by AmyFleming
No, opening the letter wasn’t the right thing to do. The right thing to do was to mail it. Eileen McArthur obviously wanted the letter to be sent if she went to all of the trouble of writing it and sealing it in the envelope.
It was a fine day. Charlotte would walk over to the post office and mail it. It was the least she could do for her predecessor, the teacher who had been so generous that she left all her teaching materials behind.
Chapter Nine
When Charlotte got in from school that day, Eliza Dredger had a worried expression on her tired face. Her blond hair was drawn into a soft bun on the back of her head. Eliza was down on her hands and knees going through a box she had pulled out from under the sofa. She sat back on her knees when Charlotte came through the door and managed a gentle smile. It was Charlotte’s experience that women who were in a family way often looked radiant, but Eliza’s face was creased with lines.
“Are you looking for something?” Charlotte asked.
“No, no nothing at all. I want to get things straightened away before the baby comes.” Eliza closed the box and pushed it back under the sofa. She climbed to her feet and dropped heavily into a wooden armchair. She rested her hands lightly on the bulge at the front of her dress.
“Can I get you something?” Charlotte asked. “Tea maybe?”
“Tea would be perfect,” Eliza answered and Charlotte went into the kitchen to put on the kettle.
“How was school today?” Eliza asked when Charlotte came back balancing a cup and saucer in each hand.
“Good, good. The children need to do some catching up, but things seem fine. Eileen, Miss McArthur, I mean, she left all her lesson plans. It seems like I can just start up again where she left off.”
Charlotte did not say how odd she thought it was that Eileen McArthur had left all of her books and her notes in the little schoolhouse.
“She left stuff in the classroom?”
“Yes, I should really box it all up and send it to her. Do you have an address?”
“No, not at all. Best to ask my husband.”
“Miss McArthur was planning a pageant for Thanksgiving,” Charlotte said. “The children are very excited about it.”
“We have one every year,” Eliza said. “Pastor Miles will probably come by to talk to you about it. After the play, he usually gives a short sermon and leads a prayer.”
They sat quietly for a moment, drinking their tea. Charlotte felt Eliza studying her. Did Eliza think Charlotte was too young to be a teacher?
“I hope you are happy living here,” Eliza said at last. “We don’t provide very much in the line of entertainment.”
So that was it, Charlotte thought. “This is my first school,” she said, trying to reassure Eliza. “I’ll probably spend a lot of time doing work to prepare for the classes. The Thanksgiving Pageant will take a lot of work.”
“It will be a good chance for you to meet all the parents,” Eliza commented. “I hope I’ll be able to come.”
“I hope everyone will like it,” Charlotte said.
Eliza nodded and then said, “Mrs. Ernest Miles called today. She’s arranged a party for you tomorrow evening. She wants to introduce you to some of the other young ladies here in Bandit Creek.”
“That’s very thoughtful of her.”
“Bandit Creek is a friendly place. I hope you’ll be happy here,” Eliza repeated. She seemed puzzled by the fact that so many teachers had left over the years.
*****
The following evening at Pastor Miles’s home, Charlotte realized that Mabel Miles had planned something different from a party for her. It was more like an inquisition. Mrs. Miles was a small woman, with bright blue eyes. Her hair pulled back from her face in a tight roll. She wore round eyeglasses that had no rims, only a gold bridge over her nose. She wore a black dress with a deep blue collar. Charlotte had no problem in believing Mrs. Mile’s was the minister’s wife.
There were other young women there, but Mrs. Miles spent half of the evening finding out Charlotte’s entire life history. That she had grown up on a farm near St. Helen in Michigan. That her parents and the rest of her family now lived in California. That she loved school and wanted to be a teacher, so she stayed in Michigan when her family moved. That she had lived with her best friend, Ora, and her family while she went to Normal School. That this was her first teaching position.
“Well, you may have finished Normal School, but do you have any experience taking care of children?” Mrs. Miles asked.
