Judith Pella - Westward the Dream

1

With a sheer will and determination to match any man in the rapidly growing audience, Jordana Baldwin studied the four-story brick edifice of New York Citys Deighton School for Young Women and planned her strategy.

You dont have to do this, Jordana, her best friend, Meg Vanderbilt, whispered. Leave off with this nonsense and lets go back to our room.

Jordana grinned and tied her long brown curls back with a dark navy ribbon. No! I said Id do this and I will.

But Meg tried to protest, but Jordana would have none of it.

I can do this, Jordana insisted.

My moneys on Jordana, one of the young men gathered behind the girls called out. The crowd of observers from the neighboring boys school was growing rapidly.

You have no money, another chided, forcing the first to produce proof of his financial stability.

I received a post from Mother this morning. Shes always good to send me fortification.

Then pay me back the money you owe me from last week and I can place a bet as well, a redheaded boy clamored.

Jordana took a deep breath and tried to ignore the revelry and ruckus. If she didnt hurry, they would all be found out, and then no one would fulfill the dare that Clarence Hooper had so thoughtfully issued only moments ago in the garden.

At sixteen, Jordana had no doubt in her abilities when it came to such physical demands. She just worried about how to get the thing done without causing herself any true embarrassment. Scaling buildings was a rage that had accompanied the technology to erect higher multiple-story structures. However, such a feat was usually left to the fearless males of their generation. Jordana thought this pure poppycock. She had lived in the mountains of Virginia for a good portion of her life and could climb rock-faced walls with the best of the men in her family. Of course, back home she had donned her brothers trousers to do such a thing. Here she had no choice but to hike her skirts between her legs in a most unladylike fashion and throw off the constricting jacket that completed the Deighton School uniform.

Carefully considering the best foot and handholds to be had on the brick structure, Jordana hurriedly pulled at the buttons of the navy wool jacket and tossed it to Meg.

I think shes going to do it, Clarence Hooper announced in awe.

No, shell play around until the headmistress comes and puts a stop to this, another boy countered.

Jordana gave him a sharp look of irritation, then kicked off her shoes. I have no plan to wait around for Mistress Deighton to show her prune face, Jordana declared. But neither have I any plan to fail at this challenge. I know what Im doing and I dont see you offering to join me, Struther Harris, so unless you are volunteering to accompany me up the wall, kindly shut your mouth.

The other young men laughed heartily at this and jabbed Struther in the ribs. They had come from the adjoining Deighton School for Young Men, where Mistress Deightons brother, the most austere Reverend Obadiah Deighton, taught men of exceptional intelligence.

Meg leaned forward, a look of panic in her eyes. Please, Jordana, dont do this. It isnt safe or becoming.

Bah! Jordana replied and reached down to pull the back edge of her skirt through her legs. At this particular school, girls were not allowed to lengthen their skirts to the floor until after their sixteenth birthday. Having just turned sixteen, Jordana found her longer skirts a terrible nuisance. Personally she had cherished the extra two inches shed grown in the last year because it caused her own skirts to go from the prescribed six inches above the tops of her shoes to eight inches. She liked the freedom of shortened skirts. At least she did not yet have to wear those hideous hoops women had so stupidly adopted as an important mark of fashion, and she was still able to get away with failing to cinch herself into a corset.

However, by pulling her skirts up, she was exposing a clear view of stocking-clad, shapely legs, and it was this, rather than her threat to Struther Harris, that caused the male viewers to go silent.

Jordana ignored their stares and turned back to the wall. Her gloves would also have to go, she decided. There would be no other way to get a good grip on the bricks.

Hurry, the band has stopped playing in the parkway. That only leaves prayers and hymns before the classes break up for the weekend! Clarence declared.

Oh, all right, Jordana replied, tossing her gloves to Meg. Never have I seen more impatience from a group that has no intention of participating. She reached out and felt the texture of the building and smiled. This would be better than shed originally figured. The wall was easy to grab hold of; the porous brick and poorly set mortar allowed good handholds for the young girl to stick her fingers around. It wouldnt be as nice as a rock face, where natural formations provided occasional ledges and resting shelves, but it would work.

She whispered a prayer, knowing that God had kept her safe in all other times of her life. She had no reason to believe He would fail her now. It never even entered her mind that He might frown upon her activities and punish her with less than success in order to teach her a lesson. In her mind, God simply didnt work in that manner.