For Time and Eternity by Pittman Allison

Author:Pittman, Allison [Pittman, Allison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical fiction
ISBN: 9781414345819
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2010-08-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

My visit to Salt Lake City lasted three more days, most of which I spent in various charitable pursuits. Several of the families in Rachel’s ward were well-off and mindful of their responsibility to less-fortunate Saints. They put together housewarming kits to be presented to those families who would be arriving at the end of summer; many of their afternoons were spent piecing together quilts, cutting and hemming sheets and towels, or knitting socks and scarves. So many women in so many parlors, sometimes twenty of us in one room. Most of them were sister wives—some literally so, as they were sisters married to the same man. Children climbed in and around us. Daughters as young as twelve years old joined in both the task and the conversation. It occurred to me each day that I felt full and safe. Cushioned on all sides from loneliness and melancholy. Hours would fly by and I wouldn’t give a single thought to anything beyond the next amusing story or bit of gossip.

Rachel didn’t say another word about Evangeline becoming a second wife to Nathan, and neither did I. The matter sat between us like an uneasy, unspoken truce. It occurred to me after spending so much time in Rachel’s world that the subject of one man having multiple wives was hardly a topic worthy of any discussion. It was such common practice, we’d just as well discuss whether or not dogs should bark or birds should fly.

On the last night of my visit, after Tillman leaned through the door to give Rachel a swift peck on the cheek, I asked her if she still loved him.

“As much as I ever did.”

And then another question—one that had been nagging at me since my arrival. “Does it bother you, then? to think of him sharing a bed with another woman?”

“Is that why you’re so reluctant to agree to Nathan taking a second wife? because of what will happen in bed? Tell me, Camilla, is the marriage bed the all-consuming center of your marriage?”

“Of course not.” I was glad of the dark room to hide my blush.

“A marriage is work. Building a home and building a family.”

“But if you knew—right from the start—that Tillman would take several different wives, would you still have married him?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“But if you did.”

“When my brother arranged this marriage for me, he was doing the best he knew to do. He found the strongest man of faith—”

“But if you knew what that faith meant, Rachel—what it would ask of you—would you . . . ?” I couldn’t go on because we both knew that I wasn’t asking about her marriage to Tillman anymore.

“Are you asking whether or not I would join the church?” Her voice dropped to a whisper so low, the sounds barely registered.

I nodded slowly, feeling my own fear spread within me. “I need to know—because lately . . . How do I explain?”

“Like an unsettling in your spirit.” She took my hands and together we knelt before the fire.

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