Wild Bird by Leanne Baugh

Author:Leanne Baugh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Deer Press
Published: 2021-04-15T19:43:32+00:00

Chapter 11

Beams of sun pour through the stained-glass head of Jesus wearing a golden crown and a purple robe. His hand, with the nail wound of the crucifixion, is raised in blessing. Kate sits with Mama in their regular pew in the middle of the church. The wooden pew feels cold and hard under Kate. Early this morning, Papa was called out to Craigflower Farm to see to a laborer who was kicked by a horse. Kate begged to go with him, but Mama insisted she join her at church.

Sweet voices of the children’s choir echo throughout the stone walls of the church.

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all.

James is supposed to be focused on Mrs. Fleming, the choir director. Instead, his eyes and attention flit around like a hummingbird. Strangely, this makes Kate’s heart swell with love for her brother.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colors,

He made their tiny wings.

When the choir finishes their hymn, some officers from hms Forward arrive late and sit in pews at the back. Kate glances over her shoulder, but her excitement turns to disappointment when she doesn’t see Hugh among them. He may not belong to the Church of England. Perhaps he’s Presbyterian or Lutheran. He might even be Catholic.

“I have a soul as well as a body,” Reverend Fleming’s sermon from his pulpit begins. “My soul must live forever in happiness or misery. It is capable of pain or pleasure inconceivably greater than my body.”

Kate dwells on her own soul. Never mind the afterlife; not fulfilling her soul’s destiny on Earth might cause her the greatest of pain and misery. But she’s still unsure what her destiny is to be. Marry Hugh and be left running a house full of his children, while he sails the seven seas. Marry Mr. O’Brien, a man she is indifferent to, but someone who could ensure her entire family would want for nothing ever again. What about her impossible dream of becoming a doctor? Is that her true destiny?

“It is a matter of little importance whether I am in abject poverty or the greatest affluence during the few years I am to continue in the present world,” the Reverend continues. “Whether I am respected or despised by my fellow mortals, whether my body is sickly or healthy, painful or at ease …”

Kate looks near the front of the church where Rebecca sits with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Kate is sure Rebecca’s active mind wanders as far away from Reverend Fleming’s homily as hers.

“ . . . am I not often inquiring, what shall I eat, what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed? But the serious inquiry is, what shall I do to be saved?”

Saved, indeed.

The parishioners have been invited back to the rectory for tea. James sits in a corner playing spinning top with a few other children, while Mama visits with Mrs. Fleming and other ladies.

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