Heart of Gold (A Gold Rush Romance) (10 page)

For a woman who loved and lived for her profession, it suddenly seemed like an awful burden to bear.

Chapter Five

Thomas stood in front of the door of the white clapboard house for the second time in twenty-four hours, though this time the person in his company was not an intriguing woman, but his nephew. Thomas knocked, his other hand resting on Joe’s shoulder.

The change in the boy had been stark, to say the least. After Thomas had returned home from driving Alice the night before, he went directly to Joe’s door, curious if he was still awake. Joe was, and they had sat and talked for a long time, about nothing in particular. It was as if they were starting anew, both getting another chance.

Thomas was nowhere near calling himself Joe’s father, but he could now say he was Joe’s uncle and guardian without feeling it was a lie, and that was more than he could have asked for such a short time ago. Now, Joe moved a little closer to him, fidgeting slightly.

Thomas patted the boy’s shoulder, glad that the boy neither flinched nor moved away. “It’ll be all right, Joe. You might have an uncomfortable rash after a few days, but it is best to have the sickness while you are young and strong. You seem to be a brave boy—I am quite sure you can manage a little thing like this.”

Joe stood a little straighter and quieted his hands by lacing them together tightly. “Yes, Uncle Thomas. I can. Papa told me lots of times that I am brave.”

Thomas smiled down at him, delighted and astonished by the child. He responded, “Of course he did.”

The door opened, and Thomas looked forward again. The young man who had driven the carriage and fetched Mrs. Leach the night before had been the one to answer the door, and he backed away immediately, politely allowing them to enter. Joe hesitated for only a moment, then threw back his shoulders and strode in so confidently that Thomas needed to stifle the laugh that bubbled up inside him. This boy was interesting, no doubt about it.

They entered the noisy home, filled with shouts and movement from what seemed to be every corner of the residence. Thomas had to grin at the boisterous children running every which way. There was no way to count how many he saw, since they moved to quickly for him to identify them as separate individuals, but he counted at least four boys who were causing enough ruckus for triple that number. Apparently their brother’s chicken pox was not enough of a threat to keep the rest of the family subdued for long.

Mrs. Leach bustled in, her face flushed. “Joe, my dear, it is good to see you! How are you this evening, Mr. Thomas?”

“Just Thomas, ma’am. I am very well, thank you.”

“Well, Thomas, you must meet my husband, Henry. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure where he is at the moment. Things are a bit…hectic just now.”

A young child, no more than four, ran up and wrapped his arms around Mrs. Leach’s legs, causing her to nearly fall over as she showed the guests into the sitting room. “Please excuse the chaos—my eldest daughter is coming to town tomorrow, and the children are a bit more riotous than usual. They do get so excited whenever she visits. She’s a sweet thing, and they miss her dearly.”

Thomas nodded politely, but found himself looking around for Alice, who had yet to make an appearance. “Has Miss Crenshaw left for the evening?”

Mrs. Leach raised an eyebrow. “I was going to suggest you come meet my daughter tomorrow, but I seem a bit too late for that. I will just need to find some other eligible bachelor for her. One who is not yet attached. An old lady likes to have grandchildren around, you know. Not that I’m old, mind.”

Before Thomas could absorb everything she said, the woman continued. “Alice should be down in a few minutes. She’s been helping with the sickly one, Jack, even though she looked more than a little peaked herself when she arrived home this afternoon. That girl has a good heart. She would make anyone a fine wife, if only they could get her to agree to it.”

Thomas’ lips quirked slightly at the insinuation. This woman was very perceptive, it seemed. He would need to stay on her good side, that was for certain. It could be very useful to have an ally in this home. “Is she ill?” he asked, trying not to allow his concern to be too obvious.

She chuckled. “Not ill. I am quite sure she is just tired. Whatever could be keeping her up nights is beyond me,” she responded with a smile that said she knew precisely what was keeping Alice awake.

He had no idea how to react or what to say, but even if he had come up with something, there was no time to say it.

