The Lieutenant's Bargain by Regina Jennings

Author:Regina Jennings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance;Christian fiction;Western stories;FIC042030;FIC042040;FIC027050
ISBN: 9781493416028
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Hattie had never seen a Christmas pageant rehearsal like this before. Francine cuddled up next to her, smelling like strong soap and chalk dust, and together they watched as the students learned their lines. A few of them spoke the syllables haltingly. When Mrs. Lehrman gave them direction, another student would translate.

Their school clothes were creased sharply, starched and proper. Round brown faces contrasted with stiff white collars. The older girls’ shiny black braids coiled around their heads elegantly, while the younger girls’ braids hung down their shoulders. The boys all had short haircuts, all but Tom, whose braids marked him as a newcomer to the program.

Hattie caught Francine smiling up at her. The girl seemed content enough at the school. It would be a pity if the doors closed and she could no longer attend. Hattie might as well see if she could help Jack in his work while she was here.

“Francine, you said there’s a scary man about. Can you show me where you saw him?”

Francine’s smile disappeared. She lowered her eyes and pulled her feet up on the bench to hide them beneath her long skirt. “I didn’t see him. It was Cold Rain who saw him.”

“Cold Rain? Where is she?”

“She went home. Her father came and got her when they found out. The man had already stolen her blanket.”

“But you haven’t seen anything?” When the girl shook her head, Hattie scanned the faces of the children on the stage. What was behind this rumor? Childish imagination or something more nefarious? But there was another question. “How did Cold Rain get word to her father?” Hattie asked. The children were learning to read and write, but the parents couldn’t.

Francine shrugged. “Boys run away to the villages. Girls, too. They get a special meal and honor for bringing messages for the families, then they come back to the school. Maybe Cold Rain told the messenger that she wanted to go home.”

Hattie looked at the assembled students with newfound respect. They might be singing English songs and celebrating a Christian tradition, but they had their own ways and their own system of communication that their instructors knew nothing about. “Do you want to show me where Cold Rain saw the spirit?”

Francine’s eyes grew wide. “It was by her bed. She woke up, and it was floating over her.”

“C’mon.” Hattie stood. “I’ll ask the headmistress if we can go back to the school—”

Francine hopped up. “I want to sing.” Running from Hattie like she’d suddenly threatened her life, Francine bounded onto the stage and wormed her way into the line of the choir between two girls her age.

Hattie snorted.

“I was just going to compliment you on your skill with children.” Jack stood in the aisle, blocking her end of the row.

“Evidently it expired.”

The lines of the choir split, and Tom and one of the older girls walked through.

“Joseph and Mary,” Jack said.

“Where is Baby Jesus?” Hattie asked. But then the couple turned to start the procession, and she saw a rag doll strapped onto a cradleboard hanging from the girl’s back.

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