Read Online Smoke River Bride by Lynna Banning - Free Book Online

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.
    “Why, my dear, you’re crying! Whatever is wrong?” She lifted Leah’s cold hands in her warm ones. “Tell me.”
    “I—Oh, everything is wrong. I want to fit in, but I don’t know how to do anything in the American way. Teddy hates me. And his father ignores both of us.”
    “Thad MacAllister ignores everyone these days. Ever since his wife died, Thad has been withdrawn.”
    “He is more than withdrawn. He…” No, she could not tell the schoolteacher the rest, about his lying next to her in bed but not touching her.
    Ellie sent her a wry smile. “I know what it is like to be an outsider in this town. The women, especially, can be unkind.” She stepped back and looked Leah up and down. “I am sure it will work out. You are quite pretty, even in boy’s clothes.”
    “I do not know how to cook the American way, or what to wear, or what to say to Teddy. That is what I wanted to ask you about.”
    “Teddy has been lonely and lost for over a year now, but I think eventually he might come to appreciate your company.”
    “Do you…” Leah hesitated. “Do you think I should wear a dress, like the other women in town?”
    “I think it might help,” the schoolteacher said gently. “Thad will certainly notice you are a woman.”
    “A Chinese woman.” Leah waited, holding her breath, for Ellie’s response.
    “Leah, people in small towns like Smoke River know the Chinese only from the railroad crews that have passed through. They were seen as ‘different.’ They drank tea, forone thing. And their clothing was most unusual.”
    Leah said nothing. She could do nothing to change her face, but perhaps she could do something else. “I must learn to be American,” she confessed.
    Ellie grasped her hand. “I have an idea. After school tomorrow, I want you to come with me to the dressmaker in town. Will you?”
    Overcome, Leah could only nod. She squeezed Ellie’s hand. “Yes,” she managed to murmur.
    “Three o’clock tomorrow, then. I’ll drive Teddy home in my buggy and we can leave from your place.”
    Leah grasped both of Ellie’s hands and squeezed them again. Luck seemed to be smiling on her; she wondered how long it would last.
    The rest of the day passed in a blur. Leah skimmed the thick cream off the milk pans and shook it in a glass jar until it thickened into droplets of butter. Next she baked bread—the kind they ate in China. She made it with flour and water, and it came out of the oven hard and flat, like a big rice cracker. Tomorrow she would use it to make toast forThad’s breakfast, and she would ask Ellie how to make those messy-looking eggs.
    At noon Thad strode in, hung his jacket on the hook by the front door and rubbed his hands in anticipation of dinner.
    Leah looked at him blankly. “Dinner? I thought dinner was in the evening. In China we eat only two meals a day, breakfast and…”
    Thad noted her cheeks had flushed in embarrassment. For a moment she looked like a frightened young girl, but then her eyes snapped and she pursed her lips. He couldn’t stop looking at her lips. They were the