He loved how she was suddenly seeing possibilities for her life and not focusing on being the cause of disasters. He knew that the belief was still there but every day that went by without her tripping someone or something breaking as she walked by, helped her see that she wasn’t the cause. He made sure through their ever-strengthening connection to let her know when nothing went wrong. Just to make her aware that the disasters she thought always happened really weren’t that often. She just noticed more when they did.
Every night they spent time together just the two of them sharing their dreams for the future, looking at the stars or dancing in their parlor. Once he’d known how much his wife loved dancing with him, he’d gone straight to the general store and bought a Victrola. He’d gotten every recording they had and had ordered several others that would be arriving any day now. So every chance he got he was dancing around the parlor or kitchen or dining room with his wife, and when they turned in they would continue the dance as old as time.
He saw several of the school board members approaching him and the look on their faces told him this was not a conversation he was going to enjoy. They all looked like they had been sucking on lemons or biting into a prickly pear without removing the barbs.
“Samuel, we need to talk to you about that woman you married.”
Sam stopped and stared at Mister Jefferson. “Jethro, maybe you’d better reword that statement before I take offense. You wish to talk to me about my wife?”
The man tilted his head up. “That is what I just said, is it not?”
“No sir, it isn’t. What you said is that you wanted to talk to me about that woman I married, as if she was lower than something you stepped in crossing the street. That woman is my wife, the sister-in-law of your pastor and a famous shootist. So maybe you should rethink how you speak about her or you and I are going to have problems.”
“Well then, since you are going to take that stance before we even start, let me make this plain. Mrs. Ryder will not be teaching at the school here in Redemption; not now and not ever, as long as I’m in charge.”
“I didn’t realize you made the decisions alone, Jethro. From what Nathan told me, the decision would be made by the entire school board.”
“Be that as it may, I am the chairman of that board and we will not be hiring your wife.”
“Why is that? We all know that she is highly qualified and has impeccable references.”
“Do you know what she wants to do to our school? The types of students she wants to allow in our classroom?”
There it was. This was about the fact that she wanted to teach all children, not just the ‘right’ children. “As a matter of fact, I do know her ideas. I fully agree with her philosophy of education. Every child deserves an education.”
The look of disgust on Jefferson’s face belied his words. “I agree in principle that every child deserves an education, but they don’t need to attend school with our children. They should attend their own schools where they are taught appropriate subjects for their kind.”
“Appropriate subjects for their kind? You mean like how to survive on a reservation or to be the servants of men better than them?”
Jethro smiled and nodded his head. “Yes, see I knew you would understand. You need to instruct you wife, son.”
Sam knew his face had just gone the color of his hair because the other members of the board that had come with Jethro Jefferson were distancing themselves from him. “I am not your son. Thank God, I’m not your son. You see, my father taught me that all men are created equal. You sir, are the one in need of an education, not my wife. If you like, I’d be more than glad to give you a lesson right now.”
He started to roll the sleeves of his shirt up to pummel the bigoted idiot in front of him. Jethro stepped back. “Be that as it may, there will be no all-inclusive school here in Redemption. Not while I’m in charge of the school board.”
“Oh, there will be an all-inclusive school. You can keep your one room school and good luck finding a teacher. Because, you see, you’ve just given me the perfect opportunity to show my beautiful wife how much she means to me. I’m going to build her a school, I’ll help her hire teachers and train them to use the methods and philosophies of her matron, Mrs. Wigg of New York City. A school that every child is welcome at and that any parent would be proud their child attended. With smaller classrooms and individualized attention.”
The man sputtered. “You can’t do that, the school board has the final say about education in our town.”
Sam smiled. “You are right, but our town ends just before my ranch. I’ll build her a private school that is privately funded by my family right on the edge of our property and offer to allow any child to attend. I wonder, mister school board chairman, how you will find a teacher in your out-of-date facility and why any parent would send their child there?
“Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go see my lawyer and make arrangements to hire an architect to build my wife a modern school building with the most modern advances in education that are available. Oh, and I need to have him send advertisements for instructors willing to use the most innovative methods.”
Sam turned and walked away still wishing he could have beat the pompous windbag. Instead he’d do just as he said, and he’d get Dorthy to help him make it a reality. He’d even suggest they name it the Wigg Inclusive School in honor of the woman who pushed his wife to come west where he could meet her.
Dorthy was cleaning the last room in her house. It was the bedroom right beside hers and Samuel’s, and the one that when the time came she planned to make into the nursery. She was busy scrubbing the floors when she heard a knock on the door.
She knew it couldn’t be Hanna, Elizabeth, Grace or Rebecca as they would have just come in and hollered for her. She opened the door to see a man she’d never met before. “Señora Ryder?”
“Yes, can I help you?”
“Si, I believe so. Señor Yates, he tell me that you are a special teacher of plants? That you know how to help things grow when nothing is working?”
