“There. Now what do you have to say to that?” Samuel asked, slapping the arm of his chair as if Lily’s presence had proven a point.
It wasn’t difficult for Lily to look perplexed. “Good morning, Mr. Kuhn, Mr. Avery.”
“Lily, would you set this idiot straight?” Christian drawled, rising to offer her his chair. “He seems to think that the two of us were spotted together in the early morning hours yesterday.”
She worked her expression through as many emotions as she could as she crossed to the offered chair—shock, amusement, outrage, fear—some of them genuine.
“I don’t know how that would be possible, Mr. Kuhn, as I was snowed in at Miss Jones’s boarding house,” she lied smoothly and sat.
Christian stood behind her, arms crossed like a sentinel. “See? You need to get your facts straight before you accuse respectable women of indiscretions.”
Samuel scowled, unconvinced. “Lieutenant Wilkins was at the jail and saw them with his own eyes. If that’s not a fact, then I don’t know what is,” he told Mr. Prescott.
“Wilkins only just showed up in town on Wednesday. He doesn’t know Bo Turner from Rev. Andrews,” Christian scoffed.
“He knows what he saw,” Samuel pressed on. “And based on that evidence, I demand that Miss Singer be removed from her position as a teacher at this school!”
Cold understanding poured down Lily’s back. She should have known. If Samuel couldn’t get rid of her one way, he would try another. She took a deep breath and fought to keep her composure as her worst nightmare knocked at the door.
Mr. Prescott sat, shifting in his chair with a grimace in a vain attempt to get comfortable. “Miss Singer is one of the best teachers this school has, Mr. Kuhn. The students find her engaging and some of the most difficult students have seen measurable improvements in her classroom. If what you’re saying is true, then I would have no choice but to dismiss her.”
“Then dismiss her, because it is true,” Samuel insisted.
Mr. Prescott sent a momentary glance to Lily telling her he didn’t want to believe any of it before his glance flickered to Christian.
“This is a pointless waste of time and a despicable accusation against an innocent woman,” Christian insisted.
“A woman that you are well known to be involved with, Mr. Avery,” Samuel argued. “Half the town has seen the two of you canoodling in public.”
Every close conversation, every flirting look and indiscreet touch between her and Christian came back to haunt Lily. She should have forced Christian to keep his distance.
“We’re courting, all right?” Christian said.
Lily gasped and sat straighter. She twisted to glare at him wondering how a statement like that could possibly help the situation.
Mr. Prescott’s eyebrows rose and his faint smile lasted for about three seconds.
“But that does not mean we’re doing anything worth firing Lily for,” Christian finished before Samuel could get a word in. “It’s all above board. Maybe a kiss now and then….”
Lily shook with fear and with the desire to slap a hand over Christian’s mouth and never let him speak again.
“I can assure you, Mr. Prescott, I was home at the boarding house yesterday morning. You may ask my fellow lodger, Jessica Bunsick, and she will verify that.”
“Fine!” Samuel barked. “Go get her. Bring her in and we’ll ask!”
Christian bristled behind her. Mr. Prescott sighed and rubbed his head.
“Samuel, you can’t call half of Cold Springs into my office because you disagree with Miss Singer’s politics or because your wife’s team lost to hers,” he said.
A spark of hope flared in Lily’s chest. If Mr. Prescott believed that this was all retaliation for the academic games, then she had a chance.
Before Samuel could protest, there was a knock at the door. It opened a moment later to reveal Michael West.
“Sorry it took so long to get here,” Michael said, coming into the room and shutting the door behind him. “It’s inventory day and Eloise is fussy.”
How Christian could calmly chuckle when the stakes were so high was beyond Lily. He had the right idea though. She forced herself to smile.
“Good morning, Mr. West,” she greeted him.
“Lily.” Michael took off his hat and nodded to her, acknowledging the men. “What’s this all about? Are we having an impromptu town council meeting?”
“Mr. West,” Samuel said, standing and attempting to tower over Michael. “Did you or did you not see Mr. Avery and Miss Singer together yesterday morning at an early hour? Did you not, in fact, let them into your store?”
Lily held her breath. She caught the barest hint of a grin from Christian before Michael blinked and shrugged and said, “No. I don’t recall seeing them at all yesterday.” His expression was so perfectly blank that he should have considered entering a high-stakes poker tournament right then.
“Dammit!” Samuel shouted, forming a fist with nothing to use it on. “You’re a businessman and a member of the town council! It is your civic duty to tell the truth and not to lie for these two!”
Michael balked.
Christian lost his grin and barked, “Now hold on a minute,” at the same time that Mr. Prescott stood and said, “Mr. Kuhn, really!”
Michael held up a hand to silence the other two. “Where is this coming from, Samuel?” he asked, the only one who managed to stay outwardly calm besides Lily.
“Carl Wilkins saw them, saw you,” Samuel said.
Michael frowned. “Who’s Carl Wilkins?”
“That Lieutenant meddling over at the jail,” Christian told him.
“Was he at the jail yesterday morning?” Michael asked.
“Yes!” Samuel sighed in exasperation. “That’s what I’ve been trying to say this whole time. He saw the lot of you.”
