His Prairie Sweetheart

by Erica Vetsch

  “You stopping in to the sheriff’s office on the way home?” He gave her a teasing look. “The two of you are garnering plenty of attention in the paper and over the checkerboard.” Jerking his thumb toward where two old men sat beside the stove, moving the red-and-black pieces around on the board, he laughed. “Some folks are even matchmaking, scheming to make sure you stay in Snowflake permanently.”

  Her blush deepened, heating her cheeks even more, which made those around her laugh.

  Lars hefted the basket and headed her way. “Ready, Teacher? We need to get home.”

  Making her escape, she wondered what they would all say when the news of her departure hit. They wouldn’t be singing her praises then.

  She walked to the sleigh and got in, not looking at the sheriff’s office, trying to hold together the pieces of her breaking heart.

  * * *

  “What did you do?” Tyler didn’t say hello or mince words. He stalked into the jail and tossed a folded piece of paper down on Elias’s desk. “What on earth happened up here? She was fine enough at Christmastime. Now I get this?”

  “What are you talking about, and close the door.” Elias let his boots drop off the corner of the desk and picked up the paper. He stifled a yawn. The past two weeks had been some of the most grueling of his life. Today was the first day he’d had where someone wasn’t in need of his help. “Didn’t expect to see you in town. You want some coffee? I just made a pot.”

  Captain sat up from his place on the rug beside the stove, yawning and shaking his head.

  “I want to know what you did or said to Savannah.” Tyler yanked off his gloves and shoved them into his coat pocket. He stalked to the stove and poured himself a steaming cup of the brown liquid. “I don’t get mail regularly down in Kettinger, especially not with all this snow. When I finally made it in to the post office, I found out that letter had been sitting there for two weeks. What did you do to Savannah?”

  “I didn’t do anything to Savannah. What’s got you in such a lather?” Tyler could fuss and worry with the best of them, but this was a whole new level. Puzzled, Elias unfolded the paper, immediately recognizing Savannah’s precise penmanship.

  Mr. Parker,

  It is with great regret that I must submit my resignation, effective as soon as you confirm reception of this note. I apologize for not finishing the term, but for me to do so would be folly. I appreciate all I have learned while I have been here, and I will remember you all with great fondness.

  Sincerely,

  Miss Savannah Cox.

  Elias read it twice. “Resigning?” He couldn’t grasp the notion. “What’s going on here?”

  “You didn’t know about this?” Tyler set his cup down without taking a drink.

  “Of course not.” Panic and a sense of déjà vu swept over Elias. He found himself standing without realizing he’d gotten to his feet. His hands gripped the paper, creasing it badly.

  “Then you didn’t say something or do something to once again remind her that she’s a greenhorn outsider who shouldn’t have come here?” Hands on hips, his older brother skewered him with a look.

  Elias squirmed. “Not for a long time.” He smoothed out the letter and read it again. “I know I thought that early on, and I said as much, but I changed my mind a while ago.”

  “Where is she now? Is she already gone?”

  “No, we had to postpone school for a week or so until we could get things squared away, new benches and desks and things, but she’s been there every day since it reopened.” Elias cast through his memory of the past two weeks. She’d been quiet the few times they’d met, but he’d been busy and distracted. She couldn’t have escaped Snowflake, anyway, since the stage hadn’t been able to run until three days ago, when Keenan had finally gotten through.

  “Have you seen her?” Tyler’s accusatory stare did little to calm Elias.

  “Not much. What with the big storm and all, I’ve been busy.” He heard the defensive tone in his voice, angry that he should feel guilty for not keeping better tabs on Savannah. “Things haven’t exactly been normal around here. I had to ride out to all the farms and make sure folks were all right, and there were repairs to do on houses and barns, not to mention making sure the schoolhouse furnishings got replaced. I’ve been working flat out seeing to the whole township. I had no idea she was thinking about leaving.” Elias ran through what might’ve happened and how she’d looked the last time he’d seen her.

