Scandal with the Rancher by Julia Justiss

Author:Julia Justiss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2016-05-16T04:00:00+00:00

Why it had taken nearly a week to gather together a group of ten, eight of whom lived within a few blocks of each other, Marguerite had no idea. But it was, in fact, the following Monday by the time a note arrived from Mr. Anderson informing her the school board meeting would take place that evening at the schoolhouse.

Barred from the classroom, and not wishing to go out to the ranch in case the meeting was called, Marguerite had spent the week at the boarding house, going over her finances with extra care and trying to envision any possibility for earning a living without a teaching job. Her tiny nest egg would see her through for a month or two, but the inevitable conclusion was she’d not be able to hold on to the ranch indefinitely without some sort of cash income.

She’d already begun armoring herself for the next step, if it came to that.

Which it probably would. The hearing was only a formality. She didn’t have much hope that the citizens in town, doubtless all of them holding loans of some sort from the McCleary bank, would band together against Lydia McCleary. But she intended to force the woman to detail exactly what charges she’d made against her—the most damning of which was probably seeing Ronan Kelly kissing Marguerite in front of Mrs. Lowery’s boarding house. There was always a chance that, after hearing the preposterously thin evidence, the board might be shamed into reversing her termination.

It was a gamble. But her only morally questionable behavior had been the tryst with Ronan at the ranch. She couldn’t imagine how Lydia could have learned of that unless Kelly told her, which was very unlikely.

Even if the board didn’t relent, she meant to show Lydia McCleary that a DeRivieras did not slink away quietly. If she were defeated, she’d go down fighting.

Having brushed her black bombazine dress and carefully pinned up her braided hair, Marguerite set out for the schoolhouse. Pausing before the entrance, she took a deep breath.

She wouldn’t walk in with downcast eyes, her brow creased in distress, like a pitiful victim or a guilt-ridden transgressor. Instead, she entered with her head held high, a serene expression on her face as she nodded to the assembled board members.

Lydia McCleary was the last to arrive, dressed in a fashionable gown that must have come straight from Paris and looked far too ornate for a room full of school benches and stacks of primers. Trying to remind the other board members of her wealth and status? Marguerite wondered.

After calling the meeting to order, Mr. Anderson said, “As you know, Mrs. McMasters requested that her termination be reviewed in open committee, so she might have a chance to hear the charges against her and be able to speak on her own behalf. Mrs. McCleary, if you would relate the circumstances you previously described to the board?”

Lydia took her time walking to the front of the room, as if she relished being the focus of all eyes.

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