The Rancher's Courtship & Lone Wolf's Lady

by Laurie Kingery

  “How’re you feeling, cowboy?” Jack said, accepting a cup of coffee from the doctor’s wife. “I see Mrs. Walker’s been spoiling you, but don’t expect Cookie to bring you breakfast in bed.”

  The drover grinned. “Don’t I know it. Yeah, I’m feelin’ tolerable, boss. The doc’s got my ribs all bound up with strips of old sheets, and it really helps, ’specially if I have to cough. And don’t make me laugh—that hurts too much.”

  Doctor Walker came into the kitchen from his office just then. “Those ribs are going to ache a while,” he told Wes, “but I expect the bones in the arm will knit in a few weeks. Leave that splint on for a month, and don’t start using the arm to carry anything before then, but be sure to wiggle your fingers. And remember what I told you about taking deep breaths several times a day, Wes, so you don’t get lung fever.”

  “Yes, Doctor,” Wes said.

  Jack said, “Doctor, I’ll bring that beef next time I come to town, or send it with one of the men.”

  * * *

  Caroline was pleased to see Louisa Wheeler waiting at the schoolhouse door. “Good morning. I see you were serious about helping out in the classroom.”

  “No time like the present, I always say,” the other woman said with a cheery smile.

  “Girls, this is Miss Wheeler, a new friend of mine. She’d like to be a teacher, so she’s going to help me here. Miss Wheeler, these are Mr. Collier’s daughters, Abby and Amelia. They’re six, and they’re very smart girls,” Caroline said. She was pleased Amelia had stopped sulking about her father’s leaving, though Abby still seemed a bit pouty. But surely she’d get over it when class started.

  “Pleased to meet you, girls,” Louisa said. “Those are the prettiest dresses you’re wearing.”

  “Our Aunt Mary made them,” Amelia informed her.

  “Perhaps you’d be kind enough to show me where to hang my bonnet?” Louisa asked Abby. Caroline was relieved to see Abby’s face relax as she led the way to the cloakroom.

  It had to be hard to be with their father for such a brief time and then tell him goodbye again, when they were used to having him around all the time, Caroline thought sympathetically. Maybe it would have been easier if they hadn’t seen him at all this morning, but she wouldn’t have left Jack sleeping in a chair in the doctor’s waiting room last night for the world.

  Soon the rest of the children started filing into the schoolhouse. Caroline immersed herself in drilling her pupils in arithmetic and then broke the students up into reading groups according to their grade levels. How wonderful it was to have a helper, she thought, as she directed Louisa to supervise the younger children, while Caroline concentrated on the older ones. She wasn’t about to inflict Billy Joe Henderson on Louisa on her first day, for Billy Joe was back to his old tricks.

  As soon as Ted began reading, Billy Joe started parroting the other boy’s hesitant stammer. The hapless Ted squirmed in embarrassment.

  “That’s not how we treat our fellow students, is it, Billy Joe? I imagine you don’t want to stay in at recess, do you? Now be quiet and let Ted read, and then it will be your turn.”

  Unlike Ted, Billy Joe was an excellent reader and liked to show off his proficiency, but when he looked at the page he was to read, he pretended to gag.

  “Billy Joe, read it now without making silly rude noises, or you will have to read aloud to me for an hour after school today.”

  To her relief, Billy Joe complied. Then she went on to the next student.

  She was just about to dismiss them all for recess when she glanced over at the younger children and saw Amelia looking worriedly at the door. Abby’s chair was empty.

  “Miss Wheeler, where is Abby?” she called across the room, interrupting the child who was reading.

  Louisa looked confused. “Abby?”

  “Amelia’s twin,” Caroline said, trying to be patient, for Louisa had met two dozen children this morning.

  Louisa’s face cleared. “Oh, yes, Abby. She raised her hand to go to the...you know...”

  “The outhouse? How long ago?”

  Louisa looked startled, then flustered. “I—I don’t know...it was when we began reading...then little Molly was having trouble, and I forgot all about her.”

  That had to have been at least thirty minutes ago, maybe longer.