  “I stopped at the Halvorsons’...when was it? Thursday afternoon? I’d been at the Rambeks’ helping repair the lean-to that got blown off the back of his house during the storm. It was getting dark, so I couldn’t stay long, but I wanted to check on Per. Savannah met me at the door. She looked serious, sober, but that seemed appropriate given that Per is so sick. She didn’t say a word about leaving.”

  A spark of anger lit in Elias’s chest. A spark that grew into a flame. She was leaving. Without telling him. He wanted to wad up the paper and throw it as hard as he could. This was what he got for hoping. For letting himself fall for another woman who had no more business being here than the Queen of Sheba. What a fool he’d been. He’d almost made the same mistake twice.

  “Fine, if she wants to go, let her. At least this one had the decency to tell you before she lit out.” Elias shoved down the hurt and buried it in bitterness.

  Tyler groaned, ramming his hands into his hair and sending his bowler toppling to the floor. “You know what this means for my job and my future political career, don’t you? If she resigns, I’m sunk.”

  “She is not resigning.” A woman’s voice pierced the room.

  Elias whirled toward the door. A tall woman filled the opening, silhouetted against the snow outside.

  He didn’t want to be bothered now, not when he was mad enough to spit hot rivets. How could he have been so stupid? Scraping together some manners, he asked, “Can I help you, ma’am?”

  “Are you the sheriff?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He removed his hat as she stepped farther into the room. The woman had a Southern accent, a commanding presence and travel-worn garments. In a flash, he knew her, though they’d never met.

  “Miss Carolina Cox?” He’d almost said “Aunt Carolina” and barely caught himself in time.

  “Mr. Elias Parker?” She held out her gloved hand. Only a shade shorter than his own six feet, she looked him in the eye, her gaze appraising.

  “That’s me.” He shook her hand, surprised at the strength of her grip. “I’ve heard a lot about you, ma’am.”

  “And I you. I’m here to see Savannah, Snowflake and the sheriff who has been filling up so much space in her letters.”

  Her grim tone set a pit of dread into his gut. Savannah had been writing home about him? From the look on her aunt’s face, whatever Savannah had said couldn’t have been good. The woman gave him a long, steady stare and then transferred her attention to Tyler, raising her eyebrow.

  Elias remembered his manners. “Pardon me, ma’am. This is my brother, Tyler.”

  “The superintendent.”

  Tyler nodded, looking as stunned as Elias felt.

  “Would you care for a chair?” Elias whisked a halter he’d been mending and a stack of old newspapers off the ladder-back chair beside his desk.

  “Thank you, no. I’ve been jounced and jostled in that butter churn you call a stagecoach for far too many miles. I’d rather stand at the moment.”

  Elias edged around her to close the door. He shot Tyler a what-do-we-do-now look and received a shrug in reply. Aunt Carolina surveyed the room, and Elias winced at the disarray. His deputy was supposed to keep the place swept out, but Bjorn wasn’t much of one for housekeeping.

  “Now, you were speaking of Savannah’s resignation when I arrived?” Aunt Carolina asked. She picked up the letter E
lias had tossed onto the desk, smoothed it out and scanned it. “Her telegram to me was even more cryptic. After months of letters extolling the virtues of this place...” she paused and glanced once more around the room and out the grimy window, as if wondering about Savannah’s sanity “...I get a two-line telegram telling me she’s coming home as soon as she can manage it.”

  “We had no idea, ma’am.” Tyler picked up his hat. “This is hitting us out of the blue.”

  “You aren’t the only one. I’ve been worrying for hundreds of dreadful miles, and then I discover this at my hotel last night.” She dug in the capacious handbag she carried and withdrew a newspaper, snapping it open. “Did you two really survive a terrible storm by sheltering with the children in the schoolhouse?” She held the paper under Elias’s nose. “This says you spent a night and most of a day trapped in the school with little food, little fuel and nearly a dozen children and a dog?” Her eyes sliced toward Cap, who had risen to his feet but hadn’t advanced.

