Ever Bound Read online

  Her arms went around my neck, and she pressed her cheek against my lips. “I’m ashamed to call them family at times. And I’m not worried about her. I’ll fix her when the time comes.” Annabeth turned in my arms and held my face in her hands. “I want you to know I didn’t know the dinner was in honor of you. To my understanding, it was to announce that Mrs. Peachtree had told Father how well you’d done in school, and considering it was your last year, she had found a way to get you a scholarship. I had no idea that my father was the benefactor. That was something he should have taken up with you in private. Please don’t allow them to send you away from me.”

  “I love you and nothing will separate us. The rest doesn’t matter. It literally makes me sick to hide us.” I closed my eyes against the rising heat that came with holding her.

  “Then don’t.” Grace stepped outside.

  I jumped back from Annabeth. I’d seen her mother escort Grace to the elevator.

  She was supposed to be in her room.

  Annabeth took my hand and held it firmly.

  “So, this is the reason you won’t see me or speak to me? Annabeth, when he’s done with you, I imagine he’ll probably move on to Olivia. I mean, let’s keep it in the family, right?” Grace fingered a large pendant hanging between her cleavage.

  “Like you do?” Venom dripped from Annabeth’s tongue.

  Grace’s face twisted and contorted. She lifted her head and stared down her nose at Annabeth. A broad, malicious smile broke out over her beautifully evil face. “I have just the solution for this.”

  My heart sank.

  Grace spun away from us and rattled the hinges of the door as she slammed it behind her.

  “As you can see, she’s not above making a scene,” Annabeth said.

  “Go. I understand.”

  She rushed after her sister.

  I ruined everything I touched. I was cursed.

  After dinner, my mother and father came through the front door of the cottage to find me sitting upright on a chair with my hands clasped into a tight knot.

  “Aren’t you feeling well, Son?” Pop said.

  My mother pressed the back of her hand to my forehead.

  No news of an uproar.

  “I’m…fine?” I examined their faces.

  “You handled that as well as can be expected. I can’t believe that high-falluting jackass thought he could buy you like that,” Pop said. “I heard him in the hall. Don’t worry. Your mother and I will stand behind whatever decision you make. I want you to be educated, but not at that price.”

  Great. The whole house knew the sordid plan Mr. Rollins had concocted.

  But that could be a good thing. If Mrs. Rollins was the person I thought she was, she wouldn’t stand for her husband pawning her daughter off on someone just so he could get rid of her. Sure, social standing mattered, but Grace was his daughter. How could he want to be rid of her so bad that he’d pay so much money to have her taken off his hands?

  After they read the Bible and prayed together, I watched Mama and Pop from the living room. After they raised their heads from the prayer, they stared at one another from their respective sides of the bed.

  Still on his knees, Pop held out his hand to Mama.

  She took it.

  Sometimes, the way they regarded one another was so deep I was embarrassed that I’d seen. It was as if I’d witnessed something private, not meant for another to see.

  Pop got up and shut the door.

  Staring down at the wide floorboards, I waited for news from the house. Surely Annabeth would be here soon.

  I would have to find a way and the right time to tell Annabeth about the pond and Grace. That night might have been the perfect time. With Grace and her father’s concocted plan and the way Grace had carried on lately, I might sound believable if I told the whole truth, but I was so scared.

  I went to my bedroom and waited for a tap on my window. At this point, I would welcome news from either of the sisters. At least then I would know what had happened.

  At the door to my parents' room, there were no hushed whispers.

  “I’m going to go to the barn to check on Sampson.” I stood a few feet from the door.

  “Don’t be out too long,” Mama said.

  At the back door, I stared out at the other houses. All the sharecroppers were already locked in and lanterns were off. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were all still wide awake, waiting for Grace’s next show of lunacy.

  Taking a lantern off the back porch, I slid a match up the side of a metal strip outside our wagon. I headed to see Sampson, the new colt. I needed something to keep my mind off everything. A day not too long ago, I had promised myself I wouldn’t worry over women or get married. Too much trouble.

  Delilah stood patiently in her stall. She was the mother and her son had been named Sampson. He was white with a brown spot in the center of his forehead. The sharecroppers had finally washed almost all the blood from his coat.

  A few stains still remained, but blood was like that. It didn’t go away easily.

  Sampson’s long legs were curled under him, but he wasn’t sleeping. He made a wobbly start but stood and came to me. He nuzzled my cheek. There’d never been a sweeter animal on the farm.

  With a sugar cube I brought from the cottage, I held out my hand. Petting and praising him only kept my mind off the situation for a few seconds.

  “Boy, if you ever see a foal with a crazy look in her eye heading in your direction, run.” Smiling, I patted his head.

  In the large entry to the barn, I leaned against the wooden slats. The back of the house was quiet and dark.

  Finally, unable to take it anymore, I walked from the barn to the manor, crept around the side, and looked up to Annabeth’s window.

  Light flickered in her room.

  She was still awake.

  Up the back steps and toward the back entrance, there was still no one. The house was dark.

  I left the back door slightly opened so I could make a fast getaway if need be. I crept up the first few steps on the staircase.

