Frontier Engagement

He complied immediately. “Forgive me, ma’am.” He nodded toward the door. “It’s just that Miss O’Rourke was out on the porch when I arrived.”

Did he think her so dim that she’d venture out of doors with him? “How very convenient. We must ask her back inside.”

“If you wish.” He clapped his hat on his head and strode out of the room for the front door. She followed cautiously. She let him open the door and step out onto the wide front porch, where wooden chairs sat sheltered from a misty rain. Sure enough, the redheaded Maddie was leaning against one of the porch supports, looking out toward a waiting wagon. Yet it wasn’t her friend but the team of black horses on the street that drew Alexandrina’s gaze.

“Oh, what beauties!” Just as the man beside her was one of the most prepossessing gentlemen in Seattle, his team was one of the best she’d ever seen. Those strong haunches, those alert ears, all those fine lines. She hadn’t seen their like since the sheriff had confiscated her team. Before she knew it, she was out on the porch.

“Do you race them?” she asked the man beside her.

He cocked his head as if he could not have heard her correctly, and too late she realized prim and proper schoolteachers should not know about racing horses. But he merely straightened and adjusted his bow tie. “Certainly not. I’m a serious horseman.”

That she could not believe. Even now she could see the gleam in those deep blue eyes, daring her to laugh with him. Going back inside was no doubt her best option short of ordering him out of her sight.

But she’d challenged his word, and the least she could do was follow through. She turned to her irrepressible roommate. “Do you know this man, Miss O’Rourke?”

Alexandrina had met Maddie O’Rourke aboard ship. Her short stature belied the force of her personality. Alexandrina might have had cause to doubt many people, including herself, but experience had taught her that Maddie would always speak her mind.

The Irishwoman pushed away from the porch support now with a nod. “I’ve had the misfortune of meeting him,” she said, brown eyes twinkling over her russet gown. “This rogue is James Wallin, brother to the man who wed our dear Catherine.”

Oh, no. Alexandrina had attended Catherine Stanway’s wedding, but she’d sat at the back to allow closer friends to sit near the bride. She hadn’t paid much attention to the men who’d ranged alongside the groom, but she’d heard from several of her traveling companions that they’d been an impressive group. If this man had been one of them, she had indeed misjudged him and cost herself a position in the process. She’d destroyed her future by focusing on her past. She wanted to sink into the rough boards of the porch.

Yet James Wallin seemed to bear her no grudge. He went so far as to bow to her as if they had been introduced at a formal ball. “Miss Fosgrave, a pleasure.”

She nodded, unable to meet his gaze. “Mr. Wallin. Forgive me for doubting you. I truly did suspect you were here for a bride.”

“And how could you not?” Maddie asked with a tsk. “Mr. Mercer must have collected bride prices from more than a dozen men, all of whom have had call to visit. But you needn’t worry about James here. Catherine tells me he’s a sworn bachelor.”

She could only feel relief at that statement. Unlike some of the women who had journeyed west on the good ship Continental, she hadn’t planned to marry. So many of the things she’d grown up believing had proved false, yet she still felt that marriage meant two people giving themselves to each other. They shared dreams, hopes, feelings. They benefited from the association. They became one. She wasn’t sure she could ever trust another person to that extent again. At times, she didn’t even trust her own judgments.

“I hope you’ll hear me out now, ma’am,” James Wallin said, standing taller as if about to address a congregation. “We really do need a teacher. And I believe we have a great deal to offer—a new schoolhouse that can seat as many as thirty students. A large room to yourself. A salary of forty-five dollars per quarter. All the wood you could want, chopped and stacked just outside your door, with a spring an easy walk away for water. Plus a tithe of the produce raised within a two-mile radius.”

Bounty indeed. She knew women who’d left Seattle for promises half as great. Some of the women back East had been earning no more than thirty dollars a quarter and lucky to have board with a local farming family.

“How many students now?” she asked, heart starting to pound hard again with hope.

“Just a few,” he admitted, “but more and more folks are settling out our way. The school will only grow.”

Just like her dreams. This was exactly the sort of situation she’d promised herself when she’d left Framingham. She’d find some place she could make something good out of the tatters of her life, where she could make a difference.

