Excerpt: Discovering Eleanor

From Chapter 8:

"In the mean time, tell me your story." Jonas looked expectantly at the couple. By all appearances, they had been together for quite some time, and Johnny debated about whether or not he should tell the Reverend that they'd only recently found each other in that sense. It still seemed unbelieveable- both that Eleanor would like him, and that she would still like him after he treated her so poorly.

In the end, he decided it was best to just get the truth out, and not merely because Jonas was a personal servant to God. He also wanted to hear it spoken, to hear their story laid out bare in front of them. It was Eleanor, however, who spoke.

"We met through a mutual friend," she said quietly. "We were friends for quite some time, though I think we had other feelings for each other even then." She looked up at Johnny sheepishly, who smiled warmly.

"Ah," said Jonas, "and when one confessed love to the other, he (for I presume it was John, begging your pardon) refused to believe it out of shame or self-pity; there was an argument, and you've only just met again, miraculously falling into each other's arms and putting all former scruples in the past. Do I have it more or less correct?"

Johnny stared with his jaw open, but Eleanor, unaffected, nodded. "Yes, Reverend," she said.

"And- out of mild curiousity- is the 'friend' okay with this?"

"I assume he would be," she said perfectly, but Johnny knew better. He wondered if Eleanor also knew but wouldn't say to a stranger, or if she was so clueless to Nate's renewed feleings. "He and I have no relations of that sort," she said shortly.

"Wonderful! Then we shan't expect another visitor. Come along, you two. We'll have lunch and tea, and my lady, if it's not too painful in memory, you must tell me about this attack so that I can report it." Eleanor stiffened. "It's quite all right, I won't pry, I just want basic details about the attacker." She looked to Johnny for help, but as he felt it was also necessary to get such information, he didn't concede.

Already they had begun to form a mutual language based on a series of gestures and looks. Always when hanging out with Nate, Johnny was able to read Eleanor's eyes and interpret her smile. Now, sitting across from one another with Jonas to the side, they were struggling to communicate with one another about what was to be said next. It seemed strange to Johnny, who had courted a girl before but who had never had to decipher this sort of code.

Food was never scarce at the church, for while no one in it made his own money, Lord Swettenham was very gracious with his charity. He was especially so while his son visited, so there was plenty to go around. The church cook was a master, having studied at culinary schools in Italy during his studies in preparing for church life, and it would be impossible to say that his mother had nothing to do with it. He'd come from a very hungry family.

Jonas explained as much when the food arrived, so tender, juicy, and perfectly seasoned as to make the mouth water just to the smell. They prayed and Eleanor moaned, perhaps indecently, as she took the first bite.

"It's spectacular, is it not?" Jonas did the same, his pleasure more gutteral and less pleasant sounding. Johnny smiled at the reactions, and thought it a class issue and said nothing of it. When he ate, he made no noise; the fork did not even clink against the plate when he put it down.

Once the course was done, for there was only that and tea, Jonas turned on Eleanor. "Please, tell me what you will," he said bluntly. Eleanor rather liked that this man didn't feel the need to beat around the bush. He was clearly extremely intelligent and very observant, and she knew that he would detect a lie right away. She decided to tell the truth... to a point.

"Well, I was at a friend's- our mutual friend, actually-" she said, looking at Johnny, "and as I made my way down the path toward his stables, someone came at me from behind and made to bring me down to the ground." She shivered. "It was cold and windy, and a little wet, but not nearly as bad as the weather was when I arrived here last night. Snow drifted silently down without much care to what it landed upon, but I could barely feel it."

She paused and waited. Jonas looked at her curiously; he knew she was stalling, as the weather condition was more or less unimportant to her story. She was thinking, calculating, deciding what to say, and he knew it. Eleanor looked at him straight on nonetheless, daring him to challenge what she said.

Johnny cleared his throat just before she continued. "I tried calling out to Nate- that's our friend- but I was too far from the house and anyway I think the wind was too loud. So this person knocked me out for a few moments. I grew up with an older brother, you see, so an ordinary light knock on the head will make me dizzy, but it won't turn out my lights. My brother and I spent years building up this tolerance, though I suppose he was just having a bit of fun." She smiled, reminiscing. Neither Johnny nor Jonas pushed her on.

"Anyway, when I opened my eyes he'd only gotten me as far as the stable. I knew it was a man, you see, because the hands were large and the arms were strong, not slender like a woman's. Even if it were a woman who had been working fields her whole life, her frame would have been smaller. In any case, women don't normally have such deep grunts.

"I thought for sure that he was going to tie me to something in the stable and... take me, but he didn't. He instead strapped me to the side of my horse who by now was growing very noisy at the disturbance around her. I didn't really panic until he brought out the broadsword. It looked like the sort of thing you always see Scots carrying around.

"I- Well, my first thought was of the recent murders. I don't know any more true detail than the next person; I know that most of what we think we know is due to speculation turned rumor, but I'm sure of two things. First, he uses something dreadfully sharp to cut into the skin of his victims, and two, he's killed a friend of mine. It was completely possible that he knew exactly who I was." She stopped, hesitating.

