The Secret (5 page)

Jonathan and Abigail were playing with Rachel in front of the hearth, rolling a ball along the floor to her, when Ezra appeared.

“Hello, Papa,” said Abigail brightly.

Ezra flashed her a smile. “Would you like to go for a walk with me? I need a bit of air.”

“Mama asked me to watch Rachel today,” Abigail told him.

“Jonathan can watch Rachel,” said Ezra. “Come along with me. I like your company.”

Abigail jumped up and went outside with her father. Feeling a little hurt, Jonathan watched them through the window.

He gasped when he saw her.

Hester.

Jonathan saw her run up to Abigail and Ezra. Curious, Jonathan picked up Rachel and hurried outside to see what would happen.

He could see the surprise on his father's face as Abigail introduced Hester to him.

“Where do you live, Hester?” Ezra asked.

“Nearby,” Hester replied shyly.

“And who are your parents?” Ezra demanded.

“Mama and Papa,” answered the blond little girl.

Ezra pointed in the direction of the farmhouses a few miles down the road. “So you live there?”

“She is a good girl, Papa,” Abigail interrupted, her eyes shining. She was clearly happy to have a playmate.

Hester turned her sparkling gray eyes on Ezra and asked, “Can Abigail come to my house?”

Abigail tugged at his sleeve. “Please, Papa,” she begged. “Please?”

Jonathan stepped forward. “Do not let her go, Papa,” he said.

Ezra turned sharply to his son. “Why not?”

Jonathan glanced uneasily at Hester and Abigail. “I cannot say, Papa. I just know you must not let her go.”

“Please let me go with Hester,” Abigail said. “It is so good to have a friend.” Tears were forming in her eyes.

Ezra gazed lovingly at his daughter. Jonathan knew his father could deny Abigail nothing. He knew what would happen next.

“All right, Abigail. You may go.”

“Papa,” urged Jonathan, “let me go with her.”

“No,” Ezra said firmly. “You will stay here. Someone must watch the baby.”

“But, Papa—”

“You heard me, Jonathan,” Ezra said, his temper rising. “You are too old to play with little girls. You will stay here.”

He turned to Abigail and added, “Run along, but be home for supper.”

“I will!” Abigail called back happily. She ran off with Hester, the blue ribbons on her cap flying behind her.

Jonathan stared after his sister, watching her until they disappeared over the hill.

“Jonathan, your mother is calling you,” said Ezra. “Do you not hear?”

“Yes, Papa,” said Jonathan. He carried Rachel inside to his mother.

The sun had gone down, and Abigail had not returned home.

“Supper is ready, Jonathan,” his mother said. “I will take Rachel now.”

She picked up the baby and put her into the wooden high chair. Jonathan took his place at the table, gazing at the darkening sky beyond the window.

Supper, and still Abby is not home, he thought anxiously.

His mother took a pot of chicken stew off the fire and called Ezra to the kitchen. Jonathan could see that his father was worried, too. Deep lines furrowed Ezra's brow, and his eyes were dark and troubled. But Jonathan did not dare say a word.

Jane Fier went to the door and called, “Abigail! Supper!”

There was no response.

“Where is that girl?” Jane wondered aloud.

“She went off to play with a friend,” Ezra said quietly. “I expect she will be back soon.”

“A friend?” said Jane. “What friend?”

“A little girl,” Ezra answered. He looked uncomfortable. “A sweet girl. She lives nearby.”

Jane glanced at Jonathan. He knew she wanted him to explain to her, but he said nothing. He knew his mother was frightened, too, but she tried to hide it. “The stew is getting cold,” she said stiffly. “We shall have to start without her.”

She dished out the chicken stew. The family began to eat. No one spoke.

Beyond the window the sky darkened. Still no sign of Abigail.

Jonathan glanced up, and his mother met his eyes. He turned to Ezra, who was carefully cutting the bits of chicken into smaller and smaller pieces, but not eating a single one.

Jane Fier suddenly stood up. “Ezra, I am worried,” she said. “What could be keeping her?”

Ezra stared out at the black sky. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and stood up.

“I am going to look for her,” he said.

“Let me go with you, Papa,” Jonathan asked.

“No!” Ezra snapped. “Stay with your mother and sister.”

He threw on his hat. Then he took the lamp from its hook by the fireplace, lit it with a twig, and walked out into the darkness.

I must go with him, Jonathan thought desperately. He does not know where to search. Only I do.

He decided to follow Ezra.

“I do not want to leave you alone, Mama,” he said. ‘But Papa needs my help.”

Jane nodded and said, “Go with him.”

Jonathan slipped outside, following a few paces behind the glow of his father's lantern. The evening iky was purple, growing darker every second. A crescent moon hovered over the horizon.

“Abigail!” Ezra called. “Abigail!” He began to walk town the road toward the other farmhouses, away Tom Wickham.

He is going the wrong way, Jonathan thought in frustration. But then he saw his father stop and stand still, as if he were listening to something. Jonathan istened, too.

There was a soft, sweet sound. Laughter. A little girl's laughter.

Where was it coming from?

Ezra turned in confused circles. The laughter teemed to float on the air from all directions at once.

The voice giggled again. Now it sounded as if it came from the village.

Ezra walked toward it, following the sound.

