Chapter 1
The November sunshine was muted and dull, shining through a haze that covered the sky. It made the inside of the school tent dim, and Emily Gardener had lit the lanterns to make sure her pupils could see the books they were supposed to be reading.
Most of their heads were down, eyes lazily drifting over the pages of a history book about the French Revolution.
She had hoped that teaching them something about the outside world would excite the youngsters in her care.
Some seemed to be engrossed, while others didn’t seem interested at all in what would happen to the ill-fated Marie-Antoinette and Louis XIV.
Such a sad tale of how badly monarchs, or any leader, could estrange themselves from those in their care.
It was almost always a fatal error to separate oneself from one’s community.
She considered this for a while and wondered how many children would understand the significance of their own situation.
Isolated as the mining camp was, it was like a little mini-state on its own, and all the burden of leadership fell on Andrew’s shoulders.
From there it cascaded down onto his brother and friends’ shoulders and on and on.
Out of the corner of her eye, some movement caught her attention. Emily looked up from the essay she was supposed to be marking.
One boy of around fourteen was having particular trouble focusing on his book.
Timothy Lupo could never sit still. Not for long, anyway.
He was an energetic, spirited young man who preferred to be running, climbing, or doing things with his hands.
Unlike his sister Lizzy, who seemed able to sit still for hours, lost in her thoughts, Tim was always fidgeting.
Today was worse than ever. He would sit still for a heartbeat or two and then shift in his chair as though something was tickling him.
Tim was wearing a jacket that was a couple of sizes too large for him, but then, all the children were similarly dressed.
Many of them had fled their town quite far away and been hounded by bandits all the way here.
There wasn’t enough cloth or time to make clothes that fit.
Still, it wasn’t cold enough in the tent for a jacket.
Winter in Texas seemed quite mild to Emily, who was used to Washington, DC’s storms and snow.
Timothy was moving again, trying to keep his eyes on his book, but it wasn’t working at all. It was clear that something was distracting him, and it was starting to impact the children around him. Already Tilly Nell was glaring at him. It would only be moments before everyone else joined in.
Emily sighed and rose from her desk. She walked over.
“Is everything all right, Tim?” she asked. “You seem to be having trouble with the reading.”
“No, Miss Emily,” he said with a cherubic smile. “I’m fine. It’s fine.”
“Really?” she asked. Innocent smiles on that face were nothing but trouble.
“Yes, it’s interesting,” he said, in a tone that made it hard for her to believe him.
Emily shrugged. “Okay, well, try to sit still. You’re bothering the others.”
Tim nodded.
No disagreement, no complaint about the work. What was wrong with this picture?
She went and sat behind her desk again, but instead of marking the children’s compositions from the day before, she watched Timothy read.
He was looking at the book, and he would turn a page now and then, but it wasn’t with the regularity of someone actually reading the work.
It looked a lot as though he was skimming over the words and then flipping a page when he thought he’d spent enough time on it. He did this over and over again.
Surely he realized they weren’t reading for fun. She was going to give them questions to answer about the passage when they were done going through it. Perhaps she should have read the passage to them.
No, she couldn’t do that. The children would grow up eventually, and they would have to read for themselves. Furthermore, it wasn’t wise to change her entire teaching strategy for one pupil. But something would have to be done.
She would have to speak to Lizzy.
Emily sighed.
Speaking to Lizzy would be interesting. The problem was that Emily had come to town after spending a couple of months writing letters to Troy.
While corresponding with Emily, Troy had fallen in love with Lizzy, and everything had become messy.
Luckily, they’d sorted it out, and now Emily was free and clear and teaching the children at the camp, while Troy and Lizzy were happily married.
It had all worked out in the end, but Emily wasn’t sure how Lizzy would take the news that her younger brother needed help focusing. He wouldn’t make it through his education without something being done about his wandering attention. Even now, he was shifting back and forth in his seat again.
Emily’s temper stirred. Didn’t he care about his mind?
