Introduction

“A definite can’t-put-it-down book.”--Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of The Choice

Charlotte Vance is a young woman who knows what she wants. But when the man she planned to marry joins the Shakers—a religious group that does not marry—she is left dumbfounded. With the country—and her own household—on the brink of civil war, this pampered gentlewoman hatches a plan to avoid her family and win back her man by joining the Shaker community at Harmony Hill. Little does she know that this decision will lead her down a road toward unforeseen peace—and a very unexpected love.

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Excerpt

“The Shakers! Have you taken leave of your senses, Edwin?

You can’t seriously be considering joining the Shakers?” The

words came out harsher than Charlotte Vance intended,

and Edwin Gilbey stepped back from her until the budding

branches of the lilac bush behind him had to be poking holes

in his dinner jacket.

“Please, Charlotte. Calm yourself. You know I can’t abide

a scene.” He sounded alarmed as he shifted his eyes away

from her face to look longingly over her shoulder toward

the veranda door.

Charlotte’s irritation grew as she stared at Edwin in the

light of the nearly full moon. He didn’t even like social gatherings.

Behind her the door opened, and laughter mixed with

the music of the string ensemble she’d hired from Lexington

flowed out into the garden. The party seemed to be proceeding

well in spite of the charged emotions in the air.

When her father first sent word from Frankfort that he

wanted her to arrange a grand gala for his return home to

Grayson Farm after completing his business in the capital

city, she’d doubted his sanity. Surely as a senator in the state

legislature he was more than aware the country was teetering

on the brink of destruction after Mr. Lincoln had taken the

oath of office and moved into the White House last month.

Half a dozen Southern states had already followed South

Carolina out of the Union. That’s all anybody was talking

about. Whether they could do that. Whether the government

should allow them to do that. Whether there would be armed

conflict to preserve the Union.

How in the world did her father expect them to have a

civil party with half the guests waving the Union flag and

the other half shouting states’ rights and favoring secession?

She’d sent a message back to him saying they might as well

lay the dueling pistols on the table in the front hall and let

the men take turns out on Grayson’s front lawn. But he had

made light of her worries and on return post had insisted he

had news to announce that required the finest party she’d

ever arranged. Astounding news.

Charlotte had surmised he was bringing word back to

Grayson that the Constitutional Union Party had pegged

him as their next candidate for governor. Certainly reason

enough to dare entertaining in spite of the political climate.

But no, that hadn’t been his news. Instead he had handed a

woman dressed to the nines in silk and jewels down out of

the carriage and introduced her as his wife.

Not wife-to-be. Wife. A woman from the North. Selena

Harley Black. A widow with a young son somewhere still in

the North, or so Betty Jamison had whispered in Charlotte’s

ear while her father escorted his bride from group to group

to introduce her. Of course, after the death of Charlotte’s

mother, Betty had entertained the improbable notion that

she might eventually catch Charlotte’s father’s eye.

When the veranda door closed again and muffled the sound

of the party, Charlotte was relieved. She couldn’t think about

her father and that woman right now. Not with Edwin talking

this ridiculous Shaker talk. One problem at a time. She

turned her attention back to the man pinned against her

mother’s favorite lilac bush. He shifted uneasily on his feet

and glanced over his shoulder as though considering an escape

under the lilac’s branches, even if it meant spoiling the

knees of his trousers.

“But Edwin,” she said as sweetly as she could under the

circumstances. “Unless I am greatly mistaken, the Shakers

have a ban on matrimony.”

Edwin straightened his shoulders and almost looked at her

face again before he let his eyes slide down to the ground at

their feet. “You are not mistaken. It is one of their strongest

tenets. The avoidance of such unions allows them to live in

peace and harmony. Hence the name of their village, Harmony

Hill.”

“I am well aware of the name of their village.” The irritation

in her voice sounded a bit strident even to Charlotte’s

ears. Not the way to win arguments. She attempted to pull

in a deep, steadying breath, but with the tight lacings of

her corset constricting her breathing, she simply ended up

light-headed. She fought the feeling. She refused to have

the vapors. She could control this. She could control Edwin.

