In Your Arms (Montana Romance) (8 page)

“What that means, class,” she
faced her students, “is that no citizen can be denied the right to vote based on his race. It means that when they are grown, Isaac will be able to vote and Amos will be able to vote and Jimmy will be able to vote, no matter what they look like or who their fathers or grandfathers were. It is about equality. Our constitution guarantees equality, regardless of race. That equality extends or should extend into other areas as well. This classroom, for instance. No student should be denied the right to an education based on the color of their skin.”

She turned to
grin at him. Yes, there it was, the righteous indignation in those dark eyes of hers that told him she thought she’d scored one on him, that she would never back down. He was suddenly as hot as a furnace.

“Yes, Jesse?”
She left him steaming where he was and called on one of her students.

“Miss Singer, can you vote?” the boy asked.

“A very interesting question, Jesse.” Her gloating softened to seriousness. “No, in fact, I cannot. Women are not allowed to vote in federal elections, in the United States. However, women may vote in Montana state elections and for local contests as decided by the town council. But as an Indian I am denied that vote.”

Christian’s frown was a near match to the befuddled looks of the students.
It didn’t seem right for Lily to be denied her say.

“Well that don’t seem fair now, does it?” Isaac
echoed his thoughts from his seat at the back of the room.

“Women should have the vote
everywhere. My mama says so.” Isabella Kuhn declared from her seat in the front row. Her certainty faltered. “She also says Indians shouldn’t vote.” She darted a pink-cheeked glance to Red Sun Boy across the aisle from her. “But I don’t believe that.”

Red Sun Boy smiled and sat straighter
. Christian had to rub the bottom half of his face to keep from grinning. Samuel and Alicia Kuhn were in for a big surprise.

“Indians should have the vote too,” Amos added
, refocusing his attention. “Mr. Avery just said that the Fifteenth Amendment means no one can be denied the vote based on their race, right?”

“No
citizen
can be denied the vote based on their race,” Lily corrected him. “Indians are not considered citizens, except on an individual basis. The United States government considers them as belonging to their tribe and not this country. Exceptions are only made for those Indians who perform acts of service for the U.S. Army or the government.”

“But weren’t they in this country before any of us?” Amos asked on.

“Do you belong to a tribe, Miss Singer?” Isabella interrupted before Lily could answer.

Her question was an innocent one, but Lily’s shoulders sagged just enough for Christian to notice.
Every one of his protective instincts flared to life and he squirmed in the Trouble Chair.

“No.”
Her answer was barely audible.

“Are you a citizen of the United States then?” Amos asked.

Christian waited on her answer with as much anticipation as the class.

“No, I am not,” she answered, eyes lowered now too.

“But if you don’t belong to a tribe and you don’t belong to the United States, then who do you belong to?” Isabella asked.

Lily hid the flash of pain that rose to her face well.
Christian was overwhelmed by the urge to run to her and hold her like he had the night of the robbery. It didn’t seem right for her to be standing there alone. Singing Bird, silenced.

When the bell rang in the hallway Christian and Lily and everyone else in the room nearly jumped out of their skin.
Christian scowled at the classroom door and cursed whoever was out in the hall ringing the damn thing. His irritation hardly lessened when he considered it was probably a student.

“That’s the recess bell,” Lily announced, her voice wavering on its way back to normal volume.
“You may fetch your coats and scarves and go play outside.”

Lily’s students jumped up and ran to the corners of the room to pile into their winter things.
Samantha sent him a sweet smile, eyelashes batting, before being dragged by a friend to the back of the room. As the children threw their coats and hats on, Christian stood.

Lily
found an eraser and set to work clearing the chalkboard. She kept her back firmly to Christian, but now that the students were gone her breath caught in uneasy gasps. He approached her slowly, watching the tenuous expansion and contraction of the part of her torso that was not cinched by her corset. She was upset, he could tell that much without words.

As he opened his mouth to apologize for
all the rude questions, she said, “Why are you here?”

Her arm worked furiously up and down across the blackboard.
She still didn’t look at him.

He cleared his throat and
shifted his weight.

“
Well, in the unlikely event that I lose this bet, I need to know where your class is in their studies,” he said. He rubbed his chin, praying she would buy it.

“Do go on,” Lily drawled over her shoulder.
She rubbed furiously with the eraser, emotion on vent.

He
took a step closer to her, his heart a drum in his chest.

“You know, as j
ustice of the peace I could submit a petition for you to be granted U.S. citizenship.”

Lily finished her erasing, plunked the eraser
in its tray, and spun to face him. She planted her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow.

“You could?
Just like that?” She didn’t seem pleased.

He swayed closer.
“Remember, my father is a judge and my uncle is a congressman. It should be easy.”

“Easy.”
She stared at him like he’d suggested she hoe vegetables in her underclothes.

“Well,” he blew out a breath and threw out his arms, “at least you’d have a vote locally.”

“What makes you think I’d want one?” There was fire in her eyes, but for a change it wasn’t entirely anger. Something else burned in the coal-hot darkness of her eyes, something that squeezed his chest beyond bearing.

“
You could say you belonged to something then. You’d belong to Cold Springs.”