  Smart dog.

  “Yes, ma’am, we did. We had no choice.” Elias put his hands in his pockets. Who did this lady think she was, crashing in here, looking down her long nose at him, treating him like a kid caught sneaking krumkake before dinner?

  “Do you think the two things, the storm and her resignation, are somehow tied together?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t had much time to think about either.” Elias shifted his weight. Why was she grilling him? Why not ask Tyler? His brother was Savannah’s boss, after all.

  Miss Cox tapped the floor with her toe. “Savannah’s a complex girl, always has been. Feels things deeply. She’s taken something to heart, that’s what.” She picked up the paper and closed it into her bag with a snap of the clasp. “Now, young man.” She pointed to Elias. “I require you to deliver me to wherever Savannah is at the moment so we can sort this whole thing out.”

  He glanced at the clock. “She’ll be at the schoolhouse this time of day.”

  “Then that’s where we’ll go.” The woman brooked no argument, speaking with total confidence that they would fall in with her plans.

  Elias reached for his coat. He had no beef about taking the lady to her niece. Fact was, he wanted to have a word or two with Savannah himself. “This way, ma’am. I’ll get a sleigh from the livery. Do you have bags over at the stage depot?”

  “I do.” Her stern, mannish face softened a touch. “And I’ll thank you not to comment on either the amount or the contents.”

  He stuffed his hands into his gloves. Savannah must’ve written home about their first meeting. “No, ma’am, I’ve learned my lesson there.” Too bad the one he’d learned over Britta didn’t stick.

  The sunshine nearly blinded them on the trip out to the schoolhouse, and Aunt Carolina said not a word. Through the loading of her baggage, which like her niece’s was considerable, she sat on the front seat of the sleigh as if she had a stair rod for a backbone.

  Tyler wedged himself into the backseat between bandboxes and valises without comment, and Captain wriggled in beside him.

  Miss Cox sucked in a breath when they started off and the wind cut around them like icy knives. Much like Savannah, this Southern lady was not prepared for the climate. Her hat sat high on her upswept hair but offered nothing in the way of protection for her face or ears. Elias unwound his muffler and passed it to her, raising his coat collar to protect his own neck and cheeks.

  She nodded, quickly wrapping the scarf around her face.

  The schoolhouse rose before them, the cupola piercing the sky. Elias made a mental note to replace the bell rope, something he’d forgotten about in the busyness of the past three weeks. Smoke emerged from the chimney, quickly blown sideways and disappearing against the brilliant sky. Someone was there.

  As they pulled to a stop before the door, Tyler broke free of the baggage and dropped to the snow. “I’ll take care of the horses. You two go on inside.” He took the reins from Elias.

  “Coward,” Elias muttered under his breath.

  “Just a quicker thinker.” His brother grinned.

  Miss Cox stood and waited for Elias to help her from the sleigh. Captain jumped down and trotted up the steps ahead of them.

  “Where is that animal going?” Her voice might’ve been muffled by the woolen scarf, but it was every bit as assured and disapproving as it had been since the moment she arrived.

  “Inside.” Elias kicked snow off the steps. “This way.”

  Time for a reckoning with Miss Savannah Cox.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Savannah wrote simple equations on the blackboard for her oldest students, but her arm felt leaden and her mind dull. Since the storm, since seeing Per fight for his life, since hearing about the damage to the region, she hadn’t been able to shake her quiet despair.

  And she watched out the north windows constantly, afraid of seeing that wall of gray clouds advancing like an avenging army. Afraid of another storm that would endanger the children.

  A movement caught her eye. Peder, raising his hand.

  “Yes?”

  “May I put more coal in the fire?” He spoke slowly, in English. “We are cold.”

  Savannah nodded. “But just a little.”

  Her new constant struggle, the desire to keep the children warm, but to guard and ration the fuel so they wouldn’t run out ever again. Mr. Rosedahl had seen to it that the coal shed was full to bursting now, but Savannah couldn’t help herself in rationing each bucketful.

