Must be hunger, he decided abruptly. They’d had canned spaghetti for dinner and it had been far from satisfying. He was opening his mouth to tell her that he would keep the boys away when he was interrupted by the chirping of a cell phone.
“Oh.”
For some reason, alarm flitted across Alexis’s face. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back,” she said as she jumped out of the low chair and grabbed the door handle. She hurried inside, but in her haste, she didn’t close the door all the way and Jace could hear her end of the conversation. A gentleman would have moved out of earshot, but the first thing Alexis said was, “Don’t call me that, Esther. Here I’m only Alexis Chastain.”
Eyebrows raised curiously, Jace lingered to listen.
“I’m sorry,” Esther said. “I keep forgetting I’m supposed to be you.”
“Please don’t forget or my dad will be mad at both of us,” Alexis warned and then grinned, delighted to hear Esther’s familiar, grumpy voice. Though Esther was a few years older than Alexis, the two of them had been friends since childhood.
“His Highness would have a right to be angry,” Esther said. “We lied to him.”
Alexis winced at Esther’s bluntness. “Well…”
“And if the papers find out, our goose is cooked.”
Alarmed, Alexis asked, “Have they been hanging around?”
“Of course. One of them has been offering bribes to the employees for pictures of Princess Alexis.”
“Oh, no.”
“I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before someone accepts the offer.”
She should have known it wouldn’t work, Alexis thought. There were too many risks they would be found out.
“Speaking from a purely selfish standpoint, I’m not sure I’ll mind,” Esther went on. “Do you know what time these people get up around here? At five! We get out and climb rocks before breakfast. I say when you’ve climbed one rock, you’ve climbed them all. And then breakfast! Wood chips and hay.”
In spite of herself, Alexis laughed. “Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad. Golden Bluffs Spa is supposed to have one of the best chefs in the world.”
“That’s where the bluff part comes in. They trick you into coming here by putting out that story about the chef, but when you’re here, he hides away and they hand out horse fodder. Personally, I plan to find out which closet they’ve got him in.”
“Good luck, Sherlock. Seriously, it’s not too bad, is it?” She and Esther would do just about anything for each other, but maybe this time she was asking too much.
“Nah,” Esther sighed. “But I’ve lost five pounds. Never mind that I need to lose forty. I’m not used to all this activity, but I’ll be all right. How are you?”
“I’m fine,” Alexis began, and was about to launch into a description of Sleepy River when a horse’s impatient snort reminded her she had a guest. Jace!
She whirled around and noticed for the first time that the door was partway open. Had he heard her? Frantically, she tried to recall what she had said.
Hastily, she said goodbye and hung up. Dropping the phone on the old leather sofa, she hurried back to Jace.
He still sat atop Hondo and was watching her with an unreadable expression in his eyes.
Flustered, she stammered out an apology. “I’m sorry. It was my friend, I…I’m not usually so rude.” In fact, she was never rude.
“It’s all right,” Jace said, but she wasn’t sure he meant it. “I only wanted to be sure the Patchetts don’t bother you anymore.” Saddle leather creaked as he moved. “This isn’t the first time they’ve been over here, is it?”
Alexis hid her anxiety and walked to the edge of the porch so that they were almost at eye level. “No. They’ve become my most frequent visitors, along with the squirrels who keep trying to reclaim their former home. They try to run inside whenever I open the back door.”
“Those little devils are pretty quick. How do you keep them out?”
She grinned. “I used to date a football player. I know some moves.”
Jace chuckled. “You’ll need ’em, especially if my hired hands keep hanging around.” His eyes narrowed as he gazed at her. “You’re a popular woman.”
“It’s because I’m new.”
“I admit that none of us are used to strangers up here, but they shouldn’t be bothering you like that,” he said gruffly, pulling on Hondo’s reins and tugging his head around in the direction of home. “I’ll talk to them. They won’t bother you again.”
He rode away swiftly, leaving Alexis to gape after him in surprise.
What on earth had gotten into him? She wanted to call after him, but she didn’t know what she would have said. Besides, she needed to think, to recall her conversation with Esther word for word and try to remember if she’d let anything slip.
Oh, she wasn’t cut out for deception, she thought in despair. Morosely, she leaned against the porch railing and listened to Jace’s horse’s hooves thunder away.
An unaccustomed feeling of longing sifted through her. She wished things were different. In spite of the tension between them and his obvious belief that she was enticing Gil and Rocky away from their work, she would have liked to talk to him. He was sensible and levelheaded and she thought there were probably things he could tell her about Sleepy River community that would help her understand her students.
However, she couldn’t imagine that Jace would ever climb her front porch steps and perch on the railing, ready to settle in for a cozy visit. It was hard for her to acknowledge, but he really didn’t think much of her.
Chapter Five
Never let them see you sweat. Alexis thought of that old saying as she stood before her class on the first day of school. She knew she was slightly overdressed for the occasion, in a russet-colored suit she’d bought in Paris last fall. She had wanted to look professional, though, and felt it was necessary to start the semester out on the right note.
