Undaunted Hope (13 page)

“Maybe this is the best it gets for them.” He made the mistake of shifting so that his mouth was near her head. Wisps of her dark hair curled around the knitted wool hat she wore. The strands tickled his lips. He couldn't stop himself from leaning in, burying his nose in her hair and breathing in her enticing scent—one he couldn't name but that reminded him of spices his mother had used when she baked
Krumkake
.

Before he knew what he was doing, he'd slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. He pressed his lips against her loose hair. She gave a soft gasp that only stirred his blood, and he relished the softness of her body leaning into him.

He let his mouth linger against her hair, not wanting to pull away and yet he knew he should.

“Alex?” she whispered, her tone wavering with both invitation and hesitancy.

He angled so that his lips brushed against her cheek. “What,
beautiful?” Without giving her the chance to answer, he pressed a kiss against the hollow part of her ear.

This time her intake was sharp and she trembled against him. “Have you ever been down in the mine?”

He smiled at her attempt to distract him. “Of course. Lots of times.” His whisper fanned against her neck just below her ear.

“What's it like?” she asked, tilting her head and giving him access to more of her neck.

“Dark and damp.” His lips made contact with the smooth skin of her throat, and at his touch she released a stifled moan.

“Miss Taylor?” A surprised voice came from the doorway.

Tessa jumped. Her rapid motion sent a spray of gravel over the edge of the shaft. Alex grabbed her arm to steady her and keep her from toppling down.

Shadows fell across them, blocking the light coming in through the door. “Is that you, Miss Taylor?” the voice asked again.

“Josie?” Tessa scrambled away from him, tripping over her skirt in her haste to rise to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

Alex swiveled to see Josie Rawlings next to Robert Hall. Their faces were flushed, their hair and clothes askew. Had Josie and Robert Hall been in the hoist house? Was that the noise he'd heard? He narrowed his eyes on Robert, who lowered his gaze to his shoes but not before Alex caught sight of the guilt that told him all he needed to know. The boy had been doing a lot more than kissing Josie.

He'd heard rumors that the young people came up to the deserted mine buildings to find privacy, which was hard to come by in their crowded homes. Apparently the rumors were true.

Tessa smoothed down her skirt and brushed back her hair. The surprise on Josie's face transformed into a sly smile. “I think we were both up here for the same reason, Miss Taylor.” She
reached for Robbie and wound her arm around him, pressing against the boy's body in an all too intimate way.

“Josie!” Tessa's eyes widened.

Josie giggled. “We're just having a little fun. Aren't we, Robbie?”

Robbie didn't dare lift his head. Alex was tempted to cross to the boy and rough him up a bit so that he wouldn't lay another finger on Josie Rawlings for as long as he lived.

“Josie,” Tessa said sternly, “you absolutely shouldn't be up here alone with Robbie. You know what I told you about keeping proper boundaries with boys.”

“If you can be alone up here with Alex, why can't I be alone with Robbie?”

“
Mr. Bjorklund
was showing me how the mine works. That's all.”

“I suppose that's why he was kissing you.”

“He wasn't kissing me.”

“You looked awfully cozy to me,” Josie insisted with an impish smile.

Tessa shook her head. Panic flitted through her eyes. She glanced at him, silently imploring him to speak up and help her explain the situation.

He shrugged and slowly pushed himself to his feet. He didn't understand why she was so embarrassed about being together with him. He supposed she wanted to set the right example for a girl like Josie. But surely Josie could see that he and Tessa were older, more mature, and ready for a relationship—at least he was ready for one.

“Don't worry, Miss Taylor,” Josie said, reaching up to kiss Robbie's cheek. “I promise I won't tell anyone you were up here, if you promise not to say anything to my mamm. She thinks I'm visiting with Robbie's family.”

“There's nothing for you to tell anyone,” Tessa said, her expression darker than Alex had ever seen it.

“Exactly,” the girl quipped lightly. “And there's nothing for you to tell anyone about me and Robbie.”

Tessa gave an exasperated sigh and then stalked across the shaft house and brushed past Josie. For a moment, Alex could only watch her in confusion as she stomped away down the hill. He needed to go after her and discover why she was so upset, but before he moved, he crossed his arms and stared hard at Josie and Robert. “As much as I like Miss Taylor, and as much as I try to steal a kiss or two from her every now and then, I respect her too much to do anything that is reserved for marriage.”

Robbie's thin pimply face turned red, but Josie only smiled. “Well, since we know we're gonna get married, then that's all that matters.”

Alex studied the girl's earnest face. “If a man really loves you, he'll show it to you by controlling his selfish urges and cherishing your purity.” He leveled a look at Robbie. “Now head back to town and don't come up here again.”

Under his breath, Robbie mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

But Josie's smile turned brittle. “I suppose you're gonna treat me like I'm a baby too.”

