It worked. Wiley stopped staring at her as if he was ready to ask her the question she dreaded. He looked at her father and nodded. “Good afternoon, sir.”
Neil smiled and nodded in return. “You’re Wiley Greene, aren’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I was just talking to your father. He’s a good man.”
“Thank you.” After a moment of awkward silence, Wiley told Emily, “I’ll see you around.”
She offered him a smile as he left. She held no ill will toward Wiley. He was always respectful and nice. But he wasn’t Isaac.
After Wiley left, Neil said, “One of these days you’ll let one of the young men court you, and I got to admit, I’m not looking forward to it.”
“I’m not a little girl anymore, Pa. You have to let me go sometime,” she teased.
He sighed. “You’ll always be my little girl, no matter how old you get. Just make sure you’re careful in who you pick to marry, alright? You want someone who’s going to put you first, and that means he’d be willing to lay down his life for you.”
“I will. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m smart enough to know who’ll make a good husband.” She held up the brown gloves so he could check them out. “What do you think?”
“They look fine. But you should let young men buy you gifts, not the other way around.”
Giggling, she shook her head. “These are for me.”
“Oh?”
“Would you believe these gloves are better than the ones they make for women? I don’t understand it, Pa. Why would they be more concerned about keeping men’s hands warmer in the winter? Don’t they know that women get cold, too?”
He laughed. “It’s not about being warmer. It’s about being fashionable. Hasn’t your mother explained that often enough?”
At the thought of her mother, Emily grinned. “She means well, I suppose.”
“She’s a good mother.”
Much better than her real one. He didn’t need to say it. With a shrug, she said, “I’d like to get these if that’s alright?”
“I don’t have any problems with it. You can use them when you help me with the cattle.”
“Yes. They’ll be better than the flimsy pair I already got.” She might as well get multiple uses from them.
“Do you want anything else while we’re here?”
“No. This is it.”
“I’ll pick up a couple items your ma wanted and then we’ll head home.”
“Can I wait in the sleigh?”
He nodded. “Give me the gloves and I’ll pay for them.”
She gave them to him and strode out of the store as she waved to Ralph Lindon who was helping a customer. As she glanced down the boardwalk, she saw Isaac’s mother with her two friends and her three daughters walking toward the mercantile. Emily guessed Isaac’s father was with the sons, which meant Isaac wasn’t anywhere in viewing distance.
Maybe it was foolish that she should be as interested in Isaac as she was. If it hadn’t been for the friendship they’d shared when they were younger, she wouldn’t give him another thought. But until they were fourteen, he’d been the only boy who accepted the fact that she was as smart as the other boys. The other boys had wanted to treat her like a girl, and that meant she wasn’t supposed to be as smart as them.
Something changed during that year, but she had no idea what it was. One day he stopped talking to her and that was it. If she was one to give up, she would’ve dismissed him a long time ago. But she wasn’t one to give up, and she couldn’t decide if that worked for her or against her. On many levels, it was good. It was why she was able to help her father with the cattle as well as she did, but on the other hand, she probably held on to lost causes when she should move on.
Still keeping the dime novels carefully tucked under her arm, she decided to hold the door open for the Larsons as they approached her.
“Hello, Emily,” Isaac’s mother said.
“Hi, Mrs. Larson,” Emily replied. She smiled at Isaac’s aunts and sisters and exchanged the customary greetings.
While the others went into the mercantile, Isaac’s mother rubbed one of her three-year-old daughter’s back. “I hear you’re still in school this year.”
“Yes. I enjoy learning.” While that was true, Emily had to admit she wasn’t learning anything from Eva Connealy. But that wasn’t the point of going to school for an extra year, and she’d rather die than tell Mrs. Larson that. “This will be my last year.”
“It’s hard to believe you’re grown up already. I remember when you were a baby.”
Good-naturedly rolling her eyes, Emily said, “My pa says the same thing.”
“You’ll have to forgive us old folk. We tend to get sentimental as the years go by. If it makes you feel better, I tell Isaac the same thing. Thank goodness some of my children are still children.” She adjusted the hat on her daughter’s head. “How are you and your family doing?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“That’s good to hear. Is your mother in town?”
“No. She decided to stay home with my brothers and sister while Pa and I came in. He had a business venture to take care of.”
“I hope the business venture was a good one.”
“It was. He’s beaming from ear to ear.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Emily’s father came out of the store with a box full of items he’d just bought. “Oh, good afternoon, Mary.”
“Hello, Neil,” Isaac’s mother replied. “I should congratulate you. Emily told me the good news.”
“Thank you. God’s blessed me beyond what I deserve,” he said.
