By: Lauren S.
Part2
The ride back to Plumfield carried with it much conversation, there was old stories from sailing across the Atlantic between Nick and Tom to the topic of what would be taught tomorrow in the classroom between Charles and Jo. These two conversations did not blend well, one was of the past and the other of the present and Nick realized this but brushed off the idea. Nick was still worried about Charles' presence at Plumfield, but he was going to leave things alone for now like he always did.
Finally the wagon came to a halt in front of the Plumfield house. Tome helped Jo out of the wagon as a secret favor to Nick. Nick noticed this and have him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Tom," Jo said graciously. Tom had no real interest in Jo, but he knew that his pal Nick had true intentions towards this "Mrs. Jo." 'I will just have to give my friend a little talk, and if that does not work, just a little nudge,' thought Tom.
Next, a small group of the Plumfield children, which included Dan, Nat, Nan, Emil, Bess, Rob, and Tommy,came out to be introduced to the two new strangers. They were only expecting one new person, but this other person peaked their interest(especially Emil's) because he had on the sailors' attire. Mrs. Jo first introduced the well dressed stranger saying," Kids, this is you new teacher, Mr. Paddington." Now Mrs. Jo shifted her attention to the "sailor" as all the kids called him later, "And this is Tom Pike, a friend of Nick's from his days as a Merchant Marine and he will be staying with us for a while." Emil smiled at this revelation, he looked forward to talking to him and listening to old sea stories.
Mrs. Jo had Dan and Emil carry in Charles' baggage and bring it to the spare room. She wanted him to settle as quickly as posible that day, because he had to start his frist day teaching the very next day. "I hope this room will suit you, after you have finished unpacking, you can come downstairs and look around if you like," Jo said hesatatingly, knowing that she sounded like she was inviting him with a purpose. "This room is perfect and I would like to come down and talk with you afterwards, if that is alright with you?", Charles said, catching the brief invitation that Jo had given a few minutes before. "Of course that would be alright," is all Jo could say and with that she slipped out of the room, her head a little warm. She felt her head wondering if she was feeling well, and at that moment Asia was walking by with linens that she was going to give to Charles for his room, but Asia stopped for a moment, "What's wrong Mrs. Jo?" "I don't know, my head feels warm all of a sudden?" "Well, you don't seem to be sick Mrs. Jo," Asia stated with her somehow-to-be-knowledge. Asia always seemed to know if someone was truly sick and she never was in medical school. She had just attained these skills from life. "I'd say that it is something else, Mrs. Jo," Asia said. "Well what Asia?," Jo asked. Asia just smiled and continued to walk down the hallway to Charles' room with the linens. Jo wondered what that smile was supposed to mean, but she could not figure it out.
Jo went downstairs and walked up to her desk and sat down. She opened the drawer and took out her "Conscience book" and began writing. In betweem the written word, the thought of what happened in the room and then her head feeling warm followed by that smile of Asia's plagued Jo's mind.
Meanwhile, Charles entered the room undetected and watched Jo's face in contemplation. He enjoyed watching a woman having a brief moment of intellectual thought, because he did not believe that women should not be beneath the standards of men. He just stood there, wondering what the next moment would give him in life.
Nick was in the barn putting hay into Penny's pen. As he closed the door, he looked at the sign with Penny's name on it. That sign brought back the memory of the hug Jo gave him, and with that Nick smiled. But Tom entered and spoiled the whole monent in Nick's mind, "Hey Nick, what ya up to?"
"Just finishing up here with some chores and then we can head into town, maybe play some poker like the old days," Nick said.
"Sure, we could do that, but will yer mind be totally there, my friend?" Tom asked as if he knew what Nick would do in the future.
"Of course," Nick said in a false tone that was easily read by Tom.
"Come on, it's Tom yer talking to, Nick, notta horse," Tom said laughing, but then becoming more serious by the end of the laugh.
"Why don't ya go talk to her, Nick," Tom said as if he knew exactly what was on Nick's mind.
"Why?" Nick asked.
"Ya ask too many questions, Nick Riley, just go talk to her about anything," Tom said reassuringly.
So Nick cleaned up and headed towards the house, not sure of what he even was going to talk to her about.
The crackling of the fire was all that Jo could hear in the room until Charles finally made his presence known by saying, "Hello Jo, what are you doing?"
She replied, "I am writing in the conscience book. It contains weekly accounts for every student at Plumfield and I let each of them read their own account. It sort of acts like a list of negative and positive aspects in their record."
"Does it work?" was all Charles could say. He was speechless at this ingenius way of handling the student's behavior.
"Wonderful," said Jo excitingly, because it was the first person interested about the book since Fritz had died. Nick saw her write in it many times, but he never talked about it with her.
"The children have already eaten, I got into writing in my book and forgotten about dinner," Jo said.
"Well, I have not eaten, would you like to join me," Charles said in a gentlemanly fashion as he held out his arm for her to join him.
"I would enjoy that very much," Jo said happily.
Jo put her arm through his, and she could feel her elbow near his chest. Again, her head began to feel warm. As Jo and Charles were walking out of the room towards the dining room, Nick practically walked into them.
Actually, he ended running into Jo, and that brief moment both were standing close, but then Nick stepped back and the awkward moment was gone. Finally, he noticed Jo arm-in-arm with Charles and how sweaty Jo's face was. "Hey Nick, is there something wrong, the kids do something again," Jo asked to cover up the awkward moment. "Nope, I was just coming in to check the wood pile in the kitchen, you know how fast we go through wood," was all Nick could say as he covered up the real reason why he was coming into the house.
"That's good," was all Jo could say before Nick interrupted her.
"Well, you guys have a good night," and with that Nick turned around and walked out of the house. Jo swore that she never heard Nick close that door so hard before, but she put the thought out of her mind for a moment and remembered about the dinner invitation.
"Shall we?," Charles invited again and Jo silently followed, but still, in the back of her mind something was wrong. She just could not pinpoint this thought; it alluded her as many things do, but she figured it would come to her later, so she walked off with Charles to dinner. At that moment she was only aware that this new teacher intrigued her.
Stay tuned for Part 3 soon!
