Two trunks and three crates. Elizabeth had to fit everything she needed inside them, and she had so many things sitting about her house, all little pieces of the home she’d worked to create. Packing her room had been a simple matter of folding her clothes into squares, stacking them in the trunks and cleaning out the few other items she wanted to take. But downstairs she faced the settee and chairs, the curtains, the dishes, the pictures on the walls. And the two open crates on the parlor floor had filled far too quickly.
The five-shelf bookcase loomed in front of her now, full of textbooks and works by mathematical geniuses. Which should she take? Newton’s Principia or Descartes’s discourse on geometry? Leibniz on calculus or Gauss on geometry? She had room for maybe five texts total.
She moved to the shelf and pulled down An Introductory Calculus, the textbook from her first calculus course. Opening the cover, she ran her fingers over the letters on the first page.
Elizabeth, May you use this book and the knowledge you have learned in these classes to do great things. Professor Strohm.
This one would have to go with her, even if she had little hope of teaching calculus wherever she settled.
She reached up and took Newton down, then opened that cover.
My Dear Elizabeth, When you returned from your first year of school and I saw how much you’d come to appreciate calculus, I decided you needed the work of the man who fathered the subject. Happy Birthday.
Jonah Hayes.
She pressed the books to her chest and closed her eyes. How did one choose? How did one pack a life into two trunks and three crates? Perhaps the past two days hadn’t been kind to her, but she’d lived twenty-six years in upstate New York. She couldn’t wipe all the memories of pleasant times from her mind and heart because her family had been deceitful.
A knock sounded on the door. She jolted, then glanced at the clock on the mantel. Miss Atkins and Miss Tourneau wouldn’t be back from the academy for another four hours. Who could possibly be here?
The pounding sounded again.
She walked to the window and peered through the lacy curtains, then stopped. Luke Hayes stood on her porch, wearing that familiar cowboy hat yet again. She stepped to the side of the glass and pressed her back against the wall lest he decide to peer through the window and see her.
Perhaps she had the strength to leave, selling her house and starting her life anew. But she hadn’t the strength to face him or her students again. The ties that bound her to Luke and the girls at Hayes Academy had snapped the night she’d found Jackson’s ledger, and the words I’m sorry could hardly repair the damage done.
Elizabeth blinked back the moisture pooling in her eyes. Crying seemed to be the only thing she wanted to do of late. But her tears couldn’t fix what happened or change what needed to be done any more than the words I’m sorry could.
Something creaked near the back of the house, and she stilled. Had Luke broken in through the kitchen door? She clutched the base of her throat. Certainly not. The house simply groaned sometimes, all houses—
Footsteps echoed in the hallway, then his familiar silhouette filled the parlor entrance. “Miss Wells.” He tipped his head and removed his hat.
“W-what are you doing here?”
“Front door was locked, found the back open, though.” He watched her, those clear blue eyes seeming to bore into her soul, and held out a lunch tin. “Just got back from delivering Sam to the train station. She still wanted to go home, was more eager than I could have ever imagined to get away from Jackson. So I figured I’d stop by on my way home and make sure you got something to eat. Doesn’t look like you’ve had a good meal in about two days.”
He wanted to share a meal? Where was his anger? His rage over what her family had done? He’d been quiet and supportive when last they’d spoken, but that had been before he’d done the audit and seen the extent of her family’s fraud.
“I’m not hungry. Thank you.”
He snorted. “Figured you’d say something like that. It’s about lunchtime, though. You won’t mind if I eat?” He came into the parlor and plopped down on the floor by her crates, then emptied the contents of the sack. Cold ham, cubed cheese, crackers and grapes. Her favorite.
He shoved a piece of meat into his mouth and chewed. “You ever tried my cook’s brown sugar ham? It’s the best meat this side of the Mississippi.”
She shook her head and pressed herself harder against the wall. A foolish place to stand, but she could hardly resume her packing while he watched, and if she got any closer, he’d finagle some way to have her sitting beside him. And surely she had some good reason why she couldn’t eat with him—she just couldn’t remember it.
“The best meat west of the Mississippi would, of course, be fresh beef from the Double H ranch in Wyoming, but Valley Falls is a little far for that.” He popped a cracker in his mouth and rested a hand over his knee. He looked handsome and at ease sprawled on her parlor floor, as though he belonged there. His shoulders so broad and commanding she could hardly look anywhere else, his jaw stubbly and unshaven and begging for her to run her hand across it.