  “Amelia, go get your sister and bring her back to class,” Caroline told her.

  Amelia did as she was bidden, but she ran back inside a minute later. “Miss Caroline, she’s not there. She’s not anywhere outside. She’s gone!”

  Chapter Ten

  Caroline stared at the child. Her words made no sense. How could Abby be gone, if she’d only gone to the outhouse? She flew to the window, expecting to see Abby loitering on the swings or peeking out mischievously from around the trunk of one of the live oaks that lined the perimeter of the schoolyard. She couldn’t see so much as a flash of yellow gingham of the dress Abby had worn today.

  “She must be there! Where could she have gone?” Caroline cried and, gathering her skirts, dashed out the door, down the steps and out into the schoolyard, calling “Abby! Abby, come out this instant!” She flung open the outhouse door—Abby wasn’t there. Then she dashed around into the bushes beyond the trees, desperate to spot the child. “Abby! It’s not funny! Come on out now!”

  Suddenly she realized that Abby hadn’t let go of her disappointment in not getting to see her father longer—she’d gone to find him.

  She ran to the road and looked in both directions, but saw no one and turned back toward the schoolhouse.

  Louisa stood on the steps, looking as worried as Caroline felt. Children peeked around both sides of her, including a wide-eyed Amelia. Others lined the cloakroom window, mouths agape.

  “I—I have to go after her,” Caroline called. “I think she’s gone toward the ranch to find her father. Stay here with the children!”

  “She couldn’t have gotten very far in that amount of time.”

  Caroline wanted to laugh hysterically. Louisa didn’t know Abby Collier like Caroline did. Abby could be one stubborn and determined child, and what was worse, she knew the road to take. It was a good five miles to the ranch, but in between here and there she could meet up with countless dangers—rattlesnakes, coyotes, outlaws, roaming Indians... Besides, the sun was hot today, and the child didn’t have any water with her.

  “Maybe you should notify the sheriff and have him look for her,” Louisa shouted.

  “That’ll take too long!” By the time Caroline ran to the jail, Abby would have covered even more ground. And Sheriff Bishop was still on his honeymoon and had left his deputy in charge. She didn’t know Menendez well. And what if he wasn’t at the jail office, but was making his rounds anywhere in town or its outskirts?

  What would Jack say about her failure to keep his daughter safe? Caroline’s blood ran cold even as she sprinted down Main Street toward the road that led south out of town, past the doctor’s office, the barbershop, the bank, the mercantile and Gilmore House, the mayor’s mansion... What if Abby didn’t stay on the road but wandered off into the mesquite-and cactus-strewn brush country? They might never find her...

  Dear Lord, You have to help me! Please let me find Abby Collier before she runs into danger. Please don’t let her come to any harm....

  Caroline was already short of breath and sweating, her braid flopping loose from its coil at the back of her head. She was terribly aware that she couldn’t even be certain the child had gone this way. What if she was wrong and the child had gone to play at the creek and had fallen in? She should have sent Louisa to check at the creek... She should have even looked down into the malodorous depths of the outhouse pit....

  And then she saw two figures making their way up the south road, a plump, elderly lady—and a little girl in a yellow gingham dress, holding the old lady’s hand and clutching her do
ll in her other hand.

  “Abby!” she shrieked and went running toward her with a speed she didn’t know she could still manage.

  Abby wrenched her hand from the old lady’s grasp and rushed toward Caroline, wailing. They met in the middle of the road, and Caroline threw her arms around Abby. She could hardly hear the child’s cries over her own sobs.

  “Oh, thank God! Oh, Abby, you gave me such a fright!” she said, clutching the girl to her and brushing back her hair with frantic fingers. “What were you thinking, to run off like that? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?”

  “I’m sorry, Miss Caroline! I didn’t mean t’ scare you! I only wanted to find Papa, and then I got all hot and thirsty, and I didn’t find his ranch....”

  Caroline looked up through her tears to see Mrs. Detwiler smiling beneficently down at both of them.

