The School Mistress (Emerson Pass Book 1)

by Tess Thompson

  Flynn raised his hand. “Does Willa think snowball fights are unhealthy?”

  I gave him a stern stare. “Are you using the rules?”

  “I’m curious,” he said.

  “But was that kind?” I asked.

  “Is being funny the same as being kind?” he asked.

  “Not usually,” I said.

  “That’s too bad,” Flynn said.

  “Willa, tell us why you don’t like them,” I said.

  “I don’t like them because they hurt,” Willa said. “My brothers throw too hard. One time they gave me a bloody nose and then Mama sent them to bed with no supper.”

  Noah groaned quietly. Flynn leaned over and patted his shoulder. “Sisters.”

  They exchanged grins in a moment of obvious solidarity. A new friendship formed right before my eyes.

  The rest of the morning went by without incident. By lunchtime, it was as if the Cole children had always been with us. The sky was clear, and a fresh layer of powdery snow had fallen overnight. I sent them all out to play after everyone had finished their lunch. Willa hung behind, looking out the window. I was about to encourage her to join the others when Nora came rushing back inside. “Willa, want to play hopscotch with us?” Nora said.

  Cymbeline was outside making a stack of snowballs that she would surely use for an evil attack against her brother. There would be no hopscotch for that one. I should have paired Willa with one of the sweet Cassidy girls instead, I thought.

  “How do you play?” Willa asked.

  “It’s easy. We’ll show you,” Nora said as she held out her hand. Willa took it and the little girls walked out to the porch together.

  Offering friendship came naturally to innocent children, who saw only another child and not a skin color or social status. May they always remain thus, I prayed. Don’t let the world change them.

  I added the Cole siblings to my class roster and stood gazing at it for a few minutes. These young souls had been entrusted to me. I could only hope to do them all justice.

  That evening, I sat with Lord Barnes in the library as he told me about his morning visit to the Wus. He described their living situation and how they’d come to Emerson Pass. “Mrs. Wu’s been living out there alone with two small children. It was heartbreaking to see.”

  “And Samuel helped them all these years?”

  “Yes, it seems so.”

  “What do we do now?” I asked.

  “I’ve invited her to come work with Lizzie in the kitchen. She and the young ones will take the spare room down there.”

  I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “You asked them to live here?”

  “Yes. I know it’s rather unorthodox.”

  “Unorthodox? Is that the word?” My eyes filled with tears.

  “Miss Cooper, what’s the matter?” He leapt from his leather chair and thrust a handkerchief onto my lap. “What did I do wrong?”

  “Nothing. I’ve never heard of anything so outrageously kind.” I dabbed at my eyes with the handkerchief as tears continued to leak from my eyes.

  “I thought you’d be happy with me.” He knelt on the floor next to my chair and looked up at me with such a bewildered expression that I laughed through my tears.

  “I am.” I wiped my eyes and took a long breath, in and out, before speaking. “Lord Barnes, I’m quite undone. I’ve never known anyone like you in my life.”

  “It was the baby,” he said. “She looked at me with that face, and I could see how hungry and cold she was. I couldn’t walk away.”

  I love him, I thought. With all my heart. It was all over for me. This was the man I wanted.

  “What is it?” he asked. “You’re looking at me strangely.”

  “I have all these feelings.” I stopped, not trusting myself to speak further for fear of everything in my heart spilling out onto his lap.

  “What kind of feelings?” His eyes, glossy as green silk, held my gaze.

  My mother’s voice came to me then, reminding me that Lord Barnes was my employer, not a man. An employer with a Lord before his name. I had no title—nothing in front of my name but Miss, and it was likely to remain thus.

  “Feelings for me?” he asked.

  My stomach was filled with sparrows, fluttering their wings. “Yes. For you. Ones I don’t know what to do with. There are so many differences between us.”

  “Differences?” he asked.

  “You’re a lord and I’m a schoolmistress.” I folded and unfolded the hankie. “You’re rich and I’m poor.”

