Nathan Snake's Arc

Chapter 8 of 13

Jane came through the graveyard gate at midday carrying a folded paper in one hand and the jar of saved coins in the other. She walked past the fresh graves and the maple tree without stopping. She set both items on the stone bench where Nathan was sitting and waited until he looked up from the deed he'd been reading. She said she'd found something in the mess at home that he needed to see. Nathan unfolded the paper. It was a sketch of the graveyard boundary drawn in pencil on the back of an old receipt. The lines matched the deed exactly, including the extension beyond the church's claim. In the corner someone had written three initials and a date from two months ago. Jane pointed to the handwriting and said it matched the notes Ivor left on their kitchen table when he borrowed Nathan's surveying chain last spring. She'd found the sketch wedged behind the bookshelf where it had fallen during the ransacking. Nathan looked at the initials again and recognized his friend's careful script. Ivor had known about the boundary before Nathan found the deed. Nathan walked to Ivor's stone cottage at the edge of the graveyard property where wildflowers grew thick against the walls. He knocked twice and waited. Ivor opened the door with dirt on his hands from the garden. Nathan held up the sketch without speaking. Ivor looked at it for a long moment, then stepped aside to let Nathan in. Inside on the table sat three bronze keys on a worn leather cord, each engraved with a word Nathan recognized from the oaths they'd both sworn years ago when they served together. Ivor said he'd measured the boundary months back when the deacon first mentioned selling the land, trying to find leverage to protect Nathan's work. He'd planned to tell Nathan once he confirmed the church's claim was false. Then Nathan's house was ransacked and Ivor realized someone else was searching for the same proof. He'd sent someone to retrieve any documents before the intruders returned, but the person he hired had gone too far and torn the place apart looking for anything that mentioned the church. Ivor said he'd called them off as soon as Jane came to Helga's house, but the damage was done. Nathan picked up the keys and felt their weight. He told Ivor the deed was already secured and the daughter's brothers were sheltered on the extended land. The ransacking had cost them time and Jane's peace of mind, but it hadn't stopped what Nathan was building. Ivor asked if Nathan wanted him gone from the cottage. Nathan set the keys back on the table and said Ivor had acted to protect the graveyard's future even if his method was clumsy. That counted for something. But from now on Ivor would help him make the land defensible instead of working alone. Ivor nodded and showed Nathan a rusted metal bow with the initials J.F. engraved on the side, pulled from the garden soil that morning. He said it belonged to the woman who'd given the land to the church forty years ago, the one whose name the deacon's family had erased. Nathan took the bow and understood that the ground beneath them held more than graves. It held proof of promises the church wanted buried. He told Ivor to keep digging.