The Ninth Daughter Part 17

"It was!" she insisted. "He came to me, blue and glowing. He sat beside my bed and took my hand, and I saw then that a great beam of wood had been driven into his chest! I saw the blood, my child! I saw the bruises on his face, where it had been crushed in-"

"M'am, that isn't true." The girl took her mistress's hand in one hand, and gripped her arm with the other. "You know it isn't." She turned to Abigail, added in a whisper, "That didn't really happen, m'am. It's just the opium, that makes her see things. It wasn't a real real spirit." spirit."

"Of course it wasn't," said Abigail, startled at the girl's a.s.sumption that it could have been and that Abigail would probably believe it.

"You must let me go find him!" pleaded Mrs. Hazlitt, as d.a.m.nation steered her firmly toward her chair. "You must let me speak to him, beg his forgiveness before it is too late-"

"Of course, m'am, but first you sit down-"

Without being told, Abigail checked the mantelpiece and the sideboard for the opium bottle, then darted upstairs to the bedroom. As before, the bottle stood on the mantelpiece there; as before, a brisk fire burned in the grate, warming the room; and as before, though it was close to nightfall, n.o.body had cleaned the room or tidied the bed that day, nor even pushed the trundle bed away out of sight. Lying across the foot of the trundle bed, discarded at waking presumably, was a man's nights.h.i.+rt. Yesterday's stockings, that lay on the floor by the trundle's foot, were a pair of yellow ones that Abigail recognized as Orion's.

She returned downstairs, and helped d.a.m.nation dose the struggling, weeping woman beside the fire, despite wailed threats that the Lord would smite them both and cast them down with Jezebel from the window to be eaten by dogs, and pleas that she had seen her son begging for her to come to him.

Walking home in the early falling darkness, Abigail tried to put aside the lingering distaste of that frowsy, smelly room. The nights.h.i.+rt and stockings called up other images, of Mrs. Hazlitt dragging her son's lips down to hers: my treasure my treasure, she had called him, my King my King . . . . . .

No wonder the poor man threw himself into his work for the Sons of Liberty with such pa.s.sion. Anything to be doing something other than what his life was with her . . . anything to have even the illusion of real life.

The Lord seeth not as man seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Abigail found herself wondering very much what the Lord saw when He looked on Nehemiah Tillet's heart.

Twenty-six

Midmorning-the first break she had in transferring garment after waterlogged garment from the lye-tubs in which they'd soaked all night to the cauldrons of boiling rinse-water-Abigail changed her dress, smoothed her hair, and walked with John-who had himself spent the morning with Thaxter trying to catch up on legal papers neglected in favor of leading meetings and writing pamphlets-to Milk Street again. She had hoped that yesterday would have brought a letter from Miss Fluckner to Mr. Barnaby, but though the whiff of smoke still floated from what Abigail guessed to be the kitchen chimney, no window was unshuttered, and no footman opened to John's repeated pounding at the door.

"I'll write to Coldstone," said Abigail, as they walked back home. "Sam can change his precious codes-or explain to Philomela, on Judgment Day, after she is murdered by this monster, why he thought their preservation as they stand was more important than her life."

She thought John might have said something about how short the time was until the seventeenth-the day by which the Dartmouth Dartmouth's cargo must be confiscated to pay the harbor dues-but he remained silent.

Shortly after she, Pattie, Nabby, and Johnny commenced the horrendous task of lifting out each dripping, steaming s.h.i.+rt, sheet, chemise, or baby-clout from the slowly cooling rinse-water to wring and hang to dry, Thaxter appeared in the kitchen door with the information that Mr. Malvern was here to see her.

As it had been during Lieutenant Coldstone's call last Wednesday, the parlor was arctically cold, but as on last Wednesday, Pattie-by some miracle of efficiency-had already that morning swept the grate and laid a fire. Flames crackled cheerily as Abigail entered to receive a bow from her guest. She had been used to thinking of the tough, grim-faced little merchant as old before his time, yet seeing him now she was struck by how facile her earlier judgment had been. A week and a half ago, he had been merely weatherworn and wrinkled. Now he was old. His shoulders bowed, and the lines of his face had not merely deepened but slackened under the burden of dread.

