Page 43 of The Formation of Us
Adam stood in the yard alone, facing MacEnroy, expecting at any minute to feel the man’s hard backhand. MacEnroy straightened his shoulders and unclamped his jaw. “So you like being a wiseacre, do you, Adam?”
Adam knew not to answer that question.
“If you’re such a wise young man, who invented the steamboat?”
“Robert Fulton, sir.”
MacEnroy’s eyebrow quirked as if Adam’s knowledge surprised him. “And the year of the invention?”
“1807.”
“I’m impressed,” he said, but he didn’t look impressed at all. He looked furious. “How many feet are in a mile, Adam?”
“Five thousand two hundred eighty”
“What city is our state capital?”
“Albany, sir.”
“And what mountain ranges can be found in New York State?”
“The Appalachian Highlands, the Catskill Mountains, and the Adirondack Mountains.”
“Well, since you’re such a bright and witty young man, I’ll have you teach class for the day.”
A flood of heat seared Adam’s body and scorched his ears. He would answer any question MacEnroy asked, but he couldn’t stand in front of the class and talk. His voice would squawk like a chicken. He couldn’t go up there.
“Come along.” MacEnroy clasped the back of Adam’s neck and herded him toward the door.
Adam wasn’t going inside. The instant MacEnroy released him, he would sprint away. He would tell Faith that MacEnroy kicked him out of school for being disobedient. Faith would be angry, but she would let him off the hook until the new school year began. Sheriff Grayson wouldn’t be pleased, but facing the sheriff was better than facing a room full of children who were only going to laugh at him.
MacEnroy jerked Adam to attention outside the schoolhouse. “You find yourself a seat inside and keep that wise mouth of yours shut while I’m instructing class. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
With that MacEnroy yanked open the door and shoved Adam inside ahead of him. While the teacher strode to the front of the classroom, Adam eased into the one and only empty chair in the room—right next to Melissa Archer.
“You’ll be sorry,” she hissed.
He already was. This would be his first and last day in this wretched place. He wasn’t coming back. He could learn more from books anyhow.
He sank low in his chair and looked for Rebecca, wanting to signal that he wasn’t coming back after their lunch break. He sighted her two desks away, smiling at him like he was the most handsome and daring man on earth.
Chapter 13
Saturday evening Faith stood outside the bathhouse door, listening to Claire Grayson and her friend Anna Levens laugh uproariously as they frolicked in the tub with three other women. The three lived with Anna in a home Claire and Boyd Grayson provided to women who were desperate for a refuge from heavy-handed husbands. Claire said she and Anna had opened the home five years ago after Anna’s husband Larry Levens was sent to prison for murdering two men.
Faith didn’t have to ask if Anna had been one of those beaten women. If the scar on Anna’s shoulder wasn’t proof enough, the wariness in her eyes was. The woman was petite and pretty, and so sweet Faith couldn’t imagine any man wanting to hurt her. But apparently her husband had beaten her unmercifully and even threatened to kill her. Thank God the beast was in prison.
The bruises on the other women who were staying with Anna broke Faith’s heart. The bath had brought the ladies so much pleasure, Faith had invited them back for a second complimentary treatment.
The Grayson women had done such an amazing job of promoting her business, the female residents of Fredonia swarmed into Faith’s greenhouse. Some came to buy herbs and salves and teas, but she suspected most of them came to get a look at Iris. The more adventurous ladies accepted their complimentary bath and massage. Afterward, they raved with such enthusiasm, the customers poured through the door faster than Faith could service them. She and her aunts worked from morning to night, and still they had to ask several ladies to return the following week.
Dr. Milton and the apothecary owner, Wayne Archer, had stopped in to caution Faith about giving the ladies harmful treatments and selling toxic herbs. Faith had listened politely, but Aster and Dahlia marched the snobbish men right out the door in front of several customers. Faith had feared the women would follow the men out, but they’d only laughed and applauded.
Several other men had stopped in during the week, pretending to want herbs or flowers, but they never left without stating their desire to court Faith or one of her aunts. Dahlia refused all offers without considering them. Iris flirted and left the men guessing. Aster and Tansy said they were too busy now and asked the men to stop back in a month or so. It was a relief for Faith to tell the men that she had accepted the sheriff’s suit. He hadn’t returned from his trip to Mayville, but Faith thought about him constantly, about his shoulder, about his kisses. Every minute she wasn’t working or thinking about work, she would think about Duke and wonder if he would kiss her again.
She carved out time to take her meals with Cora and Adam, and to read with them at bedtime. But each night she had fallen asleep beside them, exhausted, with a few pennies added to her money jar.
