AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Better,” he pronounced. Funny he’d not noticed before how beautiful her gray-green eyes were when she smiled.
After breakfast, Leah and Teddy started off for the schoolhouse. Frost sparkled on the grass and weeds along the road, and the air was so cold it burned Leah’s nostrils when she drew breath. She wore her gray wool coat, buttoned up to her neck, and her only hat, a Chinese-style bonnet that did not cover her ears. Her feet, clad only in her satin slippers, were growing numb. Teddy had on a sheepskin jacket like his father’s and a hand-knitted woolen cap that covered his ears; he did not seem to mind the biting air.
At first they walked side by side in silence, but when they reached the Thompson place, Teddy suddenly sped up. “I dowanna walk with you.”
Leah kept pace with him, and he increased his stride. Again she kept up with him. When he realized he could not outwalk her, he broke into a run.
Leah laughed aloud. Teddy did not know how fast she could run. In their village in China, no one had been able to outrun Ming Sa’s daughter; she won every race the merchants sponsored. She shrugged off her wool coat and started running.
By the time they passed Thompson’s last fence post, she had caught up with him, and even though her hat flew off, she pushed on a dozen yards past him. When she looked back she had to laugh again.
Teddy stood in the middle of the road, his hands jammed into his jacket pockets, glowering at her. She retrieved her coat and silk hat and returned to his side. The boy was still panting; Leah was not even breathing heavily.
“How come you can run so fast?” he demanded.
“Because my legs are longer than yours.” She did not tell him how many times she had been chased by the village bullies. They’d hated her because she was half White Devil. In their eyes, being half Chinese did not erase the shame of birth with a white man as her father.
She bent closer to Thad’s son. “And a friend at my school taught me how to breathe properly and pace myself.”
Teddy stuck out his lower lip. “That’s not fair.”
“Why not?”
“’Cuz you’re older. And bigger.”
Leah smiled at him. “That’s only half of it, Teddy. Would you like me to teach you the other half?”
He kicked at a stone. “Naw. That’s kid stuff.”
Leah said nothing for fifty paces, then couldn’t stand it any longer. “It is not ‘kid stuff.’ Listen to me, Teddy. Do you know how much money I won when I was your age and the candle merchant bet money on me? Seventy thousand yen!”
The boy’s blue eyes widened. “Really? You mean you won money from gambling?”
“Well, I didn’t gamble, exactly, but the merchants in our village did. Chinese people like to bet on things. They called me ‘the White Devil’s daughter,’ but I won lots of yen for those shopkeepers.”
Teddy frowned and pointed ahead to a small wood structure in a clearing, surrounded by maple trees. Gray smoke puffed out the chimney.
“There’s the schoolhouse.”
Inside the chinked log walls a dozen stonefaced children stared at her. They ranged in age from about six years to a gangly boy of perhaps fourteen. The schoolteacher, Mrs. Johnson, stepped from behind her desk and smiled.
“Good morning, Teddy. Is this your new—” the woman caught herself just in time “—your father’s wife?”
“Yah. She’s new, all right. She don’t know nothin’.” The boy fled to a seat in the back row, folded His arm on the desktop and buried his face in the crook of his elbow.
“I don’t like her.” His mumbled words drew a gasp from the students.
“She dresses funny,” someone said. “She’s wearing boy’s clothes.”
“She’s a foreigner,” another chimed. “She’s a—”
“Children!” Mrs. Johnson silenced her pupils and moved toward Leah with both hands extended. “Welcome, Mrs. MacAllister.”
Leah’s heart jumped. “Th-thank you, Mrs.—”
“Oh, call me Ellie, please. I hope we will be friends. I think you may need one here in Smoke River.”
Leah knew she was staring, but she couldn’t seem to stop looking at the tall woman. She had the bluest eyes she had ever seen, a darker blue than even Father’s. And a smile so genuine it made Leah’s eye sting.
“My name is Leah. C-could I speak to you in private?”
“Of course. Mary Lou, take over the class, please. Start with the spelling lesson.” Then Mrs. Johnson—Ellie—opened the door and motioned Leah outside.
“I—” Leah’s voice choked off. Ellie peered at her.
