“It’s not right,” she gasped.
“It’s perfectly all right,” he mumbled switching from one breast to the other. He slid his arms underneath her legs and stood. The blanket fell to the floor and he stepped over it then carried her to the bedroom. He laid her gently on the bed and covered her body with his.
The evening of the Christmas concert and pageant had arrived. Priscilla flew from child to child, checking costumes, taking candy from mouths, and breaking up arm wrestling between two of the shepherds.
“Ian, quick, can you take little Denny to the lavatory?”
“Sure, Miss Cochran. I can do that.” He reached for the tiny angel’s hand.
How she loved that boy. In addition to her attraction to Mitch, the thought of marrying him and being mother to Ian was very appealing. However, becoming a mother to a wonderful boy was not a strong enough reason to marry his father.
When they’d made love again the night he’d saved her from the mountain lion, he spent time trying to convince her that he actually wanted to marry her and wasn’t asking to “do the right thing.” Still not sure his feelings were strong enough to make having to give up her job an even swap, she’d put him off.
Nothing had been settled, and as busy as she’d been with the pageant, tonight would be the first time she would see him since he’d dropped her off from church the morning after with the declaration, “Think about it.”
Now she had to put Mitch and everything about him out of her mind so she could concentrate on the children and the performance.
Priscilla held up her hands to quiet the children down. “All right, boys and girls, let’s do a wonderful job for all your family and friends out there.” Waving them a kiss, she scooted around the curtain Mitch had hung to separate the performance area from the audience in the church hall.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for coming this evening.”
“Hey, Mitch, I hear you took down that mountain lion last week.” Ray Morrow slapped him on the back. “That one was a bugger. And fast, too. Hit both the Dennison ranch and the Headley farm all in the same night two days before you got him. The Town Council is mighty grateful.”
“I’m just glad I was there. I never expected the animal to come that far into town.”
“Pa, Miss Cochran said she made a batch of oatmeal cookies, and we can all have one if we help her clean up from the play. Can we stay?”
“Sure.” He ruffled his son’s hair, only to have him pull away. “Pa, stop. I’m getting too old for that.”
“Uh, oh,” The mayor said. “Time to get you another wife so you can have some more young ones. This one is growing up too fast.”
“Ian, be sure to remind Miss Cochran to have the older boys load the costumes from the play, and anything else that has to go to her house, into my buggy.”
Ray smirked. “Seems to me you have someone all picked out to have those little ones with.”
Mitch snorted and turned to the pastor who nudged him on the shoulder. “The new teacher did a wonderful job with the play and concert. We made a good decision when we hired her.”
Now that Priscilla had the town eating out of her hand, they all of a sudden seemed to think they’d made the decision to hire her. If she’d turned out to be like the last one, they would have run him out of town.
He leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched her direct the children in gathering the costumes and props from the play. She bent as she spoke with each child, coming down to their level. She patted heads and handed out cookies. She easily chatted with the parents who congratulated her on a job well done. She glowed under the praise, and all of a sudden he realized how perfect she was for this job and why it was so important to her.
Mitch motioned to the mayor across the room speaking with Mrs. Gillis. “Hey, Ray. I want to ask you something.”
The mayor turned and waved him over. “What?”
“I need an emergency meeting of the town council.”
He raised his eyebrows. “When?”
“As soon as possible.”
Chapter Eleven
Early in the morning a week after the success of the Dogtown concert and Christmas pageant, Priscilla bounced out of bed. Although far from home and family, she still felt the excitement in the air that always surrounded her on Christmas Eve.
She hurried through her morning ablutions, and, since she expected to spend the day doing physical work, slipped on her trousers and buttoned up her younger brother Ben’s hand-me-down shirt. She intended to make this Christmas as much fun and as enjoyable as if she were home. Mitch and Ian were coming over to help her cut down a Christmas tree from the wooded area behind the schoolhouse and decorate her home.
While they did that, she would gather greenery to tie with red ribbons for the window sills and mantle, and wrap the presents she’d bought for Mitch and Ian. Since they were spending Christmas at her house, she planned to also keep busy baking a ham and pies and Christmas cookies that Ian could help her decorate. All the things her mama did every year to make the house smell wonderful.