Hearts to God (The Hearts to God Series)

  Hearts to God

  To S. P.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Hearts to God: The Hearts to God Series

  Copyright 2013 by Traci Tyne Hilton

  All rights reserved (1/14)

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  Chapter 1

  Madeline Snow hitched her crate of seed packets so that it rested on her hip. She headed down the board sidewalk of Main Street, Artemisia, Oregon, wondering exactly what a seed salesman says to a shopkeeper.

  The little town was just coming to life, but the summer sun had been up for hours, and the incense of sage and juniper, foreign to her Ohio-bred nose, was heady in the air. As was the dust. There had been no rain since Madeline’s arrival two days earlier, and the dust clung to her dove gray skirt and white shawl. It collected on her face and hands like a dry film and tickled her nose. The heavy box of seeds she toted down to the mercantile was her ticket out of this dry, brown town, and she couldn’t wait to cash it in.

  Madeline paused under a hanging sign that read, “Boarding House. Females only.” She sighed, longing to turn inside and claim a bed. Anything would be better than the hospitality her sister offered—hospitality with strings attached.

  The dust and the thought of her forced exile from home choked Madeline. She cleared her throat, determined that she would hold her emotions together long enough to do business at the merc. In Ohio, Shaker seeds meant quality produce and herbs. But could she convince the gold miners of the dry Oregon Outback that this was true?

  The door to the boarding house swung open and a short, wiry man with a dirty, grizzled beard stumbled out. He wore a crumpled felt hat and a half toothless leer.

  Madeline stepped out of his way, wondering what a man like that had been doing in a home for ladies. The boundaries between the sexes were much blurrier out in the world than they had been in her community. She stepped lively to keep out of the miner’s way, but he was quick as well.

  “Well, hello, lady.” He grabbed her elbow, a greasy leer plastered on his face.

  Madeline tried to jerk her arm from his grip, but the seed box was heavy and slowed her down.

  “You be wanting a bed inside, I think. Why don’t I take you in and git you acquainted?” He flipped the edge of her high collared, white linen shawl with his dirty thumb. “They could use a fresh face inside.”

  “Remove your hands, brother.” Madeline twisted at the hips to get his filthy claws off her person, but it didn’t work. He seemed like an octopus, able to wrap his arms around her no matter which way she turned.

  Madeline opened her mouth to call for help, when her sister’s biting words came to her mind. Sarah was wrong. Madeline was a strong, independent woman who could survive on her own. “Release me!” She was disgusted by the way her voice shook.

  The man yanked her to him and pressed his mouth against hers. He tasted like ashes and sour stomach. Madeline gagged. She threw her body to the side and shoved the hard corner of her wooden crate into the little man’s gut.

  “You nasty cat! Someone needs to tame you, I think.” He snorted a deep, phlegmy breath and lunged at her.

  “Keep your hands off my sister.” The voice came from directly behind her, deep and twangy, but it wasn’t her brother-in-law.

  The young stranger pulled Madeline away from the groper and punched the little man in the face with a crack.

  The miner fell to the ground.

  He rolled to his side, hand over his nose. “You’ll pay for that, you filthy, yellow quack!”

  Before Madeline could say thank you, the cowboy had her by the hand. He ran, dragging her and her crate of seeds, behind him.

  Madeline found herself running with the man, even after he dropped her hand. She followed him around the back of the short, wood-slat building and down a narrow staircase. At the door, the man turned, and smiled. His cheeks were red from running, and he had a twinkle in his eye.

  His broad-brimmed felt hat was tipped back on his head and a lock of glossy black hair peeked out from under it. He had big green eyes, full lips, and a smattering of freckles across his straight nose. But the eyes were almond-shaped, and there was no doubt that, despite his twangy cowboy talk and his freckles, he was a Chinaman, like the miner had intimated.

  Madeline stepped back.

  “Sorry for accosting you thataway, but Darnelle’s is no place for a gentle lady to loiter, as I think you noticed.”

