Hidden Truths (24 page)

She and Nattie couldn't be more different if they tried.
While the Hamilton sisters both loved horses and had stood together to defend
Phin's reputation and her against the girls at the schoolhouse dance, Rika
wasn't yet sure how close they really were.

"Are you mucking stalls?" Amy asked, looking over
Rika's shoulder to the barn. "Why aren't you wearing gloves?"

"I was. I found these," Rika pulled a pair of
gloves from her apron pocket, "when I helped bring the equipment into the
new tack room. But they are either your father's or belong to a ranch hand.
They're too big for me and started to rub my skin raw, so I took them
off."

Amy tugged her own gloves from her waistband. "Here.
Try these."

"But they are yours. You'll need them or ruin your
hands."

"No, my calluses are in all the right places.
See?" She held out her hands. Her palms were covered with calluses.

Reluctantly, Rika took the gloves and pulled them on. The
gauntlets were still warm from where they had been tucked against Amy's body.
Rika stretched her fingers. The gloves were a bit too loose but would protect
her hands much better than the bigger pair she had tried before. "Thank
you. I'll give them back once I'm done with the stalls."

"I think this is yours," a deep voice said behind
them.

Rika turned.

Hank pushed the wheelbarrow toward Rika.

"Oh." With flushed cheeks, Rika hurried toward
him. "I didn't mean to leave it behind. I just..." She had allowed
herself to become distracted while she watched Amy work with Mouse.

"It's all right," Hank said. "I just need to
get Old Jack, and the wheelbarrow was in the way."

Amy walked over, leading Mouse on a rope. "Old Jack?
You're not going to town, are you? I need every hand to replace the loose rails
on the corral and prepare it for the roundup."

"It's not for me," Hank said. "Your mother
asked me to get the buckboard ready for her. She wants to go to the saddle
maker and get some of the tack replaced that burned in the fire."

A shiver raced along Rika's skin as she thought about that
night.

"If you take over Mouse for a minute, I'll get the
buckboard ready for Mama," Amy said. "I need to talk to her
anyway."

Rika gripped the handles of the wheelbarrow, her hands now
protected by Amy's gloves. The simple kindness sat like a piece of lead in her
stomach because she had earned it with lies.

You earned it with hard work,
she told herself. Every
blister, every bruise, and every drop of sweat had been earned honestly. She
had risked her life to help Amy save the horses from the burning barn.
You
deserve their respect.

Clenching her jaw, she pushed the wheelbarrow toward the
manure pile.

*  *  *

Amy fiddled with the reins and finally handed them up to her
mama. "When you're in town," she said, keeping her gaze on Old Jack,
"do you think you have time to go to the cobbler's?"

"The cobbler's? Why would I go there?" Mama
glanced at Amy's boots. "You need new boots so soon?"

"No. My boots are fine. Can you order a new pair of
gloves, please?"

"Gloves?" Mama's gaze wandered to Amy's bare
hands.

"Not for me. Hendrika needs her own pair. I still owe
her money, and it would be a good way to say thank you for helping me save the
horses."

A warm smile lit up Mama's face. "That's a nice
idea." Then a frown replaced her smile. "But with what the new tack
is gonna cost us, it might not be the best time for the extra expense."

She was right. New saddles, bridles, and harnesses would use
up most of their savings.

"Maybe the cobbler will agree to trade the gloves for a
load of hay?" Amy said.

"I'll try," Mama said. "Do you know what size
Hendrika wears?"

It was amazingly easy to call up a mental image of
Hendrika's hands. Along came the memory of how good it had felt to have
Hendrika take care of her burned fingers. Amy roughly shook her head to get rid
of the thought. She looked at Mama's fingers, which had a competent grip on the
reins. "If they fit you, they should fit Hendrika too."

"All right, sweetie. I'll see you later."

With a flick of the reins, the wagon rolled up the hill.

*  *  *

When Nora left the cobbler's, the town's pastor and the
doctor descended on her. "Mrs. Hamilton." Dr. Tolridge tipped his hat
and extended his hand to help her cross the street. "How nice to see you
in town."

