by Susan Thomas
This story is set in the town of Kirkham, USA, at the latter end of the nineteenth century, around 1880. Kirkham was the setting for Elizabeth's Flight, but this novella is not a sequel. Some of the characters from Elizabeth's Flight also appear in this book, which may be read as a standalone novella.
My heroine, Annie McWilliams, faces the very real question of whether a married woman can be a teacher. It is not something questioned today, but that was not always so. In the United Kingdom, the Sex Disqualification Removal Act of 1919 made it possible for married women to teach. However, there was such prejudice against it that local education authorities put bars in place and even sacked married women teachers. It wasn't until World War Two that the bars were removed. The situation in the USA was similar, although there was no actual legal bar to a married woman working as a teacher, school districts put bars in place. It wasn't until 1941 that state Supreme Courts began to remove those bars. In that respect, Kirkham was both of its time and, by the end of the story, ahead of it.
In other respects, Kirkham may shock you. Women, especially wives, are expected to be accountable to their husbands. Sometimes this may involve them in getting a good spanked bottom. Their husbands do love and care for them but there is no hesitation, if they behave badly, in baring their bottoms and setting them on fire with hand, hairbrush or strap. Even if you wouldn't like to be such a wife, you might enjoy a little peep into a different age, when the roles of men and women were more clearly defined.
The train journey had seemed endless, and occupying two young children, never mind keeping them clean, had been very wearing, but she was starting a new life and the journey was essential.
"Excuse me ma'am, but we will be in Kirkham in about thirty minutes. I thought you'd like to get ready." It was the conductor, a kindly man who approved of the quiet, undemanding woman and her two well behaved children.
"Oh, thank you so much. You've been so kind to us."
"Not at all ma'am. It's been a pleasure and I'll help you down with your luggage. I don't know of anyone else getting off there."
When the conductor moved on she called her two children to come close. She spoke first to her son. "Harold, we will be in Kirkham soon. What is your name?"
"Harold McWilliams, mama, and I am seven years old."
She gave him a hug, pleased that she had been sensible enough to retain their first names. "Can you spell out your surname for me?"
"Sure can. It's easy." He spelled it out correctly even managing a 'big M' and a 'big W'.
"What about you Amelia darling, can you tell me your name?"
"Amelia, Mama."
"That's good, but what about your other name?"
"Macwill." Amelia sounded doubtful.
Her mother smiled. "McWilliams, darling. Say it for me."
Amelia repeated it uncertainly but her mother wasn't worried. It wasn't an easy surname and no one would notice if a five-year-old wasn't sure. As she got the children ready to leave she felt distinctly nervous. It was essential that she gave no indication that she was not who she said she was.
As the train pulled into Kirkham halt she could see some people waiting. They were probably from the town council, there to greet her as the new schoolteacher. She should be able to deduce who they were from the correspondence she had received. There was an older couple who she took to be Mayor Spencer and his wife; another tall man was wearing a star on his jacket so he was clearly Sheriff Flight, husband to the lady from whom she was taking over; and standing next to him was a very young woman of possibly nineteen or twenty. Who that was she wasn't sure. Perhaps a daughter or maybe someone they'd brought to help with her children.
The conductor was true to his word and was active in getting her luggage off the train. The two men waiting helped and the younger woman helped her children down. She gave the conductor a tip, and her profuse thanks, and the children waved to the train as it pulled away.
"Mrs. McWilliams? I can't see you could be anyone else. I'm Mayor Spencer. Welcome to the town of Kirkham, Mrs. McWilliams. These two must be your son Harold and your daughter Amelia."
The children shyly acknowledged their inclusion in the greeting and Mayor Spencer continued. "Introductions: this is my wife Mary; my good friend, and the sheriff, Henry Flight, and his wife Beth. It is Beth who has been teaching our school and helped choose you to take over from her."
"Oh! Mrs. Flight, I felt sure that you must be older as you seemed so experienced in our correspondence. You asked so many excellent questions I thought you must be a teacher of vast experience."
Her husband laughed. "No, my Beth just has a real gift. Came here and started the school off. All there was before was the building and unpacked equipment but we're real delighted you'll be taking over."
Mrs. Mary Spencer scolded them all for keeping the, "...poor woman, not to mention the children, standing here..." Soon everything was loaded into a carriage and they all set off for the small house that had been rented for the new schoolteacher and her children. It turned out to be a delightful property, quite secluded by trees, and set back from the road that led to the school, which was only a short walk away. There was a woodshed to the left of the property and a privy at the back. Although small, it was well maintained, and inside, Mrs. Annie McWilliams, as she was to be known, was astonished to find that it had been simply but nicely furnished with new curtains on the windows and even clean fresh bedding on the already made up beds.