She’d been so certain she couldn’t trust him, couldn’t trust any man after David had betrayed her. But in the end, her family had proven untrustworthy, not the man sitting before her.
Why hadn’t she been able to look past her own fears a week ago and see the heart of the man that loved her? What she wouldn’t give to have him look at her with the tenderness his eyes had held when they’d talked after the speech, to feel his arms around her as they’d been in the carriage after she’d first confronted David. She sagged against the wall and wrapped her own arms around her middle—a rather poor substitute for Luke’s.
“Care for a grape?” He popped one in his mouth.
Yes. She nearly said it. But he couldn’t know grapes were her favorite, could he? Or that she longed to launch herself into his arms and bury her face in his shoulder and cry until her heart stopped aching.
She needed to get out of this room before she made a fool of herself.
He swallowed another bite, and the perfect excuse hit her. “Tea. You need tea or water or milk. Something to drink. Let me get it.”
She hurried toward the doorway, but his hand shot out and fisted in the front of her skirt as she passed.
“Sit.” He tugged the fabric.
“Mr. Hayes. I appreciate that you’re hungry and will happily get you something to drink, but then you really must be on your way. It’s highly inappropriate for you to be here, in my house, without a chaperone.”
“Probably is.” He stuffed more food in his mouth, but didn’t release her skirt. “It’s also highly inappropriate for your brother to use his position at my company to embezzle over twenty-five thousand dollars’ worth of funds from various accounts.”
Twenty-five thousand dollars? She hadn’t any idea the amount was so large. The paper that morning didn’t list any figures, just said her brother and father were in jail, charged with embezzlement and without the funds needed to post bail.
As for Mother... Elizabeth blew out a breath. Mother knew where she lived and hadn’t come. “I already told you I was sorry. What more do you want?”
“As I said Saturday night, I don’t know why you’re sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, you turned your family in when looking the other way would have made everything a heap easier for you.” He dropped his hand from her skirt. “But if your heart’s set on getting me a drink, get on with it. I could stand to whet my whistle—I’ve got a while to talk yet.”
“I don’t understand why you’re here at all. What’s left for us to say to each other? My family stole, and the school board had me fired. Not that I feel like I could ever look my students in the eye again, but you and the others didn’t have to get rid of me in such a manner. I’d already decided to leave anyway. I couldn’t stay here while everyone gawked and whispered behind my back.”
He sprang to his feet. “I didn’t vote to fire you. I didn’t even know what those idiots had done until a couple hours after Taviston paid you a visit.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. “Here, see if this changes things.”
She stared at it dully, the crisp, straight lines too similar to yesterday’s letter from David.
“Do you need me to open it?” He pulled a knife from his belt and slid it along the top fold, then held out the missive.
She scanned the contents. “This...this can’t be right. It says the school board is reinstating me.”
“It’s right.”
“You got me my job back? Why?”
“Because you did right even though it meant turning your family in, and the people you’ve spent the past two years working for should support you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t—”
“Hush. I’ve more to tell you, now that you’ve started talking to me again. On the way back from Philadelphia, I decided something—or rather, God showed it to me. I’m not going back West. I’m staying in Valley Falls to run the businesses Grandpa left me.”
“Y-you’re not leaving?” She could hardly breathe, let alone think, as she waited for his reply.
“No. And what’s more...” He took her hand and held it between them, her fingers dangling over his. “I still love you.”
“Oh, Luke.” He couldn’t feel that way, not after everything that had happened. But his eyes didn’t lie, and the deep blue of them shone with patience and support and love. All things she’d never had from her family. All things she’d never realized she wanted until Luke walked into her life. “I love you, too. I didn’t want to fall in love with you, but it happened anyway, without me even realizing it.”
A smile tilted the corners of his mouth. “Don’t make it sound like a crime, Lizzie. People have been falling in love since Adam and Eve.” He pulled a box from his pocket and opened it. An emerald ring gleamed dark and rich against the blue fabric. “Marry me. Spend your life with me.”