“I’m glad. Well, I better get into the store before my children get bored. The twins are especially difficult. Three-year-olds get into everything, and they’re more competitive than they should be.”
“That’s the nature of children, I’m afraid,” Neil replied.
“Especially when they’re twins. None of my other children are that competitive.”
“It’ll be interesting when they get older.”
She gave him and Emily a wry grin. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. I hope you have a pleasant ride back home.”
“You too,” Neil and Emily replied.
Emily watched as Isaac’s mother went into the store and wondered what it might be like to have her as a mother-in-law. Mrs. Larson had always been good to her. When she was little, she used to look forward to when Mrs. Larson brought over something new for her to wear. In some ways, Mrs. Larson was a second mother to her.
“Are you ready to go home?” her father asked.
Breaking her thoughts from Mrs. Larson, Emily nodded and followed him to the sleigh.
Chapter Four
Isaac pulled the sleigh up to his Aunt Jenny and Uncle Owen Russell’s house. He got out and went to the door while his sister Rachel checked the foot warmer because their brother Adam complained his feet were too cold. Isaac stepped onto the porch just as his Aunt Jenny opened the front door.
“Good morning, Isaac.” She turned to her thirteen-year-old daughter and adjusted her hood.
Emma sighed. “I can do it myself. I’m not a baby.”
Jenny let go of her coat and nodded. “You’re right. I should stop fussing over you all the time. It’s just that your two brothers are already out on their own. I have little else to do with my time except sew, and that can be a lonely activity.”
Isaac hid his smile as Emma rolled her eyes.
While Emma buttoned her coat, Jenny walked to the kitchen table and retrieved a lunchbox. “I hear your pa and uncles are going to help you build a house.”
“Yes. Pa doesn’t want me to start off in a sod house.”
“I don’t blame him. They might be cheap and practical, but it’s much nicer if you don’t have to live with snakes and insects slithering into your house through the walls and under the floor.”
“As a kid, I thought that was fun.”
“Probably.” He was three when his father decided it was time to get something better to live in. “From a kid’s perspective, it wasn’t so bad.”
“I assure you that from a woman’s, it can be.”
“I’m sure it can,” Isaac replied.
Jenny handed Emma the lunchbox and smiled. “Have a good day at school.”
Isaac and Emma made their way across the fresh layer of snow before he helped her into the sleigh. He wrapped the steer hide over her. Afterwards, he checked to make sure his sister, Rachel, and brothers, Adam and Jacob, were warm before he got into the driver’s seat. Lifting the reins, he directed the horses forward and the bells jingled in unison with the horses’ steps.
He barely listened as Emma and Rachel talked about dress patterns while Adam and Jacob argued over who made the biggest snowball the day before. Once they reached the schoolhouse, he took care of the sleigh and horses while the others went inside. After he was done, he caught sight of the Craftsman sleigh as Neil brought Emily, her brothers, her sister, and the young Parson and Richmond kids. He often wondered how they all fit into the sleigh, but it probably made them all warmer to be huddled together like they were.
Forcing his attention off of Emily, he decided to get into the school before they noticed him. It was awkward to run into Emily’s father, and not because Neil had ever been rude. Isaac understood his father detested Neil. He was never given an explanation, but he picked up on the tension whenever the two were in the same area. Everyone else probably picked up on it, too, though no one discussed it. Maybe he shouldn’t have opted to go to school for another year. Maybe it would’ve been better if he volunteered to take his siblings and cousin to school and then returned home to help at the farm until he could get his own land.
Sighing, he hurried into the school and set his belongings down. Emily and the others came in just as he was hanging his coat on the hook. While Emily took her coat off, a book fell out of the pocket and on to the floor. No one else noticed it, and with the commotion from the others, she didn’t either. He debated whether he should pick it up and then decided it was silly not to. Just because he handed her the book, it didn’t mean he had to talk to her. At least not to say anything other than, “You dropped your book.”
His heartbeat picked up, and he took a deep breath to settle his nerves. Why did it always have to be so difficult to be near her? After her brother Stan ran to his desk, Isaac leaned forward and picked up the book which was open. He took a good look at it and realized it was a dime novel, and Emily had wrapped the cover with brown paper. Resisting the urge to laugh because Emily was sneaking in reading material Miss Connealy wouldn’t approve of, he went up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.
Emily turned from helping her sister with the barrette in her hair, her cheeks still a pretty shade of pink from being out in the cold.
Clearing his throat, he held up the dime novel wrapped in brown paper. “You dropped this.”
Her gaze traveled to the book and she blanched.