Abigail cried, "Sir!" in consternation, and instead of curtseying, clasped his hands. "You ought not to have come."

"You think I fear the rabble that have flooded into this town?" He sniffed, and took the seat that Coldstone had, only after Abigail herself sat down. "The lascars in Singapore would eat the lot of them for breakfast, and I managed to deal with them them smartly enough. If His Majesty-" He caught himself, took a deep breath, as if forcing down the crimson anger rising to his face. "I'm quite well, Mrs. Adams," he added, in a quieter voice. smartly enough. If His Majesty-" He caught himself, took a deep breath, as if forcing down the crimson anger rising to his face. "I'm quite well, Mrs. Adams," he added, in a quieter voice. He will never be capable of gentleness He will never be capable of gentleness, she thought. But she had the impression of looking at a granite slab that had been broken, to let the first shoots of green peep through. "And feeling a bit of a poke-nose, for I know had you learned anything-anything at all-you would have writ me, as you said."

"And so I would," said Abigail. "In the past week I have run up one blind alley and down another, chasing spec ters-"

Like poor Mrs. Hazlitt, conversing with the glowing blue ghost of her son, conjured by her frenzied need not to let him from her sight? She pushed the thought from her mind, though it made her stammer a little. She pushed the thought from her mind, though it made her stammer a little.

"I take it communication with Mrs. Moore yielded nothing?"

Abigail shook her head.

"Might-Forgive a man who's lived hard, for his suspicions-You do not think Mrs. Malvern might have instructed her to write that she was not there, when in fact she was?"

He brought the words out carefully, not like a story thought-out beforehand but like phrases in a foreign language, recently learned: an effort to break a long-held pattern of rough and hasty speech that touched Abigail strangely. Whether this new learning would hold the first time he lost his temper was another matter-she knew how desperately hard it was, to break a habit even as trivial as biting one's cuticles-but he was clearly trying. She wondered who he'd asked for pointers. Scipio?

"I think not, sir," she replied. "I made the journey out to Townsend myself-"

"Good G.o.d, woman! In this weather?" His old self slammed out of the shadows of self-imposed restraint. "It's at the ends of the b.l.o.o.d.y earth!"

"So I learned." She hid a smile. "Yet I had to be sure."

"Of all the damfool harebrained-" He caught himself in hand, and added, "Thank you. I would not for the world have asked it of you. No, no," he added, as she reached for the handbell-in its proper place, for a marvel, not that Pattie or anyone else was in the kitchen to answer it-"I can see I've taken you in the midst of your work, and will not keep you from it. I just-"

He was silent a moment, big hands clenched, staring into the fire. Then his hard gray eyes flicked up to Abigail's again and he said, "If you-when you . . . Please let her know that I stand ready to protect her, with all that I have, from anything, no questions asked. I am her husband," he added. "It is my duty-and my desire."

"I'll tell her. I pray I will have the opportunity."

He took a deep breath. "Tell her that I was wrong, to treat her as I did." He pulled out the words like arrowheads from flesh.

A few weeks ago Abigail would have sniffed, Well, there's a first! Well, there's a first! Now she said, "You were deceived, sir. That's all." Now she said, "You were deceived, sir. That's all."

"I was deceived," he said, anger hardening his face at that recollection. Then he sighed. "But I was also wrong." He stood, and Abigail rose, too. He grasped her hand again, a brief, businesslike grip. "I'll not trouble Mr. Adams," he added, as Abigail handed him his hat and gloves. "I reckon he's got his his work cut out for him. You may tell him from me that I hope it fails. Good day, m'am. Thank you-for standing a friend to Mrs. Malvern." work cut out for him. You may tell him from me that I hope it fails. Good day, m'am. Thank you-for standing a friend to Mrs. Malvern."

She said, "We all need friends."

