Lan shook me awake when we reached Mill City. I’d begun to worry that it would be another tiny place like the towns we’d passed through, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t like Helvan Shores, either. Everything looked new and raw —the square warehouses near the station, the dusty dirt roads, the station itself. Even the people and wagons looked like they’d only just been finished; neat enough, but without the kind of polish folks had back home. And over to the side, past piles of logs and crates, just visible between the rows of big, flat railroad cars, was the dark, foamy water of the Mammoth River. On the far side, the western side, there was just grass and a few trees.
Mr. Farley, the dean of the college, had come to meet us with three wagons and several large men to help with our trunks. Mama rounded up all us children and told us in a no-nonsense tone to stay
We stood and watched the wagons and the people passing by. Rennie and Hugh and Jack started arguing about something, but I didn’t pay attention. I was still half-’mazed with sleep and the strangeness of this new place. Then, just as Papa and Mama came back to collect us, I saw a woman walking in our direction, and I felt a jolt go through me. It was as if I recognized her, even though I’d never seen her before.
She was a tall black woman wearing a high-crowned hat trimmed with cherries. A white lace neck scarf fell across the top of her close-fitting blue jacket. Her lips were full, and her crinkly black hair made an enormous bun at the nape of her neck, but what I remember best were her eyes. They were wide-set and bright with intelligence, and I felt another shock when her gaze locked onto mine.
She held my eye for only an instant, then nodded politely and passed on to the grown-ups. But I knew she was still aware of me.
“Morning, Mr. Farley,” she said in a deep, clear voice. “Is this your new professor?”
“Ah, yes,” Mr. Farley said, looking nervously at my parents. “Ah—”
“Do please introduce us,” Mama said to Mr. Farley.
“I—yes, of course,” Mr. Farley stammered. “Mr. and Mrs. Rothmer, allow me to introduce Miss Maryann Ochiba. Miss Ochiba, Mr. and Mrs. Rothmer.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Miss Ochiba said. She and Mama looked at each other long and hard, and then they each gave a little nod, as if they’d had a whole conversation and both had come away satisfied. “These will be your children,” Miss Ochiba went on as if there’d been no slightest pause. “They’ve been saying you have a good-sized family.”
“Any size that’s wanted is good,” Mama said, and then told her our names.
“I teach in the day school,” Miss Ochiba said when she was done greeting each of us. “Will your children be attending there?”
Mr. Farley looked alarmed. “Oh, I don’t think any decisions have been made just yet. The Rothmers have only just arrived.”
“Perhaps you’ll come to tea some afternoon so we can talk it over,” Miss Ochiba said to Mama. “Day school doesn’t start for another three weeks, so I have my afternoons free.”
Mr. Farley opened his mouth to say something else, but Mama beat him to it. “I should be delighted,” she said. “Send the day and time around tomorrow.”
Miss Ochiba smiled suddenly. “I’ll do that, Mrs. Rothmer. Nice meeting you.” And she sailed off down the street.
Mr. Farley gave a big sigh and called some directions back at the men who were pulling out in the two wagons loaded with our trunks. We all piled into the back of the last wagon, with Mama and Papa and Mr. Farley up front. Rennie started to complain about not having a seat, but after one look from Mama she just flopped down in the wagon and took out her temper in glaring at Hugh and Jack. The boys didn’t notice. They were too busy hanging over the side rails and pointing, though Hugh did remember to keep a grip on the seat of Lan’s britches so he wouldn’t fall out.
I let them push me up to the front, right behind the seats, where you couldn’t see very well. I was curious about Mill City, maybe as much as they were, but I was also a mite scared. I didn’t expect things to be much different, no matter what Mama thought. As soon as people found out I was a thirteenth child, I was sure they’d make my life every bit as miserable as ever they could. But without my cousins, it wouldn’t be as easy. Marna and Lynnie and Simon and the others had known just exactly what little things to do to drive me wild and which things were most hurtful to say. Things that people who weren’t family wouldn’t think of. Maybe here, people wouldn’t catch on so quick.
So I was pleased enough to stay out of sight, even if it meant I didn’t see much. Besides, I could hear Mama and Papa and Mr. Farley talking, and that was at least as interesting as Mill City.
“We have a bit of a drive ahead of us,” Mr. Farley said as the wagon started to move. “The college is being built about three miles away, as the crow flies, but there’s a loop of the river in the way, and the new bridge isn’t finished yet. So we have to go around.”
“It will give us a chance to see more of the town,” Mama said. “And it is a lovely day for a drive.” Just as if we hadn’t all been sick to death of riding after two days on the train.
“Mrs. Grey and my wife will be waiting for us,” Mr. Farley said. “They were concerned that the train would come in late and you’d have a hard time getting your children fed and settled before dark.”
“That’s very neighborly of them,” Mama said.
“Folks here look out for one another,” Mr. Farley told her. “We have to. That is—it’s not that the city isn’t safe, being on the east bank and all, but we’ve got into the habit.”
“Just so.” Papa’s voice was a little dry. “When is my appointment with Mr. Grey? I would like to present my credentials as soon as possible.”
“Well, he’d planned to meet your train himself,” Mr. Farley said. “He’s very pleased at having a proper educated East Coast magician on staff at last. But one of the outer-ring farm settlements was having a little problem, and he was the only one able to go and see about it.”
“I understood that Mr. Grey was a magician,” Papa said. “Is he also an agricultural expert, then?”
“Oh, no—that is, no more than any of the rest of us outside the agricultural department,” Mr. Farley said hastily. “But magicians are in short supply here, and since magic is the only thing that will hold back the wildlife, we take turns maintaining the barriers for folks west of the river. Well, except when there’s a major breach; then it has to be the best man we have.” He paused. “I fear from the description we received that Gannertown will lose most of this year’s crop.”
“I—see,” Papa said, in the tone that meant he was going to give whatever he’d just heard a good hard think before he said anything else about it.
“Mr. Farley,” Mama put in, “I do hate to interrupt, but would you mind telling me what that very interesting building over there is? The one with the gold pillars on either side of the door.”
“That’s the North Plains Territory Homestead Claim and Settlement Office,” Mr. Farley replied. “The hotel for settlers making claims is that big square building, and the courthouse is across the street, with the clock tower. Farther down, just there, you can see the Farmers’ Bank; that’s really the town center. We have two general stores ...”
Since I couldn’t see what Mr. Farley was pointing at, I stopped listening, and after a while I dozed off. The next thing I knew, Papa was lifting me down in front of an enormous stone house with a wide porch and a dirt yard. A small, worried-looking woman came out to greet Mama, while the boys ran in all directions.
We had reached our new home at last.
CHAPTER 4
THE HOUSE THAT THE COLLEGE HAD PROVIDED FOR US WAS LARGE enough to satisfy even Nan (we each got a room of our very own). The Board of Directors had bought it from a lumber baron who’d made a fortune in the timberlands to the north and then gone back East to flaunt his fortune in front of the folks there. They’d intended to use it for classrooms until they got their new buildings built, and putting us into it instead left them a mite short of space. So for the first three years, Papa’s classes met in the front parlor, and Professor Graham’s classes met in the sitting room next to it.
Professor Graham was the college’s other professor of magic. One of the families who owned the big grain
