Lacy Williams Read Online Free Page B

and tweaked the flimsy flowers, sending them into a quiver. “It’s been driving me crazy all afternoon. Those flowers are awful.” He chuckled when the girls dissolved into peals of laughter.
    Sarah reached up with one hand and deftly took out a pin. The ugly flowers tumbled to the blanket and Sarah glared up at him, making him chuckle even more. Her eyes flashed fire. If she had been one of his brothers, he would’ve expected retribution in the form of a prank, just when he wasn’t expecting it.
    “At least I’ve a bit of style. Your poor hat looks as if it’s been stomped by a bull even more than you have.”
    He took off the item in question and examined it as if he’d never seen it before. The brown felt was dented in some places, faded and sweat-stained. It was his favorite hat, and he’d had it for years. He shrugged, and plopped it on Cecilia’s head. The girl giggled.
    “Here. I’ve finished. Let me hold the baby while you clean your plate.” He didn’t wait for Sarah to answer, just reached out and plucked the baby from her arms.
    Maybe this lunch wasn’t a total loss. With the girls surrounding him and Sarah and forming a buffer, he almost felt right at home.
    * * *
    Sarah couldn’t decide whether to get up and leave—she’d have to hide in the nearby church until the Allen family was ready to leave, as she’d ridden with them in their wagon—or to stay and receive more of Oscar White’s teasing. The man obviously had no solemnity in his personality.
    But the Caldwell girls had certainly fallen for his charm, even the baby. She billed and cooed at him, waving her hands and squealing with delight when he made faces at her. Sarah knew the girls weren’t fully accepted by the other children or families, due to their heritage. Their birth father, now deceased, had been an Indian, and there was some prejudice in town against them. But Mr. White seemed to neither notice their darker coloring, or to care.
    It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that he had a natural manner with children, not when he’d grown up as part of such a large family. And he’d charmed Sally, at least for a while. If he weren’t so irresponsible, perhaps Sarah would find him charming, as well.
    When she’d noticed the horses start to get restless, her stomach had clutched. And while he’d headed right for the trouble, she’d wanted to run in the other direction. It had only turned out to be her students, but still...what if it had been someone up to no good? What if the horses had bolted and Oscar had run right into the situation?
    He was reckless at heart, not someone she should be attracted to.
    But that didn’t stop her pulse from reacting to his nearness.
    She just needed to control her reaction to him. She corralled a classroom full of children each day. Surely she could find a way to ignore her feelings and continue working on a plan to find a husband who would be good for her.

Chapter Three
    “M iss Sarah?”
    On Wednesday morning, several days after the calamitous picnic, Sarah jerked her gaze up from where she’d been unconsciously staring at her desk. “Yes, Amelia?”
    “I’m done with my assignment,” the girl said shyly, chin tucked down into her chest. How long had she stood quietly beside Sarah’s desk at the front of the classroom, waiting to be acknowledged?
    “All right. I’ll come to your desk and review it.”
    A glance across the twelve desks in the classroom revealed all heads bent over their work, save one. Miles, a frequent daydreamer, stared out the one dingy window. Sarah really needed to clean it.
    She needed to get her muddled thoughts straightened out. Ever since the fiasco at the picnic, when no one save the horseman had bid on her basket, she’d been considering the need to expand her horizons, so to speak. If none of the men—at least the men she was interested in—in Lost Hollow wanted to court her, maybe she would have to look elsewhere.
    But now wasn’t the time to be