Her throat shriveled into a gritty mass of sand. How easily she could accept the life he offered. How wonderful to be his wife and wake up beside him every morning, to go back to teaching and surround herself with students. She’d have a life she’d only dreamed of.
Yes. The word rested on her tongue, ready to tip over, fall out and cement her future to his.
But she couldn’t.
She must have taken too long to respond, because he gripped her shoulders and pulled her so close her petticoats squashed against her legs. “You’re going to tell me no. I can see it in your eyes.”
She looked away.
“It’s because of what happened with that cheat, DeVander, isn’t it? You still don’t think you can trust a husband.” He trailed a finger down the line of her jaw and back up again. “I can’t promise never to hurt you or disappoint you, Elizabeth. But I can promise to always be faithful. Before God and you, I promise. And if it takes another week or month or year for you to believe that, then that’s how long I’ll wait for you.”
“Luke, stop.”
But he didn’t. He stroked a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned closer. “I love you for who you are, and I’m never going to take that love away and give it to another woman.”
“You’ve been so patient with me. Too patient, really. I don’t deserve you.”
“Then why are you about to cry?”
She straightened her shoulders. “I’m not.”
“Liar.”
She shifted away and clasped her hands together. “Have you forgotten about my family? Surely you saw the paper this morning. The embezzlement scandal is huge, and it just appeared today. We haven’t yet seen how voters are going to respond when they find out the politician they’ve elected for the past twenty years stole twenty-five thousand dollars. Or how the companies Jackson took from are going to react when everyone learns of his deceit. Why, you might lose half your accounting clients. More than half.
“And now you want to stay here and take your grandfather’s place. Which is fine. It’s what you should have done all along. But nobody will accept a thief’s daughter as your wife. You can’t...” Marry me.
The words stuck in her throat, but she pressed on, speaking the truth, the only logical answer despite her heart’s screaming otherwise. “You’re going to be a respected member of society, even with that wretched cowboy hat you like to wear, and me...I have to leave.”
“Look at me.” He grabbed her upper arms and waited for her eyes to meet his. His jaw had gone hard, his eyes glinting with determination. “I love you. I want to marry you. And as for what everybody else thinks about your family and the embezzlement—” he bent and kissed her forehead “—I don’t care.”
If only she could see the world through Luke’s eyes. Black-and-white, right and wrong, and forget anybody who didn’t agree. But society wouldn’t hold with Luke’s ideas about marriage. “You don’t understand. A marriage can’t work between us, not now. Maybe...” She drew in a breath. “Maybe in a few years, after the scandal settles and things calm, if you still feel the same about me, you can write to me and...”
He ran his hand back to cup the base of her neck and tilt her face toward his. “Maybe I want to marry you now,” he whispered, his breath hot against her skin. Then he lowered his lips to meet hers. His mouth tasted of warmth and comfort, understanding and forgiveness.
Her knees weakened and her body went limp for the briefest of moments. Then she stiffened. Nothing good could come of kissing him. Not when she had to turn down his proposal. Not when she had to leave. But Luke Hayes had never been easily put off. He wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her closer, his lips gently lingering on hers, then broke to trail kisses down her jaw.
“I love you, Elizabeth,” he whispered as his mouth trailed up to her ear.
“I love you, too. But we can’t marry. You have to understand.”
“Nothing to understand. We can marry without the heap o’ troubles you’re yammering about, and I’ll prove it to you.” His lips, still soft and warm, left her suddenly. Then he clasped her hand in his and pulled her toward the hall.
“Prove it? You can’t prove something like that. And where are we going? I need to finish packing.”
He dragged her out of the parlor and toward the front door. “There’s another matter you have to settle first.”
“Another matter? The house will be up for sale by the end of the week. My things are nearly packed. I answered several advertisements for teachers this morning. What’s left to—?”
“Your students.”
She dug her heels into the tiled floor. “I can’t face them again, not after how I missed the signs of the embezzlement.”
“Look at me, Elizabeth.” He took her by the shoulders, rubbing her knotted muscles. “You have to see your students. Sure, you feel like you let them down. But you can’t hide away in your house forever. Nor can you leave without fixing things. I know that better than anyone.
“There was a man once, a criminal who stole from the ranch.” He sucked in a breath, as though telling the story robbed him of air. “After my twin caught and fired him, he returned and shot my brother, who died from the wound.
