The Problem With Peggy (The Ninja Librarian, Book 3)

By Rebecca M. Douglass

The Ninja Librarian’s back in town, school’s out, and all’s right with the world...or is it? Big Al may be looking forward to spending her time swimming in the creek and wandering the hills, but Peggy’s looking forward to a life of drudgery. If Al can’t find a way to sway her pa, the brightest kid in Skunk Corners is going to take drastic action.

With a mystery from the past haunting one of the houses and creating the biggest threat yet to the town, Big Al’s going to be kept busy this summer, and not just with practicing her moves for the Ninja Librarian.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca M. Douglass
• Release date: Nov 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370225224

Rebecca M. Douglass

After a lifetime of reading and a decade of slinging books at the library and herding cats with the PTA, Rebecca began to turn her experiences into books of her own, publishing her first (The Ninja Librarian) in 2012. That failed to quiet the voices in her head, but seemed to entertain a number of readers, so she wrote some more, which generated still more voices. Despite the unlimited distractions provided by raising sons to the point of leaving home, not to mention the mountains that keep calling (very hard to resist the urging of something the size of the Sierra Nevada), she has managed to produce many more books in the years since.For those who enjoy murder and mayhem with a sense of humor, Rebecca’s Pismawallops PTA mysteries provide insights into what PTA moms and island life are really like. If you prefer tall tales and even less of a grip on reality, visit Skunk Corners in The Ninja Librarian and its sequels. And for those who’ve always thought that fantasy was a bit too high-minded, a stumble through rescues and escapes with Halitor the Hero, possibly the most hapless hero to ever run in fear from any and all fair maidens, should set you straight.Through it all, she has continued to pen flash fiction, for a time sharing a new story on her blog nearly every week. Now those stories are getting new life in a series of novella-length ebooks, with an omnibus paperback coming soon.Why does Rebecca write so many different kinds of books (there’s even an alphabet picture book in the mix!)? It might be because she has a rich lifetime of experience that requires expression in many ways, but it’s probably just that she’s easily distracted.

Book preview

The Problem with Peggy

(The Ninja Librarian, Book 3)

by Rebecca M. Douglass

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Rebecca M. Douglass

Cover Art copyright Danielle English http://www.kanizo.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 9781370225224

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is available in print at most online retailers.

Praise for The Ninja Librarian and Return to Skunk Corners

The Ninja Librarian is very entertaining and great for all ages! – Crystal Smith-Connelly, author

A really fun and creative book with an original context and unlikely heroes – Abide

[Features] a kick-butt librarian and a schoolteacher that doesn't take much guff either" –Nikki Bennett, author of The Countdown Chronicles

"…a strong feminist message, in fact all kind of messages about reading, nonviolence, unwed mothers, and more.  Yet these potentially weighty messages [are] barely detectable, because [it is told] in such an entertaining, hilarious, non-dogmatic style. –Melinda Dart, teacher and union leader

Rebecca M. Douglass has written a book that is both familiar and unique. –Dixie Dawn Miller Goode, author of Double Time on the Oregon Trail

Completely absurd in premise but wonderfully realized – Xyon McKell, Derailments of Thought blogger

Return to Skunk Corners is like curling up in front of a log fire with a cup of cocoa… The writing is delicious, and you just don't want to stop once you've started. – Jemima Pett, author of The Princelings of the East series

Contents

Title Page and copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

1. Trouble in Skunk Corners

2. The Ninja Librarian and the Stubborn Parent

3. The Ninja Librarian and the Girl from Endoline

4. The Ninja Librarian and the Jealous Teacher

5. The Ninja Librarian and the Cranky Banker

6. The Ninja Librarian and the Scalded Scalawags

7. Big Al and the Poached Poacher

8. Trouble in the Schoolroom

9. The Ninja Librarian and the Lawyers

10. The Ninja Librarian and the Southpaw Mine

11. The Ninja Librarian and the Tiger Trap

12. Big Al and the Tiger Trap

13. Miss Cornelia Shows the Way

14. The Ninja Librarian Settles the Question

About the Author

Additional Books by Rebecca M. Douglass

Halitor the Hero sample

Dedication

To public libraries and librarians everywhere, I dedicate this book, with thanks.

Acknowledgements

Writing is a solitary pursuit, yet every book is the product of efforts from many people. My thanks for this book begin with the teachers and students who so generously have welcomed me into their classrooms to read and share with them the previous Ninja Librarian books. Their enthusiasm provided the encouragement needed to start another such book. A writer requires readers.

I also owe a debt of thanks to the writers of many books on the settlement of the American West, particularly from the perspective of the women and children. I have read enough such books to know quite well where I abandoned reality and moved into the mythical land of Skunk Corners. I like to imagine that, though most residents of the frontier West would not recognize the place, perhaps Mark Twain might.

