Frontier Engagement

by Regina Scott

  James couldn’t allow such a statement to stand. “None of that now. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that you have the dedication to be a good teacher. That’s what Wallin Landing needs.”

  She sniffed as if fighting tears. “I beg to differ, sir.”

  “You can beg all you like,” he replied. “We need you. Besides, there aren’t many more teachers to choose from.”

  She stiffened. “Is that why you offered me the position? For shame, Mr. Wallin!”

  James held up his hands. “It was a joke! I knew you were the right one for the job the moment we met. You have the airs of royalty, madam, and that’s what it will take to get through to my arrogant brother.”

  Her lips were so tight he thought her teeth must be grating together. “I am not royalty, sir. You must find yourself another teacher. I intend to take a position on the White River.”

  That letter! Catherine had been right. James raised his head. “Whatever they’re offering you, we’ll double it.”

  “Nonsense,” she replied. “They offer a school with young students, grateful parents and the chance to work beside a more seasoned teacher.” She bent and closed the lid on her trunk, fastening the clasps with brisk efficiency before glancing up at him. “Which of your brothers will be driving me to the White River Crossing?”

  At least that gave him an opportunity to slow her down, give her time to think about all this. “Well, everyone but Levi is out logging today,” James acknowledged. “I could send you with him, but I don’t allow him to take the reins.”

  She opened her mouth as if to argue, then closed it again. She must not have liked the idea of his volatile brother driving Lance and Percy any more than James did. “What about your mother or Beth?”

  “It’s a powerful long way to the Crossing,” James said. “It could take days, especially if the river’s up. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to Ma or Beth between here and there.”

  She blew out a breath, sounding a bit like Percy when he was miffed. “I suppose it will have to be you, then.”

  He’d never heard such reluctance, even from his family. “You could always wait a day or two for one of my brothers.”

  She shook her head. “No. I must go now. Will you carry this to the wagon for me?”

  He ought to refuse. He didn’t want her to go. In fact, it scared him how much he wanted her to stay.

  He pressed a hand to the small of his back. “I’m not sure I can, ma’am.”

  Lightning flashed in those clear eyes as she straightened. “Nonsense. We have established that you are quite strong, sir.”

  “And lazy. Don’t forget that. I’ll wait until Drew gets back.” He turned for the door, but she swept around him to block his way.

  “But that could be hours,” she protested. “And then it may well be too late to start out.”

  That was the general idea. “I’m afraid so. And I’ll be needed in the woods tomorrow. Drew only let me off today so I could help you get settled. It might be a while before I’m free to take you.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “James Wallin. I cannot believe you are the sort of man to go back on his word.”

  Guilt tugged at him. “My word, ma’am?”

  “Did you or did you not promise me that if this position did not work out you would take me anywhere I wanted to go?”

  He grinned at her. “There, you see? That was your first mistake—believing anything I say.”

  She flushed darker than the sunset. “A mistake I will not make again. If you will not help me, I will appeal to Mrs. Wallin.”

  He didn’t think she meant his mother. A shiver went through him that was no part charade. “Now, then, no need to be hasty. I’m sure we can come to some agreement.”

  “I am certain we can.” She turned her back on him, lifted her skirts and marched out into the schoolroom. She snatched her cloak off one of the pegs by the door, and a snake dropped out onto the planks to slither for the shelter of a bench.

  She eyed it. “What a fitting ending to my time here. I shall leave your brother to deal with his friend.” She shook out the cloak as if to be certain nothing else hid in its folds, then swung it about her shoulders. As she tied the ribbons at her collar, she raised her chin and aimed her gaze at him. “Well, Mr. Wallin? What will it be?”

  He was doomed either way. If he let her go, Catherine would be furious, and he’d have to live with the fact that he’d failed his family yet again. If Rina stayed, his own growing feelings and Catherine’s matchmaking could easily see him wed by the next full moon. And that would be a mistake he and Rina might both live to regret. He wasn’t willing to take on a wife only to lose her to illness or injury. And he certainly didn’t want to leave a widow behind if something happened to him. Besides, she could do better than him for a husband.

  Surely he could master his feelings toward her. He’d been hiding his guilt about Pa’s death for years, masking it with a ready quip and an easy manner. He just needed time, both to convince her to stay and to convince himself he was better off without her.

  Perhaps the time it took to travel to the White River.

  “I’ll take you wherever you want to go, Rina,” he said, joining her at the door. And use every weapon in his arsenal to get her to stay.

  Chapter Eight

  Rina could tell that although James had given in to her demands to leave, he wasn’t willing to go down without a fight. He was smiling too sweetly as he retrieved his gun, opened the door for her to leave the schoolhouse and escorted her toward the barn where his horses waited in the nearest pasture. He took the rifle into the barn and laid it in the wagon, leaving Rina waiting by the horses. She couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her at the sight of them.

  “They’ll miss you,” James said, going to open the gate. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.

  “They haven’t had time to form an attachment,” she replied, fighting the longing to touch the horses, talk to them, as they trotted closer.

