I'm going in the morning alone. She has no right. She has the right that every scared person has. Clara said she heard something and she reacted to it. She's not Margaret Caldwell.
She's a young woman who's been pressured by parents and doesn't know what's true. She held his gaze. I can talk to her. I can't talk to her if you go tonight with that look on your face. He stared at her.
That look on my face. He repeated. The one that says you're about to say something you can't take back. The silence stretched. Then slowly he took his coat off.
"You're the most aggravating woman I've ever met," he said. "Yes," Clara said. "But I'm right." The corner of his mouth moved. "Yes," he said.
"You are." She went to see Miss Aldrich the next morning. The schoolhouse was empty. The children sent to recess early, which told Clara that Aldrich had been expecting her and had prepared for privacy, which told her that the woman had more self-awareness than the note had suggested. Miss Aldrich was 25 slight with the careful posture of someone who understood she was young for her position and compensated with formality.
She looked at Clara when she came in with the expression of someone who has said something they already regret and isn't sure how to manage the conversation that results. "Miss Whitfield," she said. "Mrs. Aldrich," Clara said. She sat down in the nearest chair because sitting said she wasn't here to fight.
I got your note. I'm sorry about the She stopped. It was not my intention to. "What did they tell you about me?" Clara said.
Aldrich looked at her hands. That you misrepresented yourself to the agency. That you may have had a hand in the fire at the Callahan Ranch. That your presence in the home creates an an inappropriate example for the children of this community. Clara listened to all of it without reacting.
"Do you believe it?" She said. Aldrich looked up. I don't know you well enough to believe or disbelieve it, she said. "That's the honest answer."
"All right," Clara said. "Then let me tell you what I know." I am 32 years old. I came from Jefferson City on a mail order arrangement. I did not explicitly state my age to the agency because I knew I would be rejected without consideration if I did, and I knew I could do the work better than someone younger who'd never seen hardship.