A harried-looking servant rushed into the room and spoke quickly to Mrs. Leach, and the woman turned to the guests, her warm smile turning a bit exasperated. “It seems that dinner may be a little late, if not completely ruined. If you would excuse me—” and she took off at a near-run toward the kitchen.

Joe looked up at his guardian, his expression anxious. “What’s happening, Uncle Thomas?”

Thomas went to the nearest seat, a rocking chair that looked as overworked as any of the women of the household, moved a small bag that seemed to hold a large number of marbles from the seat to the floor, and sat down. He looked at Joe, his grin so wide his cheeks hurt. “I’m not sure exactly, but it is fun, is it not?”

Joe looked uncertain for a moment, then smiled back. He sat down on a clean but rather worn rug that covered the floor. After a questioning glance at Thomas, who shrugged back, the boy picked up the marble bag and started inspecting the contents. Along with a few colorful marbles, he also found several wooden blocks, a doll’s eye, and several long pieces of string. He shook his head, dumbfounded.

Thomas found the entire situation amusing. Joe’s mother had been very tidy and organized, and it seemed she had passed the trait on to her only child. Thomas had noticed the boy’s propensity to have a place for every plaything. Joe shook his head again and Thomas held back his laughter, but it was a near thing.

Another young boy, likely only a year or two older than Joe, came into the room and crossed his arms, pouting his lips out slightly. “Those are mine.”

Thomas leaned back, curious to see how Joe would handle the situation. Joe tilted his head toward the annoyed boy. “I was just looking at them. Want to play something?”

The older child paused a moment, then shrugged and uncrossed his arms, sitting on the floor next to Joe. They were playing like old friends immediately, which, for all Thomas knew, they were. Since the schoolroom included all students through grade five, he had to assume they knew each other from there.

Thinking of the schoolroom inevitably led to an image of the delightful woman in charge, and he wondered where she could be amid the chaos of the house. He leaned back slightly further in his chair, straining to see as far into the hallway as he could. He saw more children run by and the servant from before rushing from one room to the next, but no Alice. Would she spend the whole evening hidden away?

He settled back into the chair, trying to focus his attention on the boys sitting on the floor beside him, who had begun playing cat’s cradle. He would just need to be patient. He would see her sometime even if she stayed by the sick boy’s bed the entire night. Visiting the child was what they had come for, after all. He could be patient and wait until then—but there was no harm in keeping watch for her, just in case.

He leaned back in the rocking chair again, taking it to its extreme, so far back it groaned unhappily at the abuse. He could see nearly the entire hallway from this vantage point.

Alice Crenshaw walked into his line of vision so suddenly that he stiffened, staring at her. When she looked at him, her eyes widened in surprise. It took him a second to realize how odd he looked, almost toppling the chair and craning his neck as he watched her. He let the chair go back to its normal position, which it did, so quickly that he nearly fell face-forward onto the floor.

He would have felt embarrassed and more than a little foolish, except she burst into a loud, almost childish laugh that rang through the house. The lovely sound made his slight humiliation entirely satisfying. The sound was cut short, though. She was no longer in his line of sight, but he could picture her with her hand over her mouth, forcing herself to act proper and ladylike. Which of course did not include loud, joyous laughter. He immediately began wondering how he could make her break character again, hopefully this time without his needing to be the dunce.

By the time he clambered out of the chair, skirted the two boys on the floor, and reached her in the hallway, her laughter was gone, hidden by a mask of appropriate behavior. She held out her hand to him and dipped her head slightly, as if she was meeting someone she hardly knew. Her eyes were unable to hide the mirth she had bottled up, however, and the slight quiver in her hand gave away either her trepidation or her attraction to him. He hoped it was the latter.

“It is pleasant to see you again, Mr. Lancaster. Thank you once more for the ride yesterday evening. You did not get too wet from the rain, I hope?”

He was unsure if she realized just how little her disguise fooled him. What she was doing seemed so apparent—did it really deceive everybody else? He doubted it, if they took the time to look.