  “I don’t care anything about titles or circumstances. You’re beautiful and good and full of life. How could I not fall in love with you?”

  I wiped my cheeks. “It seems to me, Lord Barnes, that this wild country has made you wild.”

  “The country hasn’t made me wild. I was born this way.” The corners of his mouth lifted into a brief smile. “This place is like me, wild and free. I listen to my own instincts, not those deemed proper by a society I don’t even believe in.” He brushed his thumb across my jawline. My breath caught. “Do you know what my instincts are telling me to do right now?”

  I shook my head as the muscles in my thighs tightened.

  “They’re telling me to kiss you.”

  I couldn’t look away, drawn as I was to him as if an invisible force cleaved us together. I was an innocent when it came to men, but I knew the look of hunger when I saw it. This was not the appetite of an empty stomach but rather a craving only a man and woman could feel for each other. One for which there was only one single remedy.

  “Have you ever been kissed?” he asked.

  I nodded, dizzy. “Once.” And then he’d married my best friend and broken my heart.

  “What happened to this fool who kissed you?”

  “He married my friend the very next week.” Even after two years, my body remembered the shock when I’d heard the news. A vast emptiness had crashed through me, leaving me in a tunnel of black from which there was no return.

  “Why would he do such a thing?” Lord Barnes asked, his voice incredulous now.

  “For the same reason you would,” I said. “He married someone with money. Someone from an important family.”

  “I can marry whomever I please.” Lord Barnes’s eyes flashed with arrogance but also rebellion. “I have no one to answer to but God and my children. I’ll marry for love with no regard for anything else. What about you? Would you marry for love or money?”

  “Love. Always love,” I said. “Even though I have only love to offer in return.”

  “And what would make you love a man?” His eyes twinkled at me. “If not money?”

  “Kindness. Compassion. A curious mind.”

  “What about a man with children?”

  “I suppose it would depend on the children,” I said. “I’m particularly fond of the ones in this house.”

  “Could you live in Emerson Pass and be happy?”

  “That would depend on the man.”

  He smiled and ran the back of his finger over my cheek. “Two things to know, Miss Quinn Cooper. I care only about you, not convention. And I would never pursue you without the hope that you’ll soon agree to be my wife. I’ve no interest in toying with you. My flirtations are not mere trivial fun. May I have permission to court you?” His words sounded strangely intimate, as if we were embarking on a journey where we were the only travelers.

  I stared at him, probably looking like a hooked fish with my mouth hanging open. Hands shaking, I clasped them together and held on for dear life as the room seemed to tip. The world had changed in an instant. My world had changed. Permission to court you. Agree to be my wife.

  “I’ve never been courted before. My plan was to be a spinster.”

  He laughed. “Respectfully, Miss Cooper, there’s no way you’re ending up a spinster. If I’m not to your liking, there will be men lined up at your door.”

  “You’re to my liking,” I said, quietly. “You may court me.”<
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  He placed his hand over his chest. “Would you dine with me this evening? The children can eat downstairs with Lizzie.”

  “Just the two of us?”

  “That’s the idea, yes.”

  “Yes, I would like to dine with you.” Was this courting? If so, I liked it.

  “Supper at seven, then?”

  “Supper at seven.”

  A sigh seemed to come from deep inside him. He picked up my hand and caressed it with his thumb. “May I call you Quinn? I want to court the woman, not the schoolmistress.”

  Desire, hot and swift, swept over me. “You may call me Quinn.”

  “And you may call me Alexander.”

  I looked down at the hankie in my lap, suddenly shy. “I should probably check on the children.”

  He rose from the floor and offered me his hand. “As you wish.”

  I allowed him to help me to my feet, then scurried away like a frightened bunny. As I came to the doorway, I glanced back, expecting him to send me off with a benign wave. Instead, he said two words. “Quinn, wait.”

  My breath hitched at the sound of my name coming from his mouth.

