Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Volume V (14 page)

“Miss Purity, why after all these years of living in humility are you suddenly so careless about showing your knack?”

“I told you, I wasn’t, or I’m not usually, and it’s not a knack anyway, it’s a talent, I’m simply observant, I—”

“Today,” said Cooper. “This hour. Do you think I’m a fool? I grew up in one of the most witch-ridden parts of England. Not because more people had knacks but because more people were watching for them. You don’t last an hour if you’re careless. It’s a good thing you ran into us and not someone you knew. This place is thick with ministers, and you were going to show your knack no matter whom you met.”

Purity was confused. Was he right? Was that why she had fled the college, because she knew that her knack could no longer be hidden?

But why couldn’t it be hidden now? What was driving her to reveal it?

“I believe you may be right,” she said. “I thank you for waking me up to what I was doing. You have nothing to fear now. I’m going to be careful now.”

“Good enough for me,” said Smith.

“No, it isn’t,” said Cooper. “Al, I yield to you on
most things, but not on something that’s going to get us caught up in some witch trial.”

Smith laughed. “I’ve done my time setting around waiting for lawyers. There ain’t no jail can hold me or any of my friends.”

“Yes, there is,” said Cooper. “It’s six feet long, and they nail it shut and bury it.”

They all looked thoughtful. Except Arthur Stuart. “So what are you going to do to her?” he demanded. “She ain’t done nothing wrong.”

“She
hain’t
done nothing,” said Mike Fink.

Arthur looked at the river rat like he was crazy. “How can
you
correct me? You’re even wronger than I was!”

“You left out the
h
in
haint
.”

“I won’t be accused myself, and I won’t accuse you,” said Purity.

“I think you will,” said Cooper. “I think you want to die.”

“Don’t be absurd!” she cried.

“More specifically, I think you want to be hanged as a witch.”

For a moment she remained poised, meaning to treat this idea with the scorn it deserved. Then the image of her parents on a gallows came to her mind. Or rather, she admitted that it was already in her mind, that it was an image that had dwelt with her ever since she made the connections and realized how they had died. She burst into tears.

“You got no right to make her cry!” shouted Arthur Stuart.

“Hush up, Arthur,” said Smith. “Verily’s right.”

“How do you know this?” said Audubon.

“Look at her.”

She was sobbing so hard now that she could hardly stand. She felt long, strong arms around her, and at first she tried to flinch away, thinking it was Mike Fink seizing her from behind; but her movement took her closer to the man who was reaching for her, and she found
herself pressed against the fine suit of the barrister, his arms holding her tightly.

“It’s all right,” said Cooper.

“They hanged my mother and father,” she said. Or tried to say—her voice could hardly be understood.

“And you just found out,” said Cooper. “Who told you?”

She shook her head, unable to explain.

“Figured it out for yourself?” said Cooper.

She nodded.

“And you belong with them. Not with the people who killed them and put you out to an orphanage.”

“They had no right!” she cried. “This is a land of murderers!”

“Hush,” said Cooper. “That’s how it feels, but you know it isn’t true. Oh, there are murderers among them, but that’s true everywhere. People who are glad to denounce a neighbor for witchcraft—to settle a quarrel, to get a piece of land, to show everyone how righteous and perceptive they are. But most folks are content to live humbly and let others do the same.”

“You don’t know!” she said. “Pious killers, all of them!”

“Pious,” said Cooper, “but not killers. Think about it, just
think
. Every living soul has some kind of knack. But how many get hanged for witchcraft? Some years maybe five or six. Most years none at all. The people don’t want to surround themselves with death. It’s life that they want, like all good people everywhere.”

“Good people wouldn’t take me away from my parents!” Purity cried.

“They thought they were doing good,” said Verily. “They thought they were saving you from hell.”

She tried to pull away from him. He wouldn’t let her.

“Let me go.”

“Not yet,” he said. “Besides, you have nowhere to go.”

“Let her go if she wants,” said Arthur Stuart. “We
can get away from here. Alvin can start up the greensong and we’ll run like the wind and be out of New England before she tells anybody anything.”

“That ain’t the problem,” said Smith. “It’s her. Very’s worried about keeping her from getting herself killed.”

“He doesn’t need to worry,” Purity said. This time when she pulled away, Cooper let her. “I’ll be fine. I just needed to tell somebody. Now I have.”

“No,” said Cooper. “It’s gone. You’re not afraid of death anymore, you welcome it, because you think that’s the only way you can get home to your family.”

“How do you know what I think?” she said. “Is that your knack? I hope not, because you’re wrong.”

“I didn’t say you were
thinking
those things. And no, that’s not my knack at all. But I’m a barrister. I’ve seen people at the most trying moments of their lives. I’ve seen them when they’ve decided to give up and let the world have its way. I recognize that decision when I see it. You’ve decided.”

“What if I have?” she asked defiantly. “And anyway I haven’t, so it doesn’t matter.”

Cooper ignored her. “If we leave her here, she’ll die, sooner or later. She’ll do it just to prove she’s part of her family.”

“No I won’t,” said Purity. “I don’t even
know
for sure that that’s what happened to them. I think the evidence points that way, but it’s a slender arrow indeed.”

“But you want it to be true,” said Cooper.

“That’s silly! Why would I want that!”

Cooper said nothing.

“I don’t hate it here! People have been kind to me. Reverend Study arranged to let me use the Harvard library. I get to listen to the lectures. Not that it will ever amount to anything.”

Cooper smiled ever-so-slightly.

