In Your Arms (Montana Romance) (4 page)

She reached the shivering bundle as Christian limped his way to her side.
Without waiting for him, she crouched in the snow and reached out to pull open the top of the blanket. Jimmy Twitchel sat huddled close to Amos. Both boys were still bruised and cut from the morning’s fight. They stared up at her with baleful eyes.

All Lily could manage to say was, “Oh dear!”
She threw her blanket around them and pulled them close. They were nearly her size and normally far too tough for such a feminine gesture, but the icy touch of their hands as they leaned towards her convinced her they were beyond worrying about frivolous things.

“Let’s get you two into the wagon,” Christian said.
He bent down to scoop Amos under his arm.

“No!” Amos protested, teeth chattering.

“No?” Christian barked.

“Don’t shout at them,” Lily scolded him.
“Can’t you see they’re freezing?”

“Yeah, I can see that all right,” he drawled.
“That’s why I’m shouting at them. You two should know better than to be this far from town so late in the afternoon in the middle of January!”

“I ain’t going home!”
Jimmy shook his head. It kept shaking with cold. He didn’t flinch when Lily put her arm around him.

“You have to go home, Jimmy,” she told him.
“It’s late and it’s snowing.”

“No, ma’am,” Jimmy insisted.
“If I go home, I’ll get a licking for fighting today.”

Christian sighed and crossed his arms.
“And I suppose a licking is worse than freezing to death out here?”

Lily twisted to give him a look that would
frighten a bear.

“Come sit in the wagon at least,” she told the boys.
“It’ll be warmer than sitting on the ground.”

Jimmy and Amos nodded.
At least Lily took their shivering for nods. The three of them stood slowly together. The boys were cold through and walked with stiff steps towards the wagon. Christian’s gait wasn’t much better. Perhaps she should have shared the blanket with him.

“How long have you been sitting out here?” Christian asked the boys as he helped them into the back of the wagon.

“Don’t know,” Amos answered. He kept his head lowered, his expression downcast. “We headed out right after school. Thought we could make it before the sun went down.”

“Make it where?” Christian asked.
He helped Lily into the back of the wagon with the boys.

She set to work settling the two close to the seat, wrapping their quilt and Christian's blanket tightly around them.
The wagon bed was empty, so she sat with them and tucked her skirts around them for added warmth. Christian walked around to climb back into the driver’s seat.

“We figured we could make it to
Red Sun Boy’s house,” Jimmy confessed. “Go live with them.”

“
Live with them?” Christian echoed.

Neither boy answered.
They huddled deep into the blankets.

“
Your parents would miss you,” Lily scolded them as gently as she could.

“
Or tan our hides for fighting, you mean,” Jimmy answered, so glum it was nearly comical.

Lily swallowed the lump that formed in her throat.
“You weren’t running away because of those bullies, were you?”

The boys avoided her eyes.
Christian shook his head and snapped the reins over his horse’s back. The wagon jerked forward.

“The Twitchel farm isn’t that far from here,” he said.
“We’ll drop Jimmy off then take Amos home.”

“I don’t wanna go home,” Amos moaned, his teeth still chattering.

“Too bad,” Christian snapped.

Lily huffed in indignation, giving Christian’s back a burning look.
The man knew nothing about children.

“You’ll be safe at home,” she told the boys.
“And warm. I’m sure your parents are wondering where you are.”

Her only answer was guilty silence.

“I told you that fight would lead to no good,” Christian said above them.

Lily rolled her eyes and pressed her lips tight.
There was no sense in flying at him with Amos and Jimmy shivering beside her.

“Boy
s that age can be dangerous to themselves and others when they go off half-cocked like that,” Christian continued.

“Thank you, Mr. Avery, for your observations,” she answered, patience at an end.
“I can see now why you wanted to be an outlaw when you were this age.”

Jimmy snickered under the blankets.

“I would have made a better outlaw than these two, that’s for sure,” Christian said. Of all things, there was humor in his voice. “I’d have run away in summer for sure. And I’d have thought to bring more than just one old quilt with me.”

The boys chuckled.

“We brought Jethro with us, but he ran off,” Jimmy said.

“That dog has more sense than you do then,” Christian said.

He glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. His brow was furrowed and his mouth set in a firm line, but light danced in his eyes. Lily clenched her jaw, grateful that the boys were looking down. If they saw that impish light they would be encouraged.

“Don’t you boys worry,” he said, turning to face forward.
“We’ll get you home to your lickings. Then we’ll figure out a long-term solution to the problem.”

Lily hugged the boys tighter to keep herself from shaking her fist at him.
Heaven only knew what kind of solution he would come up with.

Chapter Four

Night had all but fallen, leaving nothing but a line of pale pink along the horizon by the time Lily and Christian turned the wagon onto New Street after dropping Jimmy at home. Construction burgeoned on the south side of town, across the railroad tracks from the old heart of Cold Springs. The scent of sawdust was fresh in the air. Even in late January, more than a dozen buildings were going up. Still more houses and businesses were on the way. As Lily had been given to understand, the town was virtually unrecognizable compared to what it had been just three years ago.

