I’m sick of hearing about your blessed Lord, Windom told his wife. Joseph resumed his seat by the fire, wondering how much longer he could let it go on. As always, when fear and resentment of the boy gripped him, it was Bess who suffered. Slowly Windom opened his fist, moved away awkwardly, and righted his stool. Unblinking, he held the knife at waist level, ready to slash upward. Joseph was on his feet and backed against the chimney. No true disciple of our Savior would harm a child. He returned his gaze to his half-carved coracle.īy God, you cheeky whelp, Windom cried in a raspy voice, overturning his stool as he lunged toward the youngster.īess jumped between them. Joseph’s silence, a familiar form of defiance, enraged the stepfather.įinally Joseph spoke. Windom didn’t miss the tap-tap of the boy’s index finger on the handle of his knife. It was dirty, degrading work mothers in the neighborhood controlled their errant youngsters with warnings that the charcoal man would get them. When he wasn’t drunk, he cut wood and smoldered it in twenty-foot-high piles for two weeks, making charcoal for the small furnaces along the river. Nor had he gotten the dust from under his broken nails.

Beneath Windom’s eyes, smudges of charcoal dust showed. He was twelve, with his mother’s stocky build, broad shoulders, light brown hair, and eyes so pale blue they seemed colorless sometimes. The boy, Joseph Moffat, sat with his back against a corner of the chimney, whittling a little boat.

When Windom blurted his remark, Bess had been savoring her favorite verse in the fifth chapter of Matthew: Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. From watching her lips move, the boy could observe her slow progress. By the small fire, the boy’s mother closed the Bible on her knees.īess Windom had been reading to herself as she did every evening. It was a sore point with him, one he usually raised when he’d been drinking.

THE LAD SHOULD TAKE my name, Windom said after supper. Prologue: Two Fortunes 1686: The Charcoal Burner’s Boy

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