LITMIR.BIZ

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spent most of the morning cleaning the catacombs under the house. According to Mr. Rollins, the plantation owner and Grace and Annabeth’s father, they were long tunnels that led to various places on the property. One even led to a cave that opened up under a waterfall far on the south end of the property.

      Three years, and I hadn’t heard tell of the waterfall. Maybe it would be so far off Grace wouldn’t be able to seek me out.

      Now that the work season was about to end, I would enter my third year at school.

      Grace had finagled me into going with her and her sister, Annabeth.

      Don’t get me wrong, I liked school. In fact, it was probably one of the best things that had happened to me, but it forced me to spend more time with Grace. Such a punishment sucked all the appeal out of the prospect of becoming an educated gentleman.

      Grace still insisted I meet her at night. Every night.

      But I always found a way to get out of it.

      Thank goodness Mama had eyes like a chicken hawk. When Grace was around, she made excuses to keep me home.

      Like clockwork, the deflated Grace made off toward the house, and Mama would wink and go back to her chores.

      Taking the bridles, I patted the horses’ backs as we walked to the barn. When I came out of a rear stall, a smiling face with long, black tresses swung down from the second level of the barn. She had to be lying on her stomach and leaning too far over the edge.

      I jumped.

      “You’re going to fall to your death.” Taking some tools from a workbench and putting them on the hooks I’d made for them, I tried to appear too busy to talk. I’d spent hours making the place easier to work in. And it looked so much nicer cleaned up.

      “You’re such a sourpuss.” She pulled her head back up. In the barn’s upper level, her footfalls didn’t even creak the boards. “Why do you spend so much time in this dark cave? I dare say, I think you are a bat.”

      I used to think that a barn with all the dirty smells would run a girl off, but she didn’t let it dash her mood. I called into the dark second level, “If you continue to follow me around like this, your father will have my hide.”

      “A nice hide it is.” She giggled from behind me.

      I slid around her wide skirts to the other side of a work table.

      She was so sneaky; my heart pounded when she was around. I never knew what she would say or do next.

      “How was your day?” She slinked up to me. Teasingly, she trailed her fingers down my sweat-soaked arm.

      I faced her but backed away a little. Looking around her, I searched for a place to put a hammer on the wall.

      Her red lips turned up into a grin, and she leaned over almost brushing her breasts against my arms.

      I slipped to the left to dodge them and kept my gaze on her face. “A barn is no place for a girl. You’ll ruin all those nice dresses and shiny shoes.”

      “Why are you so disagreeable today, Colby?”

      “I don’t want my family sent away. We’ve lived on seven plantations, and I don’t feel like moving to an eighth. I’m tired of picking up in the middle of the night and leaving, so if you want to be friends at all, you need to stop clinging to my shirttail.”

      “You fear what my parents may think of us rolling around up here? That implies you think about us.” Her cat eyes narrowed as if she were ready to pounce. “Wait. Why would your family have to move around like that?”

      “I don’t know.” I sat on a hay bale in the back of the barn and sagged back onto the wall. “Mama says it’s to keep us safe.”

      “As curious as that is, I’m more interested in the fact that you have finally considered us friends.” Grace shifted her dress and sat down beside me.

      “We’re not exactly suited to be anything else.” If that.

      “Perhaps, considering I’m so much better than you and all. Why, we shouldn’t even be breathing the same air.” She played with my shirt button. “I wish you weren’t so old-fashioned. People who have money don’t have to marry into more money. That’s downright selfish.”

      I removed her hand. “We’re from different worlds.”

      “You’re so smart. After university you could be anything you wanted to be.” She slipped the hem of my shirt out of my britches, but I shoved her hand away.

      School? Ha. “I can see my father paying for that. As soon as the apples float off the trees and put themselves in their own bushel baskets.”

      Grace grabbed my shoulders. Her eyes sparkled. “I’m going to talk to Daddy and have him talk to your daddy. I think he’d allow it if you agreed to pay back the loan. It wouldn’t have to cost him a thing.”

      “I don’t know. That’s not a good idea.” With Grace’s roaming hands, there would be no resting, so I stood.

      Grace kissed me right on the cheek and almost knocked me back down in the hay. “If we could go away, we could spend more time together and not have to worry about being caught.” After jumping up and gathering her skirts, she rushed out the barn door. “I’ll talk to Daddy right away.”

      I should have considered myself lucky. She was a beautiful girl, but what she’d want with me when she could have had any high-falluting guy on a neighboring plantation, I couldn’t understand. And no matter what I did or said, she took it all wrong. If I was a jackass, she thought it clever banter. If I shoved her away, I was playing hard to get. The last resort had been to give in and try to be friends with her. After a few months, I thought she’d see that all we would ever have was friendship.

      That hadn’t worked, either.

      Chapter 2

      At dinner, Mom and Pop were quiet until we unfolded our napkins and said grace.

      After I picked up my fork, Pop’s fierce glare bore through me. Even at the table, he was taller than me. “Son, did you ask that girl to go to her father and request that you go away to school?”

      “No, sir.” I fumbled with my napkin. “She asked me if I would go, but I didn’t give an answer.”

      “I don’t think leaving the property is a safe—good idea.” His stare was stern.

      It had been a long time since I’d heard him talk of our safety. Had I insulted him?

      “Charles, do you really think that after all this time…” Mama pressed back loose strands of hair from her temple.

      “Sir, I promise I had nothing to do with that. Grace has this idea in her head.”

      “She’s taken with our son. Going off to school together would be romantic if she weren’t so persistent. There’s just something about her.” Mama gave me a worried look.

      “You have nothing to worry about. I don’t return her affections.”

      “Tell her. Even if it hurts her. She’ll appreciate it later,” Mama said.

      “I have told her. At least in my actions. She doesn’t get it.”

      “Sometimes girls need words. When we get attached to something or someone, we tend to be determined. Just ask your father.” Mama’s smile was born from more than humor.

      Had I missed something?

      “Elizabeth, I’ll handle this. We don’t need to make the house owner mad. There aren’t a lot of other places we can go that my father and that hag can’t find us. You’ve never met my side of the family for a reason.” Pop’s salt and pepper hair looked a little more gray today. His strong jaw twitched as he regarded me.

      I put my fork down. He never talked about

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