More s.h.i.+rts. More sheets. The gray overcast of the sky thinned, engendering hopes that the garments would all actually dry this afternoon and tomorrow. The yard took on the aspect of a labyrinth of clothes-rope and poles, of linen flapping slowly, like sails in the doldrums, in such dreary puffs of wind as sneaked down the pa.s.sways between the houses. As always, a path was left to the cowhouse, down which in due time Johnny would herd Semiramis and Cleopatra after an unprofitable day on the Commons. Abigail had just gone into the house to put together a scratch washday dinner of pork and cabbage-early, because John would be meeting with the chiefs of the Eighth Ward again-when the kitchen door darkened behind her and she heard Orion Hazlitt's knock.

"I can't stay." He set his hat on the sideboard with a hand so uncertain that it almost fell. "I only wanted to thank you for helping d.a.m.nation with Mother yesterday. She told me-d.a.m.nation did-"

"Is your mother feeling better?"

His jaw tightened so hard that she thought it must break itself, of its own strength.

"I'm sorry-"

"No, it's nothing . . . There's nothing, really, that can be done. I've tried to act for the best," he went on, in a voice taut with frustration and pain. "But I can't be two people! Sometimes I feel-" He shook his head violently. "And Mr. Adams-Mr. Sam Adams-is on me hammer and tongs about these pamphlets, and this broadside Mr. Revere is engraving. I know the case is urgent. Mother doesn't understand-"

He stopped himself, took a breath, and with a gallant recovery of a normal tone of voice, and the actions of a man unsavaged by expectations beyond human accomplishment, flourished the market basket he'd brought. "Thank you for bringing food." He set the basket on the sideboard beside his hat. "Did we dwell in Paradise and were Mother-were Mother as calm and saintly as yourself-d.a.m.nation would still be the worst cook in the civilized world. You have once again saved our lives. You have-"

Again he fumbled for words. "You have heard nothing?" In the gray windowlight she saw that he was unshaven, and his green eyes had a restless movement to them, like a man haunted by things that only he could see.

Abigail shook her head. It did not seem to be the time, to speak of Charles Malvern, of her own questions and doubts. Time enough Time enough, she thought, when we know Rebecca will be alive to choose when we know Rebecca will be alive to choose. Only a monster would slam the door of hope on this overburdened young man and leave him in darkness with his nightmare. "You did not tell me you grew up in Gilead."

He blinked, startled. "I didn't know you'd ever heard of the place."

"I was there-"

His eyes widened with alarm. As well they might . . . As well they might . . .

"Was your mother also the Chosen One's bride?"

He sighed, and looked away. "Can you doubt it?"

"And that was why you fled?"

"Who can tell why one does what one does?" He made a helpless gesture. "I had to get out-had to get away. From her, from him . . . She said she would kill herself, if I ever left her. I knew she wouldn't-" A wry grin twisted his mouth. "She loves herself far too well. But it was like cutting off my own arm, to leave her, even knowing her the way I do. And in the end I had to sneak away like a thief. I knew Bargest would look after her. It was almost a year, before one of his people here in town saw me, and wrote to him-to them-where I was."

"His people?"

He sighed again. "Like d.a.m.nation. Like me. People who lived on Gilead, whom he can still command." And seeing her raised brows, he asked more gently, "How do you think I could look after Mother, without his ordering d.a.m.nation to live here and help me? Say what you will about him, for better or for worse, he never leaves one of his people to make their way in the world unaided and alone."

Not even Lucretia Hazlitt, reflected Abigail sadly. Even though her craziness had probably gone beyond what even the Gilead Congregation would put up with. She recalled those boarded-up houses, those shuttered upper stories. The place must have been much bigger, when little Orion and his mother-how old had he been then?-had come there, Lucretia afire with the words of the Chosen One, her "little King" dragged along by the hand. How many others, like Orion, had fled the community there? How many could the Hand of the Lord still call upon for service, here in Boston or in the communities along the bay?