  Madeline bit her lip. “Thank you for your help.”

  “I’m Doc Lee.” He thrust out his hand. “Zeke Greene told me to keep my eye out for a nice Shaker lady with a big wooden box. Said you might be sellin’ something I could use.”

  Madeline shifted her seeds on her hips. She had stocked her crate with paper packets filled with vegetable seeds this morning. Her herb seeds, dried herbs, and medicinal preparations were back at the farm. “You’re the Doctor?”

  “I’m the only doc in town that’s looking for herbals, that much I can assure you.” Doc Lee stepped into the shadowy basement room.

  “But—”

  “I look so young? I’ve heard that before. But doctoring isn’t about how long you’ve lived. It’s about how much you’ve learned.” His smile was cocky, and his posture as well, but his eyes looked guarded, as though he often had to justify his work.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t bring them to town today. But I can tomorrow, or maybe you could come by the farm and see what I’ve got.” Zeke had recommended her to the Chinese herbalist, so surely it would be fine to bring him to their home. In the Shaker village she had grown up in, she had worked side by side with the men, as an equal. She only hesitated because she had been taught to be wary of expecting the same life out in the world.

  Doc Lee shook his head. “I’ve got to stay low for a day or two. Give Smokey time to forget who hit him. It won’t do for someone like me to hit someone like him.”

  “Oh!” Madeline caught a loose strand of hair with fluttering, nervous fingers, and tucked it back under her plain, white bonnet. “I didn’t realize.” She paused. She was glued to his mesmerizing eyes that seemed to beg her to speak. “I’m so sorry to have put you in such a position.” Madeline pulled her eyes from the doctor’s handsome face, only to scan his lithe figure. He was young, but looked strong and capable.

  She hadn’t realized, or had forgotten or just hadn’t wanted to admit to herself, that the young doctor in front of her was less of a citizen than the filthy drunkard who had accosted her up above.

  “It’s nothing, sister.” Doc Lee gave her a wink. “But for now, I’d better git.” He tipped his hat and shut the door behind him.

  Madeline hesitated at the bottom of the staircase. She feared that, if she went up again, she’d have another run-in with Smokey, but she didn’t dare knock on the door and ask to go into the Chinese doctor’s Office.

  Madeline made her way around the block, behind the row of storefronts that Artemisians called Town. It was town enough for Madeline’s needs, though compared to Cleveland, where she’d boarded the train west, this little place looked like it would blow away in a stiff breeze.

  But the small towns and villages of the Midwest had always been good to the Shakers and their business endeavors, so she’d rather start here than head farther west to Portland, where fast city living could sorely test her determination to live a devout life.

  Madeline stamped the boardwalk in disgust. Little had she known, the hardest challenge to her chaste lif
e would come from her sister Sarah, who was determined to find her a spouse before the summer ended.

  The general store was a small wooden building lined with barrels and bins. A black stove sat in the center of the room, but the hot summer made lighting it unnecessary.

  “You must be Greene’s little seed lady.” The storekeeper was a strapping man with a thick beard. The sleeves of his unbleached cotton shirt were held up with garters. He offered her his thick, rough hand in a friendly gesture.

  Madeline accepted his hand. “Miss Snow.” She dropped his hand and put forward her crate. “I’ve brought some garden seeds with me.” The storekeeper seemed to be looking over her shoulder. Madeline winced, and the words stuck in her mouth. “Would you care to see what I have to offer?”

  The storekeeper pushed past her to the doorway. A small group of men had gathered, led by Smokey. Madeline stepped behind the stove, hoping to keep herself out of the man’s sight.

  “Thar’s the dirty dove!” Smokey sputtered. “She prefers chow mein to good English beef!” He flailed his arms and called Madeline names that made her ears burn. The men with him stood, shoulders together with their thumbs hooked into their suspenders, like a wall barring her from escape.

  A tall man with a red beard spit.

