The Belle of Nauvoo - Book One

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

The weather stayed angry all that week but cleared again at the weekend. Sunday, the twenty-fourth of March, we were again to comfortably hold a meeting outdoors at the stand near the temple. Uncle Joseph electrified the audience by revealing the meaning of the secret meetings held at the Laws’. Conspiracy!

As we had been apprised of the revelations beforehand, it was no surprise to our own family. In fact, we were almost persuaded not to attend the meeting, for we had been told that Joseph Jackson had threatened to kill all the Smith family in two weeks! Oh, what dire calamity had I brought upon my family? I lay awake half the night for fear, thinking and thinking. It was my fault that we were forced to endure this uncertainty and ignominy. How could I bear the shame and degradation of the loss of my reputation before the world? All would point the finger of scorn at me; for I had been the one Mr. Jackson had loved and sought, only to be rejected. It was because of me that he wanted vengeance.

Alas, how was I to know, at that time, the depths of the depravity of his deformed and emaciated character? How was I to know the vicious winds of fortune to which I was exposing us all? Like a skunk that hides its deadly odors under a cloak of soft and attractive fur, he swaggered into town deceiving us all and blasted forth his stench that would forever cling to our garments. Like the serpent, yea, old Satan himself, he went about tempting and whispering false words into the ears of the innocent with his forked tongue! Fie and damnation come down upon him!

Did I not predict that his flattery was false and that he would soon be undone? Would that he were even now utterly undone! Would that this unveiling of his secret plans might banish him from the society of the virtuous forevermore! Oh, that the sacred and noble paths of all the fair cities of the earth might never know the tread of his boot from henceforth and forever! Murderer!

In the small hours of the morning I imagined him crawling up into my window to stab me in my sleep with a large bowie knife. Every creak and whistle of the wind brought me fresh alarm. In the morning, I was glad to see guards upon our porch who were waiting to escort us to the meeting.

But even with the guards in place, I declared, “I cannot go out today!” Besides being fearful of Mr. Jackson, I was very ashamed. To have it made known before the whole city that Mr. Jackson wanted to kill us was more than I might be able to bear. They would surely say that my actions had brought this tribulation upon my family.

“And back down to that bantam cock and his biddy hens? No! Bringing it before the public is the only way to fight him,” exclaimed Mother. The image she evoked was ludicrous. Why, he would probably want to hurt us just for thinking such a thing of him!

“Is that what I would be doing by staying home – backing down?” I asked weakly.

“Of course. Now Lovina, God is on our side. Never forget that. Has he not seen us through perils before? Yea, through the fiends of hell itself I walked to visit your father in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, and that while I was sickly and nearly at the gates of death. Should we be afraid of a mere man who is puffed up with his own consequence? Nay. I am not afraid.”

Were my terrors of the night silly?

“Remember that we go among friends; friends who love and support you. Remember that.”

So with no excuses to give, I went to the meeting. I kept my head concealed as much as possible. Mother sat up so straight and true that I almost thought a poker was stuck up her back.

Uncle Joseph shocked the people of Nauvoo by implicating not only Joseph Jackson, but also Doctor Foster, Chauncey Higbee, and the two Law brothers. He said, “I won’t swear out a warrant against them, for I don’t fear any of them. They would not scare off an old setting hen.” The fear left my heart, and I could even laugh at the picture such imagery brought to my mind. An old stay-at-home setting hen – that was me! Well, I wouldn’t scare off!

Then Uncle Joseph said that if he heard any more from the conspirators, he’d publish all the iniquity he knew about them. The congregation was greatly agitated at this. What other iniquities did he know of them? We all wondered. My, did we have a case of scandal itching at our mouths then! It spread like a disease through the crowd. If it hadn’t been for the fact that we wanted to hear the next thing Uncle Joseph would say, I’m afraid our tongues would have wagged so hard that they would have fallen out.

But Uncle Joseph changed the tone of the meeting by saying, “If I am guilty, I am willing to bear it.” Uncle Joseph always did that. He was the first to acknowledge any fault he had; and when he had an enemy, he was the first to make amends. He taught us that when someone was offended by something we had done, we should examine our every action to see if something we had done inadvertently had given cause for that person to take offense.

Later on in the meeting, Uncle Joseph preached again – this time about truth. He asked, “Have I ever got power unfairly? Did I ever exercise compulsion on any man? Did I not give him the liberty of disbelieving any doctrine I have preached, if he saw fit? Why do not my enemies strike a blow at the doctrine? They cannot do it: it is truth, and I defy all men to upset it. And every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, God Almighty (and not Joe Smith) shall hew it down and cast it into the fire.”

I sat up straighter. That’s what the Lord would do to our enemies – hew them down and cast them into the fire! Fear not, the Lord was on our side! Like David, I was ready to face my own Goliath: Joseph Jackson. I was armed with the stone of truth and the sling of virtue. I lifted my head.

Yet I never got the chance to throw my stone; for Joseph Jackson, craven varmint that he was, slithered out of town with all his fancy dress clothes before the meeting ended.

The Laws, the Fosters, and the Higbees went right home and shut themselves up tight in their houses, even though the day was so pleasant. Old biddy hens! They were scared to death of Uncle Joseph! But Uncle Joseph and Aunt Emma weren’t intimidated by them. They went out riding through the town in their carriage. I saw them as they made their way down the street thronged with well-wishers. They returned to find a crowd at their door, anxious for their safety and thirsty for just another drop of information about the “conspiracy.” Lorin sauntered over to my house and took me down by the river, where we watched the sun set.

“If you’re scared, you could change your name to Walker. That would ensure your safety,” Lorin teased.

“Hmm… Lovina Walker. How does that sound?”

“Mighty fine. I like it,” he said.

Saucily, I said, “Lovina Smith Walker sounds more dignified.”

Lorin took my chin in his fingers and looked at me most seriously. “How about ‘Dearest,’ my love?”

“Oh Lorin, that is best,” I whispered.

As we watched the sun set, we followed it in our hearts to the land of perfect bliss and happiness where all true lovers imagine themselves to be travelling – n’er a ripple to mar the waters of their future.

The setting sun to light their path across the shining seas,

As they go forth upon the waves, together eternally.