  Sir Lancelot butted James’s shoulder with his head, and James obligingly scratched behind the black horse’s ears. Sir Percival, however, turned in a circle in front of Rina as if to show off his coat.

  “Oh, but you are a fine fellow,” she assured him as he blew a breath in her face.

  “See?” James said, taking their halters and leading them toward the barn. “I told you they’d be sorry to see you go. They didn’t expect the drive you promised them to be taking you away.”

  She would not feel guilty. She was doing the right thing, for everyone. “It cannot be helped.”

  “And they won’t be the worst of it,” he warned. “You’ll have to explain to Catherine and Ma.”

  Rina swallowed, following him. “Perhaps you could give them my resignation.”

  “No.” James maneuvered Sir Lancelot into the traces. “They’ll both have my hide, expecting I did something to cause you to leave.”

  She could not put him in that position. This was her decision. “Very well,” she allowed. “I shall go speak to them now.”

  “And don’t forget Beth,” James said as she turned for the house. “She’ll be sorely disappointed.”

  The thought of facing her most enthusiastic student nearly made her run back to the school. But she couldn’t give in—not for Beth, not for anyone.

  “Your sister is a dear girl,” she told James. “She will surely thrive under the next teacher.”

  “For all we know, the next teacher will be a man,” James pointed out, now buckling Percival in place. “There are few enough females in this part of the country.”

  “A male teacher might be more effective with Levi and Scout,” Rina answered, guilt once more beckoning.

  “But a male teacher won’t be able to talk to Beth like you do,” James ar
gued. He came around his team to face her. “Doesn’t she deserve a good teacher, too? She cares the most about the school.”

  “We are in agreement that your sister deserves a fine teacher,” Rina said, backing away from him. “We simply disagree on whether I am that teacher.”

  “We disagree on a number of topics,” James replied. “Such as how I’m supposed to take you to the White River without risking your reputation.”

  She’d been so determined to escape that she’d forgotten the issue of her reputation. She knew it could take a few days to reach the Crossing. She could hardly spend the nights alone with James.

  “We must find a chaperone,” she said. “Your mother, Catherine or Beth.”

  “I’m not ferrying Beth all the way to the White River and back,” James said, standing so firmly she thought he’d leave an impression in the packed dirt of the barn floor. “My ears would fall off from the chatter before I reached Seattle. Besides, it can be dangerous where you’re going. We may have to contend with wild animals or outlaws. Roads can suddenly disappear under rock slides. I won’t put my family in such situations.”

  Rina could not argue with him on that point; she had no wish to endanger those kind ladies or Beth. But neither could she stay in Wallin Landing.

  “There must be something we can do,” she protested. “Ladies travel any number of places with escorts, though I suppose most are married and traveling with their husbands.”

  “Or are betrothed,” he agreed, heading for the front of the wagon. He glanced back at her with a grin. “Guess we might as well get engaged.”

  She stared at him. “We most certainly should not!”

  She must have sounded sufficiently appalled by the idea, for he came back to her side and held up one hand, leaving Lance and Percy muttering in the traces at the delay.

  “Actually, it’s the perfect solution, now that I think on it,” he said. “If we were to become engaged, Catherine would stop her matchmaking, thinking her job done. We won’t have to risk anyone else on the journey. And your reputation would be safe on the way and at the White River settlement.”

  He seemed so pleased with himself, but she could not see the logic. “We would be lying,” she pointed out.

  “Not really,” he said. When she bristled, he hurried on. “We’d agree to an engagement to last until you’re safely settled at your new school. After that, either of us can break the arrangement. The engagement will be real so long as it lasts.” He stuck out his hand. “Do we have an agreement?”

  Still she hesitated. “You would not hold me to the promise of marrying?”

  He shook his head. “Not in the slightest. Believe me, Rina, I have no wish to marry.”

  Though she felt the same way, she could not help wondering at his reasons. Her experiences had made it difficult for her to believe, to trust. He had no such background. Why refuse love?

  He wiggled his fingers as if to remind her of his hand waiting for hers. “Come now, Rina. Am I so hideous you’d refuse to be considered my betrothed, even for a few days?”

  “Certainly not,” Rina said. Truly, she was probably letting her concerns get the better of her. His solution made sense for their circumstances. They both intended to behave with propriety. She wasn’t promising forever, merely a few days.

  She gave him her hand, and he shook it. Somehow, his grin eased the tightness in her chest.

  But that tightness only returned as she went to the main house to say goodbye. She was relieved to find that Beth and Levi were out gathering greens from the woods, for Catherine’s and Mrs. Wallin’s dismay at her decision was enough to handle.

  “If it’s Levi who’s made you change your mind,” Mrs. Wallin said, green eyes narrowing, “I’ll have words with him.”

  “I cannot blame Levi,” Rina assured her, mindful that James had just entered the house and was returning the family rifle to the back room. “I simply realized that this is more than I am capable of handling. Please forgive me.”

  Catherine sighed. “You have every right to decide how you want to ply your trade, Rina. I take it James is going to return you to Seattle?”

