Introduction

By 1849, Jessamine Brady has been in the Shaker Village for half her life, but in spite of how she loves her sisters there, she struggles to conform to the strict rules. Instead she entertains dreams of the world outside. When Tristan Cooper seems to step out of those dreams to entice her into the forbidden realm beyond the Shaker Village, her life turns upside down. Will Jessamine be able to survive the storms of the world? Or will she retreat back to the peace of Harmony Hill?

The thousands of loyal fans of Gabhart's Shaker novels will love this entrancing story of learning to trust the gifts God gives us and let him guide us through life.

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Excerpt

“Sister Jessamine, where on earth are you taking us?” Sister
Annie asked as she held on to her cap while ducking under
a low-hanging branch.

Jessamine didn’t slow her walk as she glanced back at
Sister Annie. She liked Sister Annie. She really did. But oh,
to be alone in the woods and not always encumbered with
a sister to slow her down. She wanted to run free. To swing
on a vine if she took the notion. To sit and lean back against
a tree trunk and dream up stories about the birds above her
head. None of that would be considered proper behavior
for a Shaker sister, and Sister Annie did so want to be a
proper Shaker. She’d be sure to confess anything she thought
improper to Sister Sophrena, no matter which of them committed
the supposed sin.

“The best berries are up ahead,” Jessamine said. “I can
smell them.”

“You’re not smelling raspberries. That isn’t possible,” Sister
Annie said even as she stopped and lifted her nose a bit
to sniff the air.

Jessamine bit the inside of her lip to hide her smile. “My
granny could smell squirrels in the trees.”

Sister Annie’s groan plainly carried up to Jessamine in spite
of the rustle of last fall’s leaves underfoot. “Is there anything
your granny could not do?”

“Stay alive.” Jessamine muttered the words under her
breath. She didn’t want Sister Annie to be reporting them.

After all, it had been almost ten years since her granny
failed to keep breathing and the old preacher carried Jessamine
to the Shaker village. Not bad years. She wouldn’t want
her Shaker family to think she was ungrateful for the food
and shelter they’d given her. Given her druthers, she would
have stayed in the cabin in the woods, but a child of ten is
rarely given her druthers. Or a girl of near twenty either for
that matter. Duties and responsibilities went along with that
food on the table and roof over her head.

There were no perfect places this side of heaven. That was
something her granny used to tell her, although in Jessamine’s
mind their cabin in the middle of the woods seemed perfect
enough. Of course her granny never said the first thing about
the Shakers. She might not have heard about how they aimed
to make a perfect place on earth to match the perfection of
heaven. A place with no sin of any kind. A place where all
lived as brothers and sisters. A place where a girl couldn’t run
off to the woods on her own to pick a handful of raspberries
and pop them every one in her mouth. At least not without
feeling a little guilty about how she might be depriving her
sisters and brothers back at the village of a tasty pie.

So far she hadn’t found that first handful of raspberries to
eat or to put in her pail. And she wasn’t being exactly truthful
saying she could smell raspberries. She only said that so
Sister Annie would keep walking deeper into the woods. The
girl’s flushed face gave every indication she was ready to turn
back. A frown was thundering across her forehead and her
mouth was screwed up into a knot not much bigger than an
acorn. Any minute now she was going to plant her feet on
the path and refuse to go a step farther. And they had to be
close to White Oak Springs. They had to be. All Jessamine
wanted was a glimpse of the place.

One of the new sisters had built such a word picture inside
Jessamine’s head of the hotel at White Oak Springs that Jessamine
thought it must be a palace set down in the middle
of a flower-filled oasis. This sister claimed that in the heat of
the day beautiful girls walked across grassy yards with fine
parasols to keep the sun off their faces while young men from
all around the country sought their favor.

The new sister, who was going on seventeen, sighed with
longing as she whispered these stories to Jessamine in the dead
of the night with no other ears listening. When Jessamine told
her it sounded like the fairy tales her granny used to tell her,
Sister Abigail insisted these fairy tales were true. Her stories
brought up such fanciful images to Jessamine that she had
been overcome with the desire to witness this sight herself.
To know if such a fairy-tale place could be true. Parasols
instead of caps. Hair curled and held up with jeweled combs
instead of stuck forever out of sight.

