Into the Wilderness Read Online Free PDF Page A

I must be," Richard Todd said calmly. "As the artist, it falls
to me to be my own sternest critic. The judge is too kind to be honest. He
hangs everything I produce."
    Elizabeth
was
surprised to learn that the doctor had painted these landscapes; at home, young
women were sent to drawing masters to learn to make pretty sketches of
mountains and children, but young men rarely showed an active interest in art.
    "Are
you interested in painting?" Richard Todd asked her.
    She
laughed. "I have no talent for it," she said. "But with such
landscapes around me, perhaps I will try my hand.
    "Don't
you find it interesting," she continued, addressing her remark to
Nathaniel Bonner, who fixed his attention on her willingly, "that such
beauty and bounty has been left untouched and unappreciated for so long?"
    "This
land was not empty before the Europeans came," he said in clipped tones.
    "Nathaniel,"
began Richard, but Nathaniel cut him off.
    "It
was not unclaimed," he continued. "And it was anything but
unappreciated." With a glance toward Richard Todd, and then toward the
judge, who was deeply involved in his own conversation and who had not followed
this exchange, Nathaniel stopped himself.
    Elizabeth
was
astonished and intrigued all at once; she wanted to hear the rest of what
Nathaniel had to say. But before she could think of some way to make this clear
to him, Richard Todd claimed her attention.
    "You
will want to have a look around the village, Miss Elizabeth," the doctor
said to her with a friendly smile, helping himself to venison from the platter
which Curiosity offered for the second time. "You must be very curious
about your new home. I know Mr. Witherspoon—our minister and his daughter are
very anxious to make your acquaintance."
    Thankfully,
Elizabeth
turned to him. "Yes, I am looking forward to my first trip to the village.
I am especially curious to meet the children."
    "Children?"
Richard Todd smiled politely.
    Elizabeth
looked toward her father, who was arguing once more with Julian.   "Yes, the children," she said.
"It would be hard to teach school without them."
    "You
mean to teach school?" Nathaniel Bonner asked. All of his agitation had
disappeared. His gaze was cool, but engaged.
    "Why,
yes," she said. "I do. That is why I came here."
    "The
judge hasn't said anything about that," said Richard.
    For a
moment
Elizabeth
was truly speechless. She had spent six months in
England
preparing to teach school,
her first school. Buying books, consulting educators, reading. It had consumed
her completely, and now she found out that her father had never even mentioned
her plans to his closest companions. She was struck with a terrible thought:
her father had brought her here on false pretenses. Everything Nathaniel Bonner
had said to her in the sleigh was true.
    She
saw Curiosity observing her from the sideboard, she felt Richard Todd's eyes on
her, and she knew the only way to rescue the new life she had thought to claim
for herself was to speak up as she had never spoken up for herself before.
    "Father?"
said
Elizabeth
.
"There seems to be some confusion. How is it that Dr. Todd and Mr. Bonner
haven't heard that I will be teaching school?"
    The
judge's eyes darted from
Elizabeth
to Richard and back again.
    "My
dear," he began slowly. "All good things in their time, eh? You'll
need a few weeks at least to settle in and learn your way around."
    Elizabeth
struggled to keep her growing surprise and distress hidden. With great
deliberation she put down her fork and folded her hands in her lap. "I can
at least make a list of the children and learn a little about them and their
families, Father. And the schoolhouse itself will need to be got in
order."
    "What
schoolhouse?" asked Hawkeye. "There's no schoolhouse in
Paradise
that I know of miss.
    Julian
put down his fork and knife and turned to the judge. "You don't mean to
say there is really no schoolhouse?" He cast a glance at
Elizabeth
, whose brow was drawn together in a
threat