“I have six younger brothers and sisters,” Charlotte replied. “Five of us were born in five years. Later on, my Mom had Jenny and then Ben, who was the baby. You could say I have a lot of experience with kids.”
After she finished with her questions, the pastor’s wife patted her hand and said, “I think you’ll do fine as the teacher.” She was especially impressed by the grade eleven medal Charlotte had earned for being at the top of her class. “Now if you need anything, you just let me know. My husband, the pastor, is one of the school trustees and I like to help him out.”
Charlotte finally had a chance to meet the other girls when the older women gathered in the kitchen to help Mrs. Miles serve the luncheon.
“Sorry you had to go through all that,” one of the girls, Ruth Kohler, whispered. Ruth seemed like she was very close in age to Charlotte and Charlotte wondered if they might become friends. “Mrs. Miles thinks she runs this town.”
“I imagine she wanted to see if I was up to teaching in the school.”
“We were lucky to get you to come so fast when Miss McArthur left all unexpected. My brothers and sisters were home and underfoot for three weeks.”
“This was the first job offer I got,” Charlotte confided. “My friend, Ora, was getting married, so I...” Charlotte paused, not wanting to tell that particular story. “It was time for me to find a job.” Charlotte wanted to change the subject. “Do folks around here play cards?” she asked.
Ruth giggled. “Not at Mrs. Miles’s place. Here we just sit and drink tea and work on knitting or some such thing. But there’s a dance at the Atherton Pavilion on Friday night.”
“A dance would be wonderful but I don’t know how I would get there.”
“Would you like to come with us? I’ll ask my mother if we can take you.”
“A dance,” Charlotte sighed. Her feet began to tap in time to some imaginary music. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chapter Ten
Friday morning Charlotte took a bag with a change of clothes, her curling tongs and a little hand held mirror with her to school. She left them in the teacherage so she could change after school. She dumped some hairpins and a brush out of her purse.
Then she lifted her mother’s Ladysmith Revolver out of the purse. Her father bought the gun before he left for California. He taught both Charlotte and her mother to shoot it. When the rest of the family moved, her mother had been able to give Charlotte just a few things -- Charlotte’s blue trunk, the curling tongs and the Ladysmith.
Charlotte sighted the gun towards the floor and slid her finger against the trigger. The Ladysmith was the perfect size for her hand and could be hidden in her purse. It was unusual because it held seven bullets. She hadn’t shot the gun since they left the farm. The revolver gave her a funny homesick feeling and she put it back in her purse.
She walked slowly around the teacherage. It was a single room with a bed behind a screen in one corner, a table and some chairs and even a wooden rocking chair beside the woodstove. A coal oil lamp sat on the table. Charlotte could use it to heat up her curling tongs. Charlotte looked around the room and marveled at all the space. She’d never had this much space to herself.
At the Dredger place, she shared a room with the two girls, Maud and Elyse. Tommy was the middle child but the only boy. He had his own room and Charlotte envied him.
She crossed the breezeway to the schoolroom. Most of the children were already playing in the schoolyard. She would j
ust have time to start a fire in the stove to take the chill out the classroom before it was time to ring the bell.
Seeing the classroom was still a heady experience for her. Her own classroom. She still couldn’t believe her luck. With a jolt of shock, she realized she was not alone. There sitting at her desk was Luc Branigan. At least, he had lit the fire and the room was already warm.
Calm down, she told herself. “Are you here to study grade four, Mr. Branigan? In grade four, we do long division.”
“Very funny, Miss Fraser. No, I’m here to offer you a ride back to Dredger’s ranch anytime you need one. In the winter, we always send someone for my brothers and sisters. We can drop you off at Dredger’s road.” Then, he smiled that charming smile of his. “And because I would like to invite you to a dance this evening.”
“Oh, for the ride, thank you. As for the dance, no, I can’t go with you.”
“No? I thought you liked to dance?”
“I have an engagement.”
“A previous engagement? You’ve only been here three days.”