Jessamine touched her cap and had the errant thought to
yank it off and fling it up in a tree for a squirrel to line his
nest. But she did not. Instead she carefully tucked a loose
strand of her honey blonde hair out of sight. She didn’t really
want to be wayward. She merely wanted to see with her own
eyes what Sister Abigail had described. Surely there was no
sin in simply looking.

White Oak Springs was real. She knew that. The Shakers
sold their products to the people there. Springs of water were
reputed to bubble up out of the ground with a foul odor, but
those who came to the springs held to the notion that taking the
water cured a myriad of ailments and revived the health. Sister
Sophrena waved that off as ridiculous when Jessamine asked
her if such was actually possible. But Jessamine’s curiosity was
aroused. She had carried many buckets of water from a spring
to her granny’s cabin, but the water had been naught but water.
Cool and pleasant for a truth with a joyful song as it trickled
out of the rocks, but all it had ever seemed to cure was thirst.

Sister Abigail claimed the Springs were to the west or
maybe the south. Then she had pointed due north. The sister
completely lacked a sense of direction, but Jessamine
had teased a few bits of information from other sisters as
they fashioned hats and neckerchiefs that might be taken to
the Springs to sell. She was sure she and Sister Annie were
going in the right direction, but she had no clue as to how far
away it might be. Perhaps too far for Sister Annie’s patience.
Especially with no berries to show for their long walk.

“You’re going to get us so lost not even Elder Joseph will be
able to find us, Sister Jessamine.” Sister Annie stopped walking.

“We’re not lost, Sister Annie. I promise.” Jessamine looked
back at her. “I have a keen sense of direction and will have no
problem at all finding our way back to the village.”

“I guess you can smell your way.” Sister Annie jerked her
handkerchief out of her apron pocket to wipe the sweat from
her broad forehead. The poor girl’s hair was straggling down
out of her cap and her face was red, and not all from the
heat, as she glared at Jessamine. “I don’t know why Sister
Sophrena insisted I come with you. She knows I hate traipsing
after you in the woods.”

“She knows you’ll come back.” Jessamine reluctantly
turned to walk back to Annie.

“Yea, where else would we go? The village is our home,
and I think we should begin in that direction right away. It’s
obvious you have no more idea where a berry patch is than
I do.” Annie held up her empty pail. “We have yet to pick
the first berry. Sister Sophrena will not be pleased to see us
return with empty buckets after being gone so many hours.”

“A good patch is just up ahead.” Jessamine looked back at
the faint trace of a path she’d been following. Through the
trees she thought she could catch sight of more light. That
had to mean a road or some kind of clearing. Perhaps the
grounds of the Springs itself. She imagined the colors of the
parasols spinning overtop the pretty girls’ heads. Or perhaps
they would be bright white just like the caps she and Sister
Annie wore. “Only a little farther.”
Sister Annie grabbed Jessamine’s arm as she started to
turn away. “I’m not going another step away from the village.
Not one step.”

“Then perhaps you can rest here while I go find the berries.”
Jessamine flashed her best smile at Sister Annie, but it
did nothing to make the other girl’s frown fade or to get her
to loosen her grip on Jessamine’s sleeve.

“Nay, we are both turning back. We can find a different
path back through the woods and perhaps find a few cups
of berries to prove we were using our time wisely instead of
doing no more than ruining our dresses.”

Jessamine looked behind her. The light through the trees
seemed even brighter and more inviting. She could be that
close to seeing those parasols and ruffled dresses, to gazing
out on a real, live fairy tale. She wasn’t exactly yearning to
be part of it. She just wanted to see it. The thought of the
parasols pulled at her like an invisible thread.

The very word entranced her. Parasols. She thought of telling
Sister Annie that. Letting the word roll off her tongue and
then making up a story about a frog making his home under
a parasol caught by the wind and blown into the woods. A
beautiful princess would discover the parasol and find the
frog. One kiss and they’d live happily ever after. And the princess
would love parasols and the frog-turned-prince would
nearly croak every time he saw one.

