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“Today’s my last day of teaching here, Mrs. Lee.”
Regan paused and scanned the women’s unhappy faces. “May I ask why?”
“The council won’t increase my salary, so I agreed to an offer from a school in Cheyenne.”
Regan was saddened by the news. She didn’t know how the other children felt but Anna enjoyed having him as a teacher. “Is there anything we can do to change your mind?”
He shook his head. “I sent my acceptance last evening. I don’t like leaving the children this way, but my services are worth more than the pennies Paradise pays me.”
Regan remembered being told about the council’s miserly attitude towards the school at the ladies club meeting.
Dovie said, “Thank you for putting up with Wallace Jr.”
He smiled. “Your son’s a handful but very smart. Keep his mind occupied. He’ll go far one day.”
“Do the children know?” Regan asked.
“They do and look how terribly broken up they are.”
Watching the lively, ongoing game of tag the women chuckled. Lucky the dog, barking and running, appeared the saddest of all.
Lucretia said, “Thanks for teaching our children. The council may not appreciate you, but I certainly do.”
Regan and the others agreed.
He smiled softly. “You’re very kind. I hope the council will come to its senses and pay your next teacher fairly. I need to get going. Lots to do. Good-bye, ladies.” And he went inside the schoolhouse.
Lucretia asked, “Now what?”
Dovie said, “I’m going to the council meeting this evening and give those men a piece of my mind. How do they expect to grow this town with no schoolteacher? I’m sure Glenda will have something to say about this as well. I’ll let her know when I get home.”
“Can anyone attend the meetings?” Regan asked.
“Yes,” Lucretia replied. “I’m going to go, too. You should join us, Regan.”
“I will.”
They looked to Colleen, who replied, “I’ll see what my evening brings. Felicity’s going to grow up and be so pretty, more education isn’t going to matter. She’ll have no problem finding a husband.”
Regan stared as if she’d grown three heads.
Dovie’s jaw dropped for a moment. After shaking her head in apparent disbelief, she said, “Lucretia and Regan, I’ll see you later.” She called to her son and walked to her wagon.
Regan closed her own mouth and wanted to lecture Colleen on how the world was changing, the strides women were making, and what new opportunities their daughters might access in the next decade, but didn’t. It wasn’t her place. Instead, she, like Dovie, offered her good-byes, called Anna, and drove home.
Colt was there when they arrived. While Anna went to her room to change out of her school clothes, Regan told him about Mr. Adams’s departure.
He sighed. “That’s too bad. He’s the third one we’ve lost in the past two years.”
“Dovie and Lucretia are going to the council meeting this evening to try and convince them to pay a new teacher more. I decided to join them. Surely they can be made to see reason.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. Cale and the others are notoriously shortsighted.”
“I’d thought about taking Anna, so she can see how government works, but decided she would probably be bored and who knows how long the meeting might take.”
“Until next week if Cale and Miller start pontificating.”
“Who’s on the council besides them?”