Michael arched an enigmatic eyebrow. “I’m not sure if it’s exactly illegal for a man who has not been appointed by the town council to be at the jail outside of business hours,” he said, “but you know as well as I do, Samuel, that it’s highly irregular.”
Samuel sputtered. “That’s not the point! You are an accessory to impropriety, Mr. West. I want that immoral teacher fired!”
Michael paused and adjusted his glasses, eyes unfocused, as though thinking. Then he sucked in a breath and smiled. “I remember now. If your lieutenant friend saw anyone, it was Mrs. Deen and Oliver,” he said. “They came in early yesterday to help me bring out all the snow removal supplies. I figured people would need them, and I was right.”
Lily let out her breath. Poker? No, Michael West should be on the stage.
Samuel’s face and neck were purple with frustration. Mr. Prescott looked more relieved than anything.
“There you have it, Samuel,” he said. “Whatever Lieutenant Wilkins saw, he must have been mistaken. Miss Singer, you can go back to your classroom now.”
“Thank you, Mr. Prescott.” She rose, smoothed her skirts, and marched to the door without looking at a single one of the men. She would have to measure her every step from now on. She would thank Michael later. And as soon as school let out for the day she would give Christian a piece of her mind and a lecture about keeping his mouth shut that he wouldn’t soon forget.
Christian wanted to feel the thrill of victory at making Samuel look like a fool. He wanted to, but knowing how close he’d come to causing trouble for Lily kept him as sober as a judge. And he knew judges.
“Are we done here?” he asked Hal Prescott.
“Yes, we are. Gentlemen.” Hal nodded and resumed his seat. He sent Christian one final warning look as he crossed to the door. It was enough to tell Christian that Hal thought there could be something to Samuel’s accusations. He wasn’t about to prove Hal right.
Michael followed Christian out into the hall. Samuel pushed past them, shaking his head and muttering. They let him race ahead and out the school’s front door.
“Thanks, I owe you one
,” Christian said as he and Michael ambled down the hallway.
Michael waved the thanks away. “I’ve owed you for years. But now we’re even.” He stopped at the door and arched an eyebrow at Christian. “I’d tell you not to do anything else stupid for a woman, but I know first-hand that that’s pointless advice.”
“You can say that again,” Christian mumbled.
“So I’ll give you this advice instead. Marry her as fast as you can.”
Christian smiled. “Papa is sending the family ring Western Union. I just got the telegram this morning.”
“Good.” Michael thumped him on the back and opened the door to push him out of the school. “Keep your nose clean until it gets here.”
Everything about the statement was easier said than done.
Two hours later, Christian was back at the school as it let out for the day, waiting to escort Lily home. He crossed the schoolyard to meet her as she stomped out of the building, bundled head to toe in her winter things. She smiled the moment she saw him. Half a moment later that smile vanished behind a scowl so dark it threatened to loosen his bowels.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as he matched his steps to hers.
“I’m walking you home.” He smiled, knowing he was dog’s meat. “Isn’t that what people do when they’re courting?”
She picked up her pace, hugging her satchel of school books to her chest and clenching her jaw.
“Technically I should be carrying your books, too,” he added.
She stopped and faced him in the middle of the shoveled path.
“I don’t know what you want from me, Christian,” she hissed. Her anger wavered. “I don’t know what I want from you either.”
He stepped closer to her. “Sweetheart.”
She jerked away. “I am a teacher, Christian. I love my students and I love my job. I can’t lose them because I love—”
Her face flushed bright red and her lips snapped shut.
Christian drew in a breath as though someone had punched him in the stomach. Because she loved him. Against his better judgment, he smiled.
She huffed with impatience and continued down the path to town.
“I can’t lose my job, Christian,” she repeated, knowing that he was following her. “Not just for my sake. The children need me to be there, to fight for them. Red Sun Boy and Martha and their siblings and cousins need an advocate so that they can receive an education equal to any other child.”
“I know,” he said. “They do. But not at your expense.”
“I never said it was at my expense,” she argued.
They reached the crossroads where the path to the school fed into Main Street. Lily kept her head down and shot forward, trying to outpace him. She cast furtive glances at the other people in the street. Christian frowned in irritation and jogged to catch up with her. Love shouldn’t be this hard.
“You can be seen with me, you know,” he told her. “It’s not a crime to have a beau.”
“Is that what you are?” she drawled.
“Of course that’s what I am.” He caught her arm, sliding it through his and slowing her down. “I’m your beau, your suitor, if you will.” He bent closer to her as they walked. “Your lover.”
“Stop.”
“Your paramour.”
“Christian, ssh!”
“I have had intimate carnal knowledge of your—”
“Will you be quiet!” she snapped.
He pressed his lips together in a line that quickly became a smile. “Good afternoon, Mrs. McGee,” he greeted the woman that passed them as they neared the train station.
“Good afternoon to you too!” Mrs. McGee replied with a grin that settled halfway between teasing and scolding.
It wiped the smug look off of his face. He cleared his throat and loosened his grip on Lily’s arm.
“I haven’t been that obvious, have I?”