The Wright’s house sat amongst
the grand dwellings of the wealthy new citizens of Cold Springs, the entrepreneurs and impresarios. It was a step up from the rough old streets where the miners and day laborers that had been there for years lived, but the new part of town had the haphazard, unsettled feeling of a neighborhood perplexed to find itself there at all.

Christian pulled the wagon to a stop and hopped down.
As he looped the reins around the neat fence lining the front yard, Lily nudged Amos to scoot to the back of the wagon. The boy had warmed and relaxed considerably in the last hour, but was as reluctant to go home as ever. Lily helped herself to the ground behind him. She didn’t spare a glance for Christian when he jogged around a moment too late to help her. She rested her hand on Amos’s shoulder and the three of them climbed the steps onto the porch without speaking.

Christian knocked on the door.
After a pause, the door was opened by a handsome dark-skinned woman in a simple but elegant high-collared dress with puffed sleeves. Her stern expression melted to exultant relief at the sight of her son.

“Amos!
Where have you been!” She rushed to scoop Amos into her arms, drawing him into the warm house.

“We found him and his partner in crime
, Jimmy Twitchel, attempting to take a long walk on a cold day,” Christian explained.

“
What?” Mrs. Wright blinked from Amos to Christian to Lily. She shook her head and said, “Please come in.”

Christian gestured for Lily to go ahead of him.
Fighting off a scowl for Mrs. Wright’s sake, Lily stepped into the house.

“We’re so sorry for the late intrusion,
Mrs. Wright, but it seems Amos was upset about an incident at school today,” she dove into the truth of the matter before Christian could deliver it.

“An incident at school?”
Hattie Wright took a closer look at her son in the light of the front hall. She gasped at the sight of Amos’s bruises and cuts. Her usually regal bearing dissolved into a mother’s panic. “Moses!” she called over her shoulder. “My dear, what happened to you?” she breathed, cradling Amos’s face in her hands.

“It was nothing,” Amos muttered, unable to meet his mother’s eyes.

“There was a fight at school this morning,” Lily explained. “An incident of bullying. Amos and Jimmy Twitchel were—”

“Amos and Jimmy
and Red Sun Boy from the Flathead had the snot kicked out of them by a handful of bullies,” Christian finished for her.

Lily glared at him
. “The bullies in question have been punished. It’s—”

“I
t’s not nearly enough,” Christian interrupted again.

Lily
clasped her mittened hands behind her to keep from flying at him.

Heavy footsteps sounded down the hall.
A moment later, the imposing form of Moses Wright filled the doorway to the parlor. He was a tall man with thick arms that had seen work.

“What’s going on here?” he asked in his rumbling bass.
He saw Amos and his stoic façade melted. “Amos! Where on earth have you been, boy? We were just about to send Sheriff Porter to find you!”

Moses took two strides into the front hall to sweep his son in
to his arms. Even though Amos was a solid twelve, the gesture was open and heartfelt. Amos hugged his father in spite of his miserable expression. The sight brought a bittersweet lump to Lily’s throat.

“Miss Singer and Mr. Avery brought him home,” Hattie explained to her husband.
“He was in a fight at school this morning.”

Moses’s soft affection shifted to stern
censure. “You didn’t start the fight, did you, boy?”

“I don’t believe he did,” Lily answered.
“I—”

“It was Bo Turner’s boy,” Christian
said. “He was hassling Red Sun Boy and it got out of hand.”

Lily could have flayed him alive.

Moses’s eyes narrowed. “I see.” He pulled himself to his full, imposing height, as regal as an emperor. He squeezed Amos’s shoulder. “Go upstairs and see to those cuts. Get Marcy to help if you need to. We’ll talk about your consequences later.”

“Yes, sir,” Amos mumbled.
He spared a brief glance of thank you for Lily and Christian before scrambling on up the wide staircase.

“Please, come in and have a seat.”
Moses crossed towards the parlor, gesturing for Lily and Christian to come with him. “If my boy is a problem at school, I want to know.” He paused as Hattie moved to take Lily’s coat, hat, and mittens.

“Amos is an intelligent, agreeable child with
a bright future ahead of him,” Lily assured him. “His assailant has a harder path to walk, and while that does not excuse Grover’s actions, I believe that if we can find a way to educate the boys about fairness and cooperation, we would be able to give them all the start in life that they need.”

“And I believe the start they need is a solid grounding in reading, writing, and arithmetic in an orderly setting,” Christian tagged on his opinion once again.

“Thank you for your help, Mr. Avery,” she clipped her words as Hattie hung her coat, “but this is a school matter. You aren’t needed anymore. Go home.”

Christian’s brow shot up.
“As I have explained to you before, Miss Singer, every man woman,
and child
in this town is my concern.” He shrugged out of his long coat and crossed the hall to plunk it on the hook beside Lily’s. “I happen to be interested in school matters.”

“Yes, I’d noticed.”
Lily glared at him.

He took a wide step to come toe-to-toe with her.
“Is that a problem for you?”

Lily’s skin prickled.
He was standing too close, pushing too hard.

“What if it is?”
She crossed her arms, solid as a brick.

Light danced in Christian’s eyes.
He smiled as though she’d whispered a sweet nothing. Her gut quivered. For the wrong reasons.