“It’s true,” Charlotte said. She had been so excited when Ruth invited her and now, here was Luc inviting her as well. It was too bad she couldn’t go with the handsome cowboy. Maybe she would quit thinking about Gilbert all the time. She continued, “I am going to Atherton Pavilion with Ruth Kohler and her mother tonight.”
“The Atherton Pavilion?” he repeated.
“Yes. Are there other places to dance around here?”
“For folks like you, the Pavilion is the main place. You can dance in the saloons, but I don’t recommend it.”
*****
The stagecoach ride to the Atherton Pavilion was a first for Charlotte who crowded in with Ruth, her mother and three other girls. They all wore their best dresses. The stagecoach ride was a flurry of color and excitement. Charlotte was lucky enough to sit beside the window of the coach. The wind blew in some gray clouds and the snow was falling lightly. She watched the flakes settle silently on the ground.
The Atherton Pavilion was a long building stretching back from the road to the river. Bright torches lined the road that led up to the pavilion and the lights from the windows gleamed in the night. Inside, Japanese lanterns lit up the ballroom.
A single fiddler, a tall dark haired man wearing a buckskin jacket, provided the music. He played square dances, but the popular music was a new dance, the two-step, and as soon as he started the first one, dancers crowded onto the floor.
Charlotte looked around the hall. Things were so different here than back in St. Helen. Everyone was high-spirited and while some of the dancers were graceful, a lot were just exuberant. Charlotte noticed the sheriff, Alec Forrest, at the back of the hall watching her. She felt a pang of guilt. She knew she should go over and apologize for leaving him at the sheriff’s office on her first day in town.
The sheriff stood alone. He seemed to be distant from the crowd, the miners and the town folk joining in the festivity. She had forgotten how good looking he was. She had finally gathered her courage to approach him when Luc Branigan appeared at her side and asked her to dance.
Luc had told her he didn’t dance, but in fact, he was an expert, guiding Charlotte around the dance floor, pulling her close to him when a miner brushed against them.
“Just a cowboy, Luc? You don’t dance?” she teased him.
He gave her an “aw shucks” smile and said, “When the women see what a great dancer I am, they can’t keep away from me.” He was very different from Gilbert. Gilbert liked to read and discuss literature. She wondered if Luc had ever read a book.
And then she wondered if she was going to spend her whole life comparing other men to Gilbert?
Soon, it was time to go in for supper. Luc offered Charlotte his arm to guide her into the dining room. And then, the sheriff came over from the back of the hall. “I’d like to escort the teacher for supper,” he said.
Luc Branigan looked surprised. “Sheriff, I never expected to see you here.” He turned to Charlotte and shrugged his shoulders as if to say what can I do? “Charlotte, this is the sheriff, Alec Forrest. He’ll probably warn you all about me. Don’t believe a word he says.”
Charlotte looked up at the sheriff. She didn’t like the way he spoke over her. Maybe he was one of those cowboys who never had been around a woman. “That was pretty rude of you. Luc Branigan was going to escort me to dinner.”
The sheriff looked back at her. She could see amusement, but also something like concern in his eyes.
“Are you going to warn me about Luc Branigan?” she asked. “Otto Dredger already has.”
“I want a word with you, Miss Fraser. And to enjoy your company at dinner.” He offered his arm to her and reluctantly she took it. It had a wiry kind of strength.
“I got caught up in my office the other day. My deputy had arrested one of...a young lady. I needed to deal with that. When I came out, I saw you getting into the wagon with Luc Branigan, so I knew he would take you out to the Dredger’s place.”
This big tough sheriff was explaining himself to her. She wondered if he was making an apology of sorts.
The tables in the dining room were set with china and big glass goblets. Fall vegetables, pumpkins, wheat sheaves and bright yellow napkins decorated the tables. Dinner was like a Thanksgiving supper with turkey and all of the trimmings. Charlotte ignored the sheriff and tucked into her meal.
