Change of Heart (17 page)

Aaron smiled as he stood and pushed his chair
into the table. “I’ve always loved a challenge,” he whispered with
anticipation in his voice, “and Stephanie Porter will be the Mount
Everest of all of the challenges I’ve ever faced.”

* * *

Aaron marveled at the beauty of the late June
morning. The cool air, drenched in sunshine, filled his body all
the way to his finger tips every time he took a breath. Joy
brighter than the sea-blue sky lived deep inside his heart. He
would see Miss Porter in only two minutes.

He’d arranged a meeting with Miss Porter and
Miss Comstock to take place at the school house. The mayor had
expressed an interest in a plan for the school system being set up
as soon as possible, and Aaron couldn’t have been more pleased. The
sooner he began to break down the walls Miss Porter had erected,
the better.

Knowing Miss Porter enjoyed the spotlight,
Aaron decided to deny her what she craved. Hopefully, this lack of
personal attention to her would prompt her to seek his attention,
which was exactly what he wanted.

Aaron grinned with satisfaction as he neared
Heart Junction Grade School. There were times when the study of
human behavior required in his medical training came in very
handy.

As he bound up the steps, Aaron gripped the
bouquet of flowers he’d acquired from Louise Gunnerson. The beauty
of the red and yellow Zinnias and pink and white Dianthus amazed
him. How could Mrs. Gunnerson extract flowers as lovely as roses
from plain black dirt and ordinary seeds?

Aaron let himself into the school.

Miss Comstock must have heard the squeak of
the door. “Is that you, Dr. Wesley?” She emerged from the classroom
in the back of the building.

“It is I,” Aaron replied.

“Good morning,” she said, neatening her
silvery white hair with her slim fingers. “Isn’t this a lovely
day?”

“The day is splendid, indeed, but may I say
it pales in comparison to Heart Junction’s most beautiful citizen,”
he said in his most flattering tone.

A small chuckle crossed Miss Comstock’s thin
lips. “Dr. Wesley, if I were forty years younger, I’d take what you
said quite seriously, and you’d find yourself in need of a
preacher.”

“Would that be for burying me or for marrying
me, Miss Comstock?”

She laughed and clapped her hands together.
“Dr. Wesley, I think I’ll let you figure that out on your own!”

Aaron smiled and settled his gaze on her eyes
once more. “I am serious, Miss Comstock. Beauty knows no age, and
yours has charmed men for decades, I’ll wager.”

“And decades,” she added with a girlish
smile. “I’m very near retirement, you know. I’ve been teaching for
almost fifty years, ever since I was seventeen.”

Aaron shook his head in amazement. What a
treasure Miranda Comstock was! “The school and the children will
miss you terribly when you retire.”

Miss Comstock waved a hand. “Pish posh,
they’ll do nothing of the kind. I’m as replaceable as a worn-out
dishtowel. It is I who will miss the children, but I have no
intention of being idle. In addition to teaching, I write history,
you know. I intend to research and write about every county in
South Dakota. I’ve always believed it is vital that we know about
the land where we live and the people who have dwelled on the
land.”

Her eyes began to sparkle as she went on.
“Won’t it be absolutely wonderful and thrilling to learn everything
possible about the aboriginal people who inhabited this land long
before we Europeans began to settle here a few decades ago?” Miss
Comstock’s glittering expression showed her true love of the land
and its peoples.

“I’ve always found the various cultures of
the American Indians to be fascinating. I shall look forward to
your writings about all the peoples of this land.”

Her cheeks bloomed like roses set against
snow. “Enough of an old lady’s dreams of writing great books. You
are here to plan the future, not talk of the past.” She turned
toward the room from which she’d emerged. “Miss Porter, Dr. Wesley
is here,” she called.

Aaron had no doubt Miss Porter was fully
aware of his arrival. Yet, she’d chosen to stay hidden inside the
classroom.

When she stepped into the hallway, Aaron’s
heart began to palpitate. It should be a crime punishable by death
for a woman to be as beautiful as Miss Stephanie Porter. Didn’t she
know it was unbearable for a man to gaze upon her without having
the right to take her into his arms and hold her next to his
heart?