Oh, yeah?
Nora eyed them suspiciously. Except for a
quick greeting in church, she hadn't talked to either of them since she had
told them she wouldn't teach while Luke was away. They had accepted it with an
uncaring shrug, acting as if good teachers were a dime a dozen. She said
nothing but waited to hear what they wanted.

"Do you have a minute?" the pastor asked.

Nora nodded.

"We know you said that with your husband gone you wouldn't
be able to teach, but..." Reverend Rhodes looked at the schoolhouse across
the street.

"Oh, let me guess. George and Hiram have managed to
chase off yet another teacher and now you want me to take over the rest of the
term." Bitterness and grim satisfaction warred within Nora. When she had
first started teaching years ago, the doctor and the pastor had been her
biggest opponents, loudly declaring that a married woman shouldn't be allowed
to teach school. Only Jacob Garfield's vote of confidence had convinced the
school board to give Nora a chance.

"No," Reverend Rhodes said. "It's not
that."

"Not yet," the doctor said.

Right at that moment, the schoolhouse's door banged shut. A
young teacher stormed away, his collar askew.

Nora could easily imagine what had happened. Hiram and
George were big boys of sixteen — almost too old to still be in school. By now,
they should have been helping their fathers or trying to find work, but hard
work didn't have much appeal for them. Spelling, arithmetic, and geography
didn't interest them either. They came to school to amuse themselves by
disrupting class and terrorizing the teacher. Openly, they boasted that no
teacher would last a whole term — and no one but Nora ever had.

"All right." The pastor sighed. "It is as you
thought. We need a teacher who won't let herself be chased off by George and
Hiram. It would just be for a few weeks, until summer break."

Nora hesitated. The boys wouldn't dare to lay hand on a
female teacher, but they had other ways to make teaching unpleasant for her.
When Nora taught school, George was bad enough, and now that his cousin Hiram
had moved to town and joined him in school, she was sure the children hadn't
learned a thing all year.

She reached into her apron pocket and felt the list of things
they needed from the saddle maker. It was a long list.
We could really use
the money.
With Hendrika willing to help out, Nattie could handle the
chores around the house.

"All right." She gave the pastor a grim nod.
"You've got yourself a teacher, Reverend."

The schoolhouse's door opened again and laughing children
stepped outside.

"Excuse me," Nora said. "I need to stop them
before this gets completely out of hand." She marched to the schoolhouse
and reached it just as the last two children headed out the door. "If this
isn't George and Hiram Miller — just the two young gentlemen I wanted to
see." She stared them down, acting unimpressed with the fact that the boys
towered over her.

Hiram folded muscular arms across his chest. "But maybe
we don't want to see you."

Oh, so he's the boss, not George.
Nora gestured at
the door, ignoring his comment. "Let's go in and talk like adults."
They couldn't dismiss her invitation if they didn't want to be thought of as
children.

George shuffled his feet and looked at Hiram.

"Oh, not you, George." Nora patted his arm.
"You go on home. I'll talk to Hiram — that is, if he's not too scared to
be alone with me."

"Scared?" Hiram snorted. "By a little
schoolmarm like you?"

Nora held the door open for him. "Wonderful. Then it's
settled. We'll go inside and talk."

When she entered behind Hiram, the schoolroom felt much
smaller than it usually did. The child-size benches and desks made Hiram appear
even larger. For a moment, old fears surfaced, but Nora wrestled them down. At
Luke's side, she had learned to face all kinds of threats, and she wouldn't
back down from this young brute who had the body of a man and the brain of an
unruly child.

She sorted through her options. The teacher's cane next to
the blackboard wasn't her style of teaching, and she knew Hiram could easily
take it away from her and use it as a weapon against her anyway. Telling his
father to discipline him wouldn't work either. She had tried it with George
last year, and whatever punishment George's father had handed out, it made
George resent her even more.

If I want him to respect me, I need to earn his respect
first — and just being a good teacher won't impress him.
She had to prove
herself superior in an area that he didn't expect.

A slow smile inched across her face when she remembered
something else Luke had taught her. "Let's sit down." She gestured at
her desk.

"Sitting around is for womenfolk. I'll go fishing
now." Hiram sauntered to the door.