“I had no idea my son’s personal challenges had become the subject of such concern,” Moses said with a curious stare that took in both Lily and Christian. He gestured to the parlor.

Lily broke eye contact with Christian and followed Moses into the next room, settling in a chair opposite the fireplace.
Christian and Hattie strode after them.

“The concern is that
as much as I love it, this town is filled with bigoted morons.” Christian got the jump on the conversation. He went to stand by the fireplace warming his hands by the flames. “They see red skin or black skin and think it’s cause to disturb the peace.”

Moses sank into the largest chair in the room, studying Christian with a sage nod.
Hattie settled demurely onto the sofa. Her bright eyes flickered from Christian to Lily.

“They see difference,” Lily swooped in before Christian could take over completely, “but in my classroom I teach students to see similarities.
This is why it is vital to have children of all races learning together.”

“Learning to stir up unrest, you mean,” Christian argued.
“Now, I’m as forward-thinking as the next man when it comes to issues of race. You know that, Moses.” Moses nodded. “But like it or not, most people in Cold Springs are set in their ways.”

“I can’t disagree with you,” Moses said.
“Too many of the people I’ve encountered here will allow my company to build their house, but they would hesitate to invite me through the doorway I designed.”

“Which is why education is key,” Lily said.

“I can’t disagree with you either,” Moses conceded.

“Education is the starting point,” Christian charged on, “but we’re a long way from perfection.
I think we, as a town, should come up with a way to make sure that the Flathead children receive the education they deserve in such a way that their presence won’t rile up the dunderheads who are slow to accept new ideas. That way we can make a gradual transition without baiting the bear.”

Lily
shook her head. “I’ve listened to your alarmist suggestions all day now, Mr. Avery. Enough! Bright, eager children should not be kept away from the school because it might upset a few backward-thinking citizens.”

Christian sighed
. “As I’ve told you all day, Miss Singer, I can appreciate what your aim is, but it’s my responsibility to make sure peace and order are maintained in Cold Springs.”

“You’re being extreme.
Allowing Sturdy Oak’s grandchildren to attend the Cold Springs school is hardly a cause for mass rebellion and rioting.”

“Want to bet?”

A flash of inspiration struck her. She jumped to her feet, heart racing. “Yes, I do!”

He blinked at her, clearly disarmed.

“You do what?”

“Want to bet.”

Energy raced down her spine and through her fingers and toes as the idea formed and grew with lightning speed.

“I bet you that Red Sun Boy and Martha and all of the other Flathead students will
, in fact,
not
cause a riot at the school. I bet you that they will excel and cause the other children to excel.”

Christian
shifted his weight to one hip and crossed his arms. “How do you intend to prove that?”

“
The academic games.” Lily stood taller as her idea took shape.

“What about them?”
Christian narrowed his eyes.

“The teams
for the academic games will be made up of students from all classes and ages,” she explained. “They will be asked questions through a series of rounds aimed at different age groups. The team that gives the most correct answers receives a special supper at the new hotel.”

“So what do you want to bet on?” Christian asked.

Lily took a step closer to him. “The teams are being chosen on Sunday after church. I bet you that the team I will coach—a team that I will make sure is comprised of Flathead children and the other children together—will win the competition. I bet you that they will become friends in the process, regardless of race, and rather than stirring up trouble in Cold Springs, their partnership will foster a greater understanding between their parents as well.”

A buzzing silence followed her declaration.

Christian burst into laughter.

“That’s the tallest order I’ve ever heard,” he chuckled.

Lily fumed. “If you’re too timid to take the bet….”

He shook his head, rubbing his face but not wiping his smarmy grin away.

“No, no,” he said. “I’ll take the bet. I’ll even make it easier on you. Let’s just keep it at ‘if your team wins.’ What then?”

A hitch caught in Lily’s chest.
She hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“If my team wins,” she ventured, “then you
, as justice of the peace, will personally teach a series of lessons to my students about the laws that guarantee equality and our civic responsibilities in upholding those laws.”

His grin faltered, twitching around the edges as if uncertain
whether the whole thing was still a joke.

“And if
they don’t win?”

“Name your
prize, Mr. Avery.”

He was silent as his thoughts turned.
A grin spread slowly across his face. “If you don’t win, you have dinner with me. At the saloon. On a Friday night. Then you can see just how civilized and forward-thinking the citizens of Cold Springs truly are.”

Lily’s face burned.
The saloon was bad enough. She didn’t need to see for herself how easily barroom fights and foolish arguments started. But dinner with Christian Avery?

“You have a deal.”

Christian grinned. “May the best man win.”

Lily sent him a scathing look then turned to their baffled and bemused hosts.
“Mr. and Mrs. Wright, I’m glad that Amos is home safe.” With a tilt of her chin she crossed the room, heading for the hall. “Now if you will forgive me, I need to be getting home.”

“Me too,
” Christian followed, Hattie and Moses behind him.

She
winced as he strode past her to the hooks holding their coats. Always clawing for the last word, always pushing her out of the way. If her every word would prompt an instant reply from him, then she would never speak to him again. After the games.