Finest Kind Read online

  For my grandchildren, Vanessa and Samantha Childs, Taylor and Drew Gutschenritter, Aaron Wynne, and my step-grandchildren, Kate and Addison Grant.

  And, especially, for my first granddaughter, Tori Wait.

  And for all children whose families have secrets.

  With thanks to my editor, Sarah Sevier; my husband, Robert Thomas; and my friend, Kathleen Reed, M.D., all of whom read this manuscript and made valuable suggestions that improved it.

  1

  September 11, 1838, Wiscasset, Maine

  “We’re almost there, Jake! Put down your book and look at your new hometown,” Father called from the high front seat where he sat with the driver.

  Jake tucked Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales between two crates and stretched to look over the side of the open wagon packed with all their belongings. Mother rubbed her eyes and sat up too. She’d been dozing next to the nest of quilts and blankets she’d tucked around Frankie.

  Six days had passed since they’d headed north from their home in Boston. Since then they’d seen little but rutted dirt roads, other horse-or ox-drawn wagons, an occasional river ferry, and a few small towns. Mr. Abbott, the teamster they’d hired to pack and drive their belongings, had stopped every few hours so he could harness new horses at an inn or way station. While he cared for the horses, the Webber family had stretched and eaten and relieved themselves. Other than that, Jake and Mother and Frankie had been trying to find comfortable positions in the back of the jouncing wagon, among the crates, barrels, chairs, and bedsteads.

  Jake glanced at Frankie, who continued sleeping. Frankie had been his brother for six years, but he’d seen more of Frankie in the past days than he had ever before. At first he’d felt uncomfortable, watching Frankie’s unfocused eyes and uncontrolled movements. Then he’d spent hours wondering how two brothers could be born so different. What if he’d been born like Frankie?

  “It’s a pretty little village,” Mother said optimistically as they headed down a hill onto High Street, a short street lined with elegant homes ending at the Green, where a white church overlooked the town.

  “That must be the Lincoln County Courthouse, next to the church,” Father called down. “Cousin Ben told me Wiscasset was the center of Lincoln County.”

  If these few streets were the center of the county, Jake wondered what the rest of the area was like. Probably just more fields and woods and the occasional farmhouse, like they’d seen for the past many miles. Here there were no wide streets filled with elegant carriages. What kind of people lived in a place like this?

  They had no choice. They would find out.

  The wagon turned down the hill, onto Main Street, where there were more large white houses and inns. Other wagons and carts stood before two taverns, an inn, and several small stores. Jake saw an apothecary’s sign, and a window displaying brightly colored cloth. Several boys were laughingly pouring water on each other’s heads from a public pump. Three men were unloading a cart filled with firewood. A group of women carrying baskets chatted opposite them. Ahead, at the bottom of the hill, was a river. Maine was full of rivers; it seemed they’d crossed one every few hours since they’d left New Hampshire.

  Jake didn’t have time to see more before the wagon turned north. At first there were other grand houses along this side road, but as they drove farther from the center of town, the dwellings became smaller. They passed an old burying ground, and an occasional isolated farm.

  Chickens squawked in the yards, and large barns were connected to small houses by a series of rooms. Fields of wheat or corn stretched on both sides of the road. Jake wondered if there were as many people in Wiscasset as there were chickens. He tightened his hold on the side of the wagon. What kind of life would this be? Would he ever have friends here like the boys at his school in Boston?

  “We have to believe it’ll be all right, Jake,” said Mother, reaching out to touch his hand. “Cousin Ben has found us a place to live, and Father has a job. It will be different from Boston, but we’ll be fine.”

  Jake nodded. He knew Mother was reassuring herself as well. She’d cried when they’d left their home in Boston.

  The road was narrower now. On the right they passed a white house attached to a heavy granite building. “That’s the Lincoln County Jail,” called back Mr. Abbott. “The jailer and his family live in the house.”

  Jake looked at the high granite walls. He hoped their new home was far away from that building and its occupants.