She thought of another one she’d heard from a master teacher—Don’t smile until Thanksgiving. She wasn’t sure she could go to that extreme, but her face felt as if it was about to crack from trying to hold a friendly, yet firm, expression.
There were twelve students gazing back at her from their desks; six in primary grades and six in the intermediate grades. The younger students were looking at her as if they expected great things from her, the older students seemed to convey that they’d give her a short trial period and if she didn’t work out, they would happily make her life unbearable.
Billy Saunders appeared to be eyeing her with speculation, ready to see exactly how far he could push her.
Alexis took a deep breath and plunged in, greeting the students, telling them what she expected of them, and establishing the rules of the class. Before she was a third of the way through her little speech, Billy’s hand shot into the air.
“Yes, Billy.”
“What if we don’t agree with your classroom rules?” he asked, glancing around to make sure everyone was listening.
Round one, Alexis thought. She folded her hands at her waist. “Some rules are negotiable and some aren’t. Good behavior and good manners aren’t negotiable.”
He slumped in his chair and stuck his feet out before him. “What about homework? I have a lot of chores when I get home so I can’t do homework.”
Alexis thought fleetingly of Jace’s comment about the chores he’d been expected to do after the long ride home on the bus. She suspected that, even then, he’d managed to get his assignments done. “Homework is anything you don’t finish in class so I suggest you stay on task and get your work done as accurately and quickly as possible. If it appears that you can’t do both chores at home and your classroom assignments, I’ll call your parents in for a conference and we’ll solve the problem together.”
He stared at her for a second. Having his parents come to school wasn’t an idea he relished. “Never mind,” he muttered.
Even though she knew she’d only delayed a conf
rontation between them, Alexis nodded and went on.
The rest of the day went smoothly, much to Alexis’s relief and pleasure, even though the younger children needed a great deal of her time and attention. Whenever she turned her back on Billy, she suspected he was up to mischief. He appeared to be hiding something in his desk and she knew she would have to deal with it before the end of the day, but the time slipped by and she was too busy to stop and take him aside.
When she released school for the day, the children rushed out to their parents’ cars, she spoke to several people and waved them off. When they were gone, she leaned against the doorjamb and allowed her shoulders to slump with weariness, then massaged the back of her neck to ease the tension there. After a moment, she took a deep breath, straightened, and went back inside to collapse in her desk chair and stare at the empty room. Now she knew why someone had once described teaching elementary school as “trying to back a thirty-car train down a mountainside in a blizzard with no brakes.” Being in front of an audience and thinking on her feet constantly for seven hours was exhausting.
In the stand of pine trees at the edge of the baseball field, Jace leaned forward to quiet Hondo, speaking easily even as his eyes stayed glued to the door of the school.
He should leave, he knew. He’d only come by to see how things had gone, then lingered out of sight so he could gauge the children’s reactions as they departed. Not that he was sure what he’d been looking for—maybe little girls running to their mothers, crying hysterically that Miss Chastain was the meanest teacher ever and they didn’t want to go back to school.
He knew better than that, but Alexis had been on his mind all day, even while he’d been wrestling with his hated paperwork. He’d decided to take a break and ride over to see how the first day had gone.
What he had seen had surprised him; Alexis dressed in a suit the likes of which the White Mountains had never seen, the children giving her hugs as they’d left. They’d seemed happy, he’d satisfied his curiosity, and he really ought to leave.
But he didn’t. He had seen the way she had slumped in the doorway with exhaustion when everyone was gone.
She looked so frail and tired that Jace was blind-sided by a surge of protectiveness for her.
For the first time, he thought about what it must have cost her to leave her family—wherever they were—and move here to teach. She had been eager enough for the assignment, but now he wondered if she regretted it.
A life-insurance policy was included in her benefits and he’d taken a peek at the beneficiary, which turned out to be the Chastain family trust account, which told him exactly nothing. Her next of kin was listed as her father, Michael Chastain, who had an out-of-the-country phone number and a post office box in Paris. There was no indication that she wasn’t an American citizen. She certainly didn’t have a green card to work in the United States, so she had to be a citizen. She never spoke of her family, though. It made him think her relationship with her family was as strained as his had been with his father before the unbending old man had died.
Jace shifted uncomfortably in the saddle. He didn’t want to think of her as a woman with a family, with problems, with needs. He simply wanted her to be the schoolteacher, to handle all the problems at the school so he wouldn’t have to. Nothing more.
Alexis was too tired to do more than catch her breath for a few minutes. This was far different from student teaching where she’d had a class of third-graders whose ability levels were all about the same. These children ranged from two beginning readers to one who read at high school level.
For the first time, Alexis began to feel doubtful about her ability to handle the class and she wished she had someone to talk to. A mentor would be very helpful. Of course, she could talk to Martha Singleton and ask her advice, but Martha had two children in the school and Alexis was afraid her questions could worry Martha, who then might report to the school board, and most especially to Jace, that Alexis couldn’t do the job.
No, she thought, flexing her feet inside her shoes as she longed to go to her little house and change into jeans and sneakers. She would continue to do her best, and if she needed help, she would call some teachers she knew in Phoenix and ask their advice.
