainly not her or her sisters. His air of angry displeasure had simmered into a general ignoring of her presence, which wasn’t too far from normal.

  She lowered herself into a chair at the table. Its top was made from a round slice of a wide tree stump. She held onto the table’s lacquered edge, bracing for the news. “What happened last night?”

  “Apparently several women were inspired by your, um, assertiveness last week and decided to try it this week.”

  “Collectively?”

  “No, but Jonah said it was quite the parade.”

  “Oh, dear.” She pressed her fingertips to her temples. “Who?”

  Marian sat across from her at the little table and lowered her volume even though they were alone in her tidy home with the door closed. “First, Mrs. Roberts went into the chapel saying she needed to give something to Mr. Roberts that he’d forgotten at home. Then she went on to ask the elders if they would consider building an iron furnace so her husband could make molds for the machinery that would ease his production work.”

  Olivia leaned back in the chair. “How did the elders react?”

  “Mr. Roberts apologized for her intrusion and escorted her home before they could respond. While they were gone, my own mother gave it a try.”

  “What on earth for?”

  Marian began to blush. “She said if Susanna Vestal was allowed to miss church on Sundays on account of being tired, she thought such reprieve should be granted to all women with small children. She said Sundays are a day of rest for men but getting a jump on the day before the service steals hours of sleep that weary mothers desperately need.”

  The mention of Susanna being simply tired made Olivia’s stomach ache. That was the excuse Mr. Vestal had relayed for her the past few weeks. It was true she was tired, but it was more than fatigue. Susanna could hardly get out of bed, let alone attend church. Mr. Vestal and Doctor Ashton knew it. The village deserved to know, but Olivia couldn’t say anything, even to her dearest friend. She faltered for words. “What… what do you think of your mother’s request?”

  “Unnecessary.” Marian shrugged. “I have to get up twice each night to nurse Frederick, and I make it to church just fine. It’s healthy for mothers to get out of the house and be among the community each Sunday. Mother probably thought she was being helpful by speaking up for all women.”

  “What did the elders tell her?”

  “Jonah said she made her request, excused herself, and left before anyone could say anything. But that wasn’t all. As they were about to end the meeting, Mrs. Cotter went into the chapel and clapped to get the men’s attention. And you won’t believe what she wanted.” Marian paused to build anticipation. “She said we must stop all building projects and construct a ship so that anyone who is ready to leave this land and sail home will have a way to do so.”

  Perhaps that was why Mrs. Cotter behaved so strangely… she wanted to go home. It wasn’t possible, and everyone in the settlement knew it and had seemed to accept it. After all, the group had intended to settle on secluded land when they left America. Regretting such a permanent relocation would be heartbreaking. Imagining it made her sorry for Mrs. Cotter. “It’s simply not possible. Hasn’t she heard about the currents around the shore? She saw what happened to the Providence.”

  “She said they should build a ship to be fair to those who want to leave. Apparently, she was quite forceful with Reverend Colburn. When Mr. Cotter tried to escort her out, she began arguing with him and saying we are all going to die here.”

  “I don’t agree with her request or her poor behavior,” Olivia touched her hair and wondered about Mrs. Cotter’s sanity, “but I understand why she felt she should take her concern to the elders. We’ve been told to keep our peace over everything for so long and now some can’t discern what is a valid village issue and what is not.”

  “It might feel that way, but that isn’t entirely true.”

  “This is what happens when leaders exclude half of the population simply because we are female.”

  Marian shook her head. “Jonah said the elders didn’t want to exclude women because they are female. He said they have to exclude them all because some of the men say their wives would be ridiculous in public debate over business issues.”

  “Mrs. Cotter’s behavior probably helped prove that case, but men can be ridiculous too.”

  “The elders found last night’s meeting to confirm their system is best for the settlement.”

  “And it probably hurt my cause. Shame too. This is yet another example of why we need to establish formal education. We must give the next generation the ability to use logic to voice concerns.”

  Marian patted her arm. “Do try to be patient with the elders. They have the settlement’s best interests in mind. This will all turn out fine in the end. I know it will.”

  “That’s why I love coming to your house. I need your encouragement. At least that’s part of why I came today.” A strand of short hair fell over Olivia’s eyes. She flinched to brush it back, but stopped herself and pointed at the strand. “I didn’t do this.”

  “Do what?”

  “Cut my hair. When you—and everyone else—asked about it, I said my braid had been damaged. While that is technically true, it’s not the whole truth.” When Marian furrowed her brow, Olivia continued. “The day after I interrupted the elder meeting last week, someone came into our parlor while I was napping and cut my braid clean off. Took it with them too.”

  Marian’s mouth fell open. “Who?”

  “I don’t know. I thought whoever did it would act suspiciously around me or tell someone and it would get back to me, but no one has said anything.”

  “Do you think it had to do with your going to the elder meeting?”

  “That or a prank by a student or maybe someone was jealous that Gabe is paying attention to me—”

  “Peggy?”

  “I don’t know. No one has given any clues or given my hair a second glance.”

  “It looks normal, like all the other ladies’ hairstyles.” Marian shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t malicious.”

  “An accidental hair clipping on a sleeping woman in her home?” Olivia laughed louder than she intended and covered her mouth. “You truly see the best in everyone, don’t you?”

  Marian chuckled. “I suppose I do.” Her concerned expression returned. “The truth will come out. Have you told anyone else?”

  Olivia shook her head. “I caused enough of a stir last week.”

  The hinges on the door squeaked as it opened. Jonah stepped into the cabin.

  “Darling!” Marian met him at the door, grinning widely.

 
“Get the baby and go to the chapel.” He barely gave her a peck on the cheek as he rushed to his medical bag, which was on the floor beside the desk. “I have to hurry to the Vestals’ farm.”

  Marian followed his quick strides across the room. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Susanna Vestal,” he said as he picked up the medical bag. He whirled back for the door and looked at Olivia. “You need to go to the chapel too.”

  Olivia stood. “Is Mrs. Vestal all right?” she asked, knowing the answer.

  Jonah paused at the door, gripping the handle of his medical bag. “She is near death. My father has been treating her condition privately for some time, but there was nothing else to be done for her. I’m going with him to the Vestals’ now. Reverend Colburn said for everyone to go to the chapel to join together and pray for her. Divine healing is her only hope for remaining in this life.” He pulled Marian close and kissed her before he left. “Pray.”

  * * *

  Olivia carried an extra blanket for the baby and walked with Marian to the church. People were coming from all directions, still dressed in their work clothes. Dirty hems and muddy boots ascended the chapel’s stone steps ahead of her as the worried villagers gathered to pray for Susanna Vestal.

  Reverend Colburn held the arched wooden door open for everyone. His somber greeting was the same to each person as they entered. “Once everyone has arrived, I will give the details of Mrs. Vestal’s condition. Go in and find two or three others to pray with.”

  Marian entered the chapel first and whispered over her shoulder to Olivia, “Jonah is assisting Doctor Ashton and my family isn’t here yet. Stay with me.”

  “Of course.” Olivia gave Marian’s arm a reassuring touch and felt her tremble. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, this is just such a shock.” Marian stayed close to her and walked toward the window on the north side of the chapel. “Aren’t you shocked?”

  Olivia glanced out the window. If she admitted she knew Susanna had been ill and she had kept it secret, she might seem cold-hearted. Unless she added that Doctor Ashton knew too and Mr. Vestal, and they were all abiding by Susanna’s request. Then Marian might become upset with Doctor Ashton for not telling the community about it, or even Jonah if he had prior knowledge, which by the look on his face at the cabin, Olivia doubted he had.