Brown, Carrie - The Stargazer's Sister by Brown Carrie

Author:Brown, Carrie [Brown, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2016-01-19T08:00:00+00:00

William takes another bite of apple. “He is not afraid of much, Mr. Darwin,” he says.

Lina stands and picks up their soup bowls. She knows, of course, that some people object to what her brother and other astronomers attempt. They perceive these efforts to understand the universe to be contrary to the quest for God, even an assault upon God’s throne.

“These physical properties,” she says. “This would be Darwin’s Immortal Nature?”

William has opened the book again. “I suppose so,” he says. “Yes.”

“But you believe in God, William?” she says. It has not occurred to her to question this before—his faith as a younger man had been so secure—yet now the thought of God, somehow waiting just beyond the reach of her brother’s telescope, gives her an uncomfortable feeling.

William closes the book, finger between the pages to mark his place, and looks over at her.

“How could anyone look through a telescope,” he says, “and not believe in God?”

—

LATER THAT NIGHT when the rain stops, Lina steps outside. The sky is still overcast, the moon invisible. She takes a lantern with her into the darkness and walks along the garden beds where she and Stanley have been working during the day. The garden is temperate, thanks to the protection of the brick walls and the lingering heat of the furnaces in the new workshop. She has been able to start spinach and lettuces much earlier than usual, protecting them under a carpet of leaves. She moves the leaves aside with her foot. Her light catches the glint of tiny new green shoots. She holds it higher and passes it over the row of winter cabbages, their ornate pink and white and green furled heads beaded with drops of rain that shine in the lantern light. She lowers her lantern over the cabbages, bends down to inspect the bejeweled leaves glistening in the darkness.

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