  Madeline looked behind her for an exit. She didn’t see one, so she prayed, hoping she would be allowed to pass the men without event—her hopes of setting up her seeds in the store today seemed far-fetched.

  The storekeeper put himself between the men and the doorway, and stared them down, his big, burly frame filling the space. “You all here to buy something? If not, you best be movin’ on. I’m doing business.”

  The posse of miners backed off. The red-bearded man grabbed Smokey’s wiry arm. “You didn’t tell us she was a lady.” He dragged Smokey off the sidewalk and hauled him down the street.

  The shopkeeper turned back to Madeline, his faced creased in an angry frown.

  Madeline set the crate of seeds on top of the stove and cleared her throat.

  The storekeeper looked her up and down. “You’ve made an impression in a short time.” His deep voice rumbled as he spoke, though his words were quiet. “I think you’d best be getting back down to the Greene farm for the day. We’ll talk about your seeds another time.” He crossed his arms and tipped his head toward the door. “Perhaps I’ll mosey down later and talk the matter over with Zeke.”

  Madeline lifted her crate. “I see.” She looked down at the wooden box, which had been fit together with the same simple care and eye for quality that had set apart all of the things the brothers and sisters put their hand to. She chewed on her bottom lip. The man had not introduced himself, though he had been friendly when she first stepped into his shop. Perhaps, as Doc Lee said, time would allow the earlier scene to slip from the town’s memory. Perhaps, like Doc, she’d tuck herself away until everyone had cooled off.

  “Thank you for your time.” Madeline looked up with a smile. She almost put her hand forward for another friendly shake, but the storekeeper’s arms remained crossed over his chest.

  Chapter 2

  Madeline made the half-mile trek back home, unhappy with the wasted morning. But she had been taught that work was worship, so as long as her hands were busy and her heart was on God, she could redeem the rest of the day. Without a word to her elder sister, whom she assumed was working inside the house somewhere, she went to the little shed Zeke and Sarah had set aside for her use.

  She had the inventory and the training to establish an independent living for herself, if she could only earn enough now for a healthy horse of her own and a nice little wagon. With those, she could travel from town to town with her products, as had been the practice back home.

  Madeline removed the lid from a crate of dried herbs. She lifted a small linen bag of Yarrow and weighed it in her hand. It felt heavy, for such a light flower. The Yarrow she had tended and gathered and dried could help many people, if only she could get it to them.

  She laid the bag down again and lifted one full of dried Lavender. She held the bag to her nose and inhaled deeply. If only she could make a sachet and hang it around that Smokey’s neck—it would surely calm him down. Madeline laid that bag on the table as well. The little herb house her sister had given her was just big enough for everything she had brought with her, a clear sign her sister didn’t want her to continue her calling here in Oregon.

  Madeline counted her jars. Nothing had broken in the shipping. If Doc Lee wanted strong, well-prepared medicines, she had them. Sister Constance and Brother William had taught her well, and everything she had prepared was potent and effective. She smiled at her little store. No, she wasn’t a city doctor, but where would a city doctor be without medicine he could count on?

  The door to the herb house creaked open and a little breeze cooled Madeline’s brow.

  “You’ve returned already?” Sarah Greene stood on the threshold. Her cornflower blue poplin dress looked cool with its round neckline and short, slightly puffed sleeves.

  Madeline pulled at the high-buttoned neck of her dress. Artemisia, Oregon, had been so far north, and so near the mountains, compared to her Ohio home, that she hadn’t been prepared for the dry, desert heat. “Mm hm.” Madeline flipped through her packets. She hadn’t seen any other paper packets of seeds in the general store, though in the Midwest many other seed producers had taken to packaging their seeds the Shaker way.

  “And so you’ve met Mr. Sutton?”

  “I don’t rightly know.” Madeline slid the crate lid shut. What she’d like to do, more than anything, was dig a bit of a cellar near her little herb house so she could keep her stock from getting too hot while she saved up her money.

  “You went to the store, did you not? And spoke to the storekeeper?”