She was standing, waiting for the correct response, but he was unable to play the expected part. It would not be fair to either of them to pretend like that. He wanted, needed, to get that mask to fall away. To catch a glimpse of the real, hidden, unfeigned her, if only for a moment.

He pulled her forward by the hand he had yet to relinquish. It was so quick and unexpected that she nearly fell as her body rushed toward him, coming into full contact with his before she regained control, her chest pressing against his for the briefest second. As she stepped back, he leaned down slightly, putting his lips to her ear, and whispered, “After everything that happened I think you can call me Thomas, Alice.”

He stepped away then, but with regret. He wanted to stay close to her, remind her of the moments they had shared the previous evening, but was sure that they would soon be interrupted in the hallway, if the rapid movements of the residents he had previously witnessed were any indication.

And he was right. Alice was still standing dumbfounded when Mrs. Leach appeared, nearly bumping into the younger woman. She smiled at them and said, “You have wonderful timing, Alice! Supper is ready. Let’s move to the dining room, shall we?”

Thomas may have been mistaken, but he thought Mrs. Leach winked at him as they walked into the adjoining room and she pointed to his and Alice’s seats, which happened to be next to each other. Alice seemed more unnerved than thrilled, but Thomas was nearly halfway to ecstatic. With this raucous family, it seemed unlikely that anyone would notice if he stole a word or two with the beautiful woman next to him—and the one person who might notice seemed to think it was a brilliant idea.

He sat down, angling his chair in Alice’s direction so he could speak to her without needing to lean over much or make his intention too obvious. Alice, however, seemed to have the opposite idea and turned her chair away from him, leaning toward one of Mrs. Leach’s young daughters, effectively cutting off any chance there might have been of talking to her.

The dinner was an exercise in patience for Thomas. He spoke with Mr. Leach, a surprisingly calm older man who hardly seemed to notice the chaos around him, and the conversation was pleasant enough, but Alice’s arm brushing up against his—which the crowded table made impossible to prevent—set his every nerve on edge, and he wanted nothing more than to press his lips to hers and make her drop the mask again. Instead, he attempted to ignore her as best he could for the sake of his sanity.

He was rather unsuccessful. By the end of dinner, he was frustrated and exhausted from the effort of staying polite, and felt a strong urge to leave immediately, only trumped, perhaps, by the urge to pick her up and take her with him. When the plates had been cleared away, Mrs. Leach clapped her hands again, something that seemed to be a bit of a habit with her. “Anyone under twelve, it is time for bed. Except you, dear,” she said, turning to Joe. “You come with me to see Jack.”

Before Thomas could blink twice, the room was empty of everyone but him and Alice. Their sudden privacy seemed to be just as unexpected for her as it was for him, although she seemed less pleased about the turn of events than he was. He could see that she was preparing to make an escape, and he needed to do something to keep her from doing so.

There was one thing that could work, if he had guessed her true personality correctly. “Why are you so afraid to be around me?” he asked

As he had hoped, she settled her weight back into her chair decisively, the jut of her chin defiant. “I am not afraid, certainly. I just happen to be aware of what is appropriate.”

He never planned at any point to prod her about her way of life, but the more he saw, the more it tugged at him. He had seen a few glimpses of an ardent spirit, and he was perplexed as to why she hid it. “Does that not exhaust you? You are not meant to always be appropriate. You’re the kind of woman that runs and muddies the hems of her skirts. One who smiles easily and laughs loudly. Why do you act like it is not true?”

She paused for a moment before responding. “Because I love teaching, and I must do what is expected of female educators. I don’t claim for it to be right or fair. There is simply no other choice, no matter how much I dislike some of the aspects.”

His eyes widened, his eyebrows rising high on his forehead. He had expected her to deny her secret side, but there she was, explaining her situation with far more honesty than he would have ever predicted. It made him wonder if perhaps he was earning her trust, and the thought gave him hope.