  “Cousin Ben said our place is two miles past the jail,” said Father. “We’re almost home.”

  2

  “You expect us to live in this hovel?” Mother asked, her voice rising. “In this wilderness?” Father kicked clods of dirt along the floor of wide pine boards and into the corner, and laid Frankie down on the cleaned spot. Frankie moaned, moved a little under his quilts, and then was still. “With only an outside pump for water and a fireplace for heat and cooking?”

  For six days Father had been encouraging Mother to smile; their new life would be a new start. But this weather-beaten building meant to be their new home held out little hope.

  Jake put down the crate of dishes he was carrying, left his book on top of the crate, and looked around. The inside of the small house was dark; the shutters on all three windows in the main room were closed. On the far side of the chimney was a second, even dingier, room that smelled of unemptied chamber pots and moldy straw.

  Their three-story home in Boston had twelve high-ceilinged rooms, including one floor of bedrooms just for the servants, and a pantry and large kitchen below the first floor. That kitchen was larger than these two rooms combined.

  Since the Commonwealth Bank of Boston closed in January and Father lost his job, raised voices had become commonplace in that Boston home.

  Jake didn’t want to hear Mother and Father arguing again. He moved toward the door.

  Every morning for the past eight months he’d watched Father leave to look for work. Every evening Father had returned, weary and discouraged. First the maids had left, and then the cook, and finally their two carriage horses were gone, along with Adam, who cared for them. Father told Jake he shouldn’t plan to return for the summer session of his private school.

  Jake missed seeing his friends during the summer and knew he would fall behind in his studies. But he was twelve—almost a man. Too old to complain.

  Then four weeks ago the letter had come from Cousin Ben. There was work in Maine. Not in a bank, but in a lumber mill in Wiscasset, if Father was interested and “ready to dirty his hands,” Cousin Ben had written. Far north of Boston able-bodied men were still needed despite the hard times people were calling the Panic.

  Cousin Ben had promised to find them a place to live if Father sent money ahead.

  And here it was.

  “There’s no space here for the boys.” Mother gestured at the room. “This house—if you can call it that—is dark and foul.”

  “Dirt can be scrubbed,” Father said.

  “How can I care for Frankie? He needs warmth, and a protected space.”

  “You’ll manage. Women do,” said Father. “I know this isn’t easy. The house isn’t what we expected. But for now it is what we have. We’ll find a better home after I’ve earned some money.”

  Jake slipped out the door into the small yard where Mr. Abbott was unloading their furniture, crates of pots and pans, and barrels of clothing and bedding. Mother was right. This new home was worse than he had ever dreamed.

  “Give me a hand?” Mr. Abbott asked.

  Jake reached up to take one end of the large table they’d had in their Boston kitchen, and balanced it as Mr. Abbott lifted the other end off the wagon.

  “You’re small for your age, but you’re strong,” he s
aid approvingly. Then he looked at the gray house. Shingles were missing, and the privy door hung open and crooked. The slanted roof on a lean-to led to a water barrel below it. Land where a barn had once stood was now overgrown with goldenrod and grasses. “This place is considerable different from your place in Boston.”

  “Yes.”

  Mr. Abbott looked straight at Jake. “Times are hard now for lots of folks. But people make do. Times will get better. You and your parents are lucky to have each other.”

  Jake didn’t feel lucky.

  He heard his father’s voice from inside the house. “Right now we have no choices! This is the way life is!”

  Jake needed to get away; to separate himself from this place, and from his parents’ arguing.

  He ran down the rocky wagon path that led from the house to the road. Running came naturally, and felt good. He knew he was fast.

  But after six days of sitting or lying in the back of the cramped wagon, Jake’s muscles were stiff. He headed south, back toward Wiscasset, focusing on the ruts dug by wagon wheels in the stone-strewn earth. Running on the cobblestoned streets of Boston was no preparation for navigating this uneven dirt road.

