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January 1812

The harsh clang of the meetinghouse bell shattered the peace of the night. At the sound, Gabrielle jerked upright in her narrow bed. She had not been asleep but instead had been lying very still with her eyes wide open, staring out at the grainy darkness and listening to the soft breathing of the sleeping girls around her. She had matched her own breaths with theirs in hopes of bringing quiet harmony back to her thoughts, but the gift of knowing kept nipping at the corners of her mind. Visions of men with blackened faces, corn melting, and shadows of the world flitting among the trees had troubled her thoughts all day, but it was all too vague for understanding. All she knew for sure was the sense of dread awake and growing inside her.

Usually when the gift of knowing came to her, it wasn’t shrouded in so much mystery. Rather it was clear, as clear as her image in a still pool. This time a handful of pebbles had dropped in to cloud the pool. Earlier she had gone to her quiet place in the woods to pray to either rid her mind of the troubling vision or bring it clear so she could perhaps understand it. But the vision had stayed with her, as dark and murky as ever.

The bell kept tolling the alarm as Gabrielle quickly rose from her bed. Around her the younger sisters were waking and jumping out of bed to see what might be happening. Outside one of the brothers was shouting, “Fire!”

While the girls clustered around the window, Gabrielle pulled her dress over her head and found her shoes. She had no need to look out to discover what was happening, for the gift of knowing had cleared. She could see the flames whooshing through the hay and circling the posts of their harvest barn. Nathan was there in the midst of the flames crying out to her, but his voice was too faint to hear. There was no time for looking. She had to hurry to warn Nathan of his danger.

She left one of the older girls in charge before she slipped out into the hallway. It was against the rules for her to talk to Nathan without another brother or sister present, but surely tonight the rules could be broken. Nathan would be rushing out to the fire in his usual reckless way. She had to stop him before he ran headlong into danger.

Already the boys were out of their rooms and pounding down their stairway. Gabrielle hurried down the girls’ stairway over to the boys’ side of the house. She’d stop him on his way out and make him understand the need for caution.

“Sister Gabrielle, where are ye going?” Sister Mercy’s voice stopped her.

Gabrielle spun around to look at the older woman. “Oh praise the heavens, Sister Mercy. You can help me. I must find Brother Nathan. He is in terrible danger.”

Sister Mercy was frowning. “Ye know it is forbidden for you to go to the boys’ side of the house. And where is thy cap?”

Gabrielle touched the dark curls that fell about her shoulders. It was a vanity to show her hair or enjoy the feel of it on her neck, a vanity she’d never been able to completely put away from her. But surely at a time like this, one shouldn’t be worried with vanity. “But you don’t understand, Sister Mercy. I must warn him. The fire!” Gabrielle’s eyes widened as suddenly in her mind Nathan was falling among the flames. “We must keep him away from the fire.”

“Ye talk nonsense, child. Our new harvest barn has caught fire. Every hand is needed to put out the fire and save what we can.”

Gabrielle turned away from Sister Mercy back toward the boys’ stairway. She was always obedient. It seemed only right to be so, but this time her mind would not let her rest. Some power stronger than her need to be obedient to the Shaker rules was pushing her.

“Anyway, he is gone out to help with the fire already.” Sister Mercy’s voice softened as she touched Gabrielle’s shoulder. “Look at me, Sister Gabrielle.” When Gabrielle turned to her, Sister Mercy held her candle up high to better see Gabrielle’s face and asked, “Has thou seen a vision, my child?”

Gabrielle didn’t like to reveal her visions. As a child it had brought her nothing but rebukes and trouble, but even among the Believers who prized and honored such gifts, Gabrielle still held them close to her. Only when she had the gift of song during the meetings could she feel completely free to share her visions. Now she reluctantly said, “Perhaps it is nothing.”

“Why do ye fear this gift from the spirits, my child? Better you should learn to appreciate and use it for the good of all.” Sister Mercy lowered the candle. When she spoke again, her voice was thoughtful. “I had thought to ask you to watch after the little ones while I went to help at the fire, but instead I shall stay and you may go. Remember, child, engaged in thy duty, ye have no reason to fear.”

When Gabrielle started to turn away, Sister Mercy stopped her. “First you must cover your hair.” She removed her own cap and handed it to Gabrielle.