“Whatever are you smiling about, Sister Jessamine? This
is no time for smiles and frivolity. We are lost in the woods.”

“Nay, Sister Annie. We’re not lost.” Jessamine swallowed
her smile.

“Well, perhaps not, but we aren’t where we should be. It
could be we have strayed off our Shaker property.”

“That could be,” Jessamine agreed. The Shakers owned
many acres, but they had been walking a good way. “Why
don’t we go on a little ways? I think there may be a road up
ahead where walking will be easier.”

“A road!” Sister Annie’s eyes flew open wide as she glanced
around. “You think we are that near those of the world? Oh,
my heavenly days, Sister Jessamine. What possessed you to
lead us into the world? What will we do if we meet some
worldly man intent on sin?”

“Men in the world can’t be that different from the brothers
we see each day.” Jessamine tried to make her words sound
sure. In fact she had no idea what men were like in the world.

Before coming to the Shakers, the only man she’d spoken one
word to was the old preacher who had shown up now and
again at her granny’s cabin toting provisions. Sugar, flour,
some pieces of cloth and thread, a tin of coffee beans.

“You live in a storybook land, my sister,” Sister Annie said.

“Men of the world have not the love our brethren back at
the village have. Or the peaceful hearts. They see something
they want. They take it. You have been long with the Believers
and so have an innocent mind, but I have only been here
in the peace of the village a short while. I know what those
of the world are like. I am not long from their sinful ways.”

“Surely not all men are thus,” Jessamine said.

“Not all, but who can know which sort of man we might
stumble upon here in this wild place with no recourse but
flight.” Sister Annie’s eyes narrowed on Jessamine. “You truly
have no idea of how a girl with your looks might tempt the
devil to rise in a man. Eyes the blue of cornflowers and strawcolored
hair. ”

Sister Annie’s words put warmth in Jessamine’s cheeks
that the walk had not. “It is not the beauty on the outside
that matters, but that on the inside.” Even her granny had
told her that before she came to live with the Shakers. Now
Sister Sophrena told her the same over and over.

“True enough,” Sister Annie agreed. “But the outside
beauty is what tempts men to sin often as not.”

“How do you know so much about men and what makes
them sin?”

“I am not the innocent you are, my sister. My father ran a
tavern before he passed last year and my mother and I came
to join the Believers. Trust me, I know.” Sister Annie’s mouth
tightened. “More than you might want to imagine.”

“But I just want a peek out at the world. Sister Abigail told
me about this place called White Oak Springs. Have you ever
seen a parasol, Sister Annie?”

“A parasol?” The other girl twisted her mouth to the side
as her frown was edged off her face by the beginnings of a
smile. She shook her head in disbelief. “You have led us on
this wild-goose chase for berries because you want to see a
parasol? Sister Sophrena will never believe this.”

Jessamine smiled a bit hesitantly. “They sound so pretty.
Parasols.” She let the word roll off her tongue. “Don’t you
think so?”

Sister Annie laughed out loud as she stepped closer to
Jessamine and put her arm around her waist. “Come, my
sister. I will draw a picture of one for you when we get back
to the village.”

“But we aren’t allowed to draw pictures unless a spirit
directs our hands.” Jessamine began walking back down the
path. She was so sure the Springs might be just on the other
side of those trees, and a picture of a parasol wouldn’t be
the same as seeing one twirling in the hands of a girl who
might be a princess.

“For information purposes, I’m sure Sister Sophrena will
allow it.”

Jessamine sighed and surrendered her feet to the will of
Sister Annie. Her guardian appointed by Sister Sophrena. She
peered back over her shoulders. “Is White Oak Springs close?”

“I couldn’t say, since I have almost no idea of where we are,
but I think it is much farther away. At least another hour’s
walk. And we are not going there no matter how many raspberries
you might smell.”

“But the raspberries would make a delicious pie.”

“Then smell some back this way. I will not be swayed.
We are not going one step farther away from the village and
certainly not one step nearer that den of iniquity.” Sister Annie’s
frown returned. “I have heard plenty of stories about
that place. Men and women of leisure with nothing to do
but court trouble. Worse even than a tavern where men are
often intent on wrongdoing. Such is not our way, Sister Jessamine.

