The Far West Read Online Free PDF Page A

else.
    Mama and Allie must have noticed that extra bit of looking, because the minute he got up to leave, Mama said, “It’s so good to see you again, Mr. Boden, and we haven’t come anywhere near catching up yet. Won’t you stay for supper?”
    “Yes, do,” Allie put in. “You can’t go back to a rooming house meal on your first night home! Tell him, Eff!”
    Rennie frowned slightly, looking from Allie to me and back. I shot Allie a glare, but I didn’t say anything.
    Roger smiled at Mama. “Thank you kindly for the invitation, Mrs. Rothmer, but I really need to get back to my unpacking. I think the trunks must have multiplied on the journey — I swear there are twice as many as I remember sending off.”
    “I’m glad you took the time to stop by,” Papa said. “I enjoyed the discussion.”
    “I’ll admit to an ulterior motive, Professor,” Roger said. “I’m hoping you can make time on Monday to start assessing the work I did in Albion. I’d like to finish my degree this year, and the sooner I know what I still have to take —”
    “Say no more,” Papa said, laughing. “I’ll be in my office at ten thirty in the morning. Bring your papers along then, and I’ll see what I can do.”
    Roger nodded. “Thank you, sir. I’ll see you Monday.” He bade us all good evening and left in a flurry of good wishes.
    The minute he was out the door, Allie pounced on me. “Eff! Why didn’t you help us persuade him to stay?”
    “Because she didn’t want to help you make a spectacle of yourself,” Rennie said, frowning. “Honestly, Allie, you can’t run after a fellow so obviously and expect to get anywhere.”
    Allie’s eyes went wide. “But … I’m not … It’s not me, it’s Eff!”
    “What?” Rennie gave her a puzzled look.
    “She thinks Mr. Boden’s sweet on Eff,” Robbie said, snatching the last two cookies from the platter on the table as he left to do his studying.
    Lan paused in the doorway and gave me a startled look. Rennie studied me for a moment, then turned and frowned at Allie. “What were you trying to do, then, ruin her chances?”
    “You can both stop that right this minute,” I said, alarmed. The last thing I needed was for Rennie to decide Roger Boden was courting me; whether she was for it or against it, she’d want to mix in and make things come out her way, and never mind what I thought of it. “Roger came to see Papa.”
    “Right — that’s why Roger spent the whole afternoon staring at you,” Allie said scornfully. “And after a whole year of writing letters between you, too.”
    “I’ve been writing to William for longer than that,” I said, feeling my face go hot. The thought flashed through my mind that if I did marry Roger, I wouldn’t have to come home to Allie’s nagging anymore, and if I could have gone any redder, I would have. “Mr. Boden is a friend, that’s all,” I snapped, hoping to make that picture go out of my head.
    Lan was looking back and forth between us, like he wasn’t sure which of us had the right of things. “Eff, if you like Mr. —”
    “You stay out of this!” I interrupted. “Whether I like him or not is my business, and what I choose to do about it — ornot to do about it — is even more my business. And that goes double for the two of you,” I added, turning to Allie and Rennie.
    “‘Choose to do about it’?” Allie snorted. “You’re going to end up an old maid like that professor you work for if you dither around much longer.”
    “There are worse things than being an old maid,” Rennie said softly.
    Allie and I just stared at her for a minute. I remembered how unhappy Rennie had seemed both times I’d been in Oak River, and some of what she’d told me the one time we’d talked about why she ran off with Brant. Still, I’d never expected to have Rennie on my side in this kind of argument.
    “I like Professor Torgeson,” I said finally. “I wouldn’t mind turning out like her. And anyway, I told