“Like a good many others, I came here because I had acquaintances here. Two of my seamen have settled in North Carolina, as has Lieutenant Ferrell, who served with me through three commissions before being wounded severely enough that he was obliged to leave the service with a naval pension. His wife is here as well.”
Roger wondered whether—and how—the pension might continue to be paid, but it luckily wasn’t his problem at the moment.
“So,” Cunningham continued, meeting Roger’s eye ironically, “that will give me a congregation of at least six souls.”
Roger smiled obligingly, but told the truth when he assured Cunningham that entertainment was sufficiently scarce as to ensure a full house for anyone who was willing to get up in public and provide it.
“Entertainment,” Cunningham said, rather bleakly. “Quite.” He coughed. “Might I ask just why you have proposed this arrangement, Mr. MacKenzie? You seem entirely capable of entertaining any number of people, all by yourself.”
Because Jamie wants to know whether you’re a Loyalist and what you might be inclined to do about it if you are—and luring you out to preach and talk to people in public will probably show him.
He wouldn’t lie to Cunningham, but didn’t mind offering him an alternative truth.
“As I said, more than half the settlers here are Catholic, and while they’ll come to listen to me if there’s nothing better on offer, I imagine they might also listen to you. And given my own unorthodox family situation”—he raised a deprecating shoulder—“I think people should be allowed to hear different points of view.”
“Indeed they should,” said a soft, amused voice behind him. “Including the voice of Christ that speaks within their own hearts.”
Cunningham dropped his charcoal again. “Mrs. Murray,” he said, and bowed. “Your servant, mum!”
Looking at Rachel Murray always lightened Roger’s heart, and seeing her here, now, made him want to laugh.
“Hallo, Rachel,” he said. “Where’s your wee man?”
“With Brianna and Jenny,” she said. “Amanda is trying to make him say ‘poop,’ by which I gather she means excrement.”
“Well, she won’t get far, trying to make him say ‘excrement.’”
“Very true.” She smiled at him, then at Cunningham. “Brianna said thee would be here with the captain, arranging matters for the new meetinghouse, so I thought I should join thy discussion.” She was wearing pale-gray calico with a dark-blue fichu, and the combination made her eyes go a deep, mysterious green.
Cunningham, while gallant, looked somewhat confused. Roger wasn’t, though he was surprised.
“You mean—you want to use the chapel, too? For … um … meeting?”
“Certainly.”
“Wait … do you mean a Quaker meeting?” The captain frowned. “How many Quakers are presently living on the Ridge?”
“Just one, so far as I’m aware,” Rachel said. “Though I suppose I might count Oggy; that’s two. But Friends have no notion of a quorum, and no Friend would exclude visitors from an ordinary meeting. Jenny and Ian—my husband and his mother, Captain—will surely join me, and Claire says she and Jamie will come as well. Naturally, thee and Brianna are invited, Roger, and thee, too, Friend Cunningham, with thy mother.”
She gave the captain one of her smiles, and he smiled back by reflex, then coughed, mildly embarrassed. He was quite flushed. Roger thought the man might be on the verge of ecumenical overdose, and stepped in.
“When would you like to have the place, Rachel?”
“On First Day—thee would call it Sunday,” she explained to Cunningham. “We don’t use the pagan names. But the time of day doesn’t matter. We would not discommode any arrangements you have come to.”
“Pagan?” Cunningham looked aghast. “You think ‘Sunday’ is a pagan term?”
“Well, of course it is,” she said reasonably. “It means ‘day of the sun,’ meaning the ancient Roman festival of that name, dies solis, which became Sunnendaeg in English. I grant you,” she said, dimpling slightly at Roger, “it sounds slightly less pagan than ‘Tuesday,’ which is called after a Norse god. But still.” She flipped a hand and turned to go. “Let me know what times you both intend to preach, and I will arrange things accordingly. Oh—” she added, over her shoulder. “Naturally we will help with the building.”