Lily sighed and shook her head. They turned onto the station road and walked on toward the boarding house.
“It’s not that I mind being seen with you,” Lily explained. “It’s not even that I mind you telling Mr. Prescott we are courting without consulting me first.”
“Is that what this is about?” he asked.
“No!” Her fire redoubled. “No, this is about losing focus when the stakes are high. It is about forgetting what is truly important.”
He stopped her, turning her to face him and holding her arms.
“You are truly important,” he said. “You are the most important thing to me.”
Her reaction was not what he expected. She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut.
“The Flathead children were missing from school today,” she said when she opened them.
“So?” Christian shrugged. “It snowed. They’re probably still digging out at Sturdy Oak’s place.”
“They probably are,” Lily agreed with words only, “but with all the trouble lately I can’t take that for granted. Lieutenant Wilkins—”
“Is just one man who showed up two days ago. He hasn’t had time to cause any real trouble yet,” Christian assured her.
“He is a sign of greater trouble,” Lily argued. “Who else is out there? Who else besides Mr. Kuhn has taken matters into their own hands? And the man sitting in the jail right now? What cause do they have to keep him there, and yet there he is.”
She was right. She was also taking that rightness to extremes.
“Until that man lets us know who he is and explains why he was at the pharmacy that night, he’s safer where he is. If he was walking free, someone would pounce.”
Not a drop of comfort appeared on her face. She stepped away from his touch and continued down the road.
“These are the things we should be worried about,” she said. “You and I, whatever this is between us, needs to wait until—”
She stopped dead with a gasp.
It took him a few seconds to figure out why. They had reached the front gate of the boarding house. The garden path had been cleared, the porch swept clean of snow, and a trunk and two large carpetbags sat at the top of the stairs. Miss Jones had just come out of the house to place a small knitting basket on the edge of the trunk. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Lily.
“Here are your things,” she announced. “Take them and leave my sight.”
Lily’s mouth dropped open but no sound came out. Her warm brown skin paled to an ashen color.
“What is this all about?” Christian demanded. He pushed forward through the front gate and marched up the porch steps to face Viola. Lily followed, looking ill.
“You should know.” Viola stared him down with a sneer. “She is your responsibility now, I suppose. Isn’t that the way these sordid things work?”
A prickle of guilt raced down Christian’s back. He fought it off with a feigned scoff.
“Don’t tell me you believe the hateful rumors that some people have been spreading,” he said.
Viola gaped as him as though he were a damned fool. “Rumors, are they?”
“Yes, they are.”
“You call them rumors and then show up on my doorstep with the savage hussy?”
“Now hold on a minute there!” he protested. “Lily is neither savage nor a hussy. She is the victim of a vicious rumor, and you are not helping.”
“Of course, you would say that,” she fired back. “Guilty men always deny the truth that is right in front of them. I should have known better than to take an Indian into my house in the first place.”
Christian had never wanted to strike a woman so badly.
“Who Lily is has nothing to do with her family of origin,” he argued. “You were delighted to have a highly-respected teacher under your roof when she came here.”
“That was before I realized that savagery cannot be educated out of…of a savage.”
Christian snorted in frustration, throwing his hands out, unable to speak he was so aggravated by the woman’s ignorance. He was on the verge of coming
back with a few good replies about what Viola could do with her boarding house and her prissy, prejudiced attitude when Lily laid a hand on his arm.
“Thank you for the consideration you have shown me, Miss Jones,” she said, steady and strong. “I will find other accommodations.”
“I should say so!” Viola said with a nod.
“I will have to send someone to pick up my trunk once I find a place to stay,” Lily went on. “Could it stay on your porch until then?”
“It’d better be gone before sunset or I’ll sell it to a passing trader,” Viola replied.
Christian gaped at her callousness. He’d always respected Viola—even if he didn’t like her—but no more.
He looked to Lily to see what she wanted to do. Her eyes were focused on the window behind Viola. Jessica Bunsick stood there, tears in her eyes, mouth turned down in bitter grief. She raised a hand for a defeated wave to Lily. Lily shuddered as though swallowing her own tears and turned away. For one moment her face contorted in misery before she took a breath and straightened her shoulders.
He wasn’t going to have it. He wasn’t going to have any of it.
“I’ll be taking a look at your permit to have paying lodgers, Viola,” he told the sour woman as he took one of Lily’s carpetbags in each hand and her knitting basket under his arm. “You may have to kick everyone out, and then you’d be as alone as you deserve to be.” It was a hollow, childish threat, but at least it was something.
“There’s no need,” Lily whispered, taking the knitting basket from him and marching down the stairs.
He followed her along the garden path and out into the street.
“I think there is a need. There’s a need to give that woman a swift kick in the pants.”
Lily shook her head. “She has every right to dismiss me, even if it’s just over a rumor. To tell the truth, it has not been a particularly comfortable place to live.”
She was making excuses and making the best of things. That didn’t hide her shock and misery. Christian had to work hard to keep the murder out of his heart.
“We’ll put you up at the hotel,” he said, channeling his fury into making decisions. “I’m sure Delilah would be more than happy to—”
In Your Arms (Montana Romance) Page 21