  The children were different, too, since the storm, less carefree, more watchful. But perhaps they were only picking up on her mood.

  Almost all the students were in attendance, seeming none the worse for their ordeal. Lars and Rut were taking turns staying home to help their mother care for their father, and today it was Lars’s turn at home.

  Savannah checked the western horizon, the clock and the calendar. Almost the first of February. Why hadn’t Tyler contacted her? She’d mailed her resignation two weeks ago.

  Heads swiveled at the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs, and the door opening. The familiar click of nails on the hardwood had her heart leaping and then crashing down in her chest.

  If Captain was here, Elias wasn’t far behind. She braced herself to see the sheriff again. Surely he would know soon about her resignation, and she dreaded his reaction. Would he be angry or relieved? Hurt or smug? She’d envisioned every scenario.

  But it wasn’t Elias who entered.

  Savannah’s legs went weak, and she sank into her chair, mouth agape. Even bundled in what she was certain was Elias’s scarf, the visitor was unmistakable. Savannah would know those eyes and that commanding presence anywhere.

  While the children stroked Captain as he passed them on his way to her side, she tried to find a thought to hold on to. The collie rested his head in her lap, nudging her limp hand until she absently rubbed his ear. His tongue came out and swiped at her wrist, and his tail swished across the floor.

  “Well, I can’t say this is much of a greeting after the long trip I’ve had.” Aunt Carolina pulled off the muffler and handed it to Elias, who had come through the doorway behind her.

  “Aunt Carolina!” Savannah found her voice. “What are you doing here?” The question ended in a squeak of disbelief. She glanced at Elias. His eyes burned hotly and his jaw muscles were tense. He knew.

  Aunt Carolina surveyed the room like a general sizing up a barracks. If Savannah hadn’t been so shocked, she would’ve laughed at the way the children straightened and stared. After her initial surprise, it was all Savannah could do not to race down the aisle and throw herself into Aunt Carolina’s comforting embrace. All her homesickness and despair rose up and tried to crowd into her throat, eventually leaking out her eyes as two tears plummeted down her cheeks.

  Her aunt’s eyebr
ows canted. “Obviously, I’ve come to see you. I’ve just arrived in town. This gentleman and his brother were kind enough to drive me the rest of the way.”

  Elias flipped the scarf over his head to lie on his neck and down his coat lapels. “Kids, I think school is dismissed for the day. Bundle up. It’s brisk out there.”

  The children moved slowly, not at all as they normally would when being given early release. Johann sent Savannah a troubled look, and she tried to pull herself together. Drawing a handkerchief from her sleeve, she wiped her cheeks.

  “It’s all right. Children, this is my aunt, Miss Carolina Cox, and she’s come all the way from Raleigh to see me. I didn’t realize how much I had missed her until I saw her again, and that is why I’m crying—because I’m happy. Do as Sheriff Parker says and head home. Hakon and Astrid, you make sure everyone is properly buttoned up, hats and gloves for everyone.” She stopped herself when she almost said that she would see them tomorrow.

  She wouldn’t see them tomorrow. Most of them she might never see again. If Tyler was here, he must have come to talk about her resignation. Her heart felt like a bag of sand with a hole in the bottom. Perhaps she would come in the morning, just to say goodbye to them. She owed them that, didn’t she?

  When the last student had filed out, Aunt Carolina unbuttoned her coat—much too thin and light for this place and time—and stood before the stove, holding her hands to the heat. “I thought I knew what cold was, but I see I was mistaken.”

  Tyler came in, stomping the snow from his boots and blowing on his hands. “I blanketed the horse. It’s almost as cold inside as out.”

  Elias opened the stove door and shoveled in more coal. “Why is it so cold in here? Haven’t you been watching the fire?”

  He sounded angry, and his movements were quick and jerky. Savannah couldn’t meet his eyes. Why did he have to be here while she rehashed her failure in front of her boss?