Dear Readers.
Good news. Chapter Two came quickly! Horray! (dont get spoiled, though. I dont update THAT often..ever.)
Anyways, no Hale in this chapter. :(
This chapter is really long for you. I just wanted to show you the events that happened in Natalia's POV. It includes a lot of the characters from the play.
I thought I would show how they interact with one another. To be fair, this doesnt even have much Natalia in it. oops.
Oh, and yes, i do copy text from the book...alot. I DONT OWN ANY OF IT THOUGH! ITS ALL ARTHUR MILLERS!
Read and Review. PLEASEEE!
"Aye, and well instructed in arithmetic!"
A word to put in for why Natalia doesn't like the Putnam family. Her elder brother, Peter Paddock, owned a great deal of land in Salem, perhaps fourth after the biggest landowner in Salem, Thomas Putnam. It is not surprising that Thomas Putnam resents Peter Paddock, a very young man to own such a large property, for the land. But we'll speak about Putnam's affair with Salem lands later.
Natalia glared at Abigail, who herself glared back with Goody Putnam at almost the exact same moment. She scowled, as Putnam continued to blaze the word of witchcraft in the room.
"Rebecca, Rebecca, go to her, we're lost. She suddenly cannot bear to her the Lord's-" Parris started to explain, when he got interrupted by the entrance of Giles Corey.
"There is a sickness here, Giles Corey, so please keep the quiet." Rebecca said, walking across the room to the bed to where Betty lay whimpering. Natalia joined her, looking over Rebecca's shoulders as she stood over the child, who quieted.
"What have you done?" asked Goody Putnam, astonished. Rebecca left the bedside, taking a seat near the bed.
"Goody Nurse, will you go to my Ruth and see if you can wake her?" asked Thomas Putnam, his face eager. Rebecca shook her head.
"I think she'll wake in time. Pray calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty six times a grandma," Natalia shuddered, "and I have seen them all though their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she'll wake when she tires of it. A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back." Rebecca responded.
"Aye, that's the truth of it, Rebecca." John Proctor said. Natalia looked over at Proctor, not realizing that he was even there and frowned at him.
"So, Rebecca, you think Betty and Ruth are just sporting?" Natalia asked.
Just to put a FINAL word in for Natalia. Natalia and her brother neither agree nor disagree with the idea of witchcraft. She is neutral, and does not believe it nor doubt it.
"This is no silly season, Rebecca. My Ruth is bewildered, Rebecca; she cannot eat." replied Goody Putnam, silencing Natalia's question with a glare.
"Perhaps she is not hungered yet." Rebecca answered, "I hope you are not decided to go in search of loose spirits, Mr. Parris. I've heard promise of that outside."
Parris shook his head, "A wide opinion's running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong."
"Then let you come out and call them wrong. Did you consult the wardens before you called this minister to look for devils?" John Proctor asked.
"He is not coming to look for devils!" Parris retorted, a slight edge of anger peeking in his voice. Natalia smirked, enjoying the discomfort in Parris's manner at being questioned. She never did like him that much, either.
"Then what's he coming for?" Proctor questioned, his own little smirk daring to etch across his mouth.
"There be children dyin' in the village, Mister!" Putnam countered, stepping in to side with Parris as usual. Natalia laughed a little at the irony in which Putnam actually loathed Parris for getting the spot as the minister that Putnam's brother in law had been rejected at.
"I seen none dyin'. This society will not be a bag to swing around your head, Mr. Putnam." Proctor snapped, then focusing his attention on Parris, "Did you call a meeting before you—""I am sick of meetings; cannot the man turn his head without he have a meeting?" Putnam growled.
"He may turn his head, but not to Hell!""Why, I—"
"Pray, gentlemen, be calm" Rebecca silenced the arguing men, "Mr. Parris, I think you best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguing again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year. I think we ought rely on the doctor now, and good prayer."
"Yes, but Goody Nurse, I heard from Susanna Walcott that the doctor's baffled." Natalia spoke up quietly, the dark beauty gaining attention from everyone in the room for her sudden input.
"If so he is, then let us go to God for the cause of it. There is a prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves and—"
"How may we blame ourselves? I am one of nine sons; the Putnam seed have peopled this province. And yet I have but one child left of eight—and now she shrivels." Putnam snapped.
"I cannot fathom that." Rebecca answered.
"But I must! You think it was God's work you should never lose a child, or grandchild either, and I bury all but one? There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!" Goody Putnam replied sarcastically. Natalia muttered, glad that there wasn't a bunch of Putnam spawn running wild in Salem.
"When Reverend Hale comes, you will proceed to look for signs of witchcraft here." Putnam ordered Parris.
"You cannot command Mr. Parris. We vote by name in this society, not by acreage." said Proctor, glaring at Putnam. Natalia smiled, hoping that if the two of them glared at Putnam long enough he might explode of some sort.
"I never heard you worried so on this society, Mr. Proctor. I do not think I saw you at Sabbath meeting since snow flew." Putnam put in snidely.
"I have trouble enough without I come five mile to hear him preach only hellfire and bloody damnation. Take it to heart, Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay away from church these days because you hardly mention God any more." Proctor retorted.
Natalia nodded, "Aye, I must say I am sorry to agree with Mr. Proctor. As I live close to him, I must walk five mile as well to get to the church, and by foot no less. As my brother's horses refuse to travel so long in the snow, I must walk." she added, "And I did notice that the sermon this morning was rather…angry, if I may be so bold to say."
Parris, now aroused, "That is too bold, Miss Paddock." he looked over to Proctor, "What a drastic charge be held on my sermons!"
"It's somewhat true; there are many that quail to bring their children—" Rebecca started.