  “That I did, but he didn’t introduce himself.”

  “Oh.” Sarah drew her eyebrows together in a look of disapproval.

  “I also met the doctor.” A slight flush came over Madeline’s cheeks.

  “Ah!” Sarah brightened. “He’s a fine man, don’t you think?”

  Madeline looked away to hide the smile that she couldn’t suppress. “If one were looking for a man, one could do worse.”

  Sarah tilted her head. A knowing smile, starting with her eyes, spread across her face. “If one were looking, indeed. I had hopes that all you would need was a little inspiration.” Sarah took her sister by the elbow and led her out of the shed. “And he a widower these five years or more. But you’d be a sweet helper to him in his evening years.”

  Madeline was torn between chagrin and disbelief. The youthful Doc Lee had been a widow for five years? He had to have been married as a child. Though perhaps there was truth in the idea that Chinamen looked much younger than white folk. But even if that were true, Doc Lee could hardly be said to be in his evening years.

  But she wasn’t looking for a man, no matter how pleased Sarah was.

  “I’d have thought you’d prefer a more strapping man like Mr. Sutton, but the doctor is prosperous and wise. I suppose all those years you spent in the…community…after Mother and Daddy passed have given you…different…hopes.”

  Different? She’d have different hopes indeed, if she were to fall in love with a Chinaman.

  Madeline kicked a rock, wishing she had a more satisfying outlet for her frustration. No matter how many times she explained herself, Sarah still wouldn’t accept that Madeline had no interest in marriage. God’s kingdom on Earth could be like heaven…at least a bit like it. Madeline knew from experience. Back home men and women worked and lived side by side as equals. Equals in the eyes of God and equals in the church.

  A bitter knot worked at Madeline’s stomach. All that goodness, all that sweet fellowship lost. She hated even thinking about the future ahead of her. Life alone or life as the drudge of some man who thought of her as a housekeeper and…brood mare. She drummed up a smile from some hidden reserve of acting ability and turned to her sister
. “Oh, I wouldn’t go that far, Sarah. Doc Lee was a nice man,” Her face flushed at the thought of running through the street, hand in hand with him. “But it would take more than a nice man to turn my heart from God.”

  They paused between the herb house and the farmhouse. The jagged gray mountains in the distance, with their white bonnets of snow, took Madeline’s breath away. What man could compare with the mighty Creator of the Earth? And why would she need someone other than God to fill her heart with love? The Shakers weren’t right about Mother Ann, but surely they were right about single-minded devotion to the Heavenly Father.

  Sarah’s face drained of color, her mouth hung open in a small circle of surprise. “Doc Lee? You can’t mean you met Doc Lee?” Sarah bit her words off like they tasted bad.

  “Of course I did.” Madeline brushed the dust from her white apron. “He said Zeke told him to look out for me.”

  “Oh no, Madeline dear. Put him far from your mind.” Sarah’s lips compressed in a thin, white line.

  “He’s not in my mind at all.” Madeline tilted her chin up.

  “As is right. It wouldn’t do at all, my dear. He’s…” Sarah’s mouth bobbed like a fish.

  “He’s partly Oriental?” Madeline sighed. Last she checked, that wasn’t an obscenity.

  “Yes. That’s it.” Sarah exhaled a deep breath. “He’s a nobody. A half-breed of no account. You stay far from him and anyone like him, do you understand?”

  Madeline chewed on her bottom lip. “How can a doctor be of no account?’”

  “This ‘Doctor’ as you call him is a quack, selling herbs and potions. No one knows where he came from or who his parents are. I can’t imagine what got into you. What would make you even greet a man like that when you passed him on the street?” Sarah shuddered.

  Madeline glanced back at her little shed. “He sounds a lot like me, I’d say.” Her heart thundered in her chest. This ‘nobody’ had saved her from humiliation or worse. He had risked his own well-being to see that she was safe. How could she feel anything but gratitude and admiration for him?