The Secret Promise

Chapter Nineteen

Allie spent the next two weeks recovering from her fall into the river. When she'd been pulled under the ice, the current had sucked her under a fallen tree and one of the sharp branches had left a deep cut along her left shoulder blade. It had taken the doctor sixteen stitches to close the wound and Lucas had been beside himself knowing the only reason it had even happened was because he had trained his dog to chase her. Now that he was recovered from the hypothermia, he knew he would have to re-train the dog so this wouldn't happen again.

School had started up again, but the school board had found a substitute teacher to take care of things until she was well enough to return.

When she did, the children were ecstatic to see her and crowded around to hear her tell them all about what had happened.

"We were so worried about you. And Mr. Thomas is nice, but we were afraid he was going to teach us for the rest of the year!" Lauren, one of the older girls said dramatically.

"Well, I'm glad to be back and I'm so sorry you were all so worried. I wish they could have told you that I'd be alright."

"What about the man that saved you?" a little boy named Sam asked. "Is he alright too?"

Allie nodded. "Yes. He's alright too. His father brought Dr. Carlton and he took good care of us both."

"I saw Dr. Carlton last week!" Isaac piped up. "'Cause I sprained my ankle!"

"Did you jump off the well pump again?" Allie asked, laughing softly.

"How did you know?"

"I just know!" she said. "How about we play some games today!"

The children were happy with that plan and they spent the morning and afternoon playing all the games she had introduced them to on the first day of school. "I'll see you all tomorrow!" she waved as they left. With a sigh, and happy to be back to work, she went back inside and tidied up before walking home for the evening.

"Looks like we might get some bad weather," her pa was looking out the window when she got home, watching the clouds that were moving in from the north.

"More snow, you think?" she asked. He always expected bad weather that time of year and she laughed softly as she headed up the stairs to change into one of her work dresses before heading out to do chores.

The next morning was almost eerily quiet as she walked to the school house. There was no new snow. No wind. Nothing. Just gray clouds as far as the eye could see.

She opened the door and stepped inside, realizing that she hadn't refilled the firewood before she left the day before and she spent twenty minutes carrying wood from the pile out back, to the pile beside the fireplace. When she'd finished that, she started a fire and let the room warm up a bit before she took off her coat and hung it on the coat rack in the corner. It would be another half hour before the children started arriving and she began writing out the lessons on the chalk board.

She had only finished one lesson for the smaller children when she was startled by a loud crashing sound and the entire building shook for a moment. The room went nearly dark and for a moment she wasn't sure what had happened. With a gasp of realization, she ran to the door and opened it, only to find a wall of white in front of her. She couldn't even see the porch steps with how heavy the snow was blowing. She managed to push the door closed again and hoped none of the children had left home yet. If they had, they'd certainly be lost.

Pacing the width of the room, Allie kept the fire going. She had finally decided to light a lantern since it was so dark, and the only thing to keep herself occupied was to read one of several books she kept inside her desk.

Thankfully, she had a small kettle that she could boil water, or in this case snow, on the wood stove, and she kept a small box of teas in the drawer with her books. She'd brought a lunch, but under the circumstances she decided not to eat it, in case she was there for more than one day. She made a cup of tea and sat, trying to stay calm and not worry about the children.

The fire wood pile was slowly dwindling. She'd brought in plenty, for one day. Perhaps even two. But it was nearly eight o'clock at night now and she'd had to keep the fire burning for hours longer than usual. The pile that should have lasted days was probably going to run out by morning.

If the blizzard kept up, she was going to have to go out in it to get more wood. Thankfully it was piled up, right against the back of the building and she likely wouldn't have any trouble feeling her way along. But that meant she'd have to keep one hand free and wouldn't be able to bring much in at a time. And that meant more trips if she was to bring in enough to make a difference. She stared at the wood pile on the floor for a while before walking over to the coat rack and pulling on her heavy coat. She wrapped her scarf snugly around her neck, took a deep breath, and stepped out into the wind and snow.

The next morning, it still hadn't let up. She nibbled at some of the lunch she'd brought the day before, and drank more tea. The wood pile was still her biggest concern. She'd made so many trips the night before that she'd lost count. And the wood pile didn't look all that much bigger. Aside from that, she'd had to sweep up a whole lot of snow that had drifted inside, and it had taken a long time for the room to warm back up after having the door open and close so many times in a row.

She wished her pa was there. He always knew what to do in those kinds of situations and she never had to worry. Then she realized how worried he must be, and she hoped he knew that she had made it to the school house before the storm had hit.

More tea. More pacing. Reading the pages of the book over and over because she simply couldn't concentrate with the howling noise just outside the window. That was all she could do. And wait.

Night came again and she added wood to the stove before making herself as comfortable as possible on the floor in front of it. She had slept sitting in the chair with her head resting on her arms on the desk the night before and had woken up with a terribly stiff back. The floor couldn't possibly be worse. Some time during the middle of the night, however, the fire burned out and she huddled inside her coat, shivering, just not enough to wake up. The exhaustion was stronger than the need to stay warm.

"Allie!" Lucas burst into the school house, snow blowing in all around him, and he shoved the door closed behind him. The wind was still howling and the blizzard raged just as hard as before, but he'd made it. He'd hoped the fire would be burning and that he'd find her sitting at the desk sipping hot tea, looking at him like he was insane to be bursting in on her like he'd just done. But instead, he was greeted by cold air. It was dark and he could just make out a small form on the floor. "Allie!"

Kneeling beside her, he pulled her up into his arms and felt her cheek with the back of his hand. Her skin felt barely warm and she was shivering. He quickly laid her back down and peeled off his own coat, wrapping it around her as he moved over to the stove and started a new fire. Once that was burning, he found the lantern, but it was empty and he searched for more kerosene in the dark. Then, setting the burning lantern on the desk, he knelt down and checked on Allie again.

"Is it over?" she murmured.

"No. It's still blowing just as hard as before." he said. "Just rest and get warm."

"What are you doing here, if it hasn't stopped?" she asked. She could barely open her eyes, but she looked at him before they drifted shut again.

"I had a feeling you might be stuck here," he said softly. "And since I don't know how long this storm is going to last, I figured I'd better try to check on you and make sure you were okay."

"You're stupid," she mumbled.

"Yeah, I know." he brushed his hand over her hair. "And you can remind me about that later, but right now, I have a fire going for you and you're going to get warm. Once you're warm, I'll put my coat back on and go get some more firewood."