Into the Wilderness
Page 6

"I agree that not all of the paintings are equally well done, but certainly there is some merit here—aren't you being rather hard on the artist?" Elizabeth asked.
"It seems I must be," Richard Todd said calmly. "As the artist, it falls to me to be my own sternest critic. The judge is too kind to be honest. He hangs everything I produce."
Elizabeth was surprised to learn that the doctor had painted these landscapes; at home, young women were sent to drawing masters to learn to make pretty sketches of mountains and children, but young men rarely showed an active interest in art.
"Are you interested in painting?" Richard Todd asked her.
She laughed. "I have no talent for it," she said. "But with such landscapes around me, perhaps I will try my hand.
"Don't you find it interesting," she continued, addressing her remark to Nathaniel Bonner, who fixed his attention on her willingly, "that such beauty and bounty has been left untouched and unappreciated for so long?"
"This land was not empty before the Europeans came," he said in clipped tones.
"Nathaniel," began Richard, but Nathaniel cut him off.
"It was not unclaimed," he continued. "And it was anything but unappreciated." With a glance toward Richard Todd, and then toward the judge, who was deeply involved in his own conversation and who had not followed this exchange, Nathaniel stopped himself.
Elizabeth was astonished and intrigued all at once; she wanted to hear the rest of what Nathaniel had to say. But before she could think of some way to make this clear to him, Richard Todd claimed her attention.
"You will want to have a look around the village, Miss Elizabeth," the doctor said to her with a friendly smile, helping himself to venison from the platter which Curiosity offered for the second time. "You must be very curious about your new home. I know Mr. Witherspoon—our minister and his daughter are very anxious to make your acquaintance."
Thankfully, Elizabeth turned to him. "Yes, I am looking forward to my first trip to the village. I am especially curious to meet the children."
"Children?" Richard Todd smiled politely.
Elizabeth looked toward her father, who was arguing once more with Julian.  "Yes, the children," she said. "It would be hard to teach school without them."
"You mean to teach school?" Nathaniel Bonner asked. All of his agitation had disappeared. His gaze was cool, but engaged.
"Why, yes," she said. "I do. That is why I came here."
"The judge hasn't said anything about that," said Richard.
For a moment Elizabeth was truly speechless. She had spent six months in England preparing to teach school, her first school. Buying books, consulting educators, reading. It had consumed her completely, and now she found out that her father had never even mentioned her plans to his closest companions. She was struck with a terrible thought: her father had brought her here on false pretenses. Everything Nathaniel Bonner had said to her in the sleigh was true.
She saw Curiosity observing her from the sideboard, she felt Richard Todd's eyes on her, and she knew the only way to rescue the new life she had thought to claim for herself was to speak up as she had never spoken up for herself before.
"Father?" said Elizabeth. "There seems to be some confusion. How is it that Dr. Todd and Mr. Bonner haven't heard that I will be teaching school?"
The judge's eyes darted from Elizabeth to Richard and back again.
"My dear," he began slowly. "All good things in their time, eh? You'll need a few weeks at least to settle in and learn your way around."
Elizabeth struggled to keep her growing surprise and distress hidden. With great deliberation she put down her fork and folded her hands in her lap. "I can at least make a list of the children and learn a little about them and their families, Father. And the schoolhouse itself will need to be got in order."
"What schoolhouse?" asked Hawkeye. "There's no schoolhouse in Paradise that I know of miss.
Julian put down his fork and knife and turned to the judge. "You don't mean to say there is really no schoolhouse?" He cast a glance at Elizabeth, whose brow was drawn together in a threat he recognized too well. Then he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, sister," said Julian. "I guess you'll have your work cut out for you."
This was a shock, but Elizabeth took it well. She lifted an eyebrow toward her father and waited.
The judge cleared his throat expansively. "Well, maybe not technically, not yet, but there will be."
"Father," she began slowly. "You wrote to me that you would provide me with everything necessary to hold school here for any children willing to attend—"
"So I did," he interrupted, glancing at the doctor. "So I did. And I will see to it you have what you need. A schoolhouse will be built."
"And right smart, too, by the look of it," said Hawkeye.
"Or Lizzie will have something to say," added Julian.
"In the meantime perhaps there is some other building which can be of use," Elizabeth said. "Perhaps the church. On weekdays, of course."
"It's difficult to heat," said the judge. "It would be very uncomfortable."
"Well, then, there must be some other solution," Elizabeth said. "One way or another there will be school on the first day of the new year." She turned to Dr. Todd.