The Rancher's Courtship by Laurie Kingery

Author:Laurie Kingery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

An overpowering aroma of bay rum assaulted Caroline’s nostrils as she opened the door. Superintendent Thurgood stood on the front step clutching a gold-headed cane and wearing a dark frock coat and trousers and a gold brocade vest, his thinning hair pomaded flat to his skull. Beads of perspiration dotted his florid face.

“Mr. Thurgood. What…c-can I do for you?” she stammered, wondering wildly why he’d come. Had it taken him three days to decide to dismiss her after all, and he’d come to her house to humiliate her in front of her family?

A smile turned up both corners of his lips. “Please, Miss Wallace, it’s I who hope to do something for you,” he said smoothly. “I felt we got off on the wrong foot during our previous meetings—”

“Caroline, dear, who is it?” her mother called from the kitchen. “Tell him to come in.”

That was the last thing Caroline wanted to do, but she had no civilized reason to refuse.

“Please, won’t you come in, Superintendent?” she managed to say, and stepped back.

Her mother bustled in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Caroline spotted Dan lurking in the hallway, too, curious about who had come to call on his sister.

“Mama, this is the county school superintendent, Mr. Thurgood,” she said, feeling as if she was in the middle of a dream—no, a nightmare, for she was becoming surer by the second that this was no quick social call. Oh, don’t let Jack and the children come while he’s here!

“Mrs. Wallace, I’m honored to meet the mother of our fine teacher.” He extended a hand and shook her mother’s a little too heartily.

Caroline stared at the man, certain she’d heard wrong. Her mother, who’d heard the whole story on Friday, blinked in confusion.

“Won’t you sit down, sir?” she asked. “Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

Mr. Thurgood looked from Caroline’s mother to Caroline and back again. “No, thank you, ma’am. I came to ask your daughter if she’d have supper with me at the hotel—with your permission, of course. Perhaps Miss Wallace has told you about the unfortunate incident the other day. I’m afraid I was a bit harsh with your daughter. I wish to make amends by—ahem!—taking her to supper, so we can start our acquaintance with a clean slate, so to speak—quite an appropriate phrase for two in the profession of education, hmm?” He chuckled at his own joke.

Caroline’s jaw fell open. “I—I appreciate your kindness, sir, but th-that’s not necessary,” she said. “You were entirely correct to upbraid me for what happened, and as I said before, it will not happen again.”

“Miss Wallace, it would be you who would be doing me the kindness by accepting my invitation,” Mr. Thurgood said, eyes once more goggling dangerously behind his spectacles. “I do not like to think of myself as a harsh man, but I will admit I am a lonely one. My children are grown and gone, and my late wife passed on quite a number of years ago.

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