The Shaker way is to give our hands to work and
our hearts to God.”

At times, Jessamine was amazed at Sister Annie’s acceptance
of the Shaker way. She had a much tighter grip on how
to be a proper Shaker after only a few months at the village
than Jessamine did after years.

“Yea, it is true,” Jessamine agreed quietly. “It was foolish
of me to want to glimpse such a place of the world. I will
confess my wrong thinking to Sister Sophrena.”

“Trust me, Sister. The world is not a place for the likes
of an innocent lamb like you. We are safe with our sisters
and brethren.” Sister Annie grasped Jessamine’s hand with
affection. “Come, let us leave this place of possible dire consequence
and go home.”

Disappointment welled up inside Jessamine and a tear
slid out of the corner of her eye. Thankfully Sister Annie
had turned away and didn’t note her foolishness. But what
dire consequences could possibly come from seeing a parasol
bright against the sunshine?

A sudden boom made Jessamine jump. The color drained
from Sister Annie’s face as she spun around to clutch Jessamine’s
arm.

“Gunfire! Oh, dear Mother Ann in heaven, keep us safe,”
Sister Annie cried as something came crashing through the
trees.
... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. The Shakers celebrated gifts of all types. One of the most desired gifts among their community of believers was the gift to be simple. What do you think they meant by that?

2. Jessamine Brady loved her Shaker sisters and brothers, but she struggled with the Shaker rules. Why do you think that was so? Do you think she could have ever learned to control her curiosity about the world and become a proper Shaker sister?

3. Sister Sophrena often asked, “Whatever will we do with Sister Jessamine?” Why do you think Jessamine posed such a challenge for Sister Sophrena? Was it because she loved her too much?

4. Tristan Cooper agrees to court Laura Cleveland to please his mother and to shore up their dire financial situation. His mother says romantic love is not necessary for a happy and satisfying marriage. Do you agree? Do you think Tristan and Laura would have had any chance at happiness if they had ended up marrying?

5. Tristan pretended his loss of memory lasted longer than it did, and then he gave Brother Benjamin a fake name. Why do you think he did that? Do you think things might have turned out differently if Tristan hadn’t lied and had instead returned to White Oak Springs right away? Or do you believe he and Jessamine were fated to meet and would have met sooner or later either way?

6. Sister Sophrena had no regrets about joining with the Shakers. Yet she had sympathy for Jessamine and her struggles of wondering about the world. Why do you think that was?

7. Jessamine had long carried a romanticized idea in her mind of “the prince who loved her mother,” that is, her father. Do you think that made it harder to accept the man her father was when he came to get her, or do you think it made it easier?

8. Jessamine is such a complete innocent since she has had such limited exposure to the world. She is, at turns, fascinated and repelled by the actions of the people at White Oak Springs. Which things do you think she might have the most difficult time learning to accept in the world outside the Shaker village?

9. Sheldon Brady gave his infant daughter to his grandmother to raise. Do you think he was right to so completely desert Jessamine there and not plan to go back to see her until she was twelve? Do you think he was considering what was best for Jessamine or what was best for him? What do you think would have been best for Jessamine?


10. White Oak Springs, a spa for the well-to-do, and Harmony Hill, the Shaker village, existed in the same county. Both thrived with very different lifestyles for many years and then declined and disappeared from the scene. Why do you think that happened? What do you feel were the most dramatic differences between the two places?

11. Partly because of his experiences in the Mexican War, Tristan doubts the existence of God. Do you understand why he felt that way? Or do you feel being in a war might be an even greater reason to seek a closer relationship with God? What did make Tristan finally reach for belief?

12. Jessamine had a gift of words and a love of stories, but she seemed unable to channel those gifts into anything the Shakers could accept as good. They believed the beauty in anything, whether a chair, a rose, or words, was in its usefulness to the community of Believers and not in how it might be pleasing to the eye or mind. Do you believe Jessamine’s gift of words was from the Lord? Does he open up ways for us to use our diverse gifts for him?

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»	Author Ann Gabhart's web site
»	Publisher's Book Info

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