encouraging smile. “Everything is strange to her right now.”
“I guess that’s so.” Sadie sounded relieved.
“I could stay a little longer if you like.” Would she welcome his offer or see it as interference?
He didn’t have to guess Beth’s feelings. She glowered at him.
“I said she’ll be fine,” she said. “I could go to bed with her right now, if you’re worried.”
Sammy laughed. “I’m not going to bed so early.”
“We’ll be fine,” Sadie’s words were firm, full of conviction.
Logan looked about. He could find no reason to delay his departure. “I best get home.”
Sammy, who had crawled up to sit beside Beth on the cot, jumped to his feet. “You’re leaving? Who will protect us?”
Logan’s insides twisted. Why did the boy think he needed protection? He’d certainly had none out in that awful shack. “You’re safe here. No one will bother you.”
Sammy looked at the windows and the doors, his mouth working. “But what if they do?”
“I’ll ask my uncle to watch out for you. Will that help?”
Sammy gave Logan some serious study. His chest rose and fell more rapidly than normal. “He can’t see us all the time.”
Logan looked at Sadie, saw her surprise and concern...and something more—a slight narrowing of her eyes as if she read something sinister in Sammy’s fears.
He looked at Beth. She watched with an impassive expression, not willing to trust anyone to share Sammy’s concerns.
“Why can’t you stay?” Sammy asked.
“My family will be worried if I don’t go home. Besides, I promised my grandfather to help him find some books.” No one else was available to take care of the old man’s needs. Besides, Grandfather asked only Logan for such favors. He hated to ask at all, but Logan went out of his way to see that Grandfather had everything he needed. This morning he had bemoaned the fact he couldn’t reach the books on the upper shelves and said he was getting short of reading material.
Logan had promised that as soon as he finished in town, he would arrange the shelves so Grandfather could reach his books.
“I tell you what. I’ll go get Miss Sadie’s school bell. If you need help, you ring it really hard and Uncle George will come running.” He’d alert a few close neighbors, as well. “How’s that?” And first thing tomorrow he would construct a drop bar to secure the door.
Sammy seemed to slip a mask over his feelings. “Yeah, sure. You’re right. We’ll be fine.”
Which, Logan understood, meant Sammy wouldn’t be expecting any help from Logan. “I’ll be back tomorrow and make sure you are all safe and sound.” He was more than half tempted to move into the schoolroom so he could keep an eye on them day and night, but he could just hear all the ladies in town whispering that Logan Marshall was back to his wayward ways, though he failed to see how he was to blame for the actions of the girls he’d courted. No, for both his sake and Sadie’s, he wouldn’t set up quarters in the classroom.
He trotted across the street, retrieved the school bell from the back room of the store and took it to Sadie.
Still, he hesitated about leaving them. Three frightened children were a big responsibility.
“Walk me to the wagon,” he said to Sadie.
Her resistance was so fleeting he might have persuaded himself he hadn’t seen it. Then she nodded and followed him outside.
“Are you going to be okay with them?”
She bristled. “Of course I am.”
“I expect the first night will be the worst.”
“To be honest, I’m more concerned about tomorrow when I have to leave the girls to teach.” She looked back at her living quarters. “They are all so afraid.”
He heard the hard note in her voice and knew she blamed the father for the children’s fears. “They have lots of reasons to be frightened. The death of their mother, their father missing, being alone out there, and now being here with people who are strangers to them.”
“Not to mention the bruises on Sammy’s back.”
It wasn’t something he could deny, given the evidence, but neither was he about to blame a missing father. But then who did he blame? “I’ll be back before you have to leave, so the girls won’t be alone and defenseless.” He didn’t know why he’d added the final word and wished he hadn’t when Sadie spun about to face him. He’d only been thinking of Sammy’s concerns—be they real or the fears of children who had experienced too many losses.
“You think they might have need of protection?”
“Don’t all children?”
Her eyes darkened to the color of old pines. Her lips trembled and then she pressed them together and wrapped her arms across her chest in a move so self-protective that he instinctively reached for her, but at the look on her face, he lowered his arms, instead.
She shuddered.
From the thought of him touching her or because of something she remembered? He couldn’t say, but neither could he leave her without knowing she was okay. Ignoring the idea that she might object to his forwardness, wanting only to make sure she knew he was concerned about her and the children, he cupped one hand to her shoulder. He knew he’d done the right thing when she leaned into his palm. “Sadie, I’ll stay if you need me to. I can sleep in the schoolroom, or over at Uncle George’s. Or even under the stars.”
She glanced past him to the pile of lumber at the back of the yard. For the space of a heartbeat, he thought she’d ask him to stay, then she drew in a long breath.
“We’ll be fine, though I would feel better leaving them in the morning if I knew you were here.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll be here.” He hesitated, still not wanting to leave.
She stepped away from him, forcing him to lower his arm to his side. “Goodbye, then. And thank you for your help.”
“Don’t forget we’re partners in this.” He waited for her to acknowledge his statement.
“Very well.”
“Goodbye for now. I’ll see you in the morning.” He forced himself to climb into the wagon and flick the reins. He turned for one last look before he rode out of sight.
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