“I went a little crazy after his death. Holed myself up, let Pa send Sam out East where she’d be safe, and blamed myself over and over again for what happened. I got bitter at my sister-in-law, who I faulted for not stopping my brother’s bleeding, even though the wound likely would have killed him anyway. And I shut out everyone else. In short, I wasted three years of my life blaming myself and those closest to me for something none of us could control.
“I love you too much to let you do the same.” Pain etched his face and glittered in his eyes, but he gave her shoulders another squeeze. “Your family was wrong, yes. But you protected your students once you realized everything. You did right by them, and you need to go back and face them.”
He was right, as always. Before God, she had nothing to be ashamed of. She’d honored her Creator above men. Of course, society didn’t judge people by God’s standards. No. The socialites at church would rip her apart, and the teachers at Hayes probably gossiped even now.
Still, she owed her students one last visit, didn’t she? Then she could start anew somewhere else, rather than hide.
“Let’s go.” Luke held out his hand.
She looked down at his hand, the same hand she’d covered in chalk dust the second time they’d met. The same hand that had wiped her tears after David had proposed, had anchored her hair behind her ears too many times to count and had cupped her cheek when he’d kissed her. And she put her palm in his.
* * *
Elizabeth had never before considered how ominous Hayes Academy for Girls could appear, with its redbrick jutting three stories and its plain windows staring down at those coming up the walk.
Like a prison without the fence.
Luke held open the door and waited. “No one’s going to attack you for coming inside.”
If only she could be so sure. “The first time I looked at this building, all I saw were dreams, both mine in possibly teaching here one day and the students’ for the expanded opportunities they would have after graduating from such a place.” She stood just outside the threshold and peered in at the austere white walls. “I never thought...that is...” She rubbed her damp palms together. “I never really noticed before how intimidating it looks.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the doorway. “Stop stalling.”
The door closed behind them, sealing her inside. She nearly pulled her hand from his and dashed back into the sunlight.
“I thought the same thing the first time I saw the building. Dull and void of life.” He led her forward, so quickly she hadn’t time to think of another way to slow him down. “A little teacher with rich mahogany hair changed my mind, though.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not.”
She paused in front of the office and drew in a deep breath. She’d have to face Miss Bowen before seeing her students. What would the headmistress say? Then again, maybe Miss Bowen would kick her out, and she wouldn’t have to worry about looking into her students’ eyes.
“Stop slowing down.” Luke yanked her past the office.
“But Miss Bowen. Shouldn’t we—?”
“Nope. This way.”
“The only thing down here is the dining hall....” Her voice trailed off as he pushed open the double doors.
Students crammed into the room, milling about and sitting at tables, eating and talking as an organized sort of chaos filled the room.
She tugged at her hand, but he still didn’t release it. “Luke, I don’t want to be here, not like this.”
He hunkered down, placing his mouth beside her ear. “It’ll be fine.”
“No.” She jerked harder on her hand, but the stubborn man had a grip like iron.
Then MaryAnne, who had been busily eating, looked toward the door and shot from her chair. “Miss Wells! You’re back!”
The rest of the room fell silent, every eye turning to her. Her face heated, and her throat went achingly dry. She turned to go. Luke could continue to hold her hand or release her, but either way, she was plowing through those doors and heading straight back to her private little home.
“Miss Wells, wait!” MaryAnne approached her, as did Meredith and Elaine.
“Mr. Hayes said you would stop by today.” Elaine ducked her head shyly to the side, stray wisps of brown hair tickling her cheek. “So we made these for you.”
She thrust out her hand, a crisp, white envelope caught between her thumb and fingers. Another letter. Elizabeth’s hands trembled too much to even reach out and take it.
Mr. Hayes stroked a palm down her back, then up again, the gesture warm and comforting, but still, she couldn’t stop the shaking that plagued her limbs.
“Why don’t you read it for her, Elaine?” Mr. Hayes’s deep voice settled over the entire room.
Elaine dipped her soft eyelashes down, pink staining both her cheeks as she struggled to get the envelope open and unfold the letter. “Dear Miss Wells...” Her voice carried its usual softness, but the dining hall had fallen so quiet that the words likely reached the farthest corners.