  With long strides, he quickly ate up the distance between us. “You’re not leaving here until I kiss you for the first time.” He pulled me to him with one arm around my waist. I gasped as he captured my mouth with his in a hard kiss. This was not like the chaste peck I’d had before. Lord Barnes was masterful—rough yet tender and tasting of whiskey. When he withdrew, I fought the urge to pull him back.

  “What do you think of kissing?” He brushed a loose strand of hair away from my neck, and I shivered.

  “I think I’d like to try it again.”

  Always the gentleman, he obliged. This time the kiss was tender and restrained. “That’ll have to sustain us for now,” he said when he withdrew his mouth from mine. “I’d rather spend the rest of my life kissing you and never accomplish another thing, but we have work to do.”

  “If I were never to be kissed again, I’d die happy, knowing I was kissed by you.”

  He tightened his grip around my waist, drawing me close. The muscles in his chest and arms made my petite frame seem even smaller. “You will be kissed again. Hopefully by me and only me.” To prove himself, he kissed me again, this time teasing me with his tongue.

  A soft moan came from deep inside me. I pressed my chest against him, wishing there were fewer clothes between us. I wanted to see all of him, touch all of him. “I’ve…I’ve never felt anything like this,” I said, breathless.

  “You have no idea of the delights to come,” he whispered in my ear. “Now off you go before I kiss you again.”

  “I’ll see you later.” I pecked him on the cheek, then slipped from the room and took the stairs two at a time to the third floor with my pounding heart and dampened skin. I shut the door and stood against it, reliving every moment. Pure joy flooded me. I twirled in a circle and wanted to sing and dance and tell my mother and sister and anyone who would listen. I’m in love with Alexander Barnes. And he loves me.

  Chapter 22

  Alexander

  Still stirred from the taste of Quinn’s kisses, I headed downstairs to talk with Lizzie. The moment I entered the kitchen, a glorious scent of yeast and butter assaulted my senses. Lizzie kneaded dough at the kitchen island, humming to herself. Steam from a large pot on the stove fogged up the windows. Such a contrast to the hovel I’d seen earlier.

  “Lizzie, may I have a word?”

  She whirled around, still holding the lump of dough in her floury hands. “Lord Barnes, you scared me to death. What are you doing down here?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” I said as I came to stand at the island. “I have a favor.”

  “You know I’d do anything for you.”

  “This is a rather large favor.” I laid out the situation with the Wus. By the end, Lizzie’s eyes were practically bugging out of their sockets.

  “Am I hearing you correctly? You invited them to live with us?”

  “Yes. Or, rather, work for us. For you, that is,” I said.

  “But I don’t need any help. And what about the baby? I already have little Fiona. Who will look after them?”

  I scratched my head. I hadn’t actually thought that part through.

  “Just like a man, Lord Barnes. Not looking at all the angles.” She punched her dough one last time, then put the mass in a buttered bowl. “I don’t want some old lady in my kitchen. What we should do is have her look after the little ones while the rest of them are at school. We’re short a nanny, after all.”

  “Lizzie, you’re so smart.”

  “I have my moments.”

  “Will you mind if they’re in the spare room down here?” I asked.

  “It’ll be tight, but I can manage.” She spread a cloth over her bread bowl and placed it nearer the stove. “Speaking of which, I have a favor to ask you.”

  “Ask away.”

  “I’d like to have my own cottage on the property.”

  “You would?” I was amazed by this request. When I’d offered before, she always said she would be too scared to live alone. She liked the main house and her cozy kitchen and bedroom.

  “Yes. I’d like to get married and have a few children of my own,” she said. “I’d like to do so in my own home. Nothing fancy. A cottage will do, like the one Harley and Poppy have.”

  “Do you have your eye on a fellow?”

  “I did. For too long I’ve had my eye on the wrong one. I’m off that now. Do you have any suggestions?”

  “The Higgins brothers are single. Nice-looking, too.” My suggestion was evil, but this was a dire circumstance. Jasper was going to lose his chance.