“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything to the teacher,” he whispered. The whole time he spoke, his heartbeat refused to slow down.
“Thank you,” she replied with a smile that could stop a man dead in his tracks.
His cheeks warmed and he shrugged. “It’s no bother.”
Unsure of what else to say or do and knowing he’d better stop talking to her before Jacob blabbed about it to their father, he quickly averted his gaze from hers and went to his desk. Glancing at Jacob, he sighed with relief. Good. Jacob was still arguing with Adam about who made the biggest snowball.
Isaac settled into his seat, his heart still racing with excitement. He took a deep breath to slow it. As soon as he glanced at Emily who went to her seat, he admonished himself. How could he expect to focus on his lessons if he continued to think about her? Fighting the urge to look at her again, he opened his book to get ready for the day.
***
That afternoon, Isaac was surprised to glance out the window and see his father riding up to the schoolhouse on his horse. Curious, Isaac asked the teacher if he could go outside to see if something was wrong.
When she said yes, Isaac grabbed his coat and left the schoolhouse just as his father was tying the horse’s reins to the post. “What is it, Pa?”
“Rose still isn’t feeling well, so I’m going to take your ma and Rose to the doctor. I came to take Rachel home so she can watch Harriett.”
“I’ll get Rachel.”
“I’ll do it. You can get back to your studies, and I need you to do my chores when you get home.”
“Yes, Pa.” Isaac nodded and followed his father into the schoolhouse.
Miss Connealy stopped her lesson to the younger students when she saw his father walk toward the front of the room. “Good afternoon, Mr. Larson. Is something wrong?”
While his father explained the situation to her, Isaac stood in the back of the room. He glanced at Emily, wondering if she knew why things were so tense between his father and hers. Perhaps her father had told her about the past and what happened to bring them to this point in time where his father felt it best that he and Emily not talk to each other. Emily turned her attention back to her book as if nothing unusual was going on. Isaac supposed he shouldn’t be disappointed, and yet, he was.
Isaac looked at his father as he talked to Miss Connealy. They were talking in softer tones, so he couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he could tell that his father approved of Miss Connealy in a way that he didn’t approve of Emily. He grimaced. He hoped his father wouldn’t get ideas about him courting the teacher.
It seemed that all his father could talk about lately was how it was time for Isaac to find a good, young woman to settle down with. That, in and of itself, wasn’t so bad, but considering he couldn’t explore the possibility of courting Emily, he wasn’t interested.
He breathed a sigh of relief when his father said good-bye to Eva Connealy and left with Rachel. After he hung his coat back up, he returned to his desk and went back to his work.
An hour before they were due to go home, Miss Connealy made her way to Emily’s desk, and though Isaac tried not to pay attention to the quiet exchange, it was hard not to when the room was small.
“I want you to do a report on one of the books you’re reading,” Eva said, bending toward Emily who had her book closed on the desk.
“A report?” Emily asked, sounding alarmed.
“Yes, a report. I need to show the school board that you’re learning while you’re here. I’ve allowed you to come here every day to read since you said you didn’t want to focus on any of the other academic subjects. All I need is a summary of one of the books you’ve read and a one to two-thousand-word essay on what you liked and didn’t like about the book, what moral message you think the author was trying to convey with an explanation of whether or not the author succeeded or failed, and what you would change and why.”
From where Isaac sat, he saw Emily’s jaw drop. “A moral message?”
“Yes. We want something to demonstrate that you are better off because you read the book.”
“Oh, well,” Emily glanced at the book on her desk. “Isn’t entertainment a good reason to read a book? I mean, I can be better off because I was quiet while I was reading, can’t I?”
The teacher laughed and patted Emily on the shoulder. “You amuse me, Emily, really you do. Reading solely for entertainment is a waste of time. It’s imperative you learn something from every book you read.”
“While that’s true, sometimes it’s nice to read a story to enjoy a good tale.”
That made her laugh even harder, and a couple of students glanced at the two. “Oh be serious. Who would read without the intention of learning some
thing? You might as well fill your head with the nonsense found in those dreadful dime novels. One’s likely to experience a drop in intelligence while reading that drivel.”
Had Isaac not seen the dime novel earlier that day, he would have misunderstood the subtle wince in Emily’s face. He coughed, and as he hoped, Eva turned to face him. Clearing his throat, he motioned to his paper. “I’m sorry, Miss Connealy. I’ll wait until you’re done.”
She smiled in a way that made him wonder if he was making a mistake. The last thing he wanted to do was encourage her. “Oh, nonsense. I have time for all of my pupils.” She went over to him and folded her hands in front of her. “Did you have a question?”
Isaac's Decision Page 3