Christmas at Harmony Hill by Ann H. Gabhart

“Rest here while I fetch bathing water and clean garments for you. We have only dresses like these we wear.” Sophrena ran her hand across her skirt.
    “I will be grateful for whatever you can spare as long as the waist does not bind me,” Heather said.
    “Yea, I will choose a dress with that in mind.” Sophrena went to the door, but turned back to say, “Eldress Corinne will be sending Brother Kenton to check on you.” She looked all around the room without letting her eyes fall on Heather, as though perhaps just speaking of Heather’s condition made her uneasy. Then her voice softened. “Brother Kenton will treat you with great kindness.”
    Her cheeks looked flushed against the white cap she wore over her hair as she opened the door. Perhaps from the fire. Heather put her hand up to her own cheek. It no doubt was red from the warmth of the fire as well.
    Sophrena was all business when she returned with a bucket of water in one hand and a bundle of clothes in the other. She filled the kettle to swing over the fire. She made no attempt at conversation and neither did Heather. It seemed silence suited these Shaker people and her aunt was one of them. Besides, the silence was somehow comforting in this small cabin where it had been unnerving in the big house with the eldress eying her. Heather had felt something like a stray cat showing up on the Shaker woman’s doorstep. Kindness compelled her to feed the creature, but she had no intention of soiling her hands by offering it the comfort of a stroke down its fur.
    But Sophrena appeared eager to reach out to Heather. At the same time, she seemed unsure of exactly how best to help this stray who had shown up out of nowhere to upset her ordered life. Her touches were like that of a butterfly, fluttering and light. Heather thought of stepping closer to her aunt and embracing her, but she too was hesitant. While the woman was undeniably family, she was yet a stranger. It mattered not how much she resembled Heather’s mother. That didn’t bring Heather’s mother back to life. Heather would never feel her mother’s arms around her again while on this earth. She had only the memory of her love and the letter in her pocket to guide her.
    The woman helped undo Heather’s dress and then gathered it up after Heather stepped out of it. Again she seemed uneasy as her eyes dropped to Heather’s rounded form under her shift and quickly away before she said, “There are clean undergarments as well.”
    She started to turn away, but Heather reached out a hand to stop her. “The baby is kicking up quite a fuss. Would you like to feel?”
    Without waiting for an answer, she took Sophrena’s free hand and placed it on her shift where the baby pushed against her skin. Her aunt’s eyes widened, and Heather thought she might jerk her hand away when she released it. But she did not. Instead she closed her eyes and kept her hand solidly on Heather’s stomach, as though absorbing the feel of the baby. When she opened her eyes, tears slipped from their corners to slide unnoticed down her cheeks.
    She looked at Heather and asked, “How does it feel to carry a new life within you?” She dropped her hand back to her side and waited for Heather’s answer.
    “At times, uncomfortable.” Heather smiled as she put her hand where Sophrena’s had been and gently massaged the elbows or knees poking against her. “But uncomfortable or not, it is good. A natural thing. As God intended when love forms a child.”
    “We do not believe in such love here at Harmony Hill. Or at any of the Shaker villages. We live as brothers and sisters the way Mother Ann decreed was best.”
    “Why would she decide that?” Heather didn’t try to hide her puzzlement. “What kind of world would it be without babies?”
    “In a perfect world, the kind of world the Believers hope to have in their villages, babies would be given just as Mary was given the Christ child to bear.”
    “Is that what you