  “Lose one, did you, dear? I just happened to be out pruning my rosebushes back for fall, and I saw this young’un perambulatin’ down the road. I didn’t see anyone with her. And I sez to myself, Mrs. D., you’d better check into that because that little child might be lost. And when I got a little closer, I recognized she was one of the twins that came to Prissy’s wedding, and I figured we’d better come find you, but I gave her a glass of my lemonade and a cookie first.”

  “I—I don’t know h-how to thank you enough, Mrs. Detwiler,” Caroline said, still panting for breath. “Yes, I’m afraid Abby was a naughty girl, but I’m very grateful that you found her.” She shuddered, remembering all the dire fates she had imagined for Jack’s daughter during the last few horrible minutes.

  “I—I’m sorrrrrryyyy!” wailed Abby. “I just wanted to see my papa!”

  “We’ll talk about what you did and why later, Abby,” Caroline said, straightening. After I’ve had time to get over my terror. Thank You, Lord, for having Mrs. Detwiler find her. “But now we have to get back to the school. Please thank Mrs. Detwiler for the refreshments.” She waited as the child meekly obeyed.

  “You’re very welcome, child,” the old woman said, bending over to Abby. “Please come again with Miss Caroline and your sister when you can stay longer. You mind your teacher, now.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Mrs. Detwiler winked over the child’s head, but Caroline could only manage a wan, exhausted smile in return.

  Feeling like the hot, bedraggled mess she was, Caroline trudged back down Main Street toward the school, holding tightly to Abby’s hand. She was painfully aware of her hair loose on her shoulders and sticking in sweat-plastered clumps to her forehead, and the wetness of cloth clinging to her back. She only encountered a couple of people on the street as they walked, but she imagined what they must have been thinking—incompetent teacher, can’t keep up with the children entrusted to her...

  When she and Abby reached the schoolyard, her heart sank when she saw a black buggy with its horse tied to the hitching rail. It was a common enough sort of buggy, but she recognized the liver chestnut driven by the school superintendent, Mr. Thurgood.

  Her heart sank, and she had to fight the urge to send Abby inside, then turn and run away. Of all the times for the superintendent to pay a return visit!

  Lord, if You could see Your way clear to helping me one more time this morning... Taking a deep breath, she marched forward with Abby in tow.

  Mr. Thurgood stood at the back of the classroom, arms folded over his paunch. Louisa Wheeler stood at the wall map of the United States, using the pointer to indicate New York. Hands were raised at the desks.

  Everyone looked around at the sound of Caroline’s and Abby’s entrance.

  “Abby!” Amelia cried and dashed out of her seat to hug her sister.

  “Thank God you found her,” breathed Louisa, beaming at Caroline and at the sisters who now walked back to their desks together. “Where was she?”

  Caroline tried to smile back, but her eyes stung with tears. She hadn’t had the courage to look at Mr. Thurgood yet, but she could practically feel his eyes boring into her like hot pokers.

  “Perhaps we should talk about it later,” she said. After I’ve been dismissed from my teaching position by the county superintendent. “Class, I hope you’ve been working hard for Miss Wheeler. Have they been well-behaved, Miss Wheeler?” she asked with a brightness she was far from feeling.

  “Oh, yes, Miss Wallace, they’ve worked hard. We’ve gone through the rest of the reading assignments and have now progressed to geography—”

  Mr. Thurgood harrumphed noisily, and Louisa Wheeler froze.

  “Miss Wallace,” he said, “I would think it painfully obvious you must do more than hope your students will be well-behaved.”

  “Perhaps we should discuss this outside, Mr. Thurgood?” she suggested, nodding toward the door, but he went on as if she had not spoken.

  “I was shocked beyond measure to find you absent, with your charges left in the hands of a volunteer—a capable-seeming volunteer, admittedly, but a volunteer whose qualifications were unknown to me. We had not discussed your taking on an aide. Perhaps you feel inadequate to handle two dozen children on your own? I assure you, I handled fifty, myself, and I never thought of asking anyone to help. And my pupils were models of correct deportment. Furthermore—”

  Caroline waited until his bluster wore itself out, using the time to squelch the angry, defensive replies that sprang to her lips. Do your worst, Mr. Thurgood, for I am less afraid of losing my position than of Jack’s reaction to the news I let his daughter run away from school and did not notice for half an hour. None of the students will respect me now that you are reprimanding me in front of them anyway.