Besides, she hadn’t seen Jace since the day he had rounded up Gil and Rocky and sent them scurrying home and she’d just as soon leave it that way.
A faint rustling noise broke the stillness of the deserted classroom. Recalling the squirrels in the kitchen cupboard, Alexis stood and listened. The sound seemed to be coming from Billy’s desk and she recalled the interest and activity that had surrounded him all afternoon.
Cautiously, she approached and leaned down to peer inside the open front of the desk. A triangular-shaped head with two small eyes stared back at her. It took a few seconds for her to realize she was looking at a snake.
“Oh!” she yelped in surprise, straightened and backed away, hand to her throat. She and the reptile regarded each other warily.
“Darn that boy,” she gasped. He must have caught the snake when he and the others were outside at lunchtime, then gone off and left it. Maybe he couldn’t figure out a way to sneak it into his backpack and get it home.
Distressed, Alexis rubbed the back of her hand across her lips. She had no experience in dealing with snakes. Too bad Mr. Schroeder, the palace landscape architect, or even her nephew Jean Louis, weren’t here. They would have known what to do.
After a moment’s thought, she approached the desk and grasped it by the back. Lifting it and moving swiftly, she tilted it so that everything inside slid to the back, praying all the while that the snake wouldn’t leap out and that it wasn’t poisonous if it did.
Hurtling herself and the desk toward the door, she yelled again when the snake popped its head out as she thumped the desk down on the porch floor. Staggering slightly, she dragged the desk out and heaved it into the grass.
Everything in the desk flew out, including the snake which arced through the air and into the bushes. Alexis took a relieved breath that the creature was gone, but she didn’t have time to relax because hoof-beats thundering across the field had her looking up to see Jace racing toward her.
He was in front of her, reining Hondo to a halt before she could think to step back.
“What in the world are you doing?” he demanded, staring down at her. “Do you always end the first day of school by throwing the desks outside? Were the kids that hard on you?”
Alexis blinked up at him. He looked formidable, seated on his horse which was at least seventeen hands high, his midnight-dark eyes glaring at her from beneath the brim of his cowboy hat.
“No, certainly…certainly not,” she floundered. “The children were fine. You don’t need to…” She paused and frowned up at him as she realized why he had arrived so quickly. “Were you spying on me?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips. “I don’t think your duties as head of the school board stretch quite that far.” She had been secretly watched enough times in her life that she didn’t react to it well now.
His gaze flickered. “I had business over this way, and besides, you’re hardly the one to be questioning me when you’re tossing desks outside. What happened?”
Her mouth tightened. She was reluctant to answer him, but she finally lifted her chin and said, “I was simply dealing with a snake that was in one of the desks.”
“A snake?” He reached up and pushed his hat back with his thumb. “How’d a snake get inside?”
“One of the children put it there,” she answered in a cool tone. “But I assure you it’s not a problem.” She gestured to the overturned desk. “As you can see, I’ve dealt with it.”
“And how,” he murmured. “Who’s desk is that?”
Alexis lifted her hands. “I’d rather not say. It’s a discipline problem that I can certainly deal with on my own tomorrow, and…”
“By throwing the kid out along with his desk?” Jace asked, dismounting. He picked it up and set it back
on the porch, then began gathering up the books and supplies.
“No!” She hurried over to stop him.
Jace paused, gazing down at a spiral notebook that had a king cobra on the cover. “It was Billy Saunders, wasn’t it?”
Alexis searched his face. “How did you know?”
“The kid loves snakes. Took one to church one Sunday a few months ago. Caused quite a stir.”
“I can imagine.”
Jace mounted the steps to the schoolroom easily, carrying the desk and all its contents. Inside the door, he asked, “Where do you want this?”
Alexis hurried ahead of him, indicating Billy’s place.
Jace thumped it into its spot and turned to her. “As I see it, you can handle this one of two ways.”
Here we go again, she thought, her temper rising. “I don’t need your advice on handling Billy,” she said, though she knew she was being unnecessarily testy. “And, frankly, I don’t think it’s your job as head of the school board to give me advice on teaching or on discipline.”
He ignored her, which annoyed her even further. Instead, he frowned at her and said, “You see, his mom doesn’t want snakes in the house, so he can’t have them there. What you need to do is have your own herpetorium and put him in charge.”
Alexis repressed a shudder. “A herpetorium? A snake house?”
“Yeah, make him the ultimate authority on snakes in the classroom. I guarantee you, you’ll have less trouble with him.”
If she took away all his privileges in school, she would probably have less trouble with him, as well, she thought stubbornly, but then she calmed a little. No, she would have even more trouble with him.
“I’ll take your suggestion under advisement,” she responded in a tone similar to one her father used when he was reluctant to take advice from his know-it-all first secretary.
His frown changed to an amused look. “You do that. And here’s something else you should think about.”
Alexis squared her shoulders and faced him, chin in the air. “And what, exactly, would that be?”
The Runaway Princess Page 6