"I do not preach for children, Rebecca. It is not the children who are unmindful of their obligations toward this ministry." Parris snapped.
"Are there really those unmindful?" Rebecca asked.
"I should say the better half of the village—" Parris started, and Putnam finished, "And more than that!"
"Where is my wood? My contract provides I be supplied with all my firewood. I am waiting since November for a stick, and even in November I had to show my frostbitten hands like some London beggar!" Parris added, a new topic emerging from only God knows where.
Natalia frowned, "What does that have to—"
"You are allowed six pound a year to buy your wood, Mr. Parris." Giles Corey spoke up, his voice demanding and concluded.
"I regard that six pound as part of my salary. I am paid little enough without I spend six pound on firewood." Parris muttered.
"Sixty, plus six for firewood—" Proctor started,
"The salary is sixty six pound, Mr. Proctor! I am not some preaching farmer with a book under my arm; I am a graduate of Harvard College." Parris exclaimed, recalling his days as a student in the prodigious college.
"Aye, and well instructed in arithmetic!" Giles Corey replied sarcastically. Natalia laughed quietly.
"Mr. Corey, you will look far for a man of my kind at sixty pound a year! I am not used to this poverty; I left a thrifty business in the Barbados to serve the Lord. I do not fathom it, why am I persecuted here?" Parris asked.
"Are you suggesting you are persecuted by your 'lack' of pound that you are given from the society?" Natalia questioned, an eyebrow raised in amusement.
"Hush, my dear," Natalia scowled at the elders' use of belittlement towards her, "I am suggesting that I cannot offer one proposition but there be a howling riot of argument. I have often wondered if the Devil be in it somewhere; I cannot understand you people otherwise."
"Mr. Parris, you are the first minister ever did demand the deed to this house—" Proctor reprimanded Parris, frowning.
"Man! Don't a minister deserve a house to live in? I have a young daughter, and I want her to be able to say she lives in a home!" Parris fought.
"Perhaps, but to ask ownership is like you shall own the meeting house itself; the last meeting I were at you spoke so long on deeds and mortgages I thought it were an auction."
Natalia sighed, knowing that this quarrel would last for hours if someone did not end it soon. The people of Salem were infamous for their long, heated arguments that usually did not end up in any way, and the problem remained.
"And you may tell that to your followers!" Natalia heard Parris shout, which instantly caught her attention back to the argument at hand.
"My followers!" exclaimed Parris, with a hint of sarcasm, anger, and amusement mixed together in one outcry.
"There is a party in this church. I am not blind; there is a faction and a party." Parris exclaimed, a rush of furry passing with each breath.
"Against you?" Proctor questioned. Putnam cried, "Against him and all authority!"
"Why, then I must find it and join it." Proctor said, causing a shock and silence among the others in the room. Natalia hid her smile behind her hand, trying to remain discreet.
"He does not mean it." pronounced Rebecca. John scoffed.
"I mean it solemnly, Rebecca; I like not the smell of this "authority"."
"No, you cannot break charity with your minister. You are another kind, John. Clasp his hand, make your peace." Rebecca told him, like a mother scolding her child for doing wrong to another child. John sighed, shaking his head.
"I have crop to sow and lumber to drag home." Proctor stated, walking towards the door, "What say you, Giles? Let's find the party. He says there's a party."
"I've changed my opinion of this man, John. Mr. Parris, I beg your pardon. I never thought you had so much iron in you." Giles said, causing Natalia's eyebrows to rise up in shock. Parris? Has iron?
"Why, thank you, Giles!" Parris said surprised, a smile etching across his face.
"It suggests to the mind what the trouble be among us all these years." Giles explained, "Think on it, you all. Wherefore is everybody suing everybody else? Think on it now, it's a deep thing, and dark as a pit. I have been six time in court this year—"
Natalia sighed, listening to Giles and Proctor now argue about some silly damages that had been charged on John Proctor. Something about someone burning the roof of someone else's house? By God, what was Salem turning into these days?
"A moment, Mr. Proctor. What lumber is it that you're draggin', if I may ask you?" Putnam's voice rang, once again catching the attention of the mind drifting girl.
"My lumber. From out my forest by the riverside." Proctor answered sharply. Natalia cleared her breath, waiting for the worst. Men and acreage did not fit well together, and often led to fights. She silently thanked the Lord that her brother wasn't here, or else he would put his two cents in as well.
"Why, we are surely gone wild this year. What anarchy is this? That tract is in my bounds, Mr. Proctor." Putnam told him, a sneer forming on his lips. Natalia narrowed her eyes.
"In your bounds!" Proctor lashed, "I bought that tract from Goody Nurse's husband five months ago." he looked towards Natalia, "And as far as I know Peter Paddock owns a large part of that tract as well."
"He had no right to sell it. It stands clear in my grandfather's will that all the land between the river and —"
"Excuse me, are you calling my brother—" Natalia started, but got cut off again.
"Your grandfather had a habit of willing land that never belonged to him, if I may say it plain." Proctor snapped. "Damn being a female." she muttered, recalling the fact that everyone cuts her off in mid sentence.
"That's God's truth; he nearly willed away my north pasture but he knew I'd break his fingers before he'd set his name to it. Let's get your lumber home, John. I feel a sudden will to working coming on." Giles spoke up, turning to Proctor and nodding at him. They start out, with Putnam yelling behind them, "I'll have my men on you, Corey! I'll clap a writ on you!" Natalia rolled her eyes...Men.
Guess who is coming up next chapter? You know who :) ! And a LOT of HIM!
Remember, Hale will love you almost as much as he loves me if you REVIEW!
With love,
Soldier of Passion