  There was no light on in the master suite.

  Being very careful not to make a sound, I made it to the small stairwell that serviced the upper levels. With shadows in every corner, the trip up the stairs was hard to make.

  I’d never been on the third floor hall. I’d only ever seen it from a distance from the elevator when it needed maintenance. After stumbling a few times, I learned the stairwell’s design and quickly made it to Annabeth’s level of the house. Upon looking both ways, I inched into the hallway.

  A light glimmered from under a door on the right about six doors down from the back of the house.

  I crept to the left and looked out the window. The cottage was still dark.

  Taking slow easy steps, I finally stood in front of Annabeth’s room. Soft rustling came from deep inside.

  I knocked.

  “Hold on.” Annabeth’s voice stilled every function in my body.

  She opened the door. Her eyes widened and she jerked me inside the room. After the door was shut, she leaned against it and closed her eyes.

  “You shouldn’t have come. You have no idea what you’ve done,” she whispered.

  “No one ever came to tell me what happened, and I was worried sick.” And I wanted to see you.

  She ushered me to her dressing room, lit the wall lantern, and pulled the door behind her. The array of dresses hanging inside was staggering. Fidgeting, Annabeth paced the floor. “This is not good.”

  If she wrung her hands one more time I thought they’d fall off.

  In a beseeching tone, she said, “What would possess you to come all the way in the house?”

  “I was going crazy. I thought maybe you decided that the prospect of being with me wasn’t worth the trouble or—”

  Her robe swishing around her legs, she turned and rushed to me.

  Annabeth slipp
ed her arms around me and held on for what seemed like dear life. Seconds went by as she held me, and then her voice reverberated in my chest. “You really shouldn’t be here. There’re things about my family I never wanted you to find out. I’m afraid you’ll see me differently after you learn their secrets.”

  “There’s nothing that could change my feelings for you. I have a few secrets myself. That’s another reason I came. I need you to know some things about me.”

  “I’m sure your secrets are petty compared to mine. Daddy’s drinking again tonight.” Annabeth reluctantly pulled back. She was right in front of me, but her eyes looked so far away. Her housecoat slid over a shoulder, revealing a thin night dress. In large curls, her hair flowed down her back.

  Heat singed every nerve ending in my body. “I don’t care what he’s doing. I only care about you and that you still want to be with me.”

  In the shadows of the small oil lantern, a look transformed her face into something womanly. Not like the girl I’d known for years.

  We really needed a chaperone and soon.

  A door slammed elsewhere in the house.

  I jumped and my heart pounded even worse now.

  A loud, drunken male voice came closer. “I’m here. What do you want from me now? I give you everything you ever wanted as it is, and now you ask for more. I will be free of you one day. I just want you to know I look forward to that.”

  “It’s like he’s standing right beside us.” I cuddled Annabeth closer.

  “Grace and I have adjoining rooms. I hear everything that goes on inside there. I’m sorry you have to witness this, but I can’t send you out now. There’s no telling when…” Annabeth’s voice trailed as shame darkened her eyes.

  “Daddy, I don’t ask much from you. Just that you keep our little secrets and that you do my bidding. There’s never much money involved so I don’t know why you complain. Now are you going to undress or am I going to have to do it for you?”

  Silently, Annabeth stared at me.

  I was frozen in hell.

  After the bed groaned and squeaked, I went to the wash bowl and looked in the mirror hanging above it. I angled my head down and tried not to gag.

  “I lock my door when he’s like this,” she said softly, absently. “Could you stomach being part of such a family?”

  Shoving my way past dresses and frilly girl clothes, I stumbled out of the closet, out her door, and into the hallway. I needed out of the house before I vomited all over their marble floors.

  Annabeth followed me out. Tears choked her voice. “Wait.”

  “No. I have to get out of here. Now.” I stopped and turned back to her. “Are you coming?”

  Her pale, tear-streaked face brightened as she stretched out her hand.

  I took it.

  Nothing would change my feelings for her, but I wouldn’t sicken myself further by staying there to witness more of Grace’s twisted atrocities.

  Down the steps, onto the first floor hallway, past her unsuspecting mother’s room, down the stairs, past the living room, dining room, kitchen, library, and out the back door. We ran.

  I stopped in the barn. I thought that’s where we’d stay, but after I got the lantern lit, Annabeth pulled me out the door.

  “I want as far away from that house as possible. Let’s go to the pond.”

  I couldn’t say no. Tonight wasn’t about me.

  At the embankment, a half-moon floated on the murky water.

  In the exact spot I never wanted to see again, she collapsed in my arms.

  I sat the lantern beside us. Smoothing her hair, I lowered us both to the ground and let her cry for a while. After her whimpers passed and she seemed to stare at nothing in the distance, I wrapped her curls around my forefinger.

  I didn’t care about the house or its sordid happenings. I didn’t care that her father was a monster or that he’d turned Grace into one. There was only Annabeth, now.

  She stayed in my arms but didn’t look up at me. It was another few minutes before she spoke. “She has always gotten what she wanted. Now you see how.”