Hadn't she been ten years old last week? Wasn't she a bit young to think about marriage? “You're not a baby, Josie, but I think you should give yourself a few more years to grow up.”

He didn't wait for her reaction. He strode past them out of the shaft house. Tessa was already far down the hill, and he had to run to catch up with her.

“Tessa,” he called, slipping and sliding on the wet gravel in his haste.

She didn't slow down to wait for him. If anything she picked up her pace. She was almost at the bottom of the hill by the time he reached her.

“What's wrong, beautiful?” he asked.

“Just go home.” Her countenance was as stormy as the winter sea. “And leave me alone.”

Her walk across the rocky path past the stamp mill was choppy, but she didn't slacken her pace. He'd obviously done something to offend her. “Tell me what I did wrong so that I can plead for forgiveness.”

She stopped abruptly and turned to face him, unleashing her wrath. “I told you I didn't want to be alone with you, that we needed to stay someplace public.”

“The mine is public.”

“Not today.”

“We weren't alone. Josie and Robert Hall were there too.” His attempt at humor was met with a scowl that made her features even prettier than usual.

“If you're not going to be serious, then I don't want to talk with you.” She began to stalk away.

His start of a smile fell flat and he bolted after her. “Wait.” He grasped her arm. “Tell me what I'm missing here. Why are you upset at me?”

He gave her no choice but to stop. From the stiffness in her shoulders he half expected her to try to jerk away from him. But after a moment, she sagged and her chin dropped. Resignation rushed in to replace her defiance. “I'm doing my best to protect my reputation here in Eagle Harbor. I don't want anyone to think of me as a loose woman.”

“No one would ever think that. Not in a million years.”

She focused on the crushed stones at her feet. “They might
if I'm not more careful, or if Josie tells them that she saw us up at the mine together.”

“She won't. But even if she did, there's nothing wrong with us taking a walk together.”

“As this community's teacher, I need to be above reproach. I shouldn't be pairing off with any men.”

“I'm technically your student since you've offered to tutor me.” He offered her a grin in his effort to lighten the moment, yet a part of him knew that after today he wouldn't pursue the tutoring any further, even if that meant losing out on spending time with her. He couldn't let her see just how ignorant he really was. He didn't want to chance her thinking any less of him because of it.

The uncertainty on Tessa's face made her appear younger and vulnerable. He wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her. But he sensed that if he so much as tried to hold her, the storm would return with greater fury.

“I have to guard my reputation carefully, Alex,” she said. “And if you care at all about me—as a friend—then you'll help me stay above reproach.”

Her emphasis on the word
friend
disquieted him, but now wasn't the time to press her about it.

At last she looked him in the eye, and the wariness and pain in her expression stabbed his heart. He didn't know what had happened to put such pain there, but he could do nothing less than make sure he wasn't the one to cause her any more turmoil.

D
ecember descended with a flurry of cold and snow. Tessa dismissed school on the Wednesday night before Christmas with a ten-day vacation to correspond with the mine closure. Church services were held on Christmas Eve, and afterward she joined others in the community who went from house to house singing Christmas carols in an attempt to combat the common practice among many Cornish to walk around singing for ale.

The Saturday evening after the new year she invited the students from the nearby Central Mine School to compete in a spelling bee. She'd spent several hours in preparation with the students over their vacation, and now as the last few students remained standing, she was pleased that Henry Benney was one of them. His family sat in the second row, watching him with pride. Tessa's heart warmed with satisfaction at the thought of just how much progress not only Henry had made in his
schooling, but also Mr. Benney. At the first evening class he'd only been able to cipher and read a little, but now he was reading whole books as fast as Tessa could loan them to him.

Behind the Benneys sat Samuel Updegraff. At the delight filling Samuel's pudgy round face, Tessa knew she'd done the right thing to invite him. He watched each contestant with rapt attention. He clapped enthusiastically no matter how the child did. And he laughed with delight when one of the children spelled a word correctly.

He still gave her a hard time when she bargained with him at the store, but she didn't take it personally. Underneath his worrisome exterior, Samuel was like a child trapped in a man's body. He deserved as much of her kindness and consideration as any one of her students, even if he was Percival's brother.

Her gaze strayed to Hannah and Jeremiah sitting in a back corner. She'd overheard a rumor that Mr. Nance's drinking had worsened. When he wasn't down in one of the shafts, he was at the tavern. Tessa had no doubt that the man coped the only way he knew how—to drink himself into oblivion so he might forget the awful fact that he was sharing his wife with another man.

Hannah had shyly informed her just that morning that Percival hadn't visited her in an entire week. Apparently the women in Eagle Harbor knew this to be his sign that he was tiring of his current mistress and would soon be on the lookout for another. Tessa had sensed a growing tension among many of the women and now she understood why. They were worried which of them Percival would choose as his next victim.