"Oh my," she exclaimed, "this is so lovely. You've been to so much trouble."
"Nonsense!" Mary Spencer was brisk. "Couldn't have you arrive with two small children without making sure you had somewhere fit to live. Now Beth here will help you settle in and you'll all come around to our house for a meal tonight."
Beth Flight, the current schoolteacher, exuded a warmth and kindness that was impossible not to like. Earlier that morning she had lit a fire under the boiler to ensure that there would be plenty of hot water for baths.
"I too made a long train journey to get here and I know you'll want to bath the children and yourself."
While the two children excitedly explored the house, Beth and Annie filled a zinc bath with warm water. Harold didn't seem embarrassed that Beth stayed to help his mother bath the two of them. When they were dried and dressed Beth helped Annie empty the zinc bath using jugs until it was low enough for them to carry it outside. They then refilled it for Annie herself.
"I'll mind the children until you've done. Go along now, take all the time you want."
Annie McWilliams sat in the bath luxuriating in the warm water and wondering at the kindness shown to her. Kirkham must be as friendly a place as the letters had suggested. The advertisements for a replacement teacher had stood out from all the others for reasons she couldn't fathom. Kirkham seemed to call to her from the beginning. Was this, at last, an end to her troubles? She knew that she had brought her troubles on herself, but troubles they had been, and she was determined to end them. The question that still worried her was whether deceit was the best means; but Annie McWilliams was a deceit and she was most definitely not the respectable widow they took her to be.
Later, when she and the children arrived at the Mayor's house she found Henry Flight already there. He was a fine looking man, she thought, and he and Beth were clearly much in love. There was a boy of about ten named Arthur; Beth had warned her that he was recently adopted by the Spencers and not to probe too much. He was one of their pupils, she had said, and very smart indeed. Arthur was very good with her two children and it was a delightful evening; Annie relaxed and felt included in the shared warmth of these good people.
It was a Thursday, and Annie had assumed she would have to teach the next day, but that was not the case. Beth explained that the Town Council had closed the school for this day to let her meet and greet the new teacher who would not start until the Monday.
"Now you are to do nothing but settle in over the next three days. I have all the preparation in hand for next week; you will simply assist me and get to know the children for that whole week. You can take over the week after."
Annie was amazed at the thoughtfulness and consideration that had been put into her arrival.
Her first night in her new home... her new life, and Annie planned in her head how to use the three days she had been given to settle in. Tomorrow was Friday, and she would spend that day unpacking, organizing the house to her satisfaction and going to the store to get some provisions. The children would be happy to play outside and explore their new surroundings. She fell asleep still planning and then she began to dream.
She was back in her childhood home and she was in trouble. She wasn't the eighteen-year-old she'd been when she finally left home, but as she was now, nearly thirty, with two children. In her dream, her father was alive as she remembered him. Tall and strong, he was a blacksmith with a thriving business, a man with a simple attitude to troublesome girls... except she was no longer a girl.
"But Daddy..."
"Hush child. I'll take no back talk or arguing. You've done wrong my girl."
"I know, Daddy."
"You've gone against all your mom and I taught you."
"I'm sorry, Daddy."
"And now this deceitful behavior. Pretending you're a widow lady. Shame on you, child."
"But..."
"No buts, deceit is a wickedness of Satan and you have tainted money."
"I took it from him. It's for emergencies and for the children's future. He owes them that much."
"Don't you argue, my girl. Stolen money, that's what that is and the Lord knows how he got it... no good way that's for sure. You deserve a good hard spanking my girl."
"Daddy! Please no."
"Woodshed child, and be quick about it."
Naturally she obeyed, wondering how her beloved daddy could be alive again, but obedient. She'd trodden that path to the woodshed many times before and knew exactly how she would soon be feeling. No use pleading with Daddy, for once he decided on a spanking, a spanking was what she got. Inside the woodshed nothing seemed to have changed. There was the crude bench he had made and now she stood before it. There on the wall hung the strap, carefully oiled to keep it supple, that had blistered her bottom so many times.
When he came in she had to say it. "Daddy, I'm so glad you're alive. I'm so sorry for all I put you and Mom through."
"We never stopped loving you child but that isn't gonna stop this spanking happening."
Even in her dream, she was wearing only her nightdress, so gathering it up around her waist before placing herself over his lap was simple. Her daddy's large calloused hand smacked down with all the power of his blacksmith's arm and she cried out as always.
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