by Regina Scott
“And you consider us friends?” she asked, frown deepening.
With her looking all soft and serious, friendship seemed the least of what he wanted. “I certainly hope we’re not enemies, ma’am.”
Still she watched him, as if waiting for something more. He felt himself slipping into those clear eyes. Then he was leaning closer, and she was leaning toward him. It was only natural for their lips to meet, brush.
Hold.
And he was falling, effortlessly, like a leaf dancing on the breeze. The world reeled around him, and he pulled her close, anchoring himself in her touch, wanting never to let go.
She pulled back and stared at him, eyes wide and lips parted. And he knew Catherine would be very pleased.
Not only had he found a way to convince the schoolmarm to stay in the wilderness, but he’d managed to let her wedge her way into his heart.
Chapter Seven
Rina could scarcely catch her breath. He’d kissed her, and she’d felt the wonder of it to her toes. Every part of her was tingling. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
But more, she wanted to understand why. They’d barely known each other a day. A kiss so soon was not the behavior of a gentleman. Gentlemen courted ladies with consideration, with thoughtful conversation, touching fingers, kissing hands. What was he thinking?
“Why did you do that?” she demanded.
He leaned back from her, and she thought she saw a tremor in his hands. “It seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.
Always the joker. “Nonsense,” she said, trying to gather the shreds of her dignity. “You will have to do better than that, Mr. Wallin.”
He raised a brow. “Complaining now is a bit like shutting the barn door once the horse is out, Rina.”
Oh, but he could be maddening. “I did not give you permission to use my first name!”
He stood, and she leaned back to meet his gaze. “You didn’t give me permission to kiss you, either,” he pointed out.
“Indeed, I did not.” She rose as well and shook out her skirts.
He frowned. “Why are you so angry? It was just a kiss.”
Just a kiss. Just the casual meeting of two pairs of lips. Oh, but it had felt like so much more! That he didn’t understand made her angrier. One did not steal kisses from a schoolteacher! They were held to far higher standards. Did he want to ruin her reputation?
“I think you had better go,” she said.
“I think you’re right.” He nodded toward the remaining food on her desk. “Enjoy the rest of your lunch, and good luck this afternoon.” He turned and strode out the door, closing it behind him.
Rina sagged on her chair. What was he doing? He couldn’t have grown that fond of her so quickly. He knew little about her. She realized that there were times here on the frontier when things were more casual than where she’d been raised, but she was fairly sure that, even here, such a kiss was meant for something important, something deep, something permanent. It wasn’t “just a kiss.”
Unless you were the never-serious James Wallin.
She blew out her breath. At least she’d stood her ground, let him know she wouldn’t condone such behavior. He wasn’t likely to try kissing her again.
Worse luck.
She managed only a few bites of the rhubarb pie he’d brought before Beth, Levi and Scout returned. Putting the food away in her room for later, she took up her place at the front of the class. The mulish set to Levi’s face told her it was going to be a long afternoon.
Indeed, the second half of the day was worse than the first. Levi and Scout must have felt more comfortable acting out without James present, or perhaps they sensed her rattled state. Either way, they questioned her on every topic and tried her least command. Then they insisted on leaving early with the excuse that there were chores that must be done. They seemed to know she would hesitate to argue with that.
“You just have to ignore them,” Beth told her as the girl gathered up her things to leave. “They’ll get tired of plaguing you eventually.”
Though Rina hoped Beth was right, she didn’t think it was a good sign that her student already thought she needed advice on how to teach.
“Oh!” Beth cried, whirling from the door and hurrying back to Rina’s side. “I almost forgot. A letter came for you.” She fished a battered piece of paper from her primer and handed it to Rina. “It looks important.”
It didn’t look that important to Rina. Indeed, dirt had darkened the folded paper, rain had made the address run, and the seal was cracked. But it was clearly made out to her from the superintendent of the White River school.
Another offer of employment?
Something inside her leaped at the thought. No more trying to pretend she could teach disrespectful older students. No more distracting handsome gentleman lounging in her classroom. No one stealing a kiss that nearly broke her heart. She wanted to tear the letter open immediately, but she was all too aware of Beth watching her, lips pinched as if she was afraid to utter a peep.
“Thank you, Beth,” Rina said. “I shall see you tomorrow.”
Beth brightened as if she’d doubted it. “See you tomorrow, Miss Fosgrave.” She all but skipped out of the room.
Rina went to sit at the desk, then opened the letter and smoothed it out on her skirts. Every school had its challenges, she was sure. This offer, if that was what it was, would not cure all ills. She should probably stay here, work through any difficulties. But though she thought with hard work she might become the teacher Levi and Scout needed, she wasn’t sure what to do about James. Just sitting across the dinner table tonight would be difficult. Every time she noticed his lips, she’d remember how they’d felt against hers. So much for promising herself she wouldn’t fall for his charm!
Enough. This supervisor deserved an answer. She lifted the paper and began to read.