Every time Tessa thought about Percival's control over the miners and their families, she wanted to march over to his house, tie him up, and lock him in a closet so that he couldn't
hurt anyone ever again. At the same time she was frustrated that the miners were letting him hurt them. Mr. Nance didn't have to allow Percival to take advantage of his wife. He could stand up to his boss, no matter the consequences. Tessa didn't understand why the men didn't band together to fight for their rights and stop allowing Percival to have so much control over them.

She just prayed that if she ever found herself in a similar situation, she'd have the courage to do what was right and that her husband would love her enough to save her.

Inadvertently her attention shifted to Alex, who was sitting in the middle of the crowd with Ingrid on his lap and Michael next to him. While Gunnar had already missed a word and had to sit down, they still watched the contest with interest. The Rawlings family had come too. The town had few social events in the wintertime, and the spelling bee was a pleasant change from the monotony of cold and snow.

The wind rattled the stovepipe, and she was grateful again that Michael had taken such care to prepare the schoolhouse for winter. So far they'd had several snowfalls, bringing the accumulation on the ground close to a foot deep.

As the last of the students were eliminated, Henry Benney remained standing. With everyone else she cheered and clapped, nearly brought to tears by the beaming smile of her prized student.

She rewarded all the participants with the small stash of candy she'd brought with her, then treated everyone with the cakes she'd baked from the overpriced supplies she purchased from the company store. Since the Central Mine teacher and students had left early due to the snow that had started to fall, she had more cake left than she'd anticipated.

“It looks like the evening was a success,” Alex said, approaching the desk she'd used as a serving table.

“Gunnar did really well,” Tessa said. “I have a feeling he'll be challenging Henry Benney soon enough.”

“That he will.” Alex glanced through the milling crowd at his nephew sitting next to Michael. “It's obvious you're making school fun for them.”

“What else do you expect from me?” She smiled. “I'm a fun person.”

He didn't smile in return. Instead his expression was sincere, and the blue of his eyes shone with admiration. “Gunnar and Ingrid both told me you were a good teacher, but I didn't realize just how good.”

His compliment wrapped around her and warmed her. “I guess you need to start believing everything they say.”
If only you'd made an effort
to come to my evening class, you would have found
out for yourself
, she wanted to say. Now that commerce on the lakes had ceased and the lighthouse closed, he could have come.

But he hadn't come. And he hadn't made any further mention of tutoring either. It was just as well, she reasoned. After the incident in the mine, she couldn't encourage anything more between them, especially because her stomach still did flips whenever she imagined the way his lips had felt on her neck.

“You work really hard,” he continued with that same sincerity she didn't quite know how to interpret. She could easily banter with him, yet whenever he became too serious, her insides twisted into strange knots. “You've spent hours and hours with the children above what's required of your teaching duties.”

“I don't mind. I like it.” Her answer hardly sufficed, but she couldn't figure out what to say to Alex when he was acting sincere.

“Telling you thank-you doesn't seem like enough,” he said, his smile showing off the slight dimple in his chin.

She couldn't make herself look away from him. She sensed he was beginning to understand her passion for teaching, that he not only accepted all she was doing but also appreciated it. That thought was enough to make her wish the desk wasn't between them.

He was the kind of man she could have easily cared for. He was everything any woman could ask for in a man—kind, sensitive, funny, and good-looking.

If she were in the market for a husband, he'd be a perfect candidate. But right now she loved teaching and couldn't give it up. Not yet. Besides, there was that other little problem. He was a lightkeeper. Even if she'd been able to consider letting more develop between them, it wouldn't be fair to either of them. She'd never be able to ask him to give up his job for her. And she certainly wouldn't consider shackling herself to life in a lighthouse.

She was relieved when one of her students interrupted the intensity of their moment and Alex returned to sit with his family. In the midst of the busyness of saying good-bye to everyone and congratulating her students, she didn't have the chance to talk to him again before he left. She was disappointed, though she knew she shouldn't be. She lingered for a while, talking with the Benneys and several other families before finally turning to Samuel.

“Thank you for coming, Samuel,” she said, giving the short man a quick hug.

Flustered, he stuttered for a moment while he wrestled with his coat, accidentally putting it on backward before realizing his mistake and then having to take it off again.

“Sam, are you ready?” came a voice from the doorway behind them, a voice Tessa had learned to dread.

A gust of cold wind and a dusting of freshly fallen snow blew in, along with the tall, distinguished form of Percival Updegraff, bundled in a finely tailored sealskin coat trimmed in thick fur.

The room was mostly deserted except for a few stragglers. At the sight of Percival, heads bent quickly and the room grew silent. A chill skittered across Tessa's flesh, but she lifted her chin determined not to let this man intimidate her.