“Thank you, Sister Mercy.” Gabrielle stuffed her hair under the cap as best she could, curtsied, and hurried out before Sister Mercy had a chance to change her mind.

At the barn the men and women had formed a water line, but it was futile. Already the flames were reaching for the roof. Some of the brethren were pulling out what they could from the doors, but as each moment passed it was more and more dangerous to even go close to the barn. Gabrielle stopped a little away from the milling crowd of the sisters and brethren as her eyes frantically searched for some sight of Nathan.

The fire lit up the faces of her Shaker brothers and sisters in a strange unearthly way, and on each face was written the same grave concern. That barn held much of their harvest and thus their promise of plentiful provisions through the remainder of the winter and spring. Gabrielle heard someone shout, “Those of the world are responsible for this.”

Gabrielle could only agree. Those of the world didn’t understand the way of the Shakers, but the little they did know seemed to upset and anger some of them so much that they wanted to destroy the community growing at Harmony Hill.

Gabrielle’s eyes flew through the people, not even lingering on the few strange faces. They must be people of the world come to help put out the fire or to perhaps rejoice in the barn’s burning. When at last she spotted Elder Caleb, one of the leaders of the community, she ran to him.

“Brother Caleb, have you seen Brother Nathan?”

Even with the worry of the fire troubling him, he looked down at Gabrielle with steady kindness. “Nay, Sister Gabrielle. I have not. Why do ye seek him?”

“I fear he is in danger. That he may yet be in the barn among the flames.”

“Nay, assuredly not. All the brethren have been told to back away from the fire. We have no desire to see anyone hurt for a bit of grain.”

Gabrielle grabbed the elder’s arm as he started to turn away from her. Panic squeezed a tight hand around her heart as in her mind’s eye she saw Nathan sinking to the barn floor with flames all around him. “He is in the barn,” she insisted.

“Control yourself, Sister. I have told you that cannot be.” In the light of the flames, Elder Caleb’s face held reproof as he pulled away from her.

The ominous crack of timbers giving way filled the air. Then one of the young brothers was running from the barn, shouting, “Nathan’s still in there!”

Silence fell over the group. Suddenly one of the strangers broke from the crowd and yelled at the boy, “Where is he?”

The boy was almost weeping. “I don’t know. He was right behind me, and then he wasn’t.”

Elder Caleb stepped in front of the man from the world. His slight figure contrasted with the stranger’s tall strength. “Nay, I cannot allow you to go in there, Dr. Scott. It is too dangerous. The roof is already giving way.”

The man didn’t hesitate. “But I must,” he said as he started for the barn.

Gabrielle stepped past Elder Caleb to grab the man’s arm. “He is not more than ten feet from the door a bit to the left of the center. But you must hurry. The rafters above where he lies are aflame.”

The man’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her intently while listening to her words. Then he turned and ran into the burning barn. In a few moments he was out, carrying Nathan in his arms like a child. Nathan’s breeches were on fire, and the man’s jacket sleeve erupted in flames. Gabrielle, who had trailed after the man toward the burning barn, was the first to reach them. She yanked off her scarf to beat out the flames on Nathan’s legs and the man’s jacket.

When others began clustering around them, the man shouted at them angrily, “Back away and give the boy some air!” The people parted to allow him to carry Nathan several steps farther away from the barn before he laid him down and knelt beside him. The man leaned down to put his ear close to Nathan’s mouth.

Gabrielle held her own breath. Nathan was so still. Ever since she’d first met Nathan after he and his family had joined the Shakers, he’d seemed to be constantly moving. Even during silent prayer he could not be completely still. Now not even a finger twitched. The man raised his head up and said to no one in particular, “He’s alive.”

Gabrielle began breathing again as she offered up a silent prayer of thanksgiving before the man’s next words brought her up short. “But he’s badly burned. He may yet not see the morning.” The man stood up. “I need a place where I can care for him.”

Elder Caleb stepped forward. “Sister Gabrielle will show you to the guest quarters, and I’ll send along Sister Helen to help you in whatever way she can, Dr. Scott.”

The doctor picked Nathan up again. Gabrielle walked ahead and opened the door into the small cabin they always kept ready for any strangers who came to them in need of shelter for the night. She turned back the bed for the doctor to lay Nathan down before she located a candle and lit it.

“I need more light,” the doctor said.

