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It remained unclear whose side Muriel was on and so, as the summer passed, even after
the schoolhouse was completed, Carl continued to visit the village with some frequency.
He needed to discover for himself in detail how they did things there. However, he had to
remain inconspicuous since a foreman was not supposed to be just wandering around the
way he did and in this regard the Sister's expressed desire
for extra help made a useful pretext. The Sister was often occupied with Elizabeth and, of
course, he could not interrupt her then, which gave him the excuse he needed to wander
about. This meant that he continued to encounter Elizabeth with some frequency. In such encounters she mostly looked right through him, directing at best a slight nod in his direction and clearly neither knowing nor caring who he was. She assumed, he presumed, that he was who he pretended to be: just another workman. Carl told himself that he was an idiot falling under a woman's spell like this: he had better things to do. It was his task to get on with finding out how to make things right for his people in this valley. He should forget about her except as an opponent and, as such, the less she knew about him the better. But he never convinced himself of this position. Then, one day Elizabeth was gone from the valley. 'She'll be back,' said the Sister dusting in the library one Sunday afternoon. 'but don't ask me when.' Carl was browsing through the not quite intelligible texts that Elizabeth was accumulating there. 'If a man should wish to improve himself, which books should he read,' he asked the Sister. Elizabeth had given the Sister a list just in case anyone asked just such a question. 'But you'll have to learn Old English first,' said the Sister. 'Miss Elizabeth says that no books of knowledge or understanding are written in any other language. Though, as far as I can see, Carl, the only one you really need to read is the Bible. I'll teach you to read that. The rest you'll have to read yourself, if you can. They are works of the Devil and I want nothing to do with them.' Learning to read these books was not that difficult. Carl had been a good reader in Dentonsville and the major difference in these books, once you understood it, was that all the words and letters were backwards! Apart from that, the words themselves were pretty much the same although there were many more of them than he was first familiar with. He learned quickly, carrying books back with him to the barracks where he still resided and, though he quickly became independent of the Sister's teachings, despite herself, she was taken with his interest in learning and helped him all she could. He saw Elizabeth once more that year. It was in early November and he was in the library. The Sister sat at her table across the room leafing through an encyclopedia, looking at the pictures, seeking the unusual to mark and show to Carl later. He had a new book in front of him and, having trouble deciphering its title, was staring dreamily out of the window across the village fields. The view reminded him of Dentonsville and he almost imagined that he could see his house in the distance with the magnolia tree in the back yard and his mother beneath it doing the washing. Beyond the fields in every direction trees grew up red and brown, green and gold, some already naked of their leaves and above them the hills which brought him back to his reality. Every now and then a flock of starlings flew across the open land and the sky was darkened by their presence before they swooped and wheeled across the stubble like a sudden flood. Such flocks appeared each year at this time, he knew, but it had never occurred to him before to wonder why or whence they came. He had just completed, after weeks of diligent, difficult work, reading through his first book other than the Bible. The book was an ancient edition of a work of popular natural science and, though he gleaned relatively little from it, he was to some extent looking at the world for the first time in a different light. Elizabeth entered the hall with another girl. Her entry was so unexpected that Carl hardly recognized she was there and he continued dreaming on. 'Hello, Helen, how are you? I've brought a friend to see your library. Helen, this is Angel.' 'How do you do, Miss Angel?' The Sister got up respectfully and shook Angel's offered hand. Then Elizabeth stood by the desk while Angel walked about the room inspecting thoughtfully with a self-conscious swagger, peering at the books, touching their titles with her finger. Neither of them noticed Carl at first. 'It's mostly Father's collection, with some of my old school books mixed in. I thought it'd be a good idea to make them available to the people, you know? Father doesn't read much these days, he's too busy. But, I suppose it'll be some time before they get much use.' Carl by now he was fully aware of Elizabeth's presence and his eyes were glued to the book, though he was reading nothing: his ears were burning and he was aware only of Elizabeth by the desk and the warm rustle of Angel's skirt and her hard footfall against the floor as she passed by his shoulder. 'This one's hard at work anyway, Lizzie,' said Angel. 'Helen,' whispered Elizabeth. 'Who's that man over there?' 'That's Carl Relyt, Miss Elizabeth.' 'Does he come here often?' 'Yes, Miss Elizabeth. He's reading your books and I'm helping him. He's a foreman from the mine.' Elizabeth was not surprised her scheme was working. It simply took a little getting used to, that's all, and she walked over to Carl. 'Excuse me, what are you reading?' she said. He looked up, his face covered with confusion. Her eyes were bright with interest, a plain interest quite different from any look she had given him before. For the first time she had seen him, though still not in any personal way, but simply as the studious foreman from the mine who, wearing a deerskin jacket and well made pants, was perhaps better dressed than any miner she had seen before. He pushed the book towards her. 'A Concise History of the World, 1400-2400. A simplified textbook for students. Very good! I'm impressed. Do you understand it?' He could only nod. 'Where are you from, Foreman Relyt?' 'Dentonsville.' His first word to her was spoken hesitatingly but it was a good start, delivered proudly without hint of inferiority. Angel regarded him with interest. She inquired good-naturedly 'are you really reading that dry old book?' 'Yes,' Carl met Angel's stare. Elizabeth was ready to go. She and Angel moved towards the door. 'Look after the book, foreman Relyt,' she called from the doorway, 'it used to be mine when I was in school.' Now there was an incentive for any man. |
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