“There are four families here in town.” Mrs. Brownley’s voice dropped again, though there was no one near. “Someone started talk of your—your, um . . . character, I’m afraid.”

She looked into Molly’s eyes. Only kindness there.

“My character?” A chill that had nothing to do with the icy breeze slithered down Molly’s spine. She thought of how her parents had died and knew if that was being bandied about, then the talk was fair. But no one knew that. No one except Kevin, and Win knew some of it. Well, in truth, Kevin only knew some of it.

“I’m not sure where the talk started, but of course everyone knows of the odd business with the RHR and Clovis Hunt’s will. There’s talk of you having an improper, um . . . well, uh, connection to that business.”

The reason she got fired in Wheatfield, Kansas. Or close enough. Clovis Hunt was here to ruin her life once again.

“But it was my ma and Clovis’s marriage that wasn’t proper. What’s more, my ma had no idea of such. She trusted Clovis. When she heard he’d died, Ma remarried. But the fact that he was already married when he wed her meant her first marriage wasn’t legal and her second one was. My birth is perfectly proper.”

Mrs. Brownley had her hands clutched together, pressed to her chest, as if she were begging Molly not to be upset. Or maybe it was an attitude of prayer.

“Two of the larger families said they won’t be a part of the school when a scandal follows the teacher across hundreds of miles.”

She should have been able to leave it behind, Molly thought grimly. And maybe she would have if they hadn’t come straight to Clovis Hunt’s hometown, where all this nonsense about his abandoned wives had first come to light.

“That takes the school down to only four students. And that includes the two who come in from out of town. Besides, those unhappy families aren’t agreeable to just keeping their children home, they are clamoring for a different teacher. The school is closed until a new teacher is hired.”

Molly looked into Mrs. Brownley’s eyes. The woman was a bit shorter than her, thin enough Molly worried about the Brownleys losing the income from boarding the teacher. Molly wanted to defend herself. She wanted to find those families and firmly explain her birth was all proper. She wanted to scream that it wasn’t fair that she was tarred with a brush she’d had nothing to do with.

One look in Mrs. Brownley’s kind eyes told her it would be a waste of time.