Hadn’t she done so ever since they were toddlers playing

together in the nursery?

He threw up his hand to ward off her anger as he hurried

out his words. “Yes, yes, of course you are. At any rate, I have

become well acquainted with an Elder Logan in their village.

He has found great peace among the Believers there. A peace

I envy.” Edwin peeked up at her and went on in a tremulous

voice. “You know yourself how unsettled I’ve felt ever since

my dear grandmother departed this world last spring.”

“I do understand how difficult the loss has been for you. For

all of us. She was a fine lady.” It took effort, but she managed

to sound sympathetic as she spoke the oft-repeated words.

What she actually wanted to tell Edwin was that Faustine

Hastings had been well along in years and that no one could

live forever. Or grieve forever. Charlotte had resigned herself

to a year of mourning before their marriage, even though that

would make her nearly twenty when they spoke their vows

in May. A mere month from now.

Edwin knew they were to marry in May. He had agreed

to the date. Charlotte’s dressmaker was putting the finishing

touches on her wedding dress. The last time she had tried

it on, it had taken Mellie almost a half hour just to fasten its

many pearl buttons down the back and from the elbows on

the sleeves. Of course part of the reason for that was Mellie

had something unfavorable to say about Edwin with every

button she fastened.

Charlotte’s familiar words of sympathy seemed to allay

Edwin’s apprehension, and he eased a bit away from the bush

closer to her as he said, “Elder Logan thinks Grandmother

would have understood and approved of my search for peace

in my life.”

“Does he? And how can he know that? Did he get a vision

as he was doing his worship dances?”

Edwin frowned at her mocking tone. “You needn’t try to

disparage Elder Logan. He’s a fine man and their worship

dances are often very sedate and orderly. At least the ones I

have witnessed.”

“But isn’t it so that they spin and at times fall prostrate on

the floor in odd fits? That hardly sounds sedate to me.” Charlotte’s

head was spinning every bit as wildly as she’d heard

the Shakers did in their worship dances. How could both of

the men in her life lose their senses at the same time? First

her father and now Edwin.

She tried to block from her mind the vision of her father’s

beaming face as he presented that woman as the new mistress

of Grayson. He hadn’t even glanced toward Charlotte,

who had been running Grayson with Aunt Tish’s help even

before her mother’s untimely death four years ago. He had

without a doubt lost his mind. Proof was surely in how he

had sounded almost proud when he said he’d met the woman

only six weeks earlier. Charlotte would be surprised if he

had even checked into her family lineage. Or given the first

thought to why a woman her age would consider marrying

a man his. She had to be twenty years younger than him.

Perhaps thirty to his fifty.

Charlotte reached up to smooth out the furrows of a

frown forming between her eyes. A lady could not chance

developing grimace lines to mar her appearance. It was bad

enough that she had a too-generous sprinkling of freckles

across her nose which no amount of cream could fade. Her

mother had laid the fault of that on Charlotte’s red hair and

her Grandmother Vance back in Virginia, who neither she

nor her mother had ever laid eyes on. But her father said his

mother’s hair was the color of new bricks, and while Charlotte’s

was lighter than that, more like ginger spice, nobody

in the Grayson family line had ever been born with such a

flamboyant hair color.

“You have to be among them to truly understand,” Edwin

was saying. “When the spirit comes down on the Believers, it

takes control of their bodies and demonstrates its ecstasy in

myriad ways. Not always by shaking as is commonly believed

by those of the world.”

“Those of the world,” Charlotte echoed softly. This was

more serious than she had thought. He already sounded like

one of them.

Of course Charlotte knew Edwin had been visiting the

Shaker village. Aunt Tish had heard as much through the

servant grapevine that delivered news between their adjoining

plantations faster than a crow could fly between the two

great houses. But who would have ever thought Edwin would

seriously consider joining with them?