  “A cook marrying a butcher. How perfect,” she said, laughing.

  “Well, you work on finding the right husband and the moment the winter’s over, we’ll start building.”

  “With my luck, the cottage will be quicker than the husband.”

  I sat on a stool and rested my elbows on the wood-block island. “Lizzie, what do you think of Miss Quinn?”

  “It doesn’t matter too much what I think, given the way you two were kissing earlier.”

  I covered my eyes with my hand and looked at her through my fingers. “You saw us?”

  “I’d come up to bring tea but decided you two were otherwise occupied.” Lizzie disappeared in the pantry for a moment and came back with a bowl of raw potatoes.

  “I hope the children didn’t see us,” I said, worried.

  “No, they were all downstairs in the kitchen at the time.” She wagged a finger at me. “You two should be more discreet unless you want them to think you’re getting married. They adore her.”

  “Do you know what they said when I told them Quinn was going to be their nanny?”

  “That she couldn’t be the nanny because she was supposed to be your wife?” Lizzie sliced a potato into perfect rounds.

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “Lord Barnes, the person who spends the most time in the kitchen of any house knows more about the people in it than anyone else. Everything’s discussed in a kitchen.”

  “I see.”

  “And you are going to marry the lovely Miss Cooper, are you not?”

  “If she’ll have me, yes.”

  “It would be splendid to have a mother for the band of rascals. I’d like to see you happy.”

  “I’d like to see you happy, Lizzie. You’re right to give up on Jasper.”

  Her mouth puckered as if she’d tasted a lemon. “You knew about that?”

  “Lizzie, Jasper and I have been together a long time. There are no secrets between us.” I lowered my voice. “Not that I’m the expert when it comes to matters of the heart, but I have advice for you. Let one of the Higgins brothers or anyone respectable in town take you out for a drive or skating. I think that might just knock some sense into him.”

  “That’s not right to do to the man who takes me
out, though.”

  “What if he’s in on it? Clive and Wayne are good people. They’d be willing pawns in our jealousy game.”

  She stopped slicing and looked over at me while shaking her head. “I had no idea you were so devious.”

  “Wear your Christmas dress. The blue one you had on last year at Christmas dinner. I’ll have Clive call on you here at the house.”

  “I’m seeing a new side of you,” Lizzie said, laughing. “A clever, wicked side.”

  “In the name of love, anything’s possible.” I straightened, wiping a dusting of flour from my elbows. “Now, I have one last request. Would you feed the children down here tonight? Miss Quinn and I have a dinner date upstairs.”

  “Consider it done. And when will Mrs. Wu arrive?”

  “Harley’s picking them up on Saturday. He’ll help them get settled.”

  “There are three narrow beds in that room,” Lizzie said. “I hope they’re not the type to toss and turn at night, or they’ll fall right out of the bed.”

  “You should see what they’re sleeping on now,” I said.

  “Lord Barnes, you’re a fine man,” Lizzie said. “Don’t ever forget that.”

  “Thank you, Lizzie.” Touched, I ducked out of the room before she could say anything further.

  The Johnsons’ dry goods store smelled of sugar, wool, and leather. Shelves held copious items, including shoes, work boots, overalls, stationery, soaps, polish, and home items such as kitchenware and lanterns. Wooden barrels were filled with taffy, salt crackers, rice, and anything else one could need. In the corner nearest the counter, a shiny black Singer sewing machine was on display.

  Mrs. Johnson was with a customer, so I occupied myself by scanning the rolls of fabric on the shelf behind her. There were several different heavy wools: a forest green, dark blue, charcoal gray, and black.

  After the man left, Mrs. Johnson gave me one of her sweet smiles and asked what she could do for me.

  “I’d like to purchase some wool for a woman’s coat,” I said. “But I don’t know what color.” The state of Quinn’s coat and boots had been weighing on me for weeks. She wouldn’t get through the rest of the winter with those boots. Her threadbare coat was simply not warm enough for our winters.