Lacy Williams Read Online Free Page A

they had bare feet even though autumn had begun and dirt-smudged faces—much the way he and his brothers had looked before Penny had come into their lives.
    “These are some of my students. Cecilia and Susie Caldwell. And...I’m sorry. I don’t remember your little sister’s name.”
    “Velma,” the middle girl answered in a whisper. “Miss Hansen, we was just watching the picnic.”
    “We were just watching the picnic,” Sarah corrected softly, absently.
    The older girl, Cecilia, glanced back toward the blankets and people past the wagons. Her dark-eyed gaze had a wistful quality.
    “Where is your father?” Sarah asked.
    “Stepfather,” Cecilia answered belligerently, jiggling the baby when it gurgled. “He’s at home. But he said we could come and so we walked.”
    “All right. Well, Mr. White seems to think you shouldn’t be playing here in the wagons, not if it’s scaring the horses.”
    Now the younger girl glanced longingly at the picnicking people. Oscar had a sudden insight—they were hungry.
    “We’ve got plenty of food from that basket Miss Hansen made. Why don’t you girls join us and then you can go off and play with your friends?”
    The two dirt-smudged faces lit up, but both glanced up questioningly at their teacher. The woman herself stared at Oscar with a drawn brow, again as if she didn’t know who he was.
    “Can we really eat with you, Miss Hansen?” the younger girl asked softly.
    “Yes.” Sarah seemed to shake herself from a daze, then led the girls back to their picnic blanket. Once, she glanced back questioningly at Oscar in the rear.
    With the girls added to their party, Oscar was edged almost completely off the blanket. Sarah fixed the food so that the girls could use what had been serving platters for their meals, then accepted the baby from Cecilia, holding it on her knee.
    As the girls ignored the utensils and ate hungrily with their fingers, smacking their lips and with crumbs flying, Oscar had a flashback to what Penny’s first meal with his family must’ve been like. The thought was bittersweet. He missed his adoptive ma, too.
    “Miss Hansen, you cooked this food?”
    An intriguing blush bled into Sarah’s cheeks, piquing his curiosity. She ducked her head and those infernal flowers fell into her face again. “I had help,” she muttered.
    “What do you mean?” He directed his question toward the older girl, who’d spoken in the first place. He guessed her to be about the same age as his sister Breanna. Ten or eleven.
    “Um...just that everyone knows Miss Hansen doesn’t—”
    “She cain’t cook,” the younger girl, whom he guessed to be about eight, broke in around a mouthful of half-chewed food. “Some of the boys in our class say that’s why she cain’t get a man to marry her.”
    Oscar stifled the smile that wanted to escape. A glance at Sarah revealed her face was downturned almost into her lap, but he could still see the bright-red tip of her nose from under that hideous hat.
    The baby reached up with one soggy hand and tried to grab the frilly fake flowers hanging from Sarah’s bonnet, but she grasped the baby’s hand and began to play pat-a-cake.
    She was gentler with the infant than he expected. From what little he remembered of her back in Bear Creek, she hadn’t been particularly patient with her younger sisters. And she certainly hadn’t been a picture of kindness since he’d arrive in Lost Hollow. Not that he’d deserved it after he’d teased her. But watching her with the infant...something gentle, almost motherly had come out, and she was smiling a real smile.
    Maybe she really did have a heart.
    The babe reached for her hat again.
    “Miss Hansen, did you wear that hat to match your basket?” Susie asked.
    “Mmm-hmm,” Sarah answered absently. “Your sister seems to like it. What about you?”
    The young girl wrinkled her nose.
    Oscar finally did what he’d wanted to do since he’d sat down across from her. He reached out