Botanicaust

you? ” Beth gasped and looked like she was about to faint.
    “ Get her a chair, ” Tula commanded without thinking. She moved forward to take Beth ’ s arm and guided her to a seat.
    “ Katie, you look like your mother. ” Beth panted and lowered her head between her knees.
    Tula looked down at the white bonnet covering Beth ’ s thick hair, reminded of Mama bending to the laundry basket. “ Bethy. You watched us when Mama quilted. Eli used to hide in the barn and drive you crazy with worry. ”
    “ Yes. ”
    Samuel looked stricken. “ I didn ’ t tell her about Peter. ”
    “ She is Peter ’ s lost daughter, ” Levi replied, reinforcing a fact Samuel obviously hadn ’ t wanted to believe.
    Samuel shook his head. “ I don ’ t know what to think. ”
    “ Trust your heart to Gotte ’ s Wille. He has shown you the truth in Beth ’ s recognition. Be not afraid to speak what ’ s right. ‘ God speaks through the unity of His People in Scripture. ’ You are one of those People, Samuel. ”
    “ You know I ’ ve never been one to oppose the Brethren. ”
    “ I ’ m not asking you to oppose them unless the Scripture tells you to. Vote your heart. And pray others do as well. ”
    Beth raised her head. “ We will all pray. ” She stroked Tula ’ s hand, then clasped it with strong fingers. “ Katie, please join us for supper. ”
    At the human connection, tears filled Tula ’ s eyes. Love for this woman — her cousin — spread from that point of contact deep into her heart and through her body to the tips of her toes. She squeezed Beth ’ s fingers, holding back desperation. “ Thank you, Bethy. ” Even if the rest rejected her, Beth saw the truth.
    “ Where ’ s Eily? ” Levi asked.
    “ The child is through here. ” Samuel gestured. “ She urinated behind Beth ’ s loom. ” His voice grew gravelly with disgust.
    Tula ’ s shoulders slumped. “ She didn ’ t know how to ask. ”
    Beth shrugged. “ He gets more upset than he ought. It ’ s not like children haven ’ t made messes in here before. ”
    Samuel didn ’ t reply, but Tula wondered if his face was always so red.
    Beyond the accordion wall, a dun sofa and two hard chairs surrounded a low wood table near a fireplace. Askew on the table rested a chessboard with fallen pieces, dark wood versus light wood . Several pawns strewed the floor nearby. In one corner, an upright frame with a partially finished blanket looked undisturbed in spite of Eily ’ s transgression. Lacy curtains framed several large windows opened to the autumn breeze. Eily was nowhere in sight. “ Eily? ” Tula ’ s heart contracted in fear.
    “ Look under the sofa. ” Beth ’ s soft voice said.
    Curled in a ball beneath the legs of the sofa, Eily didn ’ t move when Tula knelt and reached to pull her free. “ Eily, it ’ s Tula. ” Threads of loose fiber stuck to the girl ’ s tearstained face. Tula used the edge of her skirt to wipe at Eily ’ s cheeks. “ Eily, do you need to … shit? ” Cannibal terminology felt so crude now that she was among Old Order.
    Eily shook her head. “ Is Ana dead? ”
    It was the first complete sentence the child had spoken in over twenty-four hours. Tula pulled her close and pressed her cheek to the child ’ s head, her chest fresh with ache. “ Yes. ”
    The girl started to sob, then clutched Tula tight about the middle. “ I miss her. ”
    “ We all do, Eily. ”

B y the time Eily calmed, dusk had fallen, and Levi begged Beth to hold supper so he could tuck Josef in for the night. Tula balked at leaving the house, at leaving a slumbering Eily, but Levi insisted she needed to make herself known. To show the Holdout she was not a threat.
    As he led her through the dusky streets toward the Ward, Tula had to remember to breathe normally. She could hardly pay attention to what he was saying as she caught sight of faces peering from house windows.
    “ Not all the CF children are here. Most of them are with their families. Usually they don ’ t have serious problems until they reach their teens or twenties. All in all, there are only about twenty-five or thirty permanent residents at the Ward. ”
    She glanced at the dozen or so houses along the street. “ Thirty! How many people live in the Holdout? ” In her childhood, Sabbath gatherings had been held in the larger homes, so there couldn ’ t be very many.
    “ I think around three hundred. Counting babies and children. ”
    They ascended the