Was it by his command that Orion had opened his house to his mother, despite what he knew it would cost him? Or had it been simply because she was his mother-because of that entangling love?

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and he shook his head again, and made a gesture of pus.h.i.+ng some unseen thing away.

" 'Tis all right. There's naught to be done, and I'm used to her now. I can't-" He rubbed his hand over his face, breathed in deep, and made a smile. "I keep thinking there was something else I could have done, but I don't see what it is. Please don't think ill of her."

"No, of course not."

"Tell Mr. Sam Adams that I'll have his pamphlets done for him, right enough." He bowed to her again, lifted his hat. "Now I must get back to her. She doesn't do well alone."

Abigail settled the pork and cabbage in the Dutch oven, ringed with potatoes, and buried the whole under shovelfuls of coals. The Reverend Bargest's father had been a minister, too, she recalled one of her unwilling hosts saying at some point during her night's stay-clearly one of those who'd believed in the spectral evidence of the devil's presence in Salem-and she remembered wondering at the time what would become of those young girls she'd shared that cold attic bed with: illiterate as dogs and knowing nothing but labor on the farm, the emotional ecstasies of the House of Repentance, and the Prophet's authority.

What was it Bess had said, in another context, a few days ago? It is almost impossible to change one's way of life . . . It is almost impossible to change one's way of life . . .

She and Nabby were clearing up after dinner when s.h.i.+m Walton appeared at the back door.

"Mrs. Adams," he said worriedly as she stepped out into the bedsheet maze in the yard with him, "I remembered what you said, about not telling a soul, and I haven't. But since I talked to Tim Flowers this morning-he's the brother to Hap, that's Mr. Tillet's junior apprentice-I've been thinking about it, and thinking about it, and if you don't tell someone I'm going to have to tell Mr. Butler. Because Tim says, that Hap says, that Mr. Tillet is keeping a lady locked up in his attic."

Twenty-seven

Nehemiah Tillet's brother-in-law was the magistrate of the Third Ward, and Abigail knew instinctively that he would speak to Tillet before paying a visit to the house.

Thus, Abigail wrote a note to Lieutenant Coldstone, and after a word with Mrs. Butler-s.h.i.+m's master being already gone to the ward meeting with John-she dispatched s.h.i.+m to find a boat over to Castle Island. The boy was back in a few minutes, not much to Abigail's surprise, considering how quickly dark was falling. With the onset of night, and the brisk wind now setting off the bay, no more boats were putting forth that day.

"But, m'am, they're saying all along the wharf-and I could hear the men shouting about it in the taverns, too-that the other two East India Company s.h.i.+ps have been sighted, the Beaver Beaver and the and the Endeavor Endeavor. They'll be at Griffin's Wharf, they're saying, with the flow of the tide."

"I would not have believed it." John held out his hands to the kitchen fire, rubbing them as if he'd never get his fingers warm again. Most of the household was abed. For an hour Abigail had waited up by the kitchen fire, listening to the monotonous tolling of the church bells that penetrated even the thick walls of the brick house. "Shall I write would not have believed it." John held out his hands to the kitchen fire, rubbing them as if he'd never get his fingers warm again. Most of the household was abed. For an hour Abigail had waited up by the kitchen fire, listening to the monotonous tolling of the church bells that penetrated even the thick walls of the brick house. "Shall I write Pamela Pamela's author a letter of apology?" He raised an eyebrow, which Abigail answered with a wry half smile as she brought up the bowl of bean soup that had been waiting for him on the hob.

"According to s.h.i.+m-by way of poor little Hap-the south attic, whose window looks onto the alley, was unoccupied and used for storage until Thursday the twenty-fifth. The house was in an uproar that day, of course, with Coldstone and his henchmen questioning Mrs. Tillet, who returned with the luggage at about ten. Hap says, he thinks Mr. Tillet came in later, but he isn't sure because everything was at sixes and sevens, but at about eleven Mr. Tillet suddenly came downstairs and asked what the commotion was."

"Came downstairs downstairs?"