"So you don't want to hear the deal I have to
offer?" Nora asked from her desk.

A cautious glance met hers. "Deal? What deal?"

"If I win, you'll come to school every day for the rest
of the term and you'll sit quietly and try to learn what I'm teaching."

"Sounds like a bad deal. No, thanks." Hiram took
another step toward the door.

Nora continued as if he hadn't interrupted. "If you
win, I'll talk to your father and tell him that I taught you all I can. Then
you can spend your mornings fishing with your cousin."

Interest sparked in Hiram's eyes when he turned his head,
but he quickly hid it. "Win at what?"

"Oh, I thought we could arm wrestle." Nora gave
him her sweetest smile.

Silence filled the schoolroom.

Then laughter exploded from Hiram. "Arm wrestle?"
He slapped his thighs. "With you?"

"I considered a spelling bee, but then I thought I
should give you at least a hint of a chance to win."

"Are you crazy?" He rolled up his sleeve and
flexed impressive muscles. "How could a little woman like you beat
that?"

Nora gestured to a bench at the other side of her desk.
"Sit down and find out." Nervousness knotted her insides, but she was
careful not to show it. Appearing confident and throwing him off balance was
part of the strategy. "Or are you afraid? If I win, I promise not to tell
anyone what our deal was about." The school board wouldn't like that kind
of teaching method anyway — at least not from a woman.

With a snort, Hiram plopped down on the bench.

Nora put her elbow on the table and gripped his hand.

The difference in their arm size made Hiram laugh, but Nora
remained focused. She pressed her feet against the floor to support her upper
body and leaned forward. "Ready?" she asked.

Hiram still chuckled, but he nodded.

"Go!"

Immediately, Hiram tried to push her arm down.

Nora didn't push. She locked the muscles in her belly,
shoulder, and arm and focused on keeping her arm upright. She used her entire
body, not just her arm, to resist his pressure.

Hiram's face turned red, and Nora wasn't sure whether it was
from the exertion or from anger when her arm wouldn't budge. He let out a grunt
and doubled his efforts.

The muscles in Nora's shoulder and arm screamed at her, but
she held on, not trying to push him down. Her fingertips put pressure on the
nerve between his thumb and index finger.

Another grunt was wrenched from Hiram's lips. His grip
weakened for a moment.

Nora pulled her elbow slightly toward herself and rotated
her arm. Her fingers dug into the soft spot on Hiram's hand again, and in one
swift move, she forced his arm part of the way down.

"What the hell?" Hiram shouted. His gaze darted up
as if to make sure it was still a slender schoolteacher sitting across from
him, not a muscle-bound giant.

With her feet pressed against the desk leg, Nora shifted her
hand and used his distraction to push his hand all the way down.

"Hell and tarnation!" Hiram let go of her hand as
if it were on fire. He rubbed his fingers and stared at her.

Nora's insides quivered with joy, but she forced herself not
to let her triumph show. An adolescent boy like Hiram would be a sore loser if
she hurt his pride.

"How did you do that?" Hiram asked, still staring.

"There's a trick," Nora said. The same trick
enabled Luke to beat some of the much stronger ranch hands and prove her
"manliness." "And if you want, I can teach you."

Eagerness glimmered in Hiram's eyes. He was probably already
imagining becoming an unbeatable hero and the envy of the other boys.

"Next year," Nora said. "When you have
mastered everything else I have to teach you."

The light in Hiram's eyes dimmed.

"Deal?" Nora asked and held out her hand. Her
fingers trembled with exertion, but she hoped he wouldn't notice.

Hiram hesitated. Finally, he wrapped his fingers around
hers. "Deal."

When Nora stood, her knees felt weak. She knew by tonight,
her muscles would be stiff and hurting and she would long for one of Luke's
massages. "All right. Then I'll see you tomorrow morning. And bring your
cousin." She ambled out of the schoolhouse, her skirt swishing, before he
could answer.

"
W
ANNA
TRY BRANDING one?" Nattie asked.

The blood drained from Rika's face. She retreated until her
back pressed against the corral rails. "Oh, no. I couldn't."