  She?

  “Shouldn’t the blame fall on your father? I mean, he is the patriarch of the family.”

  “You don’t understand what you heard.” Annabeth leaned back from me. “Grace did this. She started this when she was thirteen. One night, Daddy came home from a social down the lane, and he’d been drinking. She called him to her room. When I looked through the door, she was on top of him, and it was—” Tears welled in her eyes again. “I was horrified. When she was finished, I listened to what she said. It was the most cold-blooded form of blackmail I’ve ever heard. ‘Give me what I want, or I tell Mama,’ she’d said. He loves my mother, but just when I thought it was a one-time thing, Grace repeatedly made Daddy come to her room. I’ve hated her since. I know you aren’t supposed to hate someone, but since I’ve watched my father slowly waste away to nothing but a drunken shell of what he used to be, I can’t help myself.”

  The evil flowing from Grace, through the house, contaminating everything she touched seemed to seep to the pond, up through the ground and made my skin crawl.

  “There’s something you should know. After a night of heavy drinking, he accidentally came to my room.”

  “Oh, God. I can’t hear this,” I said. “What happened doesn’t matter. You’re not her. You’re not like your sister. She’s evil. There’s nothing good about her.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m not the pure girl you thought I was. I’m not—” Tears flowed down her face again, so I took off my shirt and wiped her eyes. When her eyes rested on me, they drank me in. “When I look at you, I forget. You’re perfect. I don’t know why you love me. And after this…”

  “After this you’ll be mine. I know I don’t have much to offer, but we will be together. I will work day in and day out to give you the life you deserve.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “I mean, unless you decide on college. I would still wait. Then, I’d marry you—”

  Annabeth jumped in my arms and pushed me back.

  “If you’d still have me,” I finished with a laugh.

  The grass wet with dew on my back and Annabeth lying on top of me almost took my senses, but I shook the instinct to ravish her away. For the moment.

  “You’ll be mine until the day I die. Even beyond.” Her hair fell over her shoulders and caressed my face.

  The lantern flickered.

  Our gazes locked.

  As the glow under the smoke-smudged glass went out, a flame of desire blazed under my skin. I had to get up and away from her. Remaining a gentleman would be impossible if she covered my body with hers much longer.

  “We have to leave. Now.” Though it would have been no problem to shove her away, her slight weight, the warmth of her body, the sound of her quickened breath, and the anticipation of the cherry taste of her tongue weighed me down.

  Her lips brushed mine, but I moved to the side so my cheeks caught the rest.

  I took a deep breath and remembered my faith.

  “Is being in the dark alone with me really that unpleasant?” Annabeth sounded so much older. And sure of what she wanted.

  “You do understand that I have to strain to be alone with you in broad daylight.” I was breathless. What little air I could take in was filled with her hair’s fresh floral fragrance.

  Her skin was silk as her fingers caressed my arms, my neck, then my chest.

  I didn’t want to move.

  I didn’t know which I needed more.

  Oxygen or her.

  As she lowered her lips to mine, the cherry and honey taste of her tongue mauled every principle I’d ever held dear.

  I rolled her over with the thought that I would finish kissing her and release myself from her trance, but I hovered over her. I ran my hand down her side and pushed her night gown up her leg. I winced, waiting for a slap, but there was no rejection.

&nb
sp; Stop Cole. My inner voice. Not the boy voice, the mature male that knew if I went any further, I wouldn’t be able to stop.

  Her small hand slid down my face and gripped my arm. “Please, don’t stop.”

  “I have to.” I remembered all the reasons in a number list of why I shouldn’t, God being first and my lie being second. The list went on. I tried to pull away.

  “Make me forget all the bad, Cole.”

  It was what she wanted, and it would make her forget. Could it be that bad?

  Bad.

  The lie was bad.

  My lips hadn’t told her a falsehood, but it was an omission of the truth. That was the worst kind of lie. “I must tell you something before we go any further.” I closed my eyes. “It may change everything.”

  She put her hand over my mouth, and with her thumb caressed my lips.

  I shuddered.

  “I don’t care about your past. I don’t care what you’ve done. Make me yours.” She pulled me down.

  The heat of her body was comparable to the sun.

  Every inhibition I felt disintegrated. There was nothing but me and her and our bodies intertwined.

  I loved her.

  She loved me.

  With those simple truths, no lies mattered.

  Nothing could have taken my happiness away at that moment.

  I slipped her nightgown over her head.

  Her hot, uneven breath sent quakes of need through me so that it was hard to make my hands work.

  Three seconds before Annabeth and I had gone too far, a laugh at the top of the embankment stopped my heart.

  A match head scraped across a sand paper strip.

  Light fell over our bodies.

  I closed my eyes.

  No, no, no, no. This wasn’t happening.

  “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Grace’s voice broke our embrace.

  Annabeth scrambled to cover herself.

  “Now what is it that stupid Bible of yours says? Hmm. Oh, yes. I remember now. Everything done in secret will be shouted from the rooftops? Isn’t that how it goes, Colby?” Grace laughed and folded her arms.