Didn’t he want to be able to build amazing machines and constructions like Lizzy and Troy?
Timothy seemed to hold them both in great regard.
They had saved the mine not two months ago when there was an explosion of firedamp and the miners were trapped underground.
Without Troy and Lizzy, things wouldn’t have ended as happily as they did.
Doing something like that, saving so many lives, took learning.
Timothy had to be made to understand that and knuckle down and study.
Timothy wriggled and then giggled.
It was the last straw.
“Timothy Lupo!” she snapped in a harsh whisper that drew the attention of all the other children in the tent. “You have got to keep still and focus. What is going on with you today? Your fidgeting is worse than ever.”
Timothy was about to say something when a head popped out of the front of his jacket. It was furry, and Emily got such a fright that she screamed and backed into Tilly’s desk.
“Oh my goodness!” she cried, staring in horror. “It’s a rat!”
“He’s not a rat!” Timothy retorted, helping the grayish-brown head out of the front of his jacket amid more screams from the girls in the class. They all backed away as though expecting the creature to attack them.
It wriggled its snout, and Emily saw the black markings around its eyes. It chittered and then leaped out of Tim’s jacket … right at Emily. She screamed again and held up her hands. The not-rat flew at her, grabbed on, and then slipped to the floor, scurrying down her dress.
Emily climbed onto Tilly’s chair, which the child had just vacated to climb on her desk. “Timothy! Get that animal out of here!” she yelled.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Timothy berated them all, Emily included. “He’s got a sore paw from one of the bandit traps, and you all made Critter run. He’s far more afraid of all of you than you should be of him.”
“What did you bring that thing here for?” Diana demanded, striding toward Timothy, her face red with anger.
The creature chose that moment to grab onto the back of Diana’s skirt and race up it to grab her braid, which hung down her back. Her eyes went big, and she began to scream. The creature tugged and swung on the end of the braid, then flew off onto a nearby desk.
There it sat, nursing one paw, licking it.
Timothy rushed forward and grabbed the little thing into his arms. “You scared Critter! You should all be ashamed. He’s small and scared. Where is your Christian charity?”
“He’s scared?” Diana demanded, checking the end of her braid for damage.
Carl, always looking for a reason to tussle with Timothy, sauntered over. “Of course you would like a raccoon. It suits you. Vermin attracts vermin.”
Timothy flew at Carl like a wild animal in his own right. He grabbed the boy and bore him down to the floor, and then the two began to fight, rolling over and over, each trying to gain the advantage over the other.
Emily stood on Tilly’s chair in shock, not sure what to do. This had never happened in any school she’d ever taught at before.
“Miss, you have to do something!” Diana shrieked.
Yes, she had to do something, or Andrew would come and check on the noise and there would no doubt be trouble. She didn’t need that. She’d already caused an upset just by arriving in camp.
The raccoon was out again, this time clawing at Carl. He screamed and batted it with his fist. The poor little thing skittered across the floor with a yelp.
Emily almost trod on the animal as she climbed down from the chair. She went to the washstand in the corner of the room, grabbed the jug of water, and without a word, poured its entire contents onto the fighting boys.
They spluttered and backed away from each other instantly.
“That’s icy cold!” Timothy protested, wiping his hair from his eyes.
“It’s freezing,” Carl agreed.
Oh good, Emily thought sarcastically. Now they get along.
“Are you two quite done?” Emily asked, towering over them. “Because I won’t tolerate such behavior in my class, do you both understand me?”
They nodded, suddenly looking more like the boys they were than the men they were trying to be.
“Good! Now, Timothy, pick up your pet and get him out of here,” Emily said.
“But he’s hurt,” Timothy protested. “I found him in one of the traps we laid for the bandits a couple of days ago. I tried to help him, but see his front paw? It’s hurt bad, and I don’t think I can fix it. I wanted to show you and see if you had any ideas how I could help him.”