"As you say," murmured Abigail. "Hap had just come into the front hall and saw his master come down the stairs and walk straight into the parlor, still in his travel clothes, cloak, and hat. He said, 'See here, what's going on?' and said that he'd just then returned."

"Whereas in fact he'd returned and gone upstairs-for how long, we don't know."

"The following day-the day that you and I spent most of kicking our heels outside Colonel Leslie's door at Castle William-Hap was in the south wing of the house, where Mr. Tillet has his study, and heard what he thought were footfalls in the attic above. He'd just left both Tillet and Queenie downstairs, and of course being only a little boy-he's nine, and young for his age I think-he immediately thought it was a ghost. He tiptoed up the attic stairs and found the door locked, which it wasn't usually up until that time. But from that day the entire attic floor has been kept locked, with only Queenie keeping the key."

"At least your blameless imbecile Pamela was permitted to go about Mr. B's house." Despite his jocular tone, in the firelight John's eyes were grave. He set the empty soup bowl on the hearth beside him, stared for a time into the low-burning flame. "Madness of a different sort," he murmured after a time. "And one more difficult to prove, than the kind that carves people up with knives."

"As you say." Abigail thrust the poker beneath the logs, sending up a shower of sparks. She would have returned to the settle where she had been, but John put an arm around her waist, drew her to his knee. "Someone-probably this second lover of Mrs. Pentyre's, but just possibly Richard Pentyre himself-forced the alley window of Rebecca's house just after the rain began-possibly while Rebecca herself was at the front door asking Queenie just what she was doing lingering by the yard gate. The intruder knew the code and knew that Mrs. Pentyre would be at the house at midnight. When Rebecca came back into the house he struck her over the head, bound her, put her in her bedroom-the best evidence we have, I think, that he had heard about the two murders in '72, but was not the killer."

"Were the shutters barred or unbarred?"

"Unbarred, I think they must have been at that point. If Rebecca had sewing to do, or correcting proofs of the Hand of the Lord's wretched sermons, she would still have been awake when the rain began. He tied the bedroom door shut, then waited downstairs for Mrs. Pentyre to arrive. Rebecca came to her senses, managed to get the scissors from her sewing basket, cut her bonds if she was tied, and got the door open sufficiently to allow her to saw through the rope that held it shut. The murder must have been taking place in the kitchen when Rebecca slipped downstairs. She fled to the Tillet house, quite possibly only semiconscious from her head wound. Queenie let her in, and Rebecca may very well have muttered something about 'Don't tell anyone,' because she remembered that she hadn't concealed her book of contacts. Queenie got her up to the south attic where she lost consciousness."

"And this wretch of a cook wouldn't have spoken even to you, whom she knows to be Rebecca's closest friend, when she saw you at Rebecca's door next morning?"

"At all events she didn't didn't," said Abigail. "If Rebecca were groggy she may very well have begged Queenie to tell no one, and Queenie took her at her word. Then, too, Queenie may have made up her mind to have a look through the place herself before telling anyone anything."

"Was there any evidence she'd done so before you, Sam, and Sam's jolly henchmen returned to completely obfuscate any sign of who the killer might have been?"

"I saw none, but then, I was so shaken by what I'd seen that I may well have missed something. Then, too, the family was due back that day. If I know Queenie, the Tillet house hadn't been properly cleaned since they'd left for Medford, and it was market day into the bargain. She could well have gone to the market while we four were at the house, and returned just in time to have Sam and the others 'call on Rebecca' so that they all went in and 'discov ered' the corpse in the bed where Sam had left it."

"And still didn't tell Sam or the Watch."

"That all depends on what Rebecca said to her," said Abigail. "And what she thought she could make out of the matter. The fact remains that when the Tillets returned to find the Watch and the Provost Marshal's men going over Rebecca's house and questioning the servants, Queenie did did confide in her mistress, who sent Mr. Tillet upstairs at once to investigate. She herself-Mrs. Tillet, I mean-strode in and claimed to Coldstone that she had just arrived with the luggage, and Mr. Tillet would be along shortly." confide in her mistress, who sent Mr. Tillet upstairs at once to investigate. She herself-Mrs. Tillet, I mean-strode in and claimed to Coldstone that she had just arrived with the luggage, and Mr. Tillet would be along shortly."

