25

Sacrifice Day dawned clear and cold. Not even one cloud marred the deep blue of sky. A day with nothing hidden. Sophrena had paused a moment to accept that thought as she hurried to the privy. She didn’t like leaving Heather alone even though the girl was recovering quickly. She refused to lie abed and had even joined in with Sophrena’s sewing again whenever the baby slept.

When Sophrena went back into the cabin, Heather had moved close to the fire in the sleeping room. The girl was often chilled, but Brother Kenton said that was only natural after the blood she’d lost while birthing her child.

Brother Kenton hadn’t been to the cabin for three days. That was proof of Heather’s improved health. Sister Doreen came often, coaching Heather on her mother duties and helping Sophrena know what care was needed for both mother and child. Other sisters brought small gifts. A newly sewn gown or blanket. A knitted cap. A soft bib. A whistle carved by Brother Josiah. Sophrena had seen him place it on the step and then run away as if the very devil were after him.

“The Lord has gifted us with a fine day for our Sacrifice Day,” Sophrena said as she put another chunk of wood on the fire.

Heather held her hands out toward the flames. “Why do they call it Sacrifice Day?”

Sophrena looked up from sweeping the ashes back into the fireplace. “It is a day of prayer when hearts must be searched and sacrifices of self made.”

“I thought you told me it was a day to forgive. To make amends.” She sat down in the chair by the fireplace.

When the baby began to whimper, Sophrena brushed off her hands and lifted him from his warm nest on the bed. He was growing. Already looking different as he waved his little fists in the air. Perhaps in protest of being left alone. Perhaps just to be noticed. He hushed his whimpers as soon as Sophrena picked him up, and the flicker of a smile passed across his face.

She handed him to Heather. She watched her adjust her dress to nurse the baby before she answered her. “Think, Sister Heather, of how it is the same. Forgiveness requires a sacrifice of pride. A humbling of the spirit. An increase of selfless love. A time when you allow others’ feelings to be more important than your own.”

“I am going to write my father of my forgiveness.” Heather kept her eyes on the nursing baby and ran her finger around this cheek. “His father is going to love him so much.”

“Yea.” Sophrena agreed. Who could not love this precious child? She told herself she should be cleaning, readying the house and her heart for the day, but instead she stood idle and watched the mother and child.

Heather looked up at her. “Will he one day have reason to forgive his father as I had need to forgive mine?”

“The future can only be known by God.”

“I dreamed of Gideon.” Heather’s eyes settled back on the baby. “He was calling to me.”

“What did he call?”

“I don’t know. The words were swallowed by the dream.”

“But I sense it, the dream, made you uneasy.” Sophrena stepped over to the girl’s chair and touched her shoulder.

“It did not seem happy.”

“You have been worried about him after Brother Kenton brought news of the Union victory at Nashville. It is only natural that those worries appear in your dreams.”

“What would I do without you, dear Aunt Sophrena?” Heather leaned her head over to touch her cheek to Sophrena’s hand.

Sophrena dropped a kiss down on top of her head before she took the broom from its hook again. A house should be free of dirt on Sacrifice Day.

Heather turned her attention back to her baby as she shifted him to her other breast. After a moment, she looked over at Sophrena. “Have you anyone to forgive on this day?”

“More to ask forgiveness.”

“Are you talking about that Eldress Lilith?” Heather didn’t wait for Sophrena to answer. “I wouldn’t ask her for anything. She needs a more charitable heart.”

Sophrena smiled as she sat the broom aside to straighten the bed covers. “But that is why there is need for much prayer and contemplation on Sacrifice Day.”

Heather breathed out a sigh. “Another reason I could never be a Shaker.”

“You pray.” Sophrena scooted the bed to the side in order to sweep away any dust hiding under it.

“But not for the same things you pray for.” Heather kept her eyes on her baby. “I pray for my baby. I pray for his father. I pray for you.”

Sophrena hung the broom back up and sat down in the chair by the girl. “What do you pray for me?”

“You may not want to hear it,” Heather said without looking up.

“Nay, I will not be upset by whatever you say. I know you are of the world.”

“That is what I pray for you, dear Aunt Sophrena.” Heather cradled her baby gently against her and reached across the space between their chairs to touch Sophrena’s hand. “That you will come away from here and be part of our family again. That you will know love as I do.”

“I am too old for such love even if I were not a Shaker.”

“Are you so sure?” Heather looked back down at her baby and hesitated before she spoke again. “I have seen the way you look at Brother Kenton.”

Sophrena shifted her eyes away from Heather and stared at the fire. She breathed in and out slowly. “Such feelings destroy the peace we strive for here at Harmony Hill.”

“Denying the feelings does not bring peace to your heart, does it?” Heather looked up at her.

“Nay. But I have been a Shaker for many years. I cannot imagine another life.”

“I don’t believe that. You have lived another life with me here in this cabin since I came. You hold my baby with great love and tenderness. And even before that, you reached out to my mother with your letters.”

“I did.”

“Mother wrote me a letter before she passed. She thought perhaps God stirred your heart to write her because he knew the hard times coming for us. That this was his plan, and then when I came into your village, you echoed her words.” Heather put the baby up to her shoulder and rubbed his back to help him burp. “God’s plan. Perhaps God is giving you a new plan on this Sacrifice Day.”

“Eldress Lilith says not.” Sophrena kept her eyes on the fire.

“It is not Eldress Lilith’s plan you have to ponder on this day. It is God’s plan. For you.” Heather’s voice was soft but insistent. “Perhaps that is what you need to contemplate on this Sacrifice Day. Should we not listen to God first?”

“And have you done so?” Sophrena asked.

“Not always as I should, but the Lord has blessed me. I have forgiven my father. Now I will pray that my father will forgive me on this day. And I am going to pray that Gideon will see this child, his son.”

“Good prayers.”

“What will you pray, Aunt Sophrena?”

Sophrena stared at the fire a long moment without moving. She thought of the sisters, Mary and Martha in the Bible. One so busy there was no time for thought of anything but duties to be done. The other contemplating the truths the Lord was sharing with them. Was it not time for her to be like that sister? She looked over at Heather and answered her at last. “I will pray that the Lord reveals my path and that it will be a path I can step upon with joy.”

“I will pray the same for you, and that we will both have the courage to embrace the gifts he sends us.”