“Growing up, every girl has teachers—not just one, but multiple teachers of different ages and backgrounds who endeavor to impart everything we need to know about womanhood. From this group of myriad women, every so often a teacher comes along who makes a difference in her students’ lives.
“She cares about her students and what she teaches. You can see it in the way her eyes light as she lectures, and the way she agrees to meet students after school for tutoring. You can tell by the smile on her face when she answers questions and gives encouragement, not just about her subject, but life in general. Like the way you said you’d help me apply to Wellesley College for next year, and the way you’ve tutored Samantha Hayes with all that calculus.
“Please know that you’ve been that teacher for me and for my friends. My only complaint is that you teach mathematics instead of composition. Don’t you know composition is a much more interesting subject?
“Thank you so much for all the effort you put into teaching us.”
Elizabeth pressed her eyes shut, unable to meet Elaine’s gaze. The students were thanking her? After what her family had done? She should be thanking them for letting her teach for the past two years, not the other way around.
Another voice rang out; MaryAnne’s strong, clear cadence easily recognizable despite Elizabeth’s closed eyes. Reading her own letter, the girl mentioned advanced algebra and having fun and not wanting her teacher to leave.
Then another voice started and another and another. Mr. Hayes kept one hand on her shoulder and his other on her back, stroking gently as the girls read, gripping tightly whenever tears threatened her. And read the girls did, letter after letter. Twelve of them, until every student in her advanced algebra class, save Samantha, had gotten her say.
Then someone near the doors started to clap. Her eyes flew toward the entrance, and there stood Miss Bowen. She must have entered the dining hall as the letters were being read, but instead of a dour frown crossing her lips, the headmistresses smiled, her eyes shining and even moist.
Someone else started clapping, Dottie McGivern, at the back of the room, a huge smile pasted on her face. Then a student in the middle of the dining hall stood and clapped, and another and another, until the entire room was standing and clapping and making so much noise, she nearly had to cover her ears.
She’d spent the past eight years studying and then teaching, trying to earn her family’s approval in spite of her decision to attend college and teach. Trying to make her parents proud by doing something other than marrying a cheating scoundrel.
She’d never gained that approval.
But maybe, just maybe, she’d been searching for her family in the wrong place. Her family had betrayed her and destroyed itself, but God had given her these students and her fellow teachers. A different family that loved her despite her shortcomings and supported her when no one else did.
Her eyes moved to Luke standing beside her, so close the warmth from his strong body radiated into her, and her fingers rubbed the spot where her engagement ring would fit. God had given her that honest rancher, as well.
“You’re thinking about me,” the half-rusted voice whispered in her ear.
She raised her eyebrows. “You believe you’ve acquired the ability to read my thoughts now?”
“Not hardly, but when a woman looks at a man a certain way, all soft and moonstrucklike, he can tell what’s going on inside that pretty head of hers.”
“Do tell, then. I’m most anxious to hear what I’m thinking.”
He glanced down at the finger she toyed with. “That you’re ready to put my ring there.”
All teasing fled as she looked at the finger and nodded.
He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the gold circle set with an emerald. “You know, it’s terribly unfair of you to accept my proposal here.” He slid the cool metal onto her finger and bent low so his lips brushed her ear. “I can hardly kiss you with a hundred students looking on. Wouldn’t be proper, I’m told.”
“Luke Hayes, whispering such a thing in my ear is hardly proper, either.” Their eyes met and held, still and peaceful despite the chaos of the dining hall.
“You’re getting married!” a student squealed, likely MaryAnne, as the noise overtook the sound of the fading clapping.
MaryAnne flung herself forward, and Elizabeth nearly stumbled as the girl’s slender body plowed into hers. Before she could right herself, Luke stepped back, and Elaine hugged her from behind, Meredith slammed into her side, and Katherine encircled the three of them. Then the whole room descended into a torrent of squeals and giggles and hugs.
Elizabeth pushed to her toes and tried to find Luke through the melee. He stood watching the scuffle, his arms crossed, his hip and shoulder propped against the wall. His eyelid slid down into a wink, and her face heated anew. Then when someone bumped her from behind, she smiled. Not a forced curve of the lips, but the kind of smile that started deep inside and spread until warmth and joy coursed through every inch of her body.
With her students surrounding her and her eyes locked on the man she loved, she could hardly do otherwise.