Gabrielle set the lamps and candles about the bed as the doctor directed her. Then he asked her to hold a candle above the bed while he began cutting what was left of Nathan’s breeches away from his legs.

Sister Helen came into the room and said, “Brother Caleb has sent me to assist you, Dr. Scott. I have often dosed the sick.”

“Good. Help me cut away the cloth from his legs.”

A tremor went through Gabrielle at the sight of the burns on Nathan’s legs, and she could not keep the candle she held from flickering. Sister Helen frowned at her before she said, “Perhaps it would be more fitting to get one of the brethren to help. Sister Gabrielle is yet young.”

The doctor looked up at Gabrielle. His eyes were almost black in the light as he studied her. Gabrielle looked back boldly, knowing the candle she held out from her face kept the man from seeing her clearly. She’d heard much about this Dr. Brice Scott who lived near their village. The new converts said he doctored differently than the doctors in the town, and some called him an Indian doctor. He was not old like Elder Caleb, yet not young like Nathan. She supposed he was handsome in the way the world judged a person’s looks, but the Believers looked for a person’s inward beauty rather than the outward lines of one’s face or the shape of one’s body. He had been intensely focused on treating Nathan’s burns and now appeared irritated by the distraction of Sister Helen’s suggestion.

“Young sister,” he said abruptly. “Are you going to faint?”

The smell of Nathan’s scorched skin rose up to sicken her, but Gabrielle pushed her voice out strongly. “Nay. I’ve never felt faint, and I wish to stay if Sister Helen will allow me to.”

“Ye don’t need my permission. Brother Caleb has already given it,” Sister Helen said, but her disapproval was plain to see.

Gabrielle had never felt the same closeness to Sister Helen that she shared with many of the other sisters. Sister Helen seemed to take pleasure in catching the younger sisters in some wrong, and while she had not found reason to take Gabrielle to task for any wrongs, she did take every opportunity to remind Gabrielle that outward beauty was more curse than blessing. A curse Sister Helen claimed to be glad she did not have to overcome.

Just then Nathan moved on the bed and coughed. He moved his mouth and whispered something.

“What does he say?” the doctor asked.

Again Sister Helen’s sharp eyes pierced the dim light to stab at Gabrielle. “He calls the young sister’s name.”

“Then answer him, girl,” the doctor said. “If this boy lives through the night, it’s going to take more than my doctoring or your people’s prayers. He’s going to have to want to live. Desperately.”

Gabrielle put down the candle and knelt on the floor beside Nathan’s head. “I am here, Brother Nathan.”

He turned his face toward her and slowly opened his eyes. They were dark with pain. She wanted to lay her hand on his cheek, but Sister Helen was watching her closely. “A doctor is here to help you,” Gabrielle told him.

“The fire!” His face twisted as the terror of the fire returned to his mind. “I couldn’t get out. I thought I’d died and was in hell.” He began coughing and gasping for air again.

“Shh, Nathan,” she said as his coughing eased. “Ye are safe now out of the fire. Just lie still.”

His eyes clung to hers. “Promise you won’t leave me, Gabrielle. Stay here and pray for me. The Eternal Father will listen to your prayers.”

“As he listens to all who pray, but I promise. I will pray for thy healing.”

His eyes went away from her back to his pain. He moaned and lapsed into unconsciousness again.

Tears wet Gabrielle’s cheeks, but she made no move to brush them away. She closed her eyes and shut out all the sounds around her as she concentrated on the pleas she made to the Eternal Father for Nathan. When she finally looked up again, she and the doctor were alone with Nathan. The man’s eyes were watching her intently.

When Gabrielle glanced swiftly around the room to see where Sister Helen might be, the doctor said, “I sent the other sister for some medicines.”

Gabrielle lowered her eyes and remained silent. It was unheard of to be alone with a person of the opposite sex. Especially a stranger from the world.

“Is it wrong for you to look at me, young sister? Or talk to me?”

Gabrielle’s eyes came up to meet his. The gentleness there surprised her. “I fear it is surely against the rules.”

“You Shakers have many rules from what I’ve seen,” the doctor said with a frown. “How long have you been in the village?”

“Six years. My mother and I were among the first group to come together in 1806.”

The doctor motioned toward Nathan. “You care deeply for the boy.”

“I love him as I love all the brothers and sisters in our community,” Gabrielle said.