“Well, what
can
it amount to?” Purity demanded. “I’m a woman. Either I’ll marry or I won’t. If I marry,
I’ll be raising children. Maybe I’ll teach them to read before they get to school. But I won’t be the one who gets to teach them Latin and Greek. They’ll get their Caesar and their Tully and their Homer from someone else. And if I don’t marry, the best I can hope for is to be kept on as a matron in the orphanage. Children are the only people who’ll ever hear my voice.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with children,” said Arthur Stuart.

“That’s not what she means anyway,” said Cooper.

“Don’t you dare interpret me anymore!” Purity cried. “You think you know me better than you know yourself!”

“Yes, I think I do,” said Cooper. “I’ve been down the same road.”

“Oh, were you an orphan? As a barrister, did they make you work with children all the time? Did they make you sit outside the courtroom to plead your case?”

“All these sacrifices,” said Cooper, “you’d make them gladly, if you believed in the cause.”

“Are you accusing me of being an unbeliever?”

“Yes,” said Cooper.

“I’m a Christian!” she said. “You’re the heretics! You’re the witches!”

“Keep your voice down,” said Fink menacingly.

“I’m not a witch!” said Audubon fervently.

“You see?” said Cooper. “Now you
are
accusing us.”

“I’m not!” she said. “There’s no one here but you.”

“You’re a woman whose world has just turned upside down. You’re the daughter of witches. You’re angry that they were killed. You’re angry at yourself for being alive, for being part of the very society that killed them. And you’re angry at that society for not being worthy of the sacrifice.”

“I’m not judging others,” she said.

“They were supposed to build Zion here,” said Cooper. “The city of God. The place where Christ at his
coming could find the righteous gathered together, waiting for him.”

“Yes,” whispered Purity.

“They even named you Purity. And yet you see that nothing is pure. The people are trying to be good, but it isn’t good enough. When Christ comes, all he’ll find here is a group of people who have done no more than to find another way to be stubble that he will have to burn.”

“No, the virtue is real, the people are good,” said Purity. “Reverend Study—”

“Virtue is real outside New England, too,” said Verily Cooper.

“Is it?” she asked. “Most people here live the commandments. Adultery is as rare as fish with feet. Murder never happens. Drunkenness can never be seen anywhere except at the docks, where sailors from other lands are permitted—and why should I defend New England to you?”

“You don’t have to,” said Cooper. “I grew up with the dream of New England all around me. In every pulpit, in every home. When someone behaved badly, when someone in authority made a mistake, we’d say, ‘What do you expect? This isn’t New England.’ When somebody was exceptionally kind or self-sacrificing, or humble and sweet, we’d say, ‘He belongs in New England,’ or ‘He’s already got his passage to Boston.’”

Purity looked at him in surprise. “Well, we’re not
that
good here.”

“I know,” said Cooper. “For one thing, you still hang witches and put their babies in orphanages.”

“I’m not going to cry again, if that’s what you’re hoping for,” said Purity.

“I’m hoping for something else,” said Cooper. “Come with us.”

“Verily!” said Smith. “For pete’s sake, if we wanted a woman with us we’d be traveling with Margaret! You think this girl’s ready to sleep rough?”

“Ain’t decent anyway,” said Mike Fink. “She’s a lady.”

“You needn’t worry about my going with you,” said Purity. “What kind of madman are you? Perhaps I
am
angry and disillusioned about the dream of purity here in New England. Why would I be any happier with you, who aren’t even as pure as we are here?”

“Because we have the one thing you’re hungry for.”

“And what is that?”

“A reason to live.”

She laughed in his face. “The five of you! And all the rest of the world lacks it? Why don’t they all just give up and die?”

“Few give up living,” said Cooper. “Most give up looking for a reason. But some have to keep searching. They can’t bear to live without a purpose. Something larger than themselves, something so good that just being a part of it makes everything worthwhile. You’re a seeker, Miss Purity.”

“How do you know all these things about me?”

“Because I’m a seeker, too. Do you think I don’t know my own kind?”

She looked around at the others. “If I were this thing, a seeker, why would I want to be with other seekers? If you’re still seeking, it means you haven’t found anything, either.”

“But we have,” said Cooper.

Smith rolled his eyes. “Verily Cooper, you know I still don’t have a clue what we’re even looking for.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” said Cooper. “You’re not a seeker, Alvin. You already have your life handed to you, whether you want it or not. And Arthur here, he’s not a seeker, either. He’s already found what
he
wants.”

Arthur hung his head, embarrassed. “Don’t you go saying!”

“Just like Mike Fink. They’ve found
you
, Al. They’re going to follow you till they die.”

“Or till I do,” said Smith.

“Ain’t going to happen,” said Fink. “I’ll have to be dead first.”

“You see?” said Cooper. “And Jean-Jacques here, he’s no seeker. He knows the purpose of his life as well.”

Audubon grinned. “Birds, women, and wine.”

“Birds,” said Cooper.

“But you’re still seeking?” asked Smith.

“I’ve found you, too,” said Cooper. “But I haven’t found what
I’m
good for. I haven’t figured out what
my
life means.” He turned to Purity again. “That’s why I knew. Because I’ve stood where you’re standing. You’ve fooled them all, they think they know you but it just means you’ve kept your secret, only now you’re fed up with secrets and you have to get out, you have to find the people who know why you’re alive.”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“So come with us,” said Cooper.

“Dammit, Very,” said Smith, “how can we have a woman along?”

“Why not?” said Cooper. “Quite soon you’re going to rejoin your wife and start traveling with her. We can’t camp in the woods our whole lives. And Miss Purity can help us. Our painter friend may be happy with what he’s accomplished here, but we don’t know anything more than we did before we arrived. We see the villages, but we can hardly talk to anyone because we have so many secrets and they’re so reticent with strangers. Miss Purity can explain things to us. She can help you learn what you need to learn about building the City of—”