Jonas looked at her encouragingly, while Johnny sat across from her with a red face. The Reverend held her hand in comfort, squeezing it at the more difficult descriptions. Johnny, who might have done the same with the other hand, instead gripped the table so firmly as if it were ready to fly off at any moment, and felt anger boiling under his skin.

"He... He hadn't stripped me of arms while I was out for those brief moments. I used my state to my advantage; surely he thought I was out cold, so he didn't grip me as hard as he might have. I slipped my hand from his and pulled my pocket knife, which I use for cutting fruits and chopping off stray hairs from my head. I'm afraid it's not very sharp; it might have been at one point, but my misuse of it has dulled it down.

"Reverend, you must forgive me," she said pleadingly, taking his hand suddenly. "I wasn't thinking, and I didn't know what else to do. I slashed wildly out at him before he could react to my having gotten free, and while one of my hands was still tied to my horse, the other did quite considerable damage to him. If you are out to identify this man, he will probably have a lot of cuts across his face, if I had my aim right. Is it still a sin to do such a thing, if I felt my life was in danger?"

"Child, calm yourself. You have not sinned. In fact, you may have done us all a great justice, if you've inflicted permanent damage. A man with cuts across his face is not hard to find, but there are those who recognize the cuts of any knife, dull or not, who might be able to identify yours. Is there anything else that you recall?"

"Well, I fled, of course. I didn't honestly think I would get far, but Nate doesn't live very far from Johnny, who of course lives quite close to the church. I wasn't sure where I was going, so disoriented as I was, but I knew Swettenham Hall was somewhere in the vicinity. I thought that if I'd gotten there I could plead for help, confessing that the murderer was on the grounds somewhere. Perhaps, then, he could be caught. But when I saw the church I came here first to pray for forgiveness and thank God for sparing me.

"When I came in, Johnny was praying, though I didn't recognize him at first. The rest you know, I think." She blushed. "I don't remember anything else about the man," she said quickly as Jonas began to form a question. "Just that he was very strong, though he didn't look it. I didn't quite get a good look of his face while I was slashing out with my pocket knife, and he didn't speak so I wouldn't recognize his voice. Have I done wrong? Oh, I should have stayed to see him." She again began to grope distressfully at the Reverend's offered hand.

He simply smiled the largest, warmest smile she'd ever seen, and stilled her. "You did not do anything wrong, Lady. Nothing that anyone else wouldn't have done- and, just think, you are the only survivor of this cruel, horrible man. Or, anyway," he added thoughtfully, "the only survivor that anyone knows about. We shall have to alert this Nate immediately, for he will be wanting to know that the murderer was on his property, and I will also notify the proper authority. In the mean time, you must both stay here under protection.

"Johnny, I trust that you will watch over the girl. This man might return looking for her. I will instruct everyone in the church to keep an eye out for someone with cuts on his face, or perhaps for anyone wearing a scarf or bandana."

Tea came as soon as he had stopped talking. He spoke with such urgency that Eleanor was sure he was going to go do all those things immediately, and lock her away in a far room next to Johnny's for protection. Instead, his face brightened as he said, "Ah, the tea is here!" and he settled into a much happier, calmer state. She liked the man more and more and began to see why Johnny preferred it in the church. If all his stories about his father were true, it was probably much more interesting to be in the company of this man.

Johnny regarded the Reverend thoughtfully. Though he knew Jonas was extremely observant, a few parts of Eleanor's tale had slipped past him. For example, why was Eleanor at Nate's house so late into the night, and why had she left in such a hurry even though the weather was getting bad? He could guess at that; they had probably rejoined under official friendship, and Nate might have made an advance that Eleanor didn't approve of. Of course Nate wouldn't have followed to see her to her horse; his pride would have been hurt, and he would have stayed by the fire licking his wounds.

He wondered if Jonas really didn't know the land as well as he let on. He claimed to have been a member of the church for so long that he knew all of Swettenham by smell, color, and taste. He'd told Johnny once that he could close his eyes and walk anywhere, yet when prompted he would be able to tell anyone exactly where he was.

Yet, according to Eleanor, she had come from Nate's house and seen the church before Swettenham Hall. Unless she wandered out for quite some time and made a very large circle through the fields, that was impossible. Swettenham Hall was directly in between the Butler house and St. Peter's, geographically. She would have had to walk for hours in one direction, and hours back, to avoid seeing Swettenham Hall at all. It was a hard building to miss.

She smiled at him apologetically, though not because she knew he'd caught her inconsistencies. He felt guilty nonetheless for even considering that she was a liar, and decided that she probably had passed right by Swettenham Hall and just didn't realize it. It was late into the night, snowy, stormy, and cold. She'd probably huddled against her horse the whole time without looking up for very long, and only stumbled upon the church because it was so well-lit at every hour of the day.

Still, he had to wonder. It was simply in his nature to do so. What was Eleanor keeping inside?