  He winced as he twisted his ankle in a small hole. He had to be more careful. Breaking his ankle would only complicate life more.

  In Boston he’d run past men searching for work and families living in streets that smelled of horse and human waste. At least here no one was begging for food. Here there were just the tall dark spruce trees that bordered the road.

  Jake slowed down but kept running. A small weather-beaten barn and an even smaller house were on his right. The house was low and unpainted and leaned a bit to the left. Scrawny chickens scratched in the dirt yard. Who would choose to live in such a place? For a moment Jake thought he heard a child crying. But when he stopped to listen, he only heard the wind and the shrill sounds of herring gulls who’d sighted food. Maybe the family who lived here had never known better. Or maybe, like his family, they had run out of choices.

  Jake felt his muscles tightening with anger. Didn’t Cousin Ben know Mother had always had the help of servants? After their cook had left, Mother had tried to use the stove in their Boston kitchen, but her bread had been dry and her broth salty. How would she manage with just a fireplace?

  Where would they all sleep in the new house? How would Mother care for Frankie?

  Why did Father have to lose his job?

  Jake turned around. By now Father must have seen how impossible it was for them to stay here. Mr. Abbott was probably already reloading their belongings onto the wagon.

  Jake looked over at the run-down house again. A figure was standing by a wide sugar maple at the side of the house. Jake blinked and looked again, but the man was gone. He must have imagined him.

  Jake started back. His parents would be looking for him.

  3

  At the house—at home, Jake silently corrected himself— the arguing had stopped. It was clear they were staying.

  Father and Mr. Abbott had already unloaded most of the wagon, and Mother was taking a broom to the wood floor. At least boards were easier to sweep than wool carpets.

  As Jake came in, she frowned. “Where have you been?”

  Jake gestured outside.

  “Now you’re back, would you open the shutters so we can get some light and fresh air into this place?”

  Jake went to the nearest of the three windows. The shutters were nailed tightly in place. Whoever had closed them had made certain they wouldn’t blow open. Mother had already unpacked two crates of kettles and pots for the kitchen and was scrubbing a shelf on the wall where she could store them.

  Frankie was still sleeping. He didn’t seem to hear the voices and confusion around him.

  Jake walked out toward the wagon. “Where are our tools?” he asked. “The windows are nailed shut.”

  “Here, boy,” said Mr. Abbott, tossing him a hammer and a small iron lever. “These will help you open the barrels and crates, too.”

  The nails came out easily enough. Jake found hooks on the inside wall and fastened the shutters open, pushing up the glass panes to let air in. The house needed all the light and air it could get.

  Breezes filled the room. Mother sneezed as she swept a pile of dust off the highest shelf. “Now at least I can see what I’m doing.”

  Father and Mr. Abbott carried the headboard and footboard of Mother and Father’s high bedstead to the small room in back of the fireplace and began setting up the bed.

  “Where will I sleep?” Jake asked. “And Frankie?”

  “You can have the loft space.” Mother pointed to a sliding door that Jake hadn’t noticed in the ceiling. “We’ll put our ladder below it so you can climb up. It won’t be like your room in Boston, but for now it will have to do.”

  Jake ached as he thought of his small blue bedroom in Boston. His bedstead and commode and washstand were on the wagon. They probably wouldn’t fit in a loft. Most of the furniture they’d brought from Boston wouldn’t fit in the new house. “And Frankie?”

  “He needs to be warm, since he can’t stomp about like you can when the temperatures drop. He’ll have to be in this room, near the fireplace.”

  “But—the fire?” Jake’s mind quickly raced through all the problems of Frankie being close to a fire. Near where Mother would have to cook. Close to the door to the outside.

  Frankie’s eyes were now open; perhaps hearing the sound of his name had woken him.

  “We’ll have to watch him all the time. Even more than usual.”

  Jake looked at his brother. Frankie’s legs were moving a little under the blankets that covered him. At first Jake had watched Frankie carefully, thinking his movements meant something. Now he knew Frankie’s arms and legs often moved for no apparent reason.