"And Mr. Tillet-or more likely Mrs. Tillet-decided that as long as Rebecca Malvern had disappeared without a trace, now might be an excellent time to acquire a permanent sewing woman who had no family and very few friends to inquire as to her whereabouts?"

Something in his voice made Abigail ask flatly, "You think it's absurd, don't you?"

"Actually," said John, "I don't." He s.h.i.+fted her weight on his lap, dug in his pocket for pipe and tobacco. "Your father's parish at Weymouth is in a long-settled and peaceable town-"

"Hmph. You weren't there for the last uproar by those who don't approve of his views on Arminianism."

"Well, at least your neighbors are a fairly civilized crew. I've been trying cases for years in the backwoods circuit courts, in Ess.e.x and Worcester and on up into Maine. And you do find men-mostly in isolated settlements, isolated farms-who consider themselves perfectly justified in all kinds of outrageous behavior, that somehow always redounds to their material benefit: keeping sons and daughters as virtual indentured servants; robbing and killing Indians and kidnapping their children to raise in kennels like dogs . . . sometimes taking multiple wives, like your friend the Hand of the Lord, because G.o.d told them they might."

He leaned around Abigail to reach the tongs, brought up a coal from the fire to light his pipe. The sweet-cured scent of the tobacco mingled with the smell of the bread slowly baking in the oven. "G.o.d knows, with sufficient justification on their side, even men of accredited sanity, in Virginia, will have girls of twelve and fourteen whipped for stealing food from the kitchens, or locked up for weeks in conditions one wouldn't make a dog endure, only because those girls happen to be Negroes, and not one of their neighbors thinks twice of it. Rebecca Malvern had left her husband-branding herself a Daughter of Eve in no uncertain terms. She 'owed' Mrs. Tillet sewing work, she had been 'slack' and 'not doing her share,' in an effort that Mrs. Tillet obviously sees as necessary to the material welfare of her family. And, as you say, with the murder she would be presumed dead: She would be officially accounted for. Therefore, no one was likely to search the Tillet house. Is the boy sure?"

"I am sure." She told him of the attic window, unshuttered now after years closed, and of the dim shape she had seen behind it; of the basket of sewing, the jug of water, the bread on the plate, the extra chamber pot beside the door. "Hap says that he's seen his mistress carrying bread, water, and sewing up to the attic two or three times in the past week, and once he sneaked up the attic stair, and thought he heard a woman weeping." am sure." She told him of the attic window, unshuttered now after years closed, and of the dim shape she had seen behind it; of the basket of sewing, the jug of water, the bread on the plate, the extra chamber pot beside the door. "Hap says that he's seen his mistress carrying bread, water, and sewing up to the attic two or three times in the past week, and once he sneaked up the attic stair, and thought he heard a woman weeping."

"Hmn." John knocked the ember from his pipe. "Well, we shall both look nohow if we go bursting in there with full military escort only to find the room being readied to rent-not to mention what Sam will say." John knocked the ember from his pipe. "Well, we shall both look nohow if we go bursting in there with full military escort only to find the room being readied to rent-not to mention what Sam will say."

"You tell Sam," retorted Abigail, "to come and talk to me."

John took the precaution of being absent from home the following morning.

When Abigail went to the front door at the sound of a military knock-it was barely nine; s.h.i.+m Walton must have flown down to the harbor and taken one of the first boats across-the first person she saw past Lieutenant Coldstone's square crimson shoulder was Paul Revere, lounging in the opposite doorway wrapped in his sorry old gray greatcoat (with a red scarf, drat him!). The second person she saw-and third, fourth, fifth, and on through at least twenty-were various neighbors, patriots, idlers, smugglers, and countrymen who'd come to town on account of the tea, also loitering here and there along Queen Street.