Chapter 9
Jacob had to suppress a groan as the throbbing in his head increased with Victoria’s chatter. Despite the even pace of the good-minded driving sorrel named Jim, Victoria sought to grab Jacob’s arm with each dip in the road. He felt like shrugging her off like a bug.
But, remembering Seth’s hissed admonition to “behave,” he nodded and murmured at the appropriate times and hoped that the woman’s desire for a lengthy tour would end soon. However, it seemed that she was enchanted with everything Amish, and when the school bell rang clear as crystal across a shallow field, Victoria squealed with delight.
“Oh, is that a real Amish school? I want to see it. I think I’ll find it picturesque.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, Victoria, the teacher likes her privacy and I’m sure that perhaps another time …” Jacob was surprised that he felt a little nervous about seeing his intended.
The woman pouted her red lips and sighed. “I don’t know; the more I experience things the more I think that perhaps another horse to go with Jim here might be nice, but if you’re sure about the teacher … I guess we could just go back.”
Jacob could hear Seth now if he didn’t give in to the infuriating woman’s wishes, so he turned the horse without a word and started down the narrow lane to the school. As he squinted against the winter sunshine, he could see the playing figures in the distance. It had snowed a bit the night before and he realized that Lilly would be out for recess as well, keeping gut watch over her charges. The thought did not improve his headache nor his throbbing shoulder any as he considered the recklessness of the day before.
The children swarmed to the roadside when they saw the buggy stop and Victoria again grasped his arm. “Oh, help me down, Jacob. They’re so darling in their outfits.”
He helped her from the buggy then went to hold the head of the horse so that the children could pet it. He did not wish to pay attention to the carrying giggles and whispers of the kinner in Pennsylvania Dutch as they remarked upon his upcoming wedding to the schoolteacher and questioned the presence of the Englisch woman.
“Oh, Jacob, tell me what they’re saying. It’s so delightful to hear a true backwoods dialect.”
“Perhaps you should speak in Englisch, children, as you know you should be doing.”
Jacob glanced up to see Lilly’s slender form come across the schnee-dusted school yard. The children shushed themselves with haste.
“Mr. Wyse? Was there something you needed?” Lilly’s tone was pleasant, almost distant, but then he met her eyes and saw the hesitant sparkle in the blue depths.
“Nee. I mean, no, Miss Lapp, thank you. I was just showing Mrs. Castleberry—”
“Victoria,” the woman gushed, patting bonnets and hats, despite the odd looks from the students.
Jacob exhaled. “Victoria, the area. She’s interested in purchasing Jim here.”
“Ah,” Lilly said and extended a hand to the woman. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Children, can you say good morning to the lady?” There was a dutiful chorus of greetings.
“Would you both like to come inside? We’re practicing for our Christmas program.”
“Oh, wonderful! I know Jacob will love that too; he’s been absolutely the most perfect host,” Victoria confided, sliding her arm through his once he’d tied Jim to the hitching post.
He avoided Lilly’s gaze and the eyes of the kinner.
“Of course. I’m told Mr. Wyse, er, Jacob is always a perfect host,” Lilly said.
Jacob felt amusement bubble along his spine. Lilly Lapp was full of surprises, like being in possession of a quick wit. He tipped his hat. “Why, thank you, Miss Lapp. I know, coming from you, that is high praise.”
He ignored Victoria’s speculative look from him to Lilly as they followed the troop of children onto the back porch of the one-room school.
They all stomped their feet and Victoria giggled, giving her own high-heeled boots a tap or two, then wobbling so that Jacob was forced once more to offer his arm. The class followed Lilly inside to hang up their outer things on nails inside the doorways, while Jacob kept his coat on as did Victoria. Once inside the warm room, the students found their desks with a subdued quiet, due no doubt to the Englisch visitor. Although Jacob knew that teachers usually drew students inside the school at the arrival of an overly interested tourist, he imagined Lilly allowed the guest because he accompanied her. He swallowed at the thought and wondered if she was the jealous type of girl, although what engaged woman wouldn’t be jealous? He sighed to himself and let the thought drift away.
Lilly pulled two wooden folding chairs from behind her desk and started dragging them to the back of the room.
“Here, I’ll do that.” Jacob took the chairs from her and set them up, ignoring the draw of pain in his upper arm. He waited until Victoria had arranged her furs before taking a seat himself. The wooden chair creaked under his long form but held firm as he removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair.
Lilly moved about the room, passing out a stack of papers to the students and then coming back to offer the sheets to the visitors. Victoria accepted with a smile but Jacob shook his head.
“I’m fine.”
“You won’t be able to follow along,” Lilly pointed out. She shrugged her shoulders when he frowned.
