Page 62 of Smoke River Bride

“Carl Ness and the barber are the worst so far,” Leah murmured. “Marshal Johnson is trying to keep everything legal.”

Thad cocked his head. “They all sound crazy to me. Bigoted and uninformed.”

A high-pitched tirade poured out of one woman’s mouth. “Everyone knows the Celestials bring disease, and God knows what else—inedible food, strange potions, pagan rituals…”

Thad sighed. “Yeah, that’s Smoke River, all right. Small towns have their shortcomings.”

A man at the back leaped onto an overturned fruit crate. “There’s millions of ’em in San Francisco already! The Chinks are gonna take over our towns and cities…our whole country!”

“Ignorant and close-minded,” Thad murmured. “I’ve had just about enough.” He set Teddy on his feet and stood up.

“Mr. Chairman?”

Carl Ness boggled at him. “Mr. MacAllister, did you wish to speak?”

“I sure as hell do. Let’s get our facts straight before we go off half-cocked and do something we’ll regret.”

A sullen silence fell over the crowd.

“To begin with, Ming Cha—Uncle Charlie—is just one man. He’s only about five foot four and he’s way too shy to threaten anyone.”

“But there’ll be others,” someone yelled.

“That’s fine with me. We’ve got plenty of room in this country.”

“Oh, yeah? Then let ’em go somewhere else.”

Thad raised his voice to reach the back of the room. “We’ve got bigger problems in Smoke River than one new bakery. With the drought this summer, more than half of us are going to owe the bank more than we like to think about. We should be thinking about real problems, not whether one Chinese man opens a business.”

“Well, hell,” a male voice shouted. “You’re married to a Celestial, so you can’t say otherwise, can ya?”

“Sure, I could say otherwise,” Thad said in a controlled voice. “But I would be wrong. It’s just plain damn wrong to make one of us less important than another, and taking away someone’s right to a peaceful life in a peaceful town is wrong.”

“Are we gonna listen to the fool of a man who planted wheat?” someone else yelled. “Wheat! Now, I ask you, does that make sense?” The speaker waited a heartbeat. “Well, neither does Thad MacAllister!”

“How come Charlie Ming-something came to Smoke River in the first place?” someone called out. “Whose uncle is he, anyway?”

Thad pinned the gaze of the speaker, a gangly man with long arms he was still waving.

“My wife, Leah, is Charlie’s niece.”

“Don’t make no nevermind, MacAllister. It’s Charlie we’re talkin’ about, not yer wife. Besides, she’s not so welcome, neither, seein’ as how she’s a Chinese immigrant, too.”

“Hold on a minute,” Thad said in a suddenly menacing tone. “What’s wrong with immigrants?”

“They don’t fit in!” someone answered. “Your wife’ll never last in our town. You just watch. She’ll bolt and run when the going gets tough.”

“Is that right?” Thad said with a laugh. “Then you don’t know my wife.”

“Miz MacAllister’s only half Chinese,” a woman sitting in back shouted. “This Charlie person is one hundred percent Chinaman.”

“Question is,” someone yelled, “what’s a foreigner doin’ opening his business in our town in the first place?”

Before Leah was even aware of moving, she was on her feet, her teeth clenched, ready for battle.

Thad took one look at her, settled back on his seat and lifted Teddy onto his knees. “Go get ’em, honey,” he murmured.

“Yeah,” Teddy echoed. “You kin do it, Leah. You’re real smart. Go get ’em.”

Go get them? Her mouth was so dry she could not swallow.

But her husband and her stepson were right. Someone besides Thad had to fight for Charlie.

She wiped her damp palms on the front of her flounced muslin skirt and faced the crowd.

Chapter Twenty

I pray the Lord will help me. I cannot do this. This was worse than anything she had faced in Luzhai. This wasn’t a gang of rock-throwing bullies; it was a whole town full of adults who hated her and Uncle Charlie.

In the front row of the restless crowd opposite her, Leah spotted Noralee Ness seated on an apple crate. The girl’s hands were clamped to the edge of the box and her eyes were wide.

Noralee looked back at her, expecting her to say something. The girl’s father, Carl Ness, was waiting for her to make a fool of herself. An almost feral grin spread across his narrow face.

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