Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost Page A

won’t matter that you’re the same. That’s what Papa says and that’s why we’re all here now. All that we’ve given up, we give in order to free ourselves of earthly ties, bindings to others”—and here her voice went tight—“others who’d keep us from our destiny.” Quickly she added, “You’d do well to begin believing it, too. You must prepare your heart for the end time that’s coming. What’s in your heart is what matters, Amelia. You don’t want to be corrupt in your heart— ”
    â€œOh, Vern, you’re scaring her to death,” Kate said. “And you sound just like Lavinia.”
    Angrily, Vern answered, “And should I lie, then?” She looked around to find her sister watching her with tilted head, like a cat, in the swivel mirror.
    Kate observed flatly, “The world hasn’t begun to end yet. Why hurry it up?”
    It was at that moment the clock on the dresser chimed. All three girls stared at it. Kate, who was closest, leaned forward and said, “Why, it’s keeping time.”
    â€œThat’s impossible,” Vern replied.
    â€œMaybe so. But it’s doing it all the same.”
    And it was.

Three
    Dear Mr. Charter,
    My apologies for not meeting you upon your arrival. Alas, duty to our community will keep me from you for some few days. Please do not enter Harbinger on your own but wait for my appearance, when I shall meet your family properly and accompany you across the gorge.
    You are our gatekeeper, Mr. Charter. Many who are sick or ill-formed will arrive, craving entry, and these people should gain entrance, provided their need and belief are real, of which you act as sole judge, sir. There are others who, knowing me by reputation only, will petition for entry into our Utopia. Some, gathered from our campaigns, will be deserving of it. As the Day draws nigh, their numbers will increase, but also shall those whose hearts are not ours, who come finally out of fear rather than reverence, and you must decide their worth. You must separate wheat from chaff. It’s a great burden I place upon you, our Minos, but one I know you to be capable of bearing. My agents tell me this.
    We will have no circuit riders, nor peddlers or drummers.
    The price to cross the gorge is one half dollar. I feel it is a small price to pay for the promise of salvation in the Next Life. Why, it’s no more than the price of a pair of woolen stockings.
    We shall meet by and by to discuss all matters and details.
    My future happiness rests with you.
    Elias Fitcher
    â€œWhat an odd thing to say,” Kate commented when her father had finished reading the letter to them.
    He folded it up neatly. “He will be coming here,” he said. “We must make our house presentable.” As if they might not unpack otherwise.
    By the time the last of their belongings had been delivered and Mr. Charter arrived from the dock, dusk had fallen and they’d been too exhausted to do more than make up beds and retire for the night.
    During that previous afternoon Lavinia had assigned the rooms, choosing the slightly larger one for herself and Mr. Charter, directed the stevedores to carry her bed frame up to that room and assemble it, and made the girls drag the two old beds already there into the other second-floor room for themselves. In the assigning of rooms and shuffling of furniture, they had forgotten all about the letter by the hearth. Amy, preparing to make some biscuits for breakfast, had discovered it again.
    The foyer and dining room were now filled with crates of silver and chinaware, chairs and rolled-up carpets, lamps, brass fenders for two fireplaces, Mr. Charter’s double-door oak cabinet-on-stand, his Federal-style worktable, drop-leaf dining table, corner cabinet, and their three bureaus. The girls had had to pile items up or move them aside to clear a path from stairs to kitchen.
    Mr. Charter,