"Now class, repeat your sums as they are written on the board," Mrs. Hope Lawless instructed as she stood in front of her class of twenty-five students. The students answered in unison, and she smiled proudly at them as they read off the addition problems in loud, clear voices.
It had been almost a year since she and Judah had married and moved to Morganville, Kansas, and while it hadn't been easy for either one of them to say goodbye to the children, it had been for the better. Now that he was gone, the Pembrokes had been welcomed back into the community, and Anna had taken over as the schoolteacher. Ginny wrote Hope once a week, and she was still excelling at her lessons because Anna was an exceptional teacher—though Ginny insisted not as good as Miss Tucker.