“Good morning, Dr. Wesley,” Miss Porter said,
lifting her chin as though she were showing some sort of
defiance.

Aaron bowed slightly toward her. “Good
morning, Miss Porter.”

A blind man could see that the pleasant look
the young woman gave him was forced. “I trust you are well this
morning.” The tone of the pleasant words she spoke sounded a tad
more like she was wishing he’d drop dead than that she was wishing
him good health.

“I’m fit and healthy as a new-born colt, Miss
Porter.”

She nodded toward him stiffly. “How
wonderful,” she said without any hint of emotion in her voice. Her
gaze drifted from his countenance to the flowers he held in his
hand. “What lovely flowers.” Her voice lifted as did the corners of
her mouth.

For a moment, Aaron thought she might
actually gift him with a sincere smile.

He held up the flowers. “They are lovely,
aren’t they?” He moved them toward Miranda. “They’re for you, Miss
Comstock. I wanted my first action as a school board member to be a
show of gratitude to you for your many years of teaching.”

Miss Comstock placed her fingers over her
mouth. Her eyes began to glisten as she looked up at Aaron. Her
fingers slowly uncovered her lips. “Thank you,” she said, taking
the nosegay from him. “I’ll put them in water right away. I’m sure
I have a vase in the cloak room.”

She turned to go into the classroom, but she
didn’t go inside. “Dr. Wesley,” she said, looking at him again, “I
do thank you with all of my heart. It’s been a long time since a
handsome gentleman gave me flowers.” She smiled at him and
disappeared inside the classroom.

When Aaron looked at Miss Porter, he noticed
her jaw had turned as hard as iron. “Is anything wrong, Miss
Porter?”

“Wrong? Why would anything be wrong?”

He shrugged as though he couldn’t see the
jealousy filling her eyes. She no doubt expected the flowers to be
for her. He’d brought her flowers on each of the last three
occasions he’d invited her to go out with him.

“I hope that nothing is wrong, but you do
look a bit pale.”

Aaron didn’t think it was possible for her
jaw to harden any further, but it did.

Miss Porter lifted her chin. “I assure you I
am perfectly fine.” She stared up at him a long moment, her deep
green eyes blazing with passion. Or perhaps it was hate. No, it was
passion. He preferred to call the intense emotion her eyes
displayed passion.

“I’m glad you are well.” He abruptly took her
arm. “Shall we go inside and get started with our work?”

She pulled her arm away from him. “I suppose
we must. We do have a job to do.” She hastened inside the
classroom.

Aaron followed close behind.

Miss Comstock sat at the large teacher’s desk
arranging the flowers. She looked up at Aaron when he approached
her. “You purchased these from Louise Gunnerson, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“I can tell. She has the greenest thumb God
ever placed on this earth.” She shook her head and smiled. “I wish
I could have a tenth of Mrs. Gunnerson’s skill, but I’m afraid if I
rubbed my thumb in grass for a week straight, it would still lack
any shade of green. The only things I’ve ever grown well in my
garden are dandelions and creeping Jenny.”

Aaron chuckled lightly. “We are all blessed
with different talents. And today, Miss Comstock, I am here to
glean all I can from your great talent for teaching. I have no
doubt that you will be of great help to me in the reorganizing of
Heart Junction’s school system.”

“I hope,” Miss Comstock said, glancing at her
colleague, “that Miss Porter and I shall both be helpful to
you.”

Aaron glanced from one woman to the other.
“Yes, of course. I meant that I expect to gain great insight from
both of you.”

Miss Comstock set the flowers aside. “Please,
Stephanie, Dr. Wesley, sit down. I’ve arranged our chairs close
together so we can all see the papers and reports we’ll need to
consider as we make our plans.”

Aaron held a chair for Miss Porter as she
settled herself next to Miss Comstock. He then seated himself next
to Stephanie as closely as he could.

With an innocent, matter-of-fact business
look pasted on his face, he pretended he couldn’t smell the sweet
aroma of Miss Porter’s natural fragrance. He acted as though her
nearness didn’t make his heart beat faster. He denied his hand the
access it craved to the lovely woman sitting next him.

Aaron cleared the lump that was beginning to
form in his throat. “Do you have any suggestions, Miss Comstock, as
to where we should begin?”