  James popped out of the back room as if he’d been waiting for such a cue. “I’ve almost got the wagon ready to go. But I’m not taking Miss Fosgrave to Seattle. I promised to carry her to the White River.”

  “The White River?” Mrs. Wallin frowned. “That’s a terrible long way. What’s taking you there?”

  Oh, but she wasn’t going to survive this. “I have been offered a position there to be an assistant teacher,” Rina told her. “I thought it would help me learn my craft.”

  Mrs. Wallin nodded, frown easing. “I suppose it will at that, but I’m sorry to hear you’ll be so isolated. Folks only get to town a few times a year from that area.”

  She could not think about what that would mean to her. Most of the outlying settlements could say the same, and her traveling companions had gone willingly enough to those schools. Not that she’d heard anything about how they’d fared.

  “It sounds like a fine position,” Catherine assured her. “Just know that you go with our love and prayers.”

  That brought a tear to her eye. She would gladly have escaped then, except James came in and put an arm about her shoulders. “We’ll be off, then. Just know that you needn’t worry. Miss Fosgrave and I have an understanding.” He went so far as to wink at Rina.

  So that was how he intended to tell his family about the agreement. His mother reacted before Rina could explain the temporary nature of the engagement.

  “Oh, James, that’s wonderful!” she cried, clasping her hands together.

  “Indeed,” Catherine said, beaming. “I’m quite pleased to hear that. Congratulations.”

  “You don’t understand,” Rina started, but James reached out to take her hand and tuck it into his elbow.

  “We should be going. I hope to make Seattle by nightfall and McKenzie’s Corner by tomorrow night.”

  “But, why?” Mrs. Wallin asked as Rina tried without success to retrieve her hand. “If you and dear Rina are to be married, why must she leave?”

  “Our engagement is on what you might call a trial basis,” James said, towing Rina toward the door. “I have fields to clear and a cabin to furnish before I’m ready to bring home a bride.”

  He had an argument for every comment, just like the Fosgraves had. She did not like it. She turned to Catherine, who with Mrs. Wallin had followed Rina and James out onto the porch.

  “James and I agreed to a trial engagement until I reach the White River,” Rina said, determination in every syllable. “I do not intend it to last longer than that.”

  Mrs. Wallin frowned. Catherine put her hand on her mother-in-law’s arm as if to still any protests.

  “I am unsure I believe you can have a trial engagement,” Catherine said to Rina. “Engagements are rather like illnesses in this regard—either you are engaged or you are not. It appears that you, my dear, are engaged.”

  Put in that way, Rina could only shiver. As if Catherine saw her distress, she continued.

  “You will be on well-populated roads, in an open wagon, where anyone might come upon you. You can likely spend the night in Seattle at the boardinghouse, and I’ve heard that McKenzie’s Corner is rather civilized for a wilderness outpost. Besides, driving that far with your betrothed safeguards your reputation and could serve to fend off unwanted attentions from the many bachelors who still seek a wife.”

  There was that. Every time the ladies of the Mercer expedition had left the boardinghouse they had nearly caused a riot.

  “And perhaps,” Mrs. Wallin said, smile curving, “by the time all is said and done, your engagement will prove to be no temporary matter after all.”

  She and Catherine shared a look of satisfaction, proving that Catherin
e was still playing matchmaker, despite James’s hopes to the contrary. Rina could not allow them to hope. “I have no intentions of marrying,” she said. “My experiences have made me ill suited to the role of wife.”

  She thought Catherine might question her further, but the nurse merely inclined her head.

  “That is, of course, your decision,” she said. “All I ask is that you consider the possibility fully before rejecting it. I was determined not to marry before I met Drew. I do not regret changing my mind.”

  Mrs. Wallin’s look said she thought Rina’s chances of remaining unwed small indeed. She drew Rina close for a hug. “I can’t wait for you to return so I can call you daughter,” she said, beaming as widely as Beth generally did.

  Rina was only glad James pulled the wagon up then, sparing her a response.

  “Fair warning,” he murmured a moment before he lifted her onto the bench. Her heart jerked in her chest, but she managed to return Catherine’s wave of farewell as James drove the wagon out of the clearing.

  The trees were closing in around them, thick and green and heavy with the resinous scent of fir, like sunlight in plant form. James cast her a smile as if well pleased with their plans.

  It was so easy to return that smile, yet something inside her whispered a warning. Charm was deceitful, and beauty tended to fade. If only she could be certain there was more to James Wallin.

  * * *

  James had never thought to see the day he’d be engaged. He wasn’t sure why the idea made him smile. Their agreement would last less than a week, and it was only for Rina’s sake. It offered her far more protection than the reality that she was a single woman traveling alone. If she kept up the pretense, the idea that she was engaged to a powerful man might even offer her some protection from unwanted attentions out on the White River, if she truly did end up teaching there.

  But she wouldn’t keep up the pretense one moment longer than necessary. That was evident by the way she’d protested to Ma and Catherine, the way she’d argued with him when he’d first suggested it. She had a terrible aversion to anything even remotely related to tall tales.