LITMIR.BIZ

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      “We can get married, but between now and then I won’t lose you to someone else. Men have needs. I understand that more than anyone. Just know, before you turn your eyes on to anyone else, I’d be glad to oblige. There’s no use for you to look at another female.”

      It was time to go to the cottage.

      “We make the best match. It only makes sense that we’d end up married after courting for so long.”

      “We’ve never—I mean. I don’t know. We need to slow down.” I didn’t want to say too much, but I didn’t want to say too little, either. I couldn’t have her going home and telling her father I wanted to marry her.

      “Oh, Colby! I knew you felt the same.” Grace acted as if I had just proposed to her, not the other way around. She threw me back on the ground and kissed me again.

      This time, I rolled her safely off me and gathered my things. “I think I need a little time to myself and some space, if that’s okay.”

      Fear and rage flashed through her eyes, but the rage was gone before it was really there.

      She grabbed my hand with both of hers and walked with her head on my arm most of the way back to the main house. Grace clung so tightly to my arm it was as if another body had attached itself to me.

      I had to talk to Mama.

      She’d know what to do.

      At the clearing between the house and the pond, Grace let go and almost skipped to her house. It was the first time my breathing was normal since she’d made her weird claim on me at the pond.

      I ran to my back door. After I was safely inside, I flipped the little latch and leaned against the door.

      “Why are you locking us in so early?” Mama’s confused smile met me as she wiped her hands on her apron.

      “Hold on. I gotta get the front one too.” I rushed through the house, then came back to Mama. “We need to talk. I think I’m in trouble.”

      Mama put a towel through her apron and motioned me to the table. With a laugh, she pulled out a chair. “It’s got to be the Kinsley good looks, and though you can’t help it, your charm seeps through even when you’re trying to send that girl in the other direction. You don’t have a mean bone in your body.”

      I plopped into the wooden chair and put my forehead on the table. “I don’t want to hurt her, but I don’t know what else to do. She’s so…”

      “Persistent?” Mama said.

      “Yes.” I looked up. “I feel like I can’t breathe without asking her permission, and I don’t know how it got this way.”

      Mama pulled out a chair and sat down. With her hand on my arm, she sighed. “You have to tell her exactly how you feel.”

      “But Pop will be furious if I do something to make us have to leave.”

      “He should understand more than anyone what you’re going through. Charles’s father tried to give him money, but there was a stipulation. He had to marry a girl he didn’t love. An arranged marriage. If Charles married her, it made your grandfather’s family richer. He was convinced that Eliza was the perfect woman for your father. She was a lunatic, so when your father met me, and we fell in love, he began to fear for my life. That’s why we move when he thinks she’s found us.”

      “What does Grandfather have to do with it?”

      “He probably stopped looking for Charles years ago, but according to Charles, Eliza will never give up. She’s found us one time before, but we left before anything could happen.”

      “So, I need to keep us here as long as we can possibly hold out?”

      “I’m not going to put the weight of our problems on your shoulders anymore. You’ve been the victim of your father’s ghosts long enough. It’s time you lived your own life. Tell her how you feel. If that doesn’t work, we’ll leave.” Mama got up, hugged me, and wrung her hands as she went to the stove to start dinner.

      I would find a way get Grace to leave me alone without involving them in it, if at all possible.

      * * * *

      A few nights later, at ten o’clock, I woke to light tapping on my window. Behind the linen curtain, Grace’s face popped up.

      I stumbled back and almost knocked over my washbowl. I righted it and held in a curse word.

      She motioned for me to come out.

      I’d done well to avoid her the last few days. When I knew she didn’t have lessons of some girly sort, I made sure I was off in the woods as far from the house as possible. Wise to my plan, Mama rarely called for me, and Pop had asked few questions.

      I opened my window. “What on earth are you doing out there?”

      “I wanted to see you. Everyone’s asleep at the house, and Daddy’s out drinking again. I didn’t want to be there when he got home, and I know your parents go to sleep at nine.”

      “Well, here I am.”

      Grace’s smile fell away.

      “I’ll be out in a minute.” I slapped the curtains shut and pulled on my britches and shirt.

      Grace stood waiting under my window. As I approached, she jerked my hand into hers. In the other, she had an unlit lantern.

      “Where are we going?”

      “To the barn.” She put a finger over her lips and looked around us before she pulled me out into plain view.

      I pulled my hand away. “I’ll go with you, but we have to talk.”

      She gave me a warning look. “I hope it’s nothing too terribly bad. It’s been an awful day. You’re the only person who can make me feel better.”

      Upon entering the barn, Grace lit the lantern. She dropped her housecoat onto the dirt floor. Her thin nightgown covered very little.

      I turned away. “You’re naked.”

      “Not yet.” She giggled.

      “This isn’t appropriate.” I took a feed sack from the pile in the corner, took Grace’s arm, and gently pulled her to a hay bale. After sitting her down, I covered her. “I’m not sure how else to say this to you. I don’t have the same feelings for you as you do for me. I care, but not in that way. You’re too pretty and too smart to settle for me. You need someone who returns your devotion.”

      “If this is about our social standing—”

      “It’s not. It’s about me. Us. I have tried to have feelings for you, but they’re just not there.”

      Grace’s face was pasty and blank. “I see.”

      I hated hurting anyone, but it had to be this way. I had to let her go.

      She dropped the empty feed sack, gathered her housecoat to her chest, and rushed out the barn doors. Maybe in a few days, she’d be able to speak to me again. If she didn’t, that may have been the best thing.

      I slept better that night than I had in weeks.

      Chapter 3

      A few days later, I walked up on Pop and Mr. Rollins deep in conversation. Pop’s hands were hooked in his suspenders while Mr. Rollins’s pressed suit looked to have come fresh from a tailor. The sharp pointed collar poked Mr. Rollins double chin as he talked, and his black dress shoes shone in the summer sun.

      I’d heard no more from Grace. I’d given her no chance to speak to me so far off on the property working. I’d hoped to give her some time without seeing me so she could recover from whatever feelings she thought she had for me. It’d worked out well so far.

      “Here he is now.” A smile broadened on Pop’s

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