“I have studied and taught botany, that is how things grow, yes.”
The look of relief on the man’s face was obvious. “This is good. You help us, please? Our crops are not growing good.”
“Your crops?”
“Si Senora. My family, we are tenant farmers on the ranch. Our corn, it is not growing good. We do not know what else to do, we have tried everything we know. You come look for us? See if you can save?”
“I’m sorry Señor, what is your name again?”
“Aieyaya! I forget to tell you, forgive me, Señora. I am Manuel Sanchez, we work for Señor Ryder on second farm.”
Using the connection to her husband, she asked Sam if they had a Manuel Sanchez running one of the farms. When the answer came back that they did, she let him know she was riding out to that farm with the man to look at the crop there.
“What’s going on, love?”
“He says it isn’t growing the way it should. I’m going to go look. Maybe I can help.”
She could feel his smile and pleasure at her willingness to help his family’s ranch and workers. “If anyone can it’s you, love.”
“Señor Sanchez, if you’ll wait, I’ll change into a riding skirt and come with you.”
“Gracias, I will go and saddle a horse for you, Señora.”
Dorthy quickly changed and found the farmer waiting with a horse for her, one that Sam had told her was gentle and a good one for her to start riding until she got used to doing so. The farmer helped her on the horse, being very gentlemanly about how he handled her. She knew that he was a good man and didn’t want to upset one of the boss’s wives. They rode for about an hour until they came upon a field that should have been full of corn stocks as tall as she was, but they were only about half that size and the corn on them she could see were puny ears that didn’t at all look healthy.
She got down and looked at the stalks. They looked malnouri
shed; and then she went onto her knees and dug her hands into the soil. Where in the garden plot that soil was a rich red color, here it was almost colorless. She needed to ask a few questions, but she knew what the problem was. They’d over-planted in these plots without replenishing the nutrients in the soil. “When was the last time this field was left fallow?”
“We always plant these fields, Señora Ryder.”
“Between plantings, what do you do with the field?”
“We harvest and plant, Señora.”
“That is not good, Señor Sanchez. The ground must rest once in a while and it must be fed after every crop to get it ready for another crop. There is no life left in this soil to grow a strong crop.”
The man looked stricken. “What can we do, Señora? Is there a way to save this crop?”
“I need to talk to my husband. There may be a way to save this crop but if we can’t, there are things we need to change before you plant another crop. Is this the only crop like this?”
“No Señora, all the crops are like this. What have we been doing wrong?”
“You need to have more fields than you plant so some of them can rest and be fed while others that have rich soil are planted. Take me back to my home so I can talk to Señor Ryder and see what we can do. Do you and the other farms have an ash pile?”
The man shook his head. “There is a man who comes once a month and collects all our ash and any scraps we do not use.”
“He’s using them to feed his fields. There are some things we can do but I have to see if they are able to be done. Let me talk to my husband and see if we can help save this crop and show you how to have good crops from now on.”
The man nodded and helped her back up on her horse. “Gracias Señora. When Señor Yates told us you had come, we knew you were the answers to the prayers we had sent to El Dios for help.”
His statement shocked Dorthy. All her life she’d thought of herself as cursed, the cause of others’ disasters, and here this humble man and his neighbors saw her as an answer to their prayers. Could they be right? Could the Ryders have been correct that she wasn’t bad luck? That instead, as they had all insisted daily, she was a blessing? She remembered what Rebecca had told her the night of the hay barn fire. That she was the answer to her prayer for a wife for her son that would help him be the man God called him to be. Maybe she had been looking at things wrong.
On the heels of that thought came another: they had enough ash to save the crops to nourish the fields. They had the ash from the hay barn and if Sam or Nathan had manure from cleaning the stables they might just be able to make feed for the crops and save this harvest. She couldn’t wait to talk to her husband.
Chapter Ten
One year later.
Samuel stood looking at the building that had been finished the week before. He’d spared no expense and Nathan and their father had contributed as well. The Wigg Inclusive School building was finished. With four classrooms, Dorthy and the teachers she’d hired could divide the students into those learning their letters and numbers, those beginning to read, write and do their sums, those learning more advanced levels, and finally those wanting to learn what was needed to get their teaching certificates.
He was proud of the progress they had made. This school was the first building in their area built of actual brick. Not mud brick like the hacienda, but red brick. They had the blacksmith make them playground equipment like swings, a merry go round and slide. And the carpenter had made them a nice set of teeter totters. Now the children had a safe place to play and exercise as well.
All of it part of Dorthy and Madame Wigg’s philosophy on education. To teach the whole body, not just the mind. There was also a plot for a garden that would be used to teach the principles that Dorthy had introduced on their own farms, one of rest for the land and nourishing it, instead of just taking from it. She’d shown him scripture that talked about a year of Jubilee for the land and that had tickled him. That his wife would use scripture to instruct the pastor’s son on caring for the land God had given them.