My especial thanks go to my primary readers and editors, Lisa Frieden, Jemima Pett, and Laurie Giusti. Laurie gets double thanks as the keen proof-reading eye that catches my typos and straightens me out on the use and abuse of commas and capitals. Without her, this would be a far poorer book. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own.

Huge extra thanks go to my junior editors, Lila and Eden Magbilang, who read the book during their summer vacation and provided me with vital insights into what worked and didn’t for my younger audience. Thanks once again, girls.

Finally, and as always, many thanks to my husband, who continues to support me in my writing and manages to look forward to each new book.

1. Trouble in Skunk Corners

A haze of dust blurred Skunk Corners’ main street. The midday sun was baking our town before my eyes. I wiped my brow for what felt like the hundredth time and let my mind wander away from the stifling schoolroom.

Teacher! Teacher! Hey, Big Al!

Lije Monroe’s voice finally penetrated my half-doze. I turned from the window and tried to look like I’d been thinking something important. Did you have a question, Lije?

Yeah, Teacher. Can’t we let out now? It’s too hot in here to think.

That was true. Sweat was trickling down my face and pretty much everywhere else, too. I would happily have traded my overalls for a dress, if only I could wear one with nothing underneath. I got up and went to the door. A wave of heat hit me when I opened it to glance at the sun. Barely past noon, and our schoolroom was too hot for comfort.

I crossed back to my desk and consulted my calendar, though I never ran the Skunk Corners school by any strict schedule. I did it by the thermometer, or I would have, if I’d had one. When it started to warm up I shifted us to start extra early, so we’d be done and down in the creek when the day got hot. When that wasn’t enough, I figured it was time for school to let out for the summer. It seemed to me we’d reached that point.

Everyone finish what you’re doing, then school’s out for today. And we’ll let out for the summer next Friday. That was when my eye lit on Peggy Rossiter. While everyone else cheered, she sat looking as though she’d lost everything dear to her. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but she shook her head and looked away, so I put my questions on hold. I’d turned back to the slates where I was supposed to be correcting arithmetic problems when a voice spoke from the back of the room.

What about your end of the year traditions?

What’s those? Melly Greer piped up.

Like how we go jump in the creek soon’s school’s out? Tommy Colson asked. Right, Teacher?

I looked at the Ninja Librarian, who had posed the question in the first place. I didn’t want to have to ask what he was talking about.

Well, he said, some schools have a field day with lots of games and races.

Too hot, Lije protested.

Some schools hold a spelling bee, the librarian suggested.

I looked at my students. They looked at each other.

Janey Holstead elected herself spokeswoman. I guess we could do that. It figured she’d choose a spelling bee, since she had a decent chance of winning, or at least coming in second to Peggy. The rest of the class went along, though I had a hunch that was because most of them would get to sit right down and do nothing. I’d made progress teaching the kids of Skunk Corners, but it was an uphill battle convincing some of them that learning was worth an extra effort, and spelling came hard for them.

I glared at Tom. I wasn’t in the mood for his librarian’s tricks. It’s not a tradition if we’ve never done it before.

Traditions have to start somewhere, he stated, and walked out.

I studied my students. Very well. We’ll have the spelling bee Wednesday evening so your parents can come. And we’ll practice every day so you all know how. We would. Just as soon as I hunted up our librarian, who was also my teacher, and found out how a spelling bee worked.

When I dismissed the class, I kept Peggy back.

What’s wrong? When I said school was letting out for the summer you looked like I hit you. I was almost sorry I asked. The look of desperation on Peggy Rossiter’s face would have broken a tougher heart than mine. She looked like she was about to cry, but Peg was no baby.

I had a birthday a few weeks ago, she said as though that answered everything.

I kept looking at her, hoping she’d tell me what she meant.

Pa says, now I’m fourteen I should be done with school, like the law says. Her tone was angry, to keep the tears in.

The law doesn’t say you have to quit school at fourteen. Only that you can. You’re good at it. You should keep going.

Peggy shrugged. I told him that, and that I want to go on. I even cried, but he won’t listen. Pa doesn’t believe in educating girls. He’s letting me finish this year, but I can’t come back next year. I guess, she said with a smile that made me want to cry, I was sorta hoping we just wouldn’t quit, and I could keep on coming forever.

I continued to worry over Peggy through the afternoon, which I spent in the library, staring out the window more than reading. When it came time for my ninja lessons, I couldn’t keep my mind on what I was doing.

The Ninja Librarian noticed, of course. Tom noticed most things, and he didn’t let me get away with much. After the third time he not-so-gently reminded me to keep my mind on my form, which I just plain couldn’t do, out of self-defense I up and told him about my worry over Peggy Rossiter. His reminders hurt, since they usually came in the form of a blow I failed to block. Besides, I wanted him to help me fix matters for the girl.

We’ve just got to find some way for her to go off and study that math. Seems like nothing else will make her happy, I said.

I have been aware of that. We can, of course, continue to provide her with books for her perusal.

She needs more than books. She needs teachers who know more than she does, and I don’t. Can you teach her? It was a feeble hope.