  “Well? Have you nothing to say for yourself?” he demanded, his eyes raking over her disheveled appearance, his lip curled in scorn.

  “I am sorry about what happened, sir,” she said, looking straight ahead of her and not at his angry, pink face. “But as Miss Wheeler will have no doubt explained, one of the students went missing, and I believed I knew in which direction she had gone.”

  “And why didn’t you notify the sheriff, and have them look for her?”

  “I felt needless delay would have resulted while I did so. As it happens, I guessed right about where she was going, and as you saw, I have brought her back.”

  “And you will punish her.” He stared at Abby, who shrank against her sister as if she thought the superintendent might be about to take on the task himself.

  Caroline nodded. “Appropriate consequences will take place.” Lord, don’t let him demand I paddle that child here and now. He doesn’t need to know I never use that thing.

  “Very well, then. I am placing you on probation, Miss Wallace, and I will be paying follow-up visits. Should there be any repeat of any incidents that would indicate these children are not in capable hands, you will lose your position.”

  “I understand, sir.”

  “Good day, Miss Wallace, Miss Wheeler...students.”

  Caroline hardly dared to move until she heard the creak of buggy wheels, and then she stepped to a window to assure herself he was actually gone.

  “Miss Wheeler, did these students miss recess because of the superintendent’s visit?” Caroline asked, glancing at the watch which was pinned to her bodice.

  Louisa nodded. “It didn’t seem wise to dismiss them just as he arrived, under the circumstances.”

  It was now eleven o’clock. Now that Mr. Thurgood had gone, many of the students were visibly fidgety, especially the boys.

  “Well, then, why don’t we combine recess with an early lunch, and resume class in an hour?” she said. “Miss Wheeler, would you mind supervising them while I go over the afternoon lesson plans? I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  “Certainly.”

  Caroline managed to hold herself together until the children had gathered their lunch pails and thundered outside, and Louisa
followed them after a last inquiring glance at Caroline. As soon as the door closed behind them, she collapsed at her desk in tears.

  I am the worst teacher who ever lived. What made me think I was capable of teaching? Mr. Thurgood would return, and he would not be satisfied until he found some offense to dismiss her for. By tomorrow the students would have told their parents how their teacher had managed to lose a child right out of the classroom, and they would probably demand her resignation anyway.

  But worst of all was the thought of what she was going to say to Jack. Surely it was not right to wait until Sunday, when he would come to see his children—and it would be awkward to tell him about the incident in front of the girls. Should she write him a letter, and have Dan take it out to the ranch? But that was the coward’s way....

  Later, she waited until Abby and Amelia—who had been perfectly behaved the rest of the day—had gone to bed to tell her mother about what had happened and ask her what she should do.

  “Louisa apologized for letting Abby slip away, since she was in her reading group, but it was her first day of assisting me. The children are my responsibility in the end,” she concluded.

  “I thought something was bothering you, dear,” her mother said, laying aside the needlework she had been doing by the light of the parlor lamp. “And I knew it was something to do with the twins because they were acting rather subdued, weren’t they? Tomorrow’s Saturday. Why don’t you ride out to Jack’s ranch in the morning? I’ll keep Abby and Amelia busy—they don’t have to know where you’re going. I think you’ll find Jack more understanding than you think. After all, you kept your head and figured out where Abby was headed, went after her and found her before any harm came to the child. Things could have been a lot worse, couldn’t they?”

  Caroline’s only answer was a shudder, but that said it all.

  “Nothing awful happened. Don’t you think this sort of thing happens to mothers, dear? Dan sneaked away from me once when he had just started walking and fell into a clump of prickly pears. Land sakes, we had to throw out the pants he was wearing, and I thought we’d never get all the spines out of him. Another time I found him sitting on top of a red anthill... Children get into mischief, Caroline. You’ve had to become a sort of substitute mother all of a sudden as well as being a teacher—it’s not easy, I know.”