Sheriff Forrest watched Charlotte inhale her meal. “Don’t they feed you at the Dredgers?” he asked. Truth was, Eliza Dredger was too tired these days to cook very much and she didn’t have any help in the house. Dinner was often what Charlotte put together after she got home from school. Not that she was going to complain about all that to Alec Forrest.
“You’ve hardly touched your dinner, Sheriff.”
He ate his dinner slowly. “I don’t often get a home cooked meal. I like to enjoy the experience.”
The sheriff waited until she was finished eating. “Let’s step outside for a bit,” he said.
“I don’t think so,” she said. What kind of girl did he think she was?
“Don’t worry. You’re way too young for me to be trifling with.”
Then she laughed. “Okay, Sheriff. I know I shouldn’t ask but just how old are you? I can’t believe you’re more than twenty or twenty-one.”
Finally, he smiled. Then he said, “I had to grow up fast.”
Charlotte knew what that felt like and wondered if something had happened to his parents. “Well, it’s good to know I am safe with you.”
“The point is you’re not safe here. I need to talk to you about Miss McArthur,” he told her.
He took her out to a bandstand that sat at the back of the Atherton Pavilion on the edge of the Bandit Creek. The creek ran silently with hardly a ripple. The moonlight played over its black expanse. It rolled by with the grace of a cat, or, perhaps, a cougar. Charlotte shivered in her party dress.
“What happened to Miss McArthur, Sheriff?”
“Don’t know. One day she was here, teaching school. The next day she was gone.”
“All her things are still at the school, Sheriff. It puzzled me. I’ve only been a teacher for a few days. All of the lesson plans I made at Normal School, all of the posters I hang on the walls, I’ll take them with me when I go.”
“I searched her desk to see if there was any sign of where she went,” he said. “There wasn’t anything.”
“Her trunk is still at the Dredgers. She hasn’t sent for it,” Charlotte continued.
The sheriff, if possible, looked even more concerned. “Charlotte, we can’t keep a teacher in this town. Most of them move after a few months. Only one of them stayed to marry someone in town and that was Otto Dredger’s wife. Miss McArthur is the first one who disappeared like this.”
“What does all this have to do with me?” Even as Charlotte asked the question, she knew the answer. The teacher had disappeared. If it could happen to one teacher, it could hap
pen to her. Alone, without any family in this remote mining town.
“I want you to keep your eyes open. And let me know if anything seems unusual to you. Anything that strikes you as wrong. You know what I mean, girl?”
“Play detective?” The idea was exciting. Maybe she could solve the mystery of the missing schoolteacher. Suddenly, she regretted mailing Eileen McArthur’s letter. It could have been a clue to where she went.
“No, don’t play detective. Come to me the minute you feel anything is wrong.”
“Oh.” Now she was disappointed.
He touched her cheek gently. “Be careful, Charlotte Fraser. Something here is not right.” He strode away, not back into the dancehall, but instead around the building towards the road.
Charlotte watched him go. She could still feel his touch on her cheek. He was not very friendly to her, but still she had the distinct notion he was worried about her safety. He would be watching out for her. Like the older brother that she never had. Still, the way she reacted to him was not like the way she felt about her own brothers. For all his remote detachment, he seemed somehow exciting.
For the first time in days, she was all alone. She looked around to see if anyone was coming out of the pavilion, but no, she had the bandstand to herself. She dug into her purse and pulled out her cigarettes. She lit one and inhaled deeply. Folks probably wouldn’t approve of the teacher smoking, but it made her feel mature and capable.
Charlotte watched Bandit Creek flow past. The snow had stopped falling and the clouds were gone. The sky was clear and stars twinkled down on her. She wondered if Gilbert was outside tonight, looking at the stars.
Behind her, she heard the door on the pavilion close, and she dropped her cigarette into the creek. She hoped the creek would keep the secret of her smoking safe. She turned around to see Luc Branigan crossing the grounds towards her.
“I wondered where you got to,” he said.
She watched him approach. He was taller than Gilbert. And she had to admit he was charming. Charming like Gilbert. Perhaps he was the man to make her forget Gilbert.