“They’re a lovely family,” Maddie put in. “Sure-n you won’t be sorry to help them. I’d be happy to take the position, only I’ve no experience, and I wouldn’t want all the children to learn to speak like me.”

James Wallin spread his hands. “And what would be wrong with the way you’re a-speaking, me darling girl?”

She laughed at the way he’d mimicked her brogue. “You’ve just proven my point.”

How easily they chatted. She wanted a life like that. Somewhere there must be people who would laugh with her, talk to her as if she was one of them, families she could help, young minds she could challenge to think.

You give beauty for ashes and joy for mourning, Lord. Help me to see this as an opportunity.

But try as she might, doubts circled her like ravens. What if the Wallins didn’t like her? What if she didn’t like them? What if they saw right through her to the scared little mouse inside?

What if he wasn’t telling the truth?

She drew in a breath. A good offer had two sides. Mr. Wallin had stated his requirements. She had every right to state her own.

“I would prefer to visit the school first,” she informed him. “I expect to be interviewed properly and hired by those who will have children in the school.”

He nodded. “Anything you want.”

Anything? That she could not believe. “And if I decide that the position and I do not suit, you will return me to Seattle immediately.”

He spread his hands even as his smile widened. “If you decide you don’t want the best schoolhouse and most dedicated students in the territory, ma’am, I’ll personally escort you wherever you want to go, at my own expense. That’s a promise.”

He said it so firmly, as if he expected her to take him at his word. And she realized if she truly wanted this position, her only choice was to do just that.

At least for the moment.

She held out her hand. “Very well, Mr. Wallin. I will go with you.”

* * *

She’d agreed to come, if only to look at the place. James wasn’t sure why he was so relieved when Miss Fosgrave gave him her hand in pledge. Yet one look at that solemn face, and he wanted to dance around his team and crow for joy.

Which would likely have frightened both his team and Miss Fosgrave.

So, he merely clasped her hand and gave it a shake. “Thank you, ma’am. I’ll wait while you pack.”

She pulled away quickly, as she’d done the other times he’d touched her hand, which was a shame. She had soft, warm skin and a gentle grip that felt good in his.

In fact, she was the prettiest schoolmarm it had been his privilege to know. Her figure in that soft, white dress was admirable. Her hair was a warm sunny brown, combed back from a face that could only be called sweet. The eyes gazing at him from less than six inches below his own were liberally lashed, clear and open and a whimsical color that wasn’t quite brown and wasn’t really green but made him want to lean closer.

And presence? Oh, but she had that. She moved like a dancer he’d seen at one of Mr. Yesler’s cultural events—fluid and controlled at the same time. She spoke with an authority even the renowned Reverend Bagley would have envied. She was poised, she was polished, and she was exactly the sort of teacher they needed. And he’d managed to convince her to come to Wallin Landing.

Even as his chest swelled with pride, she took a step back as if already regretting her decision. “Pack? Nonsense. I cannot possibly be ready on such short notice.”

“We’ve only the things we brought with us on the ship,” Maddie pointed out. James had nearly forgotten she was there, so focused had he been on Miss Fosgrave. “It can’t take all that long to pack. I’ll lend a hand if you like.”

“No,” she said, then quickly softened the word with “thank you. I prefer to pack my own things.”

She certainly knew her own mind. Very likely that had been a requisite for joining the Mercer expedition. It couldn’t have been easy traveling all the way around the country and starting over. He was willing to grant her anything, so long as she came.

James glanced at the sky, where the sun was trying to burn through the remaining clouds. “I’ve a few commissions to complete while I’m in town, but I’ll need to start back in the next hour or so to reach home before dark. Will that give you enough time?”

“I suppose it must suffice,” she said. “I shall endeavor to be ready when you return, Mr. Wallin.” She inclined her head and turned to precede them through the door with ladylike tread.

Maddie, who had been watching Miss Fosgrave, shook her head. “Sure-n she has finer manners than the queen of England. But sometimes, if you catch her unawares, she’ll be having the saddest look in her eyes. Someone’s hurt her, that’s certain sure.” She shook a finger at James. “Don’t you be going and adding to her troubles.”

James held up his hands. “Me? I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”