  He wondered when Mother had learned that.

  “He must stay in this room; there’s no other space. We’ll have to hide him if anyone comes here,” continued Mother.

  In Boston, Frankie had been in a separate room, on the floor where the servants slept. How could they hide him in a house with only two rooms?

  “It will be hard. But remember, we’re newcomers here, Jake. No one knows about Frankie. Not even Cousin Ben. And we can’t let anyone find out. You were young, but you remember what happened in Framingham.”

  “I remember.”

  Framingham was where they’d lived when Frankie was born, six years earlier. Father and Mother had taken him to doctors all over Massachusetts, but no one could cure a boy born crippled and a half-wit. People said he was that way because of the sins of his parents. After they knew about Frankie, neighbors crossed the street to avoid being seen with any of the Webber family.

  “If we know someone is going to stop by, we can move him to the bedroom.” Mother gestured toward the room where Father was putting the bed together. “But even then, his voice . . .”

  Frankie never cried, but he did make strange noises sometimes. They were all used to the sounds, but strangers would not understand.

  Jake looked at his brother. What could Mother and Father have done that was so horrible a sin?

  Most of the time, Frankie lay in his blankets and stared vacantly at the room, but his fits were frightening. Frankie’s back would arch and his body would twitch and tighten. If his body hit a hard surface, he could bruise or cut himself. He could knock down furniture or lighted candles. Doctors warned that he should never be left alone.

  When Frankie was two the Webbers had moved to Boston, where no one knew them, and where their house had a small warm room lined with straw pallets for Frankie and Annie, the woman who cared for him. The pallets had to be replaced often, because they were often soiled, but even the servants were too embarrassed to tell about Frankie. No neighbors had learned their secret.

  But two months ago Annie, the last of their servants, had left.

  Mother had moved into the small closed third-floor room with Frankie, and Father had slept a
lone in the high bedstead. Mother could not cook when she was with Frankie, and she could not leave him alone. So Father had brought home bread and cheese or sometimes cooked meat or vegetables from a tavern.

  Now Mother sat on the floor next to her youngest son and brushed Frankie’s black hair back from his face. She looked from him to Jake and back. Both boys had straight black hair and dark eyes.

  Father and Mr. Abbott entered the room. “The bedstead’s together. Just have to bring in the mattress and the wardrobe, and that room will be set. Jake, you help Mr. Abbott bring your bed in. It’s still on the wagon. Hannah, did you tell Jake about the loft space?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. There’s a cellar for cold storage under the house too. The entrance is from the outside, but there’s more space in this place than it looked at first. Jake, bring in the ladder too, so we can lift your bed up into the loft. You and I can manage from there. Mr. Abbott’s got to make a pickup in Boothbay Harbor, and needs to be getting on. He’ll change his team in Wiscasset.”

  Father took Mr. Abbott out toward the wagon.

  Frankie’s body began to jerk and twitch.

  Mother tried to move Frankie away from the crates so he wouldn’t injure himself, but his rigid body was hard to hold. Jake got on the floor to help her. The first time Jake had seen Frankie have a fit, he’d been scared. Now he just hoped the fit wouldn’t last too long and that Frankie wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else. He knew what to expect, but he wondered if he would ever get used to seeing Frankie like this.

  Frankie’s eyelids fluttered. His drool covered Mother’s hand, which was on his shoulder, and dripped onto the quilts. Jake reached out to hold Frankie’s other shoulder down on the floor.

  The spasm only lasted a minute or two. Jake could see Mother’s hands relaxing as the seizure calmed. Then, suddenly, Frankie’s body arched up. His left arm struck out and hit Jake’s cheek. Jake moved back, knocking against a tall narrow crate leaning precariously on the wall in back of him. Mother pulled Frankie away as the crate teetered to the side. Jake reached out to steady it, but he was too late. The crate crashed onto the floor, narrowly missing them all. The sound of glass shattering filled the room.