Jonathan trailed his father into the village. He had never seen it at night before. It felt emptier than ever. Ezra's lantern cast eerie shadows on the trees and houses. The shadows made the houses seem to move md breathe.

“Abigail!” Ezra called again, then stopped and istened.

The little laugh chimed on the wind.

“Is that you, Abigail?” Ezra called out. “Where are you?”

The laugh came again, a little louder, like the tinkling of sleigh bells.

That is not Abigail, Jonathan thought. His father seemed to realize it, too.

“Who are you?” Ezra cried. “Show yourself to me!”

The only response was another girlish giggle. Ezra moved toward it, with Jonathan right behind him.

Staying far enough behind not to be seen, Jonathan followed his father to the graveyard. Ezra stumbled among the crooked gravestones, the little laugh teasing him, taunting him, leading him farther into the maze of headstones.

The lantern flashed a ghoulish yellow light on the gray markers. “Abigail!” Ezra cried, his voice cracking now. “Please come out!”

Ezra stopped again to listen, but this time there was no laughter.

Jonathan crept up closer and stood right behind his father. Ezra did not notice.

Ezra was standing at the foot of a grave. He held the lantern out so it illuminated the name on the marker.

It read, “Hester Goode.”

Jonathan could hear Ezra gasp.

Goode?
Did the marker really say “Hester
Goode?”

Then a light breeze blew, and on the breeze came the sound of a voice.

Not laughter this time, but words. Words spoken in the same girlish voice that had led them to this spot.

“Can Abigail come to my house?”

Hester!

Hester's grave. Hester was not living, Jonathan realized to his horror.

Hester was dead.

But still she called.

“Can Abigail come to my house?”

Still she called. Called from the grave.

Abby's little playmate, giggling and calling from the grave.

“Can Abigail come to my house?”

Slowly Ezra moved the lantern to the right.

His hand trembled. He nearly dropped the lantern as it cast its light on another grave.

Freshly dug.

With a new headstone.

The light fell across the inscription on the gray stone.

It read:
“Abigail Fier.”

“No!” Ezra tossed back his head and howled.

The lantern slid from his hand and rolled into the dirt.

Ezra dropped to his knees, still howling. “Abigail! Abigail!” he cried over and over, clawing at the dirt, trying to dig her up.

Shuddering in terror, Jonathan bent over his father, reached for his father's heaving shoulders, tried to stop his father's mournful cries.

Ezra pushed him roughly away.

The breeze blew again, and with it came the laughter. And the taunting request:
“Can Abigail come to my house?”

Uttering animal cries, Ezra tore at the dirt with his fingers. Desperate, Jonathan began to dig, too. Ezra made no move to stop him now.

It was a shallow grave. Jonathan's fingers soon touched the smooth, polished wood of a coffin.

“No!” Ezra shrieked. “No! Please—No!” With a grunt he shoved Jonathan out of the way and tore open the lid of the coffin.

There lay little Abigail, her eyes closed, her lips white, her face a pale, bluish mask.

She was dead.

“Curse them! Curse them!” Ezra screamed. “The Goodes will pay! They will burn again!”

Then his expression changed. The hatred melted into grief and horror. He lowered his face to his hands, sobbing, “Abigail, Abigail.”

Jonathan choked back his own tears and helped his weeping father to his feet. Holding each other and sobbing, they stood motionless in the silent darkness.

Hester Goode's gleeful laughter surrounded them, ringing in their ears.

No matter how they tried, they couldn't stop her gleeful chant:

“Abigail came to my house! Abigail came to
my
house!”

PART TWO

Western Massachusetts
1743

“A
nd ever since that day, our family has been cursed. The Goodes will not let us live in peace. That is why we must find them and put an end to this horror, once and for all.”

Jonathan Fier stopped outside his sister Rachel's bedroom door to listen. Their father, Ezra, was putting Rachel to bed.

Every night Ezra told his daughter a bedtime story. But instead of reciting a fairy tale, Ezra told her the story of the family curse.

Some bedtime story, Jonathan thought sadly. I am suprised it does not give her nightmares.

“I do not want to go to sleep, Papa,” Rachel said. Please, let me stay up a little longer. It is still light ut.”

“No,” Ezra replied firmly. “Get into bed and stay here this time. I mean it.”

Jonathan smiled as he heard this. Rachel always hated to go to bed before everyone else.

“But Jonathan does not have to go to bed,” she whined.

“Jonathan is almost eighteen and you are a little nine-year-old girl,” said Ezra. “I do not want to hear any more about it. Shut your eyes. Good night.”

Jonathan hurried down the hall before Ezra came out of Rachel's room. He did not want his father to catch him eavesdropping.

It has been six years since we left Wickham, Jonathan thought. Six years since Abby died. And Papa is more obsessed with the Goodes than ever.

Jonathan ran his index finger along the freshly painted wall of their new house. The third house in six years, Jonathan thought bitterly.

Papa promised this would be the last move. We shall see. Every time we move he says he is positive he has found the Goodes—but still we have not found them yet.

Jonathan started down the stairs, his black shoes loud on the wooden steps. He wore white stockings with the buckled shoes and dark green knee breeches. His shirt was white cotton with a plain ruffle.

His mother no longer made his clothes—she had no need to. All the Fiers had their clothes made by a seamstress now.