Dear Miss Fosgrave, he had written. Mr. Asa Mercer has given us to understand that you meet our high standards for a teacher. We are pleased to offer you an assignment as assistant teacher at the White River school.
Assistant teacher? Why, that could be perfect. She’d have another teacher to learn from, a mentor, until she was ready to take on a classroom by herself.
Term will not start until October, the letter continued. However, travel during that time could be problematic. You will need to arrange passage at your earliest convenience to the White River Crossing. Mr. Hiram Buckhorn stops there every Saturday afternoon and will be glad to bring you the rest of the way with him.
She’d heard the Crossing mentioned in town. It lay nearly thirty miles to the south of Seattle, a couple days’ journey through untamed wilderness. And she was fairly sure there was a wolf pack or two in the area.
Below you will find a list of our expectations for your behavior. We offer twenty-five dollars per quarter, your own cabin with a pump near the school and the gratitude of your young students and their parents. It was signed Mr. Josiah Montebank.
He certainly seemed sure of her answer! Had Mr. Mercer told him she was desperate? It would have been rather gratifying to write to their former leader and inform him she had another position, with better pay and closer to town.
But did she want to tell him that?
She fanned herself with the letter, thinking, and the list of requirements fluttered down to the floor. She retrieved it, and her eyes widened. My word, but what a paragon their teacher had to be!
She shook her head as she rose and set the letter aside. She’d have to write and refuse. Considering their requirements and her agreement with the Wallins, it was probably best that she stay here. That is, if the Wallins still wanted her. All Catherine and Mrs. Wallin would have to do is quiz Beth to learn that today had not been the best of days. They might be glad to see the last of her.
&nbs
p; Footsteps alerted her to a visitor a moment before the door banged open. A man squeezed inside her schoolhouse. Folds of flesh hung from his bull neck, and his belly flopped over his dirty trousers. What was even more alarming was the glint of anger in his close-set eyes.
Rina stood a little taller. “May I help you, sir?”
He pointed a pudgy finger at her. “You can stop filling my boy’s head with nonsense.”
She knew the Wallin father was dead, so there could only be one boy he meant. “You must be Scout’s father.”
“That’s right,” he said, chest swelling so that it threatened the buttons already straining there. “And that’s his name, Scout. I don’t need any of you mealymouthed do-gooders changing his name or anything else about him.”
Scout must have told him about his first day of school. “I doubt he meant any disrespect by choosing a different name,” she told him. “I certainly meant no disrespect by suggesting it.”
“I’ll just bet you didn’t,” he sneered. His footsteps thudded against the planks as he strode toward her, and Rina backed up despite herself.
“He was content enough with his lot until you all started making him wish for more,” Mr. Rankin said, coming to a stop less than a yard away from her. The bitter stench of alcohol and tobacco rolled off him in waves.
She refused to recoil. “And should he not wish for more?” she countered. “I believe we all want something better. Education can open doors for his future.”
“He has the only future he needs, helping me.” He thumped his chest. “Every minute he’s away is time he could be working. You don’t expect me to sweep out the place or do the cooking, do you?”
By the bulk of him, a little physical exercise would not have been remiss, but she could hardly tell him that. “I released Scout from class early today precisely because he said he needed to do chores.”
“And weren’t that nice of you?” This close, she could see the spittle come out with his sneer. She could not bear to look at him and fixed her gaze on the wall behind him instead.
“I was being practical,” she said. “Many children have attended school and still managed to finish their chores.”
“Children?” His laugh was rougher than the bark of a tree as he took another step closer. “Scout ain’t no child. And he never showed the least bit of interest in book learning until a pretty little schoolmarm showed up.” He reached out a finger and flicked at the trim of her collar.
He made it sound as if the boy came merely to ogle her. Scout’s father certainly didn’t hide his attentions as his gaze flickered over her. She felt as if she’d been splashed with mud. This was worse than when the townspeople had turned on her in Framingham. She tried to back away, and her foot caught on the chair. Down she went with a thud onto the seat.
He leered at her.
Rina pushed herself to her feet, determined not to let him see her fear. “I assure you, Mr. Rankin, that your son has the makings of a fine student. His education could even be an asset to you.”
His tiny eyes narrowed. “How?”
Rina clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking, fingers locking properly in front her as Mrs. Fosgrave had always said was appropriate for a princess. “He could calculate crop yields, determine likely weather patterns.”
He snorted. “Don’t care a thing about crops, and no one but God knows the weather.”
She had to convince this man, for Scout’s sake and hers. “If you tell me what you do for a living, sir, I can explain how education can help.”
He bristled and took a step back at last. She wanted to feel relieved, but she couldn’t like the way his beefy hands were fisting at his sides.
“What I do is none of your affair,” he all but growled. “I make a good living, and I never went to no stupid school.”
Stupid school. Perhaps misspelled in his mind the way it had been on the wall. Here was the person who had threatened her with words on a blackboard. She’d thought that person must be a coward to hide. Now she realized he’d simply been building up to something worse.