Miss Porter turned her gaze on him. “I have a
suggestion, if you don’t mind me giving my opinion ahead of Miss
Comstock.”

“Little one,” Miss Comstock said, squeezing
the hand Stephanie had laid on the desk, “you speak right up. We’re
all here to reach the same goal.”

“By all means, Miss Porter. Speak up.”

She tugged at the collar of her mint green
shirtwaist as though it were restricting her breathing. “I think…”
She stood and stepped away from the desk. “I think, Dr. Wesley,
that you should allow Miss Comstock and me to work on this project
on our own. After all, you have no teaching experience. You’re a
doctor.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “Granted, you’re a
well-educated man, and a competent physician, but you’ve never
taught children. How could you possibly know what is best for
them?”

Aaron stood and looked down at Miss Porter.
The smile he gave her reflected the amusement dancing in his heart.
“Thank you, Miss Porter for singing praises for my education and my
abilities as a physician. I appreciate your kindness.”

“It isn’t kindness,” she said, tugging at her
collar again, “I’m merely stating facts. You possess a medical
degree from a prestigious Eastern medical school, and you’ve done
wonders treating the populous of Heart Junction since you arrived.
How you pulled Angelina Sanchez through that bout with pneumonia
I’ll never know.” She lifted a finger in the air. “But it is also a
fact that you are not now nor have you ever been a teacher. I feel
Miss Comstock and I are infinitely more qualified to plan the
future for Heart Junction’s school system because we are the only
ones here with teaching experience.”

Aaron put his thumb into his watch pocket.
“Perhaps you are right to a certain extent, Miss Porter. I
certainly can’t match Miss Comstock’s fifty years of experience in
the teaching of children, but, then, neither can you. You’ve been
teaching for how long, five years, perhaps?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Three. I
went to the Normal in Aberdeen after secondary school and finished
when I was twenty. I then came to Heart Junction to teach.”

Aaron nodded toward her. “Forgive me. I
thought you to be a bit older, twenty-five, perhaps.”

Miss Porter lifted her chin. “I’m
twenty-three, but the fact still remains I have had more teaching
experience than you have had. And that is the point I am making. Of
the three of us, Miss Comstock and I are the only ones who are
truly qualified to plan a curriculum and a future for Heart
Junction Grade School.”

Aaron shook his head and tried not to look
smug. “I’m afraid what you’re saying is not exactly right.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“To earn money while I was at the University,
I taught science classes at a boys’ school to children aged ten to
fourteen. Later, when I went to medical school, I had a fellowship
to teach biology to University students.” He shrugged. “I’m afraid,
Miss Porter, that my years of experience in teaching amount to
approximately four and one half, not counting the years I taught
religious education classes when I was seventeen and eighteen.”

Miss Porter’s fair complexion began to bloom
in lovely shades of rose. She took hold of the back of the chair
she’d previously been sitting in, apparently to steady herself.
Momentarily, she pulled back her chair.

Aaron held her chair as she seated herself.
“Should we get back to work?”

Miss Comstock patted Stephanie’s hand and
smiled at Aaron as he took his seat next to the somewhat
embarrassed young teacher. “Dr. Wesley, I would love to hear
stories of your experiences of teaching at the boys’ school back
east if you’d like to share them some time. I taught in a girls’
school in Indiana for a few years some time ago. We could compare
notes and share our good times.”

“I would be honored, Miss Comstock. But for
now, we should probably get down to the business at hand.” Aaron
turned to Stephanie. “Miss Porter, what would you say is our first
priority for improving the Heart Junction school system?” He hadn’t
meant to humiliate the young teacher, but he was afraid that was
exactly what he’d done when he told her of the facts of his
teaching experience. Perhaps he could assuage her embarrassment by
magnifying her importance in the job they had to do.

“Well…” Stephanie began slowly, “I suppose
the most important thing to do is to consider the needs of the
students and of the community. Once we have determined those needs,
we must then establish goals to meet them. But our determinations
must not be set in stone.” The more she spoke, the more her strong
sense of self confidence returned. “A growing community like ours
is in a constant state of change. We must have the ability to
adjust to that change.”