The Face of Heaven Read Online Free

runaway slaves were hiding out on his property. Her hands twisted about one another—it was her fault they were going to be castigated. The fact that her father had spent a full hour reprimanding her earlier in the afternoon did nothing to assuage her guilt over being the cause of her brother’s and Nathaniel’s trouble. The small comfort she clung to was that the leadership of the church couldn’t spend a long time raking the young men over the coals. The main point of the meeting was Charlie and Moses, and they would have to get to that sooner rather than later.
    A half hour went by as she waited and thought and prayed. Then the door opened silently and her mother appeared, a candle lighting up her face. She smiled at her daughter, crossed to the beds, examined the two men, nodded, then came and stood by Lyndel.
    “How long have they been asleep?” she asked in a whisper.
    “Perhaps as much as an hour,” Lyndel whispered back.
    “And you’ve just been sitting here alone in the dark?”
    “Not alone.”
    Her mother patted her shoulder. “There’s no need for you to hide away. Your father has forgiven you. And he understands your concern for the men here. No one wants to see them return to a life of slavery. The sheriff has not been made aware of their presence on our farm.”
    “He soon will be.”
    “Not tonight, at any rate. By the time the meeting is over it will be too late for that. It will have to wait for the morning.”
    Lyndel looked up at her. “What time in the morning?”
    “Not before lunch, my dear. So your father assured me.”
    Lyndel smiled and her eyebrows lifted. “Truly?”
    “Yes.” She placed a hand on her daughter’s kapp . “Now if you’re upset about getting your brother and Nathaniel in trouble I can tell you the tongue-lashing didn’t last nearly so long as your own. The discussion has already begun. I thought you might wish to listen in.”
    “May I?” Then Lyndel frowned. “But I will not be permitted to sit in the kitchen.”
    “Go to the second-floor landing. You can hear them from there. Just make sure they don’t notice you.”
    “What about the girls?”
    “Long in bed.”
    Lyndel got to her feet. “And where will you be?”
    Her mother promptly sat down in the empty chair. “Where you were. Thank you for keeping the seat warm.”
    “I don’t wish to take your candle.”
    “Don’t trouble yourself. You won’t be taking it. The light would be far too noticeable to anyone glancing up at the staircase. You have the blue eyes of a Siamese cat, don’t you? So your little sisters say. Make your way in the dark.”
    Lyndel bent down to kiss her mother on the cheek.
    “Cat or no cat,” her mother said, smiling, “mind you don’t go tumbling down the stairs.”
    Lyndel used the banister to navigate the staircase from the third floor to the second. At that point, the light from below was sufficient for her to see where she was going. The men’s voices were clear and she sat down on the landing where she couldn’t be seen.
    “There was slavery in our Lord’s day,” she heard one of the ministers argue. “He did nothing about it. Neither did Paul. We have verse after verse where Paul tells slaves to behave, to obey their masters, not to cause trouble, and by so doing set a good example as followers of Christ.”
    “True.” It was her father’s voice. “But Paul also said if a slave could obtain his freedom he should do so. Clearly he didn’t consider slavery to be an ideal state for a human being.”
    “Nevertheless, he didn’t tell Christians to go to war over it.”
    “Oh,” her father said sharply, “who is talking about going to war, Samuel? We’re discussing how we should help these two men.”
    So, Lyndel realized, the one arguing with her father was Samuel Eby. Samuel spoke up again. “You have fed them and bandaged their wounds. You have given them a room at the inn, so to speak. Fine. Now it’s time to drive into Elizabethtown and