Why had she thought she could manage all this? She’d been raised to deal with civil, cultured people who used words, not physical violence, to state their cases. This was no place for her.
Yet even as the doubts assailed her, she knew Scout needed an advocate. He had no one but her.
“If you could be a success with no education,” she told his father, “think what more your son could accomplish with one.”
He drew himself up, towering over her. “You just don’t listen, do you? Maybe it’s time someone taught the teacher a lesson.” He raised one fist.
Rina ducked, bringing up her arms to protect her face. Father, help me!
From beyond him came the sound of a rifle cocking. “Step away from the lady, Rankin,” James said.
Rankin turned, and Rina could breathe again.
“Figures a Wallin would come to the rescue,” he said. “Whichever one of you plans to marry this woman better watch himself.” He cast a contemptuous glance back at Rina. “She talks too much.”
“So do you and look how popular you are.” James advanced into the room, rifle at the ready as Rina lowered her arms. “In fact, I can hear your friends calling you. Time to go.”
He shrugged in a ripple of fat. “I’ve said my piece. Step aside.”
James raised the gun higher. Would she witness a gunfight? What if James were hurt? Father, please, help us!
“One thing before you go,” James said. “Apologize to Miss Fosgrave.”
Rankin swelled up like a sick toad. “Apologize? She ought to apologize to me for filling my boy’s head full of nonsense.”
“Oh, you did a good enough job before she ever came along,” James replied. He advanced again, until the gun was a few feet away from her tormentor. “Apologize.”
“It’s all right, Mr. Wallin,” Rina said, wanting only to see the man gone. “Let him go.”
She could hear the oily smile in Rankin’s voice. “There, you see? The lady’s learned her place already.”
Something hot flashed through her. Oh, but she would not let him believe that! She pushed around him until she was standing next to James. “You are not welcome in my school, sir. I think you should leave.”
He laughed. “You can think all you like, missy. I’ll go when it pleases me and not before.” He strutted past James and out the door.
James followed him as if to make sure he left. Rina sagged against the nearest bench. What had she been thinking? She had no business confronting a ruffian!
And what sort of place was this, where parents felt free to physically threaten the teacher? Where she had to teach protected by a gun? Where her buried heart tried to rise at a kiss? Everywhere she looked, she saw challenges—to her dreams of passing on her knowledge, to her person, to her convictions. There was only one solution.
James must have been satisfied that the fellow was gone, for he came back inside and left the gun on the last bench to hurry up to Rina. “Are you all right?”
Rina swallowed. “No. I want to leave. Immediately. Just as you promised.”
* * *
James stared at her. “Now?”
“Now,” she insisted, turning for her room. “It will only take me a few moments to gather my things.”
It had taken her far longer on the way out, but perhaps she hadn’t unpacked last night. Now she was in such an all-fired hurry that he might have thought a bear was chasing her.
Given Rankin’s size, she wasn’t far off.
He could have throttled Rankin. James had been thinking about returning to the school and apologizing for kissing her that afternoon for all he couldn’t make himself regret his actions. Then he’d spotted the troublemaker entering the school, and he’d gone for his rifle.
“Rankin is nothing but a bully,” he told Rina now as he followed her. “He runs a gambling outfit that’s just this side of the law. He picks on those he deems too weak to fight back. He’s gone after Levi, and you can imagine how he treats Scout. I won’t let him trouble you again.”
“You can scarcely stand guard on the schoolhouse,” she informed him, gathering up various items and dropping them in her trunk without so much as folding them.
“I will if I have to,” James promised.
“Nonsense,” she insisted. “Besides, Mr. Rankin’s visit is only one of the things that proved to me that this position will never suit me.” She paused as if considering the matter. “Or rather, I will never suit this position.”
James sighed. “I’ll have Catherine talk to him about Scout. She seems to be the only one he listens to.”
Her head came up. “A teacher who must appeal to the school board for help over every little problem is not worth her pay, sir.”
“This isn’t a little problem,” he replied. “It’s Benjamin Rankin. He’s so big he can barely fit through the door!”
She didn’t so much as smile at his wit. “He is only one of the difficulties associated with this position. I am a new teacher. I was barely confident of my abilities to instruct young children. I lack the experience to deal with mature students who challenge everything I say.”
James frowned. “We knew all that going in, and you were determined to take the position anyway. What changed your mind?”
“Today,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “Reality. I am ill-prepared to take on this position. You can do better.”
Perhaps, but he was starting to believe that Rina had a lot to give Wallin Landing, and they had a lot to give her, if she’d allow it.
He scratched his head. “Not so sure about that, ma’am. You did come highly recommended.”
“By a man who is a well-known liar,” she reminded him.
“And you have a certain presence.”
“With insufficient knowledge and experience to back it up.” She stopped her packing and dropped her arms, face scrunching. “I’ve been pretending even to myself I can do this. I’m no better than Asa Mercer!”