Read Elm Creek Quilts [07] The Sugar Camp Quilt for Free Online Page B

the touch. The rash on the back of your hands will pass in two or three weeks, longer if you scratch it. I would offer you a healing salve, but as I am merely an ignorant country girl, I am sure my humble medicines are beneath your regard. Next time, if you wish to choose an appropriate flower, I would recommend a narcissus.” She turned a blistering smile on Cyrus and ignored his companion. “Good afternoon, Mr. Pearson.”
    She quickly departed, nearly bumping into Mary as she and Abner left the dance floor. “Goodness, Dorothea, what’s wrong?” asked Mary. “Your face is so flushed! Are you ill?”
    “I am not ill.” Dorothea refused to allow Mr. Nelson and Cyrus to see how angry she was. “Abner, will you excuse us, please?” She linked her arm through Mary’s and drew her toward the far end of the room, where she asked, “Have you had an opportunity to meet our new schoolmaster?”
    Mary nodded. “Mrs. Engle introduced us. He’s handsome in a bookish way, but I suppose that suits his profession. He certainly doesn’t look much like a farmer. Would you like to meet him?”
    “No! No, thank you. I know him as well as I care to.” She told Mary about the encounter.
    Mary glanced at the ill-humored schoolmaster and turned away quickly, unable to contain her amusement. “Honestly, Dorothea! Mrs. Deakins may have little talent for flowers, but she meant well, and he had no call to be so unkind. In your place, I would have been tempted to slap him.”
    “I did not say I wasn’t tempted.”
    “I considered him somewhat aloof when we were introduced, but I had no idea he was so rude.” Mary’s eyes widened and she grasped Dorothea’s arm. “Oh, he’s looking this way. He surely knows we’re talking about him. But I suppose he doesn’t care about the opinion of a couple of ignorant country girls.”
    “I suppose not,” said Dorothea, laughing. “Ignore him. We cannot let him think he is important enough to be the subject of our conversation.”
    At that moment, she felt a hand on her elbow. “I’m afraid you must bid your friend good-bye,” said her father, her mother at his side. “We have chores to attend to at home.”
    Dorothea let out an exaggerated sigh. “That’s fine, Father. I was merely gazing longingly at the dance floor, wondering if I shall ever set foot on one again.”
    Mary giggled as Dorothea’s parents exchanged a puzzled look. Then Dorothea’s mother said, “You did find an opportunity to speak to Mr. Nelson?”
    “Yes, I spoke to him, the odious man.”
    Lorena’s eyebrows shot up, but before she could inquire, Dorothea hugged Mary good-bye and promised to call on her soon. After giving their regards to the hostess, the Grangers left the party.
    “I gather,” said Robert carefully as they walked to the livery stable, “that Mr. Nelson did not make a favorable impression upon you?”
    “Entirely the opposite,” said Dorothea, and she told them what had happened.
    “What a rude young man,” said Lorena, but she smiled. “Of course, he assumed he was speaking in confidence, unaware of your eavesdropping.”
    “I was not eavesdropping. I was merely waiting for an appropriate moment to introduce myself,” said Dorothea. “Besides, you have often told me one should not do in secret what one would be unwilling to have known in public.”
    “Not all deeds fall into that neat category, dear. Nor all words.”
    Her father shook his head. “Are you sure you did not misunderstand him, Dorothea? His father is such a reasonable, just man. I considered him a friend and was disappointed when he returned to the East. It is difficult to believe his son could be so unlike him.”
    “I understood every word with perfect clarity.” Dorothea threw up her hands and quickened her step. “I cannot bear for you two to defend him! Whatever fine qualities his father may possess, Mr. Nelson the younger does not share them.”
    “Still, it was a fine party,” offered her