“Percival is here to walk me home.” Samuel fumbled at the buttons of his coat.

“Make sure you put on your gloves.” Percival stepped inside and brushed off the snow that had collected on his coat. “The wind is kicking into a gale.”

“Will we have a big storm?” Samuel asked.

“Yes, the snow is falling fast now.” Percival stomped his boots. “I hope you had a good evening, Sam, because I don't want you to go out until the storm subsides.”

Samuel grumbled his displeasure at the back of his throat but didn't object. If there was one thing Tessa could respect about Percival, it was his care for his brother. Many men would have considered a simpleton like Samuel an inconvenience or embarrassment, but she'd never seen Percival treat Samuel with anything but kindness.

As Percival's eyes adjusted to the brightness of the schoolroom, he took in Tessa standing near his brother and pulled himself up straighter. “Miss Taylor, I didn't expect that you'd still be here, not with the temperature dropping as fast as rocks down a chute.”

“I was just about to leave, after I take a few minutes to tidy up the room and ready it for Monday.”

“I suggest you leave now,” Percival said. “I doubt you'll have to worry about school on Monday, not with this storm blowing in.”

For just a moment, with the sensitivity he was showing his brother and her, Tessa could almost disregard all the horrible things she'd learned about Percival. She could almost believe this man standing before her was someone entirely different, someone who genuinely cared about his family and brother . . . until his cold eyes assessed her from her head down to her toes, like a man sizing up a woman in a brothel.

She shivered but refused to cower.

“In fact,” he continued smoothly, “I'd suggest you accompany Samuel and me home since we're closer to the schoolhouse than the Rawlingses'.”

“I'll be just fine, Mr. Updegraff,” she said, then glanced at her remaining guests, hoping they wouldn't leave her alone to fend for herself against Percival. None of them met her gaze.

“Please come, Miss Taylor,” Samuel chimed in with childlike innocence. “I'll take good care of you.”

She tried to offer Samuel a reassuring smile, but it felt stiff. “I'm sure I can manage.”

“Now, Miss Taylor,” Percival said as he reached for her coat on a peg near the door, “I won't take no for an answer. I can't in good conscience allow you to walk home alone in this storm. It's nearly a blizzard out there, and you could easily get lost.”

“It can't be that bad yet.” She thought of the Central Mine students and prayed that in their horse-drawn sleigh they'd had plenty of time to arrive home before the storm hit.

“Why take any chances?” There was something in his tone that told her he wasn't simply referring to taking chances with the snowstorm, that he was threatening her in other ways. “Besides,
I've been thinking this week that I've neglected to get to know you. I think it's time we remedy that.”

Hannah's whisper from earlier in the day came rushing back to scream at her. Percival was tiring of Hannah. He hadn't visited her all week. Tessa gulped a lump of fear forming in her throat. Was he truly on the hunt for new prey, and was she to be the next victim he hoped to snare? She spun away from him and took long strides to her desk. “We know each other well enough, Mr. Updegraff,” she said over her shoulder. “I bid you be on your way so that I can finish my work here.”

She collected the cake crumbs on her desk and swept them into her palm. The soft creak of the door told her someone had left, and she prayed it was Percival and Samuel. After counting silently to ten, she glanced over her shoulder.

She gave a startled gasp and jumped at Percival's presence directly behind her.

A desperate look around told her that everyone else had filed out of the schoolhouse except Samuel, who stood by the door watching Percival with too much trust.

“Miss Taylor,” Percival said in a low voice, “I'd really like to spend more time with you.”

She shuffled back but bumped into the desk. “What about your wife, Mr. Updegraff? I doubt she'd approve of you spending time with me.”

“She can't begrudge me a little companionship in this lonely place.” He closed the gap so that his coat brushed her.

“You and I both know that my teaching contract forbids me to have male companionship.”

“
You and I both
know
that hasn't stopped you from spending time with certain men in this town.”

She swallowed hard at his insinuation. Did he know about
her trip up to the mine with Alex? She'd prayed fervently over the past month that no one would find out and so far she hadn't heard a single mention of it.

“You'll find that I can be very generous to those who are generous to me,” he continued.

“No.”

His mustache twitched. “I don't like anyone telling me no.”

She had no choice but to arch backward over her desk. She was almost tempted to hop on top and crawl across in order to get away from him. “There aren't many who tell you no in this town, are there?”

“Not often.” His body was rigid and unmoving like a wall hemming her in.

“Well, Mr. Updegraff,” she said, inching sideways and trying to squeeze past him, “I'm not afraid to tell you no.”

He slapped a hand on the desk, preventing her escape. Something violent flared in his eyes. A warning rang in her head, a warning to get away from him as fast as she could, that if she stayed she would get hurt.

“Percival, are you mad at Miss Taylor?” Samuel asked from near the door, his tone filled with anxiety.