“Very well. Children, let’s begin.” She moved gracefully between the desks, returning to the front of the class.
Victoria leaned over to him and talked behind the program in a whisper. “She’s quite a lovely girl. I’ve never seen such blue eyes against such fair skin.”
Jacob grunted in response. He let his gaze trail over his betrothed’s face in an objective manner. He was surprised to find that she was beautiful in a distant sort of way. He crushed the sudden image of Sarah that flared in his mind and shifted on his chair with an audible sigh.
Lilly looked in his direction. “Now, Mr. Wyse, if you’re going to be in my class, you need to be quiet. No sighing over activities.” Her tone was teasing, and a few of the girls giggled.
His first impulse was to return her light banter but as he felt some of the students’ eyes upon him, he had a flashback to younger days when he’d always gotten in trouble in school for one thing or another.
His daed had always been against more than the bare minimum of schooling anyway, believing instead that his sons might learn better from experience than books. He’d kept both boys at home whenever possible to help with the horses or to go on day trips. His feelings had transmitted to Jacob who’d always acted up in school whenever he had the opportunity, and he’d made plenty of opportunities. Still, the law was the law, and Jacob had completed the eighth grade by the skin of his teeth and had gone on to do apprenticeship work under his father until he’d turned fifteen. By the time he was eighteen, he’d become an integral part of the horse breeding farm. And, at twenty-one, he’d set up his own breeding business with Seth as a partner.
Now he found himself annoyed with Lilly as a teacher for inadvertently reminding him of his difficult time in school. He smiled darkly. “Truth be told, Miss Lapp, I’m not very good at being quiet and following the rules.”
Lilly looked up from her handout and flashed an engaging grin. “Somehow I sensed that about you.”
“Did you now?” His tone was level.
“Yes, but I’m willing to accommodate all kinds of learners, Mr. Wyse. Even the most difficult ones,” she said sweetly.
He was aware that Victoria rustled next to him and that he and the teacher had caught the interest of the class, but her use of the word “difficult” rubbed at an old wound, and he stared at her in blatant challenge.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ve seen difficult yet, Miss Lapp. In fact, regarding difficult men, you might find that you actually have something to learn.”
He watched her flush at his insinuation. The class looked back to her, awaiting her response. She tapped her slender finger against her lips and he saw the confusion in her eyes, but then she rallied.
“A good teacher is always willing to learn, Mr. Wyse.”
“Yes, but is she willing to be taught?”
He watched her temper snap, as he instinctively knew it would. Her blue eyes flashed like a lightning strike against the gray of the mountains, and he felt a moment of curious sensation like static electricity grabbing at his hair. She strode to her desk, her face set.
“I’m just taking a moment, Jacob Wyse, to write a note home to your mother, explaining that you’ve been excused from class today due to—impudence.” She wrote fast, then marched back to him, licking the envelope as she went. She thrust the note at him, and he almost laughed, his humor restored. He took the envelope and tucked it into his coat pocket, then rose to his full height, his long legs brushing her skirts when she didn’t back off.
He lowered his voice. “Miss Lapp, a pleasure as always. Although I will have to admit that sassing the teacher has never been so—interesting.”
She flushed and he grinned as he replaced his hat and offered his arm to a bewildered Victoria.
Lilly nodded to the other woman. “Mrs. Castleberry, please come again anytime.” She turned her back on them and walked to the head of the class. Jacob sauntered to the door, winking at the students and then tipping his hat at the teacher. Maybe a day at school wasn’t as bad as he remembered it after all.
It took nearly an hour for Lilly to regain her internal composure. In truth, she had very nearly given in to the tears that welled behind her eyes but held on to the knowledge that her crying would only upset the students. So she listened to initial recitations of the various poems and readings she’d handed out without really hearing them until she found herself correcting John Zook on a certain pronunciation. As his face took on an embarrassed hue, she recalled with sudden vividness a similar expression on a young Jacob Wyse’s face. He’d been a year ahead of her in school and she now remembered with surprising detail all of the times the teacher had snapped at him or called him out for his work or attempts to recite. He’d usually come back with some smart-mouthed answer that got him sent to sit alone outside while the teacher acted relieved that he’d gone.
Lilly sat up straight at her desk as she realized that she’d treated him the same way in her classroom, and she felt ashamed. She should have remembered how he must feel in a classroom setting. She smiled gently at John Zook.
“You’re doing a great job with your recitations, John, really you are. It’s perfectly fine to need help with one word here or there.”
She’d said the right thing because the boy flushed with pleasure and took his seat. She only wished that she might have another opportunity to say kinder words to Jacob in the classroom, no matter what his attitude was about school. She decided then and there that she’d apologize to him as soon as she could and went back to listening with a proper ear to her students.