You’d belong to me.
The words popped into his head before he knew what hit him. They stirred up more than they settled. He fought to keep that fact off of his face.

She pressed her lips together
. Her toe tapped under the hem of her skirt. She stared at him without speaking, bristling with that inner fire, so hot it scorched him too. He kept his scowl fixed in place, his mouth shut in a hard line.

At last she said,
“I’ve been offered citizenship before, when I completed my studies. I turned it down.”

“What?
Why?”

She was
still, eyes fixed on him so intently that he was sure he would burst into flame.

“A piece of paper isn’t going to make me belong, Mr. Avery.”
She strode to her desk and took up a handful of papers. “The government of this country can list me however they’d like, but you yourself have proved to me and those like me that we will never be accepted.”

“
I never said any such thing!” he argued.

She darted around him and began placing papers on the desks.
“No? Isn’t that what you mean by seeking to have the Flathead children expelled from school?”

He pursued her, staying a step behind as she rushed up and down the rows of desks.
“What were you talking about just now? The Fifteenth Amendment. It was passed twenty-seven years ago, but can a black man go about his business easy as he pleases in most parts of this country? No. He can’t. Why do you think Moses Wright moved this far out west?”

“
Construction businesses are booming on the frontier.”

She wouldn’t look him in the eye.
Her stack of papers dwindled fast and she returned to the front of the room.

“That and a gang of men in sheets burned down his business in Louisiana and tried to kill him.”

She whirled to him with an exasperated sigh. “The citizens of Cold Springs are not going to rise up with pitchforks to lynch Red Sun Boy for perfect attendance at school, Mr. Avery.”

“Dammit, I told you to call me Christian!”

“They are not going to burn down Sturdy Oak’s homestead either.” She returned to her desk without a second glance.

“Do you want to be a citizen of this country or not?”

“How can you talk about me belonging in one breath and then advocate the exclusion of people who look like me with the next?” She picked up a pair of books and marched past him to the bookshelf at the other end of the room, glaring as she went.

“I’m not!
I’d petition for Sturdy Oak too if he wasn’t already a citizen!” He followed her.

“What makes you think you are so all-powerful that you could snap your fingers and make
me one of you?”

“
Because that’s the way the government works!”

She
shoved the books on the shelf then faced him. “Because
you
say so?”

“Yes!”
He stopped a foot away from her, chest heaving far more than it should have after a little chase around a classroom. “People listen to me, you know.”

“Only
because you never stop talking.” Her face was flushed pink and her eyes glittered as she stared at him, refusing to back down.

“Because they know
that I know what I’m talking about,” he countered. “They trust me to look out for their best interests, which is what I’m trying to do.”

“So we should all listen to what you have to say?”

“Yes!”

“
You, Mr. Avery, are a bully and…and another word that begins with ‘b!’” Her voice trembled with frustration.

“I’m
looking out for the people of this town! If that makes me a bastard—”

“Just be silent for once!”

“I’ve wasted too much time being silent.”

“For
pity’s sake!”

“
I’m doing this, getting involved, to keep you safe!”

“Christian, please!
Stop talking!”

“I have responsibilit
ies to this town and you can’t—”

She threw herself against him, arms closing around his shoulders, his words cut short by the pressure of her mouth on his.

Numb shock flooded him. Every thought he ever had spilled out his ears and lay in shreds around his feet. Life as he knew it was reduced to heat and pressure and the faint scent of lavender and skin. There she was, in the center of it. Lily.

She pulled back
with a gasp. Her forearms braced against his shoulders and she struggled. He realized a moment later that his arms were around her, his hands on her waist, holding her against him. Her eyes filled with panic as sharp as if gunshots were firing over their heads again. She jerked back.

He wasn’
t about to let her go.

He pulled her closer, lifting her to meet his lips once
more. This time he took control. He pressed into her, devouring her with a hunger that reached to the root of his soul. Her mouth gave willingly under his, her lips moving to match his. He teased his tongue against hers, sparks snapping through him as she not only accepted his exploration but gave in to it. A moan rose from her throat. Her body sagged against his. He tightened his hold, his whole world compressed into the non-existent space between them.

He’d never wanted anything so much in his life.
All other desires had been pale curiosities compared to the way he wanted Lily. He kissed her with the full force of that want, arms spreading across her back, drawing her heat against him. She returned his passion tenfold, her hands gripping his shirt and the muscles of his back. Their mouths only left each other for brief, fitful breaths before joining again, hungry for more.

A shriek and giggle and the thundering of footsteps in the hall snapped the two of them apart as though they’d been tossed in the snow.
Christian stepped away, panting. He twisted to stare at the classroom door. It was opened a crack. He glanced back to Lily. She stared at the door too, wide-eyed, the back of her hand pressed to her mouth. Her chest heaved as she caught her breath.

“I don’t think anyone saw us,” Christian assured her, voice haggard with unfinished need.

Lily met his eyes, a sheen of panic covering her fire. “What if they did?”

Deep confidence spread through Christian.
With the taste of Lily still on his lips, every part of the world seemed right to him.

He shrugged.
“They’re children. What do they know?” He stepped closer to her, reaching out for her hands. “Come have dinner with me tonight. I’ll get us a quiet table at the hotel. We can talk about this—”