Even Mellie, who held Edwin in considerable disdain, had

never suggested that. Just last week while she’d been pinning

up Charlotte’s hair, Mellie had told her, “That Mr. Edwin, you

best stop countin’ on him comin’ courtin’ you any time soon,

Miss Lottie.”

“He doesn’t have to court me, Mellie. We’ve known we were

marrying ever since we were six,” Charlotte told her.

“You might be knowin’ it, Miss Lottie, but that Mr. Edwin

ain’t a knowin’ it. If ever I did see a man afraid of lovin’, it’s

him.” Mellie had twisted Charlotte’s hair in a tight roll and

jabbed a pin in it as she added, “And you ain’t no way lovin’

him neither.”

“What do you know about loving?” Charlotte spoke shortly

as she stared at Mellie’s face in the mirror.

“Enough to know it’s something a slave like me had best

avoid like the plague. ’Fore I find myself on the auction block

like my mammy and pappy with me goin’ one way and whoever

I was fool enough to fall in love with goin’ the other.”

Charlotte turned on the dressing stool to touch Mellie’s

arm. “You know I’d never let Father put you on the block.

Never. You and Aunt Tish are family.”

“I know you wouldn’t want to. And I know we as close to

sisters as a black slave girl and a rich white girl can be, seein’

as how we took turns suckling at my mammy’s breast, but

things change. That’s somethin’ we can count on, and if we

ain’t ready for it, we’re gonna get knocked down and trampled

into the dirt. Mammy warns me about that all the time, and

she knows about them kind of changes.”

Mellie mashed her lips together and shook her head a

little as she placed her long slender hand over Charlotte’s

and went on. “And I guess as how you know about them too,

what with your mama dyin’ how she did. Just steppin’ out in

her garden and fallin’ down there by her red rosebush. I can

still see her layin’ there with that rose in her hand like as how

she’d pricked her finger and fell asleep like some princess in

one of them fairy tales.”

Charlotte slowly shut her eyes and pulled in a breath. She

would never forget the sound of her mother’s gasp as she

collapsed on the garden path and how she had run to kneel

by her mother’s side, but it was already too late. Her mother

was gone. Charlotte blinked her eyes to keep back her tears

as she said, “Except she wasn’t asleep.”

“Except that,” Mellie agreed sadly as she squeezed Charlotte’s

hand, then pulled it away to start pinning up Charlotte’s hair

again. “Things changed then and things is sure to change

again.”

Charlotte had turned back to the mirror and said, “Some

things won’t.” She hadn’t looked at Mellie’s reflection in the

mirror but instead had stared into her own eyes as if making

the promise to herself. She would see that no changes upset

their lives at Grayson.

Now she studied Edwin’s face as he went on and on about

what this man, Elder Logan, had told him. How a person

needed to pick up the cross of purity and bear it no matter

how heavy it might be in order to find that peace he needed.

How at the Shaker village, men and women lived as sisters

and brothers without the thorn of marital relationships to

disturb their peace. How they owned everything in common,

and how, when he joined with them, he would turn his land,

Hastings Farm, over to the Ministry there at Harmony Hill.

With each word his voice got stronger and bolder until he

didn’t even sound like the Edwin she knew. The Edwin who

had always done whatever she said.

“But, Edwin,” she interrupted him. “We are to wed next

month.”

He did have the grace to look uncomfortable, but he didn’t

back away from her. “That was more your decision than mine,

Charlotte. While I regret disappointing you, Elder Logan assures

me a man should not allow himself to be pulled into an

unwanted and sinful union simply to avoid a bit of embarrassment.

Not when his eternal salvation is at stake.”

“Marriage is not sinful,” Charlotte said. “I fear you have

been listening to bad advice from those who simply want to

gather your land in with theirs.”

Edwin stiffened at her words, and in the moonlight, the

lines of his face looked chiseled out of stone as he stared down

at her. The man in front of her little resembled the Edwin

she had grown up with. That Edwin had hidden behind his

grandmother’s skirts until he was well out of knickers. That

Edwin had been afraid of his shadow when she pulled him out

into the garden to play hide-and-seek. That Edwin listened

without argument to her plans for their lives.

