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specks of Daniel's heroism had brushed off on her somewhere along the line, and she did what she could when she was able. There were times she cursed Daniel for ever befriending her, but she wouldn't be where she was now without him. It behooved her to act in a manner that would meet his approval.
    Knots of people gathered throughout town, and from the expressions on their faces, they weren't discussing the weather for a change. The way some of them looked away as she approached warned of the topic of conversation. She hadn't made friends of everybody in town. She was much too opinionated for that.
    Ellen hurried out of the dry goods store to catch her hands. "Oh, Miss Harrison, last night was awful! Bobby wouldn't let me go out, but he came home all smoky and wore out and told me all about it. Mr. Holt said they might not have the money to rebuild the schoolhouse. How will my baby ever learn to read or write?"
    Janice remembered Bobby leaning against the empty water tank, guzzling from a bottle as he watched the schoolhouse burn. No doubt he thought his heroics in hauling out the tank with the help of half a dozen others allowed him to rest while others worked. She'd called him a shiftless skunk in front of his face before, but she wouldn't talk behind his back now.
    "You don't need to worry about that for a few years yet, Ellen. You just concentrate on keeping that baby healthy. There'll be someone to teach him when the time comes." She clasped the girl's hands reassuringly, then hurried on. Once she had a goal in mind, Janice didn't like to be distracted.
    A few more women drifted in her direction to commiserate with her over the fire or to find out more gossip. Janice tried to smile at them, but she knew Mrs. Danner was one of the more vocal protesters against female teachers. Rumor had it that her husband had been smitten with Evie Monteigne back when she taught here. The randy old goat had tried to pinch Janice a time or two, but she hadn't grown up on the wrong side of the tracks without learning a few things. He hadn't touched her since she used a hat pin on him.
    Janice had difficulty prying herself away from the clacking hens, but she finally managed it. Hat ribbons sailing in the breeze she created, she hurried down the street in the direction of the sheriff's office. She prayed the gossips thought she was going to identify the culprit or to press charges or to make inquiries. Surely they couldn't suspect her real intent or tongues wouldn't stop wagging for a month of Sundays.
    She had to do this discreetly or they wouldn't stop wagging anyway. Checking her image in the glass of a store window as she passed, she tucked a straying lock back into her hat, straightened her shoulders, and marched into the sheriff's office.
    Her friend Evie would have sashayed in. Georgina, Daniel's wife, would have flown through in a flurry of ribbons and curls. Unlike her friends, Janice could only march like a stern soldier. Her prim gray walking dress had the effect of a uniform. She blinked her eyes to adjust them to the dusky light of the interior, ignoring the stares of the men at the desk.
    "Miss Harrison." Ever polite, the sheriff rose from his chair. He was the closest thing the town had to an objective bystander. Even the newspaper held a biased slant on every news story in town. The sheriff never seemed to have an opinion on anything. He just arrested any man who crossed the fine line of the law and let the citizenry do the rest. This was the man she had to appeal to.
    "Sheriff." Janice stiffly nodded her head. Now that the glare was out of her eyes, she could look over her glasses and recognize the other men with him. Mr. Holt was here. So was Jason. She exchanged looks with him, then scanned the rest of the crowd—mostly the school board. That answered volumes right there.
    "I understand you have arrested the perpetrator of last night's fire." She had established herself as a no-nonsense type of woman. Old maids were