The Complete Mackenzie Collection Read online

  At lunch on Monday she made a call to the state board of education to find out what she had to do to make certain Joe’s studies would be accepted toward his diploma. She knew she had the qualifications, but there was also a good deal of paperwork to be done before he could earn the necessary credits by private tutoring. She made the call on the pay phone in the tiny teacher’s lounge, which was never used because there were only three teachers, each teaching four grades, and there was never any time for a break. Nevertheless it had three chairs and a table, a tiny, dented refrigerator, an automatic coffee maker and the pay phone. It was so unusual for any of the teachers to use the lounge that Mary was surprised when the door opened and Sharon Wycliffe, who taught grades one through four, poked her head in.

  “Mary, are you feeling sick or anything?”

  “No, I’m fine.” Mary stood and dusted off her hands. The receiver had carried a gray coating, evidence of how often it was used. “I was making a call.”

  “Oh. I just wondered. You’d been in here a long time, and I thought you might not be feeling well. Who were you calling?”

  The question was asked without any hesitancy. Sharon had been born in Ruth, had gone to school here, had married a local boy. Everyone in Ruth knew every one of the other one hundred and eighty inhabitants; they all knew each other’s business and saw nothing unusual about it. Small towns were merely large extended families. Mary wasn’t taken aback by Sharon’s open curiosity, having already experienced it.

  “The state board. I needed some information on teaching requirements.”

  Sharon looked alarmed. “Do you think you aren’t properly certified? If there’s any trouble, the school board will likely commit mass suicide. You don’t know how hard it is to find a teacher with the proper qualifications willing to come to a town as small as Ruth. They were almost at the panic stage when you were located. The kids were going to have to start going to school over sixty miles away.”

  “No, it isn’t that. I thought I might begin private tutoring, if any of the kids need it.” She didn’t mention Joe Mackenzie, because she couldn’t forget the warnings both he and his father had given her.

  “Thank goodness it isn’t bad news,” Sharon exclaimed. “I’d better get back to the kids before they get into trouble.” With a wave and a smile she withdrew her head, her curiosity satisfied.

  Mary hoped Sharon didn’t mention it to Dottie Lancaster, the teacher who taught grades five through eight, but she knew it was a futile hope. Eventually, everything in Ruth became common knowledge. Sharon was warm and full of good humor with her young charges, and Mary’s teaching style was rather relaxed, too, but Dottie was strict and abrupt with the students. It made Mary uncomfortable, because she sensed Dottie regarded her job as merely a job, something that was necessary but not enjoyed. She had even heard that Dottie, who was fifty-five, was thinking about an early retirement. For all Dottie’s shortcomings, that would certainly upset the local school board, because as Sharon had pointed out, it was almost impossible to get a teacher to relocate to Ruth. The town was just too small and too far away from everything.

  As she taught the last classes of the day, Mary found herself studying the young girls and wondering which one had daringly flirted with Joe Mackenzie, then retreated when he had actually asked her out. Several of the girls were very attractive and flirtatious, and though they had the shallowness typical of teenagers, they all seemed likable. But which one would have attracted Joe, who wasn’t shallow, whose eyes were far too old for a sixteen-year-old boy? Natalie Ulrich, who was tall and graceful? Pamela Hearst, who had the sort of blond good looks that belonged on a California beach? Or maybe it was Jackie Baugh, with her dark, sultry eyes. It could be any of the eight girls in her classes, she realized. They were used to being pursued, having had the stupendous good luck to be outnumbered, nine to eight, by the boys. They were all flirts. So which one was it?

  She wondered why it mattered, but it did. One of these girls, though she hadn’t broken Joe’s heart, had nevertheless dealt him what could have been a life-destroying blow. Joe had taken it as the final proof that he’d never have a place in the white man’s world, and he’d withdrawn. He still might never re-enter this school, but at least he’d agreed to be tutored. If only he didn’t lose hope.

  When school was out, she swiftly gathered all the materials she would need that night, as well as the papers she had to grade, and hurried to her car. It was only a short drive to Hearst’s General Store, and when she asked, Mr. Hearst kindly directed her to the stacks of shelving in a corner.

  A few minutes later the door opened to admit another customer. Mary saw Wolf as soon as he entered the store; she had been examining the shelving, but it was as if her skin was an alarm system, signaling his nearness. Her nerves tingled, the hair at the nape of her neck bristled, she looked up, and there he was. Instantly she shivered, and her nipples tightened. Distress at that uncontrollable response sent blood rushing to her face.

  With her peripheral vision she saw Mr. Hearst stiffen, and for the first time she truly believed the things Wolf had told her about the way he was regarded in town. He hadn’t done anything, hadn’t said anything, but it was obvious Mr. Hearst wasn’t happy to have him in the store.

  Quickly she turned back to the shelving. She couldn’t look him in the eye. Her face heated even more when she thought of the way she’d acted, throwing herself at him like a sex-starved old maid. It didn’t help her feelings that he probably thought she was a sex-starved old maid; she couldn’t argue with the old maid part, but she had never paid much attention to the other until Wolf had taken her in his arms. When she thought of the things she had done…

  Her face was on fire. Her body was on fire. There was no way she could talk to him. What must he think of her? With fierce concentration, she read the instructions on the box of shelving and pretended she hadn’t seen him enter the store.

  She had read the instructions three times before she realized she was acting just like the people he had described: too good to speak to him, disdaining to acknowledge knowing him. Mary was normally even-tempered, but suddenly rage filled her, and it was rage at herself. What sort of person was she?

  She jerked the box of shelving toward her and nearly staggered under the unexpected weight. Just as she turned, Wolf laid a box of nails on the checkout counter and reached in his pocket for his wallet.

  Mr. Hearst glanced briefly at Wolf; then his eyes cut to where Mary was struggling with the box. “Here, Miss Potter, let me get that,” he said, rushing from behind the counter to grab the box. He grunted as he hefted it in his arms. “Can’t have you wrestling with something this heavy. Why, you might hurt yourself.”

  Mary wondered how he thought she would get it from her car into her house if she didn’t handle it herself, but refrained from pointing that out. She followed him back to the counter, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, looked up at Wolf and said clearly, “Hello, Mr. Mackenzie. How are you?”

  His night-dark eyes glittered, perhaps in warning. “Miss Potter,” he said in brief acknowledgment, touching the brim of his hat with his fingers, but he refused to respond to her polite inquiry.

  Mr. Hearst looked sharply at Mary. “You know him, Miss Potter?”

  “Indeed I do. He rescued me Saturday when my car broke down and I was stranded in the snow.” She kept her voice clear and strong.

  Mr. Hearst darted a suspicious look at Wolf. “Hmmph,” he said, then reached for the box of shelving to ring it up.

  “Excuse me,” Mary said. “Mr. Mackenzie was here first.”

  She heard Wolf mutter a curse under his breath, or at least she thought it was a curse. Mr. Hearst turned red.

  “I don’t mind waiting,” Wolf said tightly.

  “I wouldn’t dream of cutting in front of you.” She folded her hands at her waist and pursed her lips. “I couldn’t be that rude.”

  “Ladies first,” Mr. Hearst said, trying for a smile.

  Mary