Frontier Engagement. Regina Scott

well. James, if you’d be so good as to light the way.”

      He shuddered as if it were a difficult task, and Rina waited for some joke to pop out of his mouth. But he merely lifted the brass-based lamp from the table and went to open the door for the ladies.

      “Wait for us!” Beth cried, grabbing Levi’s hand and tugging him with her from where they’d been playing chess near the fire. Simon and John had already retired for the evening, but Drew also pushed off from the wall to join them.

      They made quite a procession in the moonlight, James at the head with the lantern, Catherine on one side of Rina and Mrs. Wallin on the other with Beth and Levi tailing behind and Drew bringing up the rear. The light pushed back the darkness and cocooned them in warmth. Yet still Rina felt chilled.

      “It’s a wonderful school,” Beth was bubbling. “I know you’ll approve of it, Miss Fosgrave. Everyone worked so hard to make it perfect.”

      Her excitement should have been contagious, but it only served to make Rina all the more aware of the tension in James. He strode along, one hand fisted at his side as if trying to hold something in. She realized she’d only known him a few hours, but his attitude seemed off-kilter. Was it only her lack of experience that troubled him, or something more?

      Her concerns gnawed at the edges of her confidence. Was she about to discover the dark side of these seemingly bright and happy people?

      James stopped in front of the door, where someone had painted “Lake Union School” in white letters. Below, a blank space had been left for the teacher’s name. A tingle shot through her. Her name could go right there, if only she could prove herself to the Wallins. She clasped her hands tightly together in front of her gown, one up, one down, as James threw open the door.

      She followed him inside, gazing about. The single room was long, with a window on either side to let in light and air and a hearth at the back for warmth. A fire glowed in it now. Next to the hearth stood a door that must lead to the teacher’s quarters.

      Beth’s claim that they’d all worked hard was evident everywhere Rina looked. The logs making up the walls had been squared off, smoothed and chinked, the floor planked tightly together to keep things snug in cold weather. Benches made from shaved logs, carefully sanded and dotted by several small slates that lay waiting for their students, ran in rows down the center. A proper desk with ink well and tilted surface sat near the front with a hard-backed chair covered in a quilted cushion for the teacher.

      But not everyone apparently was as pleased with the school as Beth. Written on the broad blackboard on the front wall in large, crooked chalk letters were the words, “We don’t need no stoopit school. Go away now else you might get hurt.”

      Rina gasped.

      Catherine’s reaction was more visible. “Levi Wallin!” she cried, whirling to face her youngest brother-in-law. “Shame on you!”

      “You know better than to behave like this,” his mother scolded him, rounding on the boy.

      Levi stepped back from their fury and raised his hands, face red. “I didn’t do it!”

      Rina didn’t know what to believe. His protests seemed genuine, but then so had every word from the Fosgraves’ mouths. The letters made it plain that someone didn’t want her here. But whether she taught at Wallin Landing was Catherine and Mrs. Wallin’s choice.

      And hers.

      Rina lifted her skirts and swept to the board. “I certainly hope a student in my school would realize the impropriety of using a double negative. And stupid—” she picked up the chalk and marked through the word “—will never be applied to this school or any of its students.”

      A sharp sound startled her. Turning, she found James applauding, his grin growing with each movement. He looked as if his marvelous horses had just birthed a prize foal. The cold she’d been feeling evaporated to be replaced with a warmth that went straight to her heart.

      “Well said, Miss Fosgrave,” Mrs. Wallin declared with a nod of satisfaction. “I do believe we’ve found our teacher.”

      “So it would seem,” Catherine replied with a smile to Rina and a look to her husband. “Let me show you the teacher’s quarters, Miss Fosgrave. Beth took special care to make them welcoming.” She glanced over her shoulder at James and Levi as if daring them to misbehave.

      “Why don’t you go check on the horses?” James said to Levi. “You know I can’t mix Lance’s grain to his liking.”

      Levi rolled his eyes. “You get it wrong on purpose so I’ll do the work for you.”

      James put a hand to his heart. “Never!”

      Drew chuckled, then lay a large hand that could not be denied on Levi’s shoulder. Eyes narrowed, the youth left the school with his oldest brother. Rina felt some of the tension leave with him.

      She thought James might follow his brothers, but he insisted on carrying the lamp for the ladies. Indeed, he hung on Rina’s heels like a loyal guard, as if determined to protect her. Did he think whoever had written those words was hiding in the other room, ready to make good on the threat? A chill ran through her at the idea.

      “If Levi didn’t write those words on the board,” she said to Catherine as her hostess led her to the door beside the hearth, “who did?”

      Catherine and Mrs. Wallin exchanged glances.

      “I wouldn’t be concerned,” Mrs. Wallin said. “It was only a childish prank.”

      Rina wasn’t so sure. She didn’t know too many children who would dare to deface the schoolroom or threaten the teacher.

      “Do the other families want this school as much as you do?” she asked Catherine as her former traveling companion pushed open the door.

      Catherine’s lips thinned. “Want it or not, the school is much needed.”

      Beth wiggled past them just then, snatching the lamp from James. “Oh, please, let me do the honors. I do so hope you like it, Miss Fosgrave. I chose the patterns out of Godey’s.”

      “A magazine that is the end-all and be-all of Beth’s existence,” James murmured to Rina with a smile that brightened the room more than the lamp.

      The teacher’s quarters consisted of a single cozy room. Heat would radiate from the stones of the hearth, and the window overlooking the woods made the space seem larger. A wooden bedstead stood against one wall, covered with a blue-and-green quilt that matched the colors on the braided rug covering the floor. A real armchair—overstuffed and comfy looking, sat in the corner with a set of shelves beside it to hold her things. An oval mirror and porcelain-covered washbasin rested on a worktable, with a beautiful carved chest beside it.

      Rina pressed her fingers to her lips, tears burning her eyes. She’d slept on feather beds, under swansdown-filled comforters covered in velvet. But this, this was real and truly hers.

      “Oh, Beth,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”

      Beth’s face turned a happy red.

      James wandered to the wooden chest. “I see you’re putting all your hope in education, Beth,” he said, fingers touching the carved roses along the side.

      Her color deepened as she raised her head. “Drew made it for me. I can do with it what I want.”

      Realization struck. “Beth, I can’t accept your hope chest!” Rina cried. “I can make do with my trunk to store my clothing. We’ll have someone return your chest to the house.”

      James pressed a hand to his lower back and groaned, earning him a laugh from Beth.

      Rina couldn’t help but be touched. They’d taken such pains to make the school and teacher’s quarters lovely as well as functional. Who would find fault with the school or threaten the teacher?

      “You were going to tell me about the students,”