He walked through the doors of the school building and saw his wife talking with six young ladies. They hadn’t set out to hire just female teachers but that was what they ended up with, including his sister Hanna. She had become one of Dorthy’s biggest supporters, wanting to learn everything his wife knew. The two were truly best friends.
One thing that Dorthy had insisted on were dorms built for the teachers who were single. There were actually eight rooms, but she’d insisted that the teachers bunk two to a room. She talked about how having her roommate back at Madame Wiggs School and Foundling Home had helped her keep from being too lonely. That left them with several empty rooms but Dorthy insisted that the school would grow and they’d need the room.
True to her word, when Madame Wigg had gotten Dorthy’s letter, she had sent the trust she’d set aside for Dorthy’s school. Not that the money was needed. The Ryder’s could and would provide the school with everything they needed, but Dorthy had wanted to contribute as more than just the Head Mistress of the school. She wanted to help support the financial side of the school.
Dorthy turned and looked at him. Their connection had grown over the last year, too. So much so that they had a hard time keeping secrets from each other. But somehow in the past few weeks his wife had found a way to do so. He knew she was keeping something from him but she wouldn’t tell him what. While earlier it might have worried him, now he just let it slide. He knew she would tell him when she was ready too. He walked up and took her in his arms. Her young teachers all giggled and blushed. All but Hanna who just shook her head. “Get used to it, they are all the time hugging and kissing and they don’t care where they are or who sees them.”
“Just for that, Hanna, I believe I will make you watch me kiss my wife again.”
Sam pulled Dorthy closer and kissed her soundly. He let her go when he heard the sound of wagons pulling up out front. “Your desks are here. Tell the hands where you want them and how many in each room and they’ll get them set for you.”
Dorthy nodded. “Are you headed into town?”
“Yes, the deputies said some of the local businesses had been broken into this week. I sent word for Cindy to come help me investigate. She was happy to get a case at home so she could spend time with you and Hanna. I think she’s lonely in Independence.”
Dorthy smiled. “I’m glad she’s going to be home. I hope you catch the crooks but at the same time I hope it takes a while. It will be nice to catch up with her. I know your mother and Grace miss her something fierce.”
“They do. Did you hear from your friends yet?”
“I got a letter from Emmeline and Beulah. Abigail wrote last month and she had heard from some of the other girls. She even sent word that there was a new rumor about Xena.”
That caught Sam’s attention; the rumors about the missing young woman had grown more and more outlandish with each one that they’d heard about. “Oh, what is it this time? Has she become a Pirate Princess?”
Dorthy smiled. “No, but Abigail said someone heard she was traveling with one of those wild west shows as a trick rider.”
Sam laughed and kissed her again. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Dorthy bit her lower lip. “Hurry right home. I have a surprise for you tonight.”
“A surprise, really? Can you tell me now?”
She shook her head. “No, but you don’t want to be late if you can help it.”
“I’ll do my best.”
The twinkle in her eye told him it would be well worth it for him to maybe try and be home early even.
Dorthy looked around the dining room. Everything was perfect. She’d cooked all Sam’s favorites and had set the table just for the two of them. She’d sent word for the family to stay away tonight and just let them have this time to themselves. Her mother-in-law knew what the big deal was, and promised that they wouldn’t be disturbed.
She walked into the room next to h
er and Sam’s and looked it over one more time. She couldn’t help but smile at the thought of her surprise for him. She shut the door and walked to the parlor, taking a seat by the fireplace and picking up the knitting she was working on.
Dorthy thought back to all that had happened in the last year. Finding out Wiggie was sick, being sent away from the only home she’d ever known. Worrying about her bad luck and then her disaster in Missouri. Meeting the handsome sheriff who’d come to tell her the man she was to marry was a criminal with six other wives. Marrying Samuel Ryder the day after he met him. Falling in love with her husband. That intense connection between them. All of this made for an interesting start.
Then helping save the crops that season. Teaching the tenants and her husband’s family a better and scriptural way to farm. That had made her laugh as her father-in-law and brother-in-law both had kind of been prickly about her teaching them out of the Bible. But they’d both agreed when she was done that she was correct and the crops since had proven the Biblical way of farming was the best.
The biggest thing for her over the last year was finding a new way to see herself. Not as the pariah, the Jonah, the one who brought disasters to those around her, but as a blessing. She now knew she was indeed the answer to several peoples’ prayers. The tenant farmers who were afraid they were going to lose their homes and livelihoods, her husband’s family who had prayed for Sam to find the right wife for him. The missing half of his heart and soul. As well as being told by the parents of the Mexican, Indian and Negro children who were enrolled in her school that she was an answer to their prayers as well. All that had slowly changed her perception of who she was and what she was.
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