As if reading her mind, he said, “I shall have to get you a slate so you can practice making these at home. Now this one’s easy.” He finished printing the letters and moved the paper toward her.
She stared at the letters, willing her mind to concentrate. “Kuh…Kuh,” she repeated. “Uh…rr…ll.” Then she tried putting the sounds together as the captain was teaching her. “K-uh-r-l. Cuhrl. Curl!” She looked at him in triumph, meeting the look of satisfaction in his eyes.
“Good.” He wrote another word. “This should be familiar.”
She looked at the three-letter word. “D-d…” She took a stab at the vowel, “aw…guh. Dawg. Dog!”
“All right. Let’s try something harder.” Again he took the paper back and bent over it.
That night she took out the list of words and copied them out on a separate sheet of paper by the glow of her kerosene lamp. She wrote each one and read it over and over until she knew it perfectly. As she sat on the edge of her bed in her nightgown, she took one last look at the paper, smiling at the captain’s pencil drawings. A curl of hair, a little dragon, its spiked tail curved upward, a flame coming out of its mouth. She traced the drawings with her fingertip. An oblong circle for an egg, a squatting frog. Silently she mouthed the words, vowing she’d master each lesson, if it meant receiving the smile of approval the captain had given her this afternoon.
Chapter Five
“Hello there, Geneva. You must be pleased about somepin’.”
Geneva jumped at the sound of Lucius Tucker’s low drawl. Her knife nearly sliced off her finger as it slid through a stalk of rhubarb. She scowled up at the red-bearded man, annoyed that he’d caught her kneeling.
Despite his new suit and starched shirt, something about Lucius Tucker reminded her of her father. Ever since he’d been appointed overseer of the poor at the last town meeting, he thought he was somebody.
She placed the stalk of rhubarb in the basket at her side but kept the open jackknife in her hand as she stood. Meeting him at eye level, she no longer felt at a disadvantage.
She’d been so wrapped up in thinking about the captain, she hadn’t heard Lucius approach. Where had Jake gone off to? She made out her dog’s bark off in the meadow, but didn’t take her gaze off Lucius.
She glared at him. “What do you want? I got work needs doing.”
Lucius just smiled and pushed back his hat. “Sure sounded pretty what you were hummin’.”
Her scowl deepened as she felt the heat rise up to the roots of her hair. She’d been humming to herself, anticipating the captain’s pleasure when he saw how well she’d learned her lessons over the past week. “Ain’t none o’ your business what I was doing.”
“You gotta learn to curb that tongue o’ yours.” He pushed his hat farther back on his head. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, I jus’ want to help you out.”
“You don’t have a charitable bone in your body, Lucius.”
“Now, there you go again, lettin’ that tongue o’ yours loose.”
Lucius eyed her up and down, his pale blue gaze coming to rest on her chest. “Look at you. Grubbin’ around in the dirt. Coverin’ yourself up so a body can’t hardly tell whether you’re a man or a woman. But ol’ Lucius can tell. You’re all woman, Geneva. It’s time you began showin’ off your assets ’stead o’ hiding behind those clothes o’ your pa’s.”
“You better watch your mouth,” she answered shortly, keeping her knife poised.
Lucius ignored it. “Look at you slavin’ away here. I been offering to take care of you since your poor pa passed away. He’d be grateful to me, I know, if he knew my intentions.”
“Your intentions! There’s nothing decent about your intentions.”
“Now, Ginny, just because I don’t offer you a wedding band don’t mean I wouldn’t if I could. You know how it is—”
“Quit your whinin’ around me. You got a wife and three kids. She’s doing her duty to you. I’m sick of your pestering me with your filthy offers. Callin’ yourself an upstanding member of the community.”
“I don’t call it filthy, offerin’ you a snug little cabin up on Whittier’s Lake. I’d come up to see you when I was huntin’. No one’d know a thing.”
“I’ve told you before, no. You deaf as well as stupid? No means no.”
Lucius just rocked back on his heels, his smile never wavering. He removed his hat and scratched his head with a thumbnail. His pale red hair was combed back in wet strands, revealing a pink scalp beneath.
“The selectmen voted at last night’s meetin’ to set aside the money raised at the Fourth o’ July celebrations for the widows and orphans of this town.” He chuckled, continuing to scratch his head. “Widows and orphans.” He paused and let the significance of the words sink in. “I have sole discretion over those funds.” He winked at her. “Seems to me you’re an orphan.”
Geneva looked at him in disgust. “You better get off my property.”
“Now, Geneva, simmer down. You know I only want to help you out. You don’t have no man to lean on. It breaks my heart thinkin’ of you holed up here all winter. Up to the cabin, I’d see you every day when I’d come up to cut timber. You could cook me dinner then.” He sidled up closer.
“We’d cozy up in the afternoon. I could ease your toil if you’d jus’ let me. The ride’s much pleasanter if two enjoy it.”
She brought the knife up to chest level. “You step back. I don’t need no man to lean on, least of all the likes o’ you.”
His blue eyes hardened. “I told you, you better watch that tongue o’ yours. I’m a patient man, but…” His finger snaked out to grab hold of the buckle of her overalls.
Geneva pushed the knife against his hand, but before she could free herself, he’d twisted her wrist and sent her knife spinning away from her.
“Careful you don’t push me to my limits.” His breath was hot against her face. “You might jus’ find yourself on the losin’ end.” He considered her. “You’re about tall as I am. I wouldn’t mind puttin’ your strength to the test. I think I might just enjoy a contest with you.”
His eyes challenged her. “I hear tell some women like a man who can beat them.” He smirked. “Maybe your ma was one of ’em—”
“Why, you low-down skunk!” Geneva lunged at him. Lucius took advantage of the moment to grab her around the waist and pull her to him. For a while, she held her own, but then he did a fancy move with his foot and had her on the ground. He lay on top of her and grabbed one of her breasts. She yelped at the pain.
The next thing she knew, Lucius was being hauled up by the collar and pitched on the ground like a forkful of hay. Geneva pushed herself up on her elbows and stared at Captain Caleb, towering over her.
“What are…you…doin’ here?” she gasped out. At the same instant, she heard Jake’s barking as her dog bounded over the fields.
The captain didn’t look at her. “Mister, if you ever show your face around here again, you’ll wish you hadn’t. I can promise you that.”
The fallen man pulled himself up, dusting himself off in the process. “Me an’ Geneva wuz havin’ a private conversation. I’ll thank you, Captain—” he spit the title out “—to keep outta what don’t concern you.”
Jake stood growling at Lucius.
Lucius turned back to Geneva.