The doctor smiled a bit. “But not so much like a brother as some of the others, I dare say.”

Gabrielle met his look. “Nay, rather more like a brother than some of the others. Nathan and his family were among the first converts after our village was founded. He’s the brother I always wished for but never had before joining the Believers.”

“And does he love you as a sister?” the doctor asked, his smile a bit wider.

“I so wish it, but I cannot know another’s thoughts.”

The doctor’s eyes darkened as they narrowed thoughtfully. “But you can know other things.”

“I know not what you mean, sir.” Gabrielle felt a twinge of guilt for her lie.

“Your eyes won’t let you tell even that much of a falsehood, young sister. You knew exactly where the boy was in the barn. But how?”

Gabrielle hesitated, but the doctor kept looking at her, waiting for her to explain the unexplainable. So she said, “It’s hard to put into words for others to understand. Sometimes I have a feeling for things, and I see what is happening in my mind even though I am not there to actually see it with my eyes. I just know what is happening or will happen. Sister Mercy calls it a gift from the spirits and says I should be thankful to be so blessed.”

“But you don’t always feel blessed?” the doctor said. Gabrielle tried to suppress the shiver that ran through her as she admitted, “Often it feels more a curse than a blessing. This seeing things I should not be able to see. There are evil spirits as well as good spirits.”

“I don’t think an evil spirit could ever touch you, Gabrielle,” the doctor said softly.

Gabrielle dropped her eyes to her hands and was silent. As soon as Nathan was better, she would have to confess this conversation to Sister Mercy for it was surely a sin of worldliness.

The doctor reached out his hand and raised her chin until once more she was staring into his dark eyes. “You have done no wrong, young sister.” He looked at her for a long moment before saying, “Your eyes are the purest blue I’ve ever seen.”

“To rejoice in the color of one’s eyes is a vanity,” Gabrielle whispered as she drew her head back away from his touch. His fingers on her skin had pulsed with life.

He smiled again. “I frighten you, don’t I, young sister?”

Gabrielle didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure she was frightened exactly, but his presence and his voice were very definitely disturbing her inner calm.

“You’re not the first to find me frightening,” the doctor went on. “But I wouldn’t doubt that you’re the most innocent to cross my path for a long time. Do you know what some of my patients call me?”

Gabrielle shook her head. She couldn’t pull her eyes away from his, even though she knew she should.

“Devil doctor.” His laugh was short and rough. “Maybe so, but at least they’re alive to call me that.” He motioned toward the boy on the bed. “This one here may be saying the same, but with any luck at all he’ll live to say it.”

“I’ll pray that it be so.” Gabrielle turned her eyes from his at last.

Still she felt his eyes probing her, and she was almost glad when Nathan cried out in pain to distract his attention from her. The doctor spoke a few soft words to quiet Nathan and then held his legs gently to keep him from injuring them more as he moved. He muttered, “What’s taking that woman so long to bring the medicines?”

Sister Helen entered the room without a sound and put the bag of medicines he’d requested on the table by the bed. She made no attempt to keep the contempt out of her voice as she said, “Indian cures.”

Dr. Scott’s laugh was again short. “Don’t worry, Sister. I won’t be saying any spells or chants over the boy. Nor even performing a dance to the Indian spirits.” For a moment he was silent as he began mixing the medicines and applying them very gently to Nathan’s burns. Then Gabrielle saw his smile sneak back before he said, “But I doubt they’d be much different than the ones I’ve heard you do here at your meetinghouse.”

Sister Helen drew in her breath with a sharp hiss. “Brother Caleb should have told you to leave at once. Those of the world have no place among us.”

Gabrielle’s eyes sought out the doctor’s quickly. She knew nothing of this man, but yet she felt that if anyone could help Nathan, he could.

The doctor met her look. “Don’t worry, young sister. I won’t leave the boy until he’s better or he’s gone on to meet his Maker. I may be a coldhearted brute, but I take care of my patients.” He turned to Sister Helen and said, “Get the boy some water, Sister. Tomorrow you can chase me from your village, but tonight we’re going to work together to keep this boy among the living.”

Sister Helen sniffed loudly, but she did what she was told. Gabrielle hid a small smile and thought the doctor wasn’t coldhearted at all. She slipped to her knees to thank the Eternal Father for sending such a man to help Nathan.