“He is kind of cute,” Ester Thomas said. She sat one row over from Timothy and had a small crush on him. She stuck out a finger at the creature, which tried to bite it. “Oooh, feisty,” she said, pulling her hand back quickly.
“We can’t let it suffer,” Diana admitted grudgingly. The girl had a level head on her shoulders most of the time. “Perhaps Kyle or Mrs. Carter could fix him.”
“Yes, maybe one of them could help,” Tilly agreed.
“Or we could take it out and wring its neck,” Carl suggested.
“Carl! That is a terrible suggestion,” Emily chided. “You can’t do that.”
“Better than leaving it maimed,” Carl said, gesturing at the raccoon’s paw. “Look at those fingers. They look broken to me.”
Yes, they did. They were bent the wrong way. Emily sighed. “Take him to the medical tent and see what Julie can do with him. And Timothy, please don’t bring pets to class again. All right?”
He nodded. “All right.” He picked up the little creature and headed for the tent flap before pausing and asking, “Are you mad at me? Will you tell my sister?”
“Not if you promise you won’t bring Critter to class again,” Emily said.
Timothy smiled. “That’s a deal!”
He scampered out of the tent, looking as though things couldn’t have gone better for him. For a moment, Emily wondered if perhaps she had played into one of his schemes. The boy was exceptional at finding sneaky ways of getting out of tasks he didn’t enjoy.
Before she had cottoned on, he had tricked her into thinking that it was mandatory for the children to work in the fields every second day.
They had missed a lot of school before she thought to ask Andrew, the man in charge of this place, and he told her that wasn’t the case at all.
The children could help in the afternoons after school.
She shook her head at the memory. Timothy Lupo was something else, all right.
Turning back to the rest of the class, Emily noticed they were all standing around watching her.
“I suppose expecting you to carry on reading would be futile,” she sighed. “Go ahead and take a recess.”
She slumped into her chair and watched the children file out into the dull sunshine.
Then she put her head in her hands and closed her eyes for a moment.
What a morning! Things certainly were never dull with Timothy around.
Although she wouldn’t really mind a little dullness.
She felt like she’d hit the ground running when she arrived a few months ago and hadn’t stopped since then.
The tent flap lifted, and Lizzy poked her head in. She was very pretty, with dark hair and chocolate brown eyes that seemed to dance all the time since she’d married Troy.
“Kyle said he heard screaming. Word of mouth says Timmy brought his latest pet to school?”
Emily gestured for her to come in. She assumed she wasn’t breaking any promises to Tim now, since his sister already knew. “Yes, he brought a raccoon to class.”
“I told him to leave Critter in the cage in his tent,” Lizzy said. “I’m sorry, Emily. He’s being a lot more defiant lately. I’ll make sure he doesn’t do it again. Where is he, anyway?”
“I sent him to Julie to see if she can help the raccoon,” Emily said.
Lizzy nodded. “Thanks for understanding. Tim’s been through a lot lately.”
She meant since their father died and they were forced from their hometown. Emily’s anger at the boy faded as she was reminded of all he’d endured in his short life.
“It’s all right,” she said. “It’s just been a crazy morning.”
“Well, then would you like to see something really good?” Lizzy asked, her smile curling her lips in a mischievous grin.
“Yes, I would love to,” Emily said.
Lizzy smiled. “Come on. It’s a bit of a walk. You can bring the children too if you want.”
Emily thought it best to drag them along, feeling like a mother duck with her offspring following behind.
Lizzy led them to the edge of the creek that flowed by the camp. On the other side of the water, standing proud and erect, was a house.
Emily blinked and frowned at Lizzy.
Lizzy nodded. “The first proper house that our little town has ever had is now completely finished. Well, apart from needing to be painted and have drapes hung and all that sort of thing. The building is finished.”
Emily and the children burst into applause. She hadn’t noticed how much she missed houses and streets and civilization until that moment. Tears welled in her eyes. “It’s lovely,” she said. “When do we all get one?”