Read Online Wild Lilly by Ann Mayburn - Free Book Online Page A

your homework, you have to remain inside during lunch and finish it then.” She hated having to be this strict, but she’d learned the hard way during her substitute teaching in Hartford that if you gave students an inch, they took a mile.
    Owen’s lip puffed out in a pout and he muttered, “I’m not fibbin’. I did do my homework.”
    The rest of the class fidgeted in their seats and began to pull back the cloths covering their lunch pails to see what their mothers had packed. Overall, the day was a success. She knew where all the children were in their studies and they knew that she ran her classroom efficiently, brooking no tomfoolery.
    “Then it should be easy for you to do it again during lunch.” She turned to the rest of the room. “Class dismissed for lunch. Don’t wander beyond the trees.”
    She gave a tall girl with dark braids the brass pocket watch. “It’s your turn to mind the time today, Grace. Please sound the bell when it is time to return to class.”
    The girl smiled and nodded, tucking the watch into her apron and grabbing her lunch pail.
    The children managed to walk until they hit the door to the mudroom, then they ran with squeals and laugher. She watched them leave with a fond smile and tilted her head to Owen. “If you like, I can help you and we can get it done in half the time.”
    He remained pouting at his book. “I did it.”
    She firmed her shoulders and walked back to her desk. “My offer remains open, Owen, but you’ll not be going outside until you hand me your arithmetic.”
    Guilt made her avoid his gaze as she sat down at her small desk and took out her own lunch. She had to let him know that he couldn’t make excuses. She’d be doing him no favors if she let him slide. The sound of a pencil scratching on paper made her glance up, and she hid a smile as she watched Owen do his work with an angry frown.
    The door to the mudroom opened just as she took a giant bite of her sandwich. The bread turned to a lump in her mouth as Lee Krisp strode into the classroom with an ostentatious gold-topped cane and a grey silk suit. Owen glanced up with the same angry frown, but Lee ignored him and beamed at her.
    “Miss Brooks, how good to see you.” His smile dropped a bit when his foot almost went through a hole in the floorboards.
    She worked her tongue around the wad of bread and took a sip from her milk. “Mr. Krisp, how can I help you?” She stood and dabbed at her mouth with her napkin trying to buy time to think. He continued to smile at her without blinking, and his cold dark eyes darted to Owen and back to her.
    Whatever Lee had to say, he didn’t want Owen around to hear it.
    “Why, I just came to see how my neighbor is settling into her new job.” He leaned against a desk and the lid fell off its rusty hinges with a bang. Owen gaped as Lee swore up a storm at the offending furniture.
    She stared at him and said in a loud voice, “Owen, go outside please.”
    Lee’s lips pressed into a thin line and he tried for a jolly tone of voice as he put the lid back on the desk. “This place is a wreck.”
    Feeling offended on behalf of her dilapidated school, she retorted politely, “I’m afraid there isn’t enough in the town treasury to do all the repairs this school needs. I’ve used some of my own funds to do some repairs, but I cannot afford to replace everything.”
    His dark eyes gleamed and his smile turned more genuine. “Why, I think I might have the solution to your financial woes.” He went to lean on the desk again, then stopped and gave it a glare.
    Here’s the real reason he’d come here . “And what solution would that be?”
    He meandered over to the window and picked at the crumbling putty around the sill. “If you sell me your land, I’ll donate some new desks to the school.”
    She schooled her features to show no emotion, though she felt like she stood on quicksand. She needed more time to figure out what she wanted to do, and Lee Krisp was one