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“Wallace Denby tripped me when I walked by his desk.”
Wallace was Moss Denby’s seven-year-old grandson and a known terror. “Did you fall and hurt yourself?”
She shook her head.
“Did you tell Mr. Adams?” Adams was the teacher.
“I did. He said he’s going to tell Wallace’s mama if it happens again.”
“Good.” Denby’s daughter-in-law, Dovie, was the boy’s mother and the town’s seamstress. Last spring her husband, also named Wallace, abandoned her and their son to take up with a young woman he met in Casper. Dovie had been devastated. “Are you sure you didn’t get hurt?”
“I am.”
“Okay. I’m going to go see Miss Regan.”
She nodded and went back to work.
Just as Anna said, Regan was on the back porch using a pair of tin snips on a large roll of window screening. She looked up as he stepped out of the door.
“Welcome home,” she said.
It was difficult to explain how coming home to her made him feel but it warmed the places gone cold since Adele’s passing. “I see you put Anna to work.”
“I did. I thought I’d find little things for her to help with after school. She’ll graduate to tools next.”
He didn’t know if she was pulling his leg or not. “She asked if it was okay if her room is made pretty next.”
“And you replied?”
“I couldn’t wait to see it.”
She nodded approvingly. With her hands protected by gloves she concentrated on cutting through the wire.
“Do you need help?”
“No, this is the last one, but you can nail them up for me if you’d like.”
“I can do that. When’s the glass arriving?”
“Mr. James said a few more days. The glazier is in Laramie. He’ll send it by wagon. I just hope none of it breaks on the way.”
“I saw Lacy in town. She said to remind you that the ladies’ meeting is this evening.”
She made a face. “I was hoping to fall off a ladder or something so I wouldn’t have to go.”
He hid his amusement. “Why?”
“They probably won’t like me. Lacy said Minnie’s a member, and that your sister isn’t because of her questionable morals. I like Spring.”
He understood their reasoning. The Spring of old had been an embarrassment to her family and to herself. “Maybe it won’t be as bad as you imagine.”
An eye roll was her reply.
He asked, “How are you getting to town?”
“Colleen Enright was at the school when I picked up Anna. She’s a member, too, and offered me a ride. Our first meeting didn’t go well, but I took it as her offering an olive branch and agreed.”
“That’s a good way of looking at it, I suppose.” He hoped Colleen would keep her snottiness to herself.