When he finally spoke, his voice was harsh. “And why have

you always said we must wed, Charlotte? Isn’t it to join our

properties? Hasn’t that always been your primary purpose?

To do your father’s bidding and make his holdings the largest

in Mercer County.”

“Not his holdings, Edwin. Ours. Grayson and Hastings

farms together.” She pushed the words at him. “We’ve talked

of nothing else for years.”

“You’ve talked of nothing else. Perhaps it is time you listened

for a change,” he said shortly.

Then without waiting for her to say more, he stepped off

the path to go around her as if even the touch of the ruffles

on her hooped skirt must be avoided. She stared after him,

astounded by his rudeness. And by the determined set of his

shoulders. That old Shaker elder with his insidious words of

peace was the cause of this, but she wouldn’t let it be the end.

Edwin would marry her. Of course he would. He’d come to his

senses and crawl back to her, begging to carry out the plans

they had made. She’d find a way to see that he did.

When he opened the veranda door, the noise of the party

drifted out. He stepped inside and snapped the door closed

behind him, clipping off the sound, but through the glass

door and window she could see the guests milling about. Her

guests. She was neglecting her hostess duties. Edwin could

wait. She touched the pile of hair elaborately styled on top

of her head to be sure no strand had escaped its pins and

started back toward the house.

A man’s deep voice stopped her before she had gone a

dozen steps. “He must be an extremely foolish man to turn

his back and run from such beauty.” view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1. At the beginning of the story, Charlotte Vance has her life all planned out. Do you think her life was better or worse because her plans didn’t work out? Have you ever made life plans that fell apart and later realized that better things happened?

2. Adam Wade shuns attachments because he doesn’t want anything to get in the way of his art. Do you think falling in love would cause him to lose his creative fire? Do creative people have to live different lives from most other people in order to practice their art?

3. Adam hates doing formal portraits and yet he agrees to paint Selena Vance because his sister asks him to. Why didn’t he just tell his sister no? Do you have difficulty saying no to family and friends?

4. At the start of the conflict between the North and the South, Kentucky is determined to maintain a neutral policy. Why do you think this turned out to be such an impossible stance for the state to take? Do you think many of the families in the state mirrored the same confusion as their government when the armies began recruiting men?

5. When Adam meets Redmon, the slave tells him “Ever’ man is a prayin’ man if times is bad enough.” Do you think this is true? Did it turn out to be true for Adam?

6. Charlotte feels a strong attachment to her Grayson family land. At one time, nothing seemed as important as holding onto her heritage. What changed that for Charlotte?

7. When Charlotte and Mellie rode into the Shaker village, Mellie said she felt like Jonah getting swallowed by the whale. Was that an apt description of what was about to happen to them, how their life was going to change?

8. One of the Shaker sayings is “Hands to work and hearts to God.” The Shakers believed all who lived among them should work if able and do their share of the labor. Why did they think this might be difficult for Charlotte? Why do you think Charlotte found she liked working with her hands?

9. The Shakers wanted no part of war, yet the war came to their doorstep anyway. They fed hundreds of Confederate and Union soldiers. Do you think this generosity of spirit was the reason the armies—for the most part—refrained from confiscating the Shakers’ horses and wagons and destroying their crops and fences?

10. Sister Martha tells Charlotte that the foundations of happiness must reside in one’s soul. Do you believe this Shaker saying is true? Do you think Charlotte ever found that sort of happiness?

11. Adam is profoundly affected by what he sees on the battlefields. His brother once told Adam he was an observer, someone who stayed on the sidelines and didn’t get involved. And yet Adam went down into the field of battle to save the foolish young reporter. Why do you think he risked his life to save a man he barely knew?

12. Even though Charlotte never felt drawn toward the Shaker way, she was changed by her time among the Shakers. What things did she learn from the Shakers that made her life better and richer?

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»	Author Ann H. Gabhart's web site

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