Alice, I regret to say that young Peggy has moved well beyond my own knowledge of higher mathematics.

When I figured out what he meant, I said, So somehow we’ve got to convince her stubborn mule of a pa to let her go to study someplace we haven’t yet found that’s crazy enough to teach that funny math and mad enough to take on a girl barely fourteen years old.

Have you begun a search to learn if such an institution of higher education exists?

Tom knew I didn’t know about any such things, and I scowled at him, and exaggerated my mountain accent. I don’t know nuthin’ about the world out there. Yer the librarian, you figger it out.

I should have known better. Tom never would stand for bad grammar, at least from me, and he was even less patient with any failure to accomplish what needed doing. He made me practice an extra hour. That made me miss dinner at Two-Timin’ Tess’s Tavern, which was some kind of mean. Annie, Tess’s cook, makes the best pies and stews and pretty much everything else I ever met up with, and I always try to get dinner there.

Tom didn’t care about me missing dinner. One of his favorite ways of teaching me was to make me work harder whenever I did or said something he didn’t like. That included asking questions about his past. He had never let on just where he came from or how he became the Ninja Librarian. I never stopped asking, so I got pretty good at the ninja stuff, and sent more than one scoundrel off with his tail between his legs. But I was tired of missing meals. My only consolation that night was that Tom missed dinner too.

When I finally finished my lesson and we were both eating whatever Annie could scrounge up for us, I asked Tom more politely if he would try to find out where Peggy could go to study that fancy math she liked.

I began making inquiries some months ago, he said, just as though he hadn’t made me miss dinner over that very question. I could have punched him, though I’d never be so foolish as to try.

In the meantime, I have acquired a variety of math and science books for Peggy. I wasn’t surprised to hear that. During the spring, Peg had spent a heap of her school time at the library, since I couldn’t teach her much anymore.

Tommy Colson joined them there often as not. He, too, needed a better teacher than Big Al, though I didn’t worry so much about him. After all, as a boy he could pretty much do whatever he wanted. Our world drove me crazy, with all the limits it placed on us females. It had driven me to dress and act and sometimes pass as a boy.

For the next few days I fretted over Peggy, and worked on the spelling bee. The kids who passed the first round, which was all of them out of the first primer, spent their time studying. I crowned a primer-class champion in their own little competition, and set them to decorating the schoolroom. We invited everyone in town to come see the finals. We held it in the evening so we wouldn’t die of the heat, and to make it special.

With nothing much for entertainment in Skunk Corners, everyone came to the spelling bee, whether they had children or not. They couldn’t all jam into the schoolroom, so we all trooped over to Two-Timin’ Tess’s Tavern, where the barroom had more space. Johnny agreed not to serve anything stronger than sarsaparilla while the kids were there, and we got down to some serious spelling. Eunice Reeves was up, trying to spell procrastination, when I slipped out the door for some air and a trip to the privy. Tom and Tess between them were running the spelling bee, and doing a fine job of it. They didn’t need me.

I finished what I went out to do and blew out the candle I’d used to light my way. I lingered a moment under the trees behind the Tavern and the bank, enjoying the cool night air and letting my eyes adjust to the dark.

That was when I heard the soft plunk of hooves. Extra soft, like maybe they’d been wrapped in cloth to keep quiet.

My eyes might have still been dazzled from the candle flame, but there was nothing wrong with my ears. Those horses were coming down the trail from Endoline. I was glad I’d blown out my candle before I left the privy. As long as I didn’t move, I’d be invisible.

Someone was sneaking into our town, and that meant trouble. Six horses grew visible in the darkness. I couldn’t see any details, but it was definitely six horses, and six riders who didn’t want to be seen.

Honest men came to Skunk Corners by daylight, and most of them came off the train. People in Endoline didn’t have horses. People in Endoline didn’t have much of anything. It was in the name: Endoline. End o’ the line. Where you ended up when you’d run out of options. All the wealth had been sucked out of that place long since, before we’d contrived to send Mort Black packing. That man had thought he owned the place, and every person in it. Once, he’d thought he owned me, too. That was how come I moved to Skunk Corners—to make myself some options and prove I was no one’s property. Skunk Corners wasn’t much, but it was a long sight better than Endoline, even before the Ninja Librarian came and straightened things up.

So I figured anyone riding down the Endoline Trail quiet-like in the night was probably up to no good, and I snuck up a bit closer so’s I could hear them talking.

That’s it right there. A quick job.

What’re we doing, anyway? Stick-up? Blow the safe?

Don’t need to blow it. Boss says he wants some papers, and not just the money. The man’s voice reflected his puzzlement over this command.

I was confused, too. Papers? What for? And why wouldn’t they have to force the safe?

The other riders shared the speaker’s feelings, and mine. What in heck would we do that for? It’s a bank. You get money from banks, not paper.

Mebbe some papers is more valuable than money. The mean-sounding voice came from the smallest rider. A