Free Given by Lisa G. Riley, Roslyn Hardy Holcomb

besides, Matthew, Grace is our baby sister. We're supposed to take care of her.”

    “Grace is no longer a child,” Matthew reminded him. “This is the third time in a very short period that you've stymied her because of your mistaken impression that she's weak. You're not treating her fairly.”

    “Grace needs to act more like the female that she is.”

    In answer, Matthew poured another bucket of water over his head. “Will you stop that, Matthew?” Jacob demanded and tried to wipe the excess water off his face with his hands. A loud commotion drew his attention and froze both men in their tracks.

    Skirts flying, face scowling, Mary Katherine came out of the house like a whirlwind. “How dare you, Jacob Adams!” she demanded as she stomped onto the porch, apparently unaware that he was in the middle of taking a bath. “Who on God's green earth do you think you are, telling people that we're getting married? Just because I've let you take a few liberties does not mean—”

    Matthew, who had picked up another bucket of water, chose that moment to dump it over his brother's head.

     

    And just like that, Mary Katherine stopped. Suddenly wholly—and painfully—cognizant of what she was looking at, she stopped everything: talking, moving, and for a brief moment, even breathing. For Mary Katherine, the world simply stilled and became a place where nothing else existed but Jacob's bare chest.

    Gaze stuck well below his chin, she took it all in, her body in a completely inappropriate heightened sense of awareness. Her nipples beaded to push into the binding beneath her dress, and that place underneath her skirts, that secret nub she'd only recently allowed herself to caress when she thought of Jacob, came to life, stretching toward something intangible and causing her to catch her breath. And still Mary Katherine did not blink as she watched water sluice and drip across Jacob's darkly bronzed and muscled chest.

    Oh, she'd seen men without their shirts before. She'd been on farms before, and men often worked without their shirts in the summer heat. That had been for utilitarian purposes, and so harmless, but this was so, so … Her brow wrinkled as she thought about it, still staring at his chest. Oh God, so sinful . Her mouth went completely dry, and soon after, breathing took more effort, and she found herself taking increasingly shallow breaths.

    Still unable to look away from his chest, she took a small step forward, her hand already reaching out tentatively to touch him. Her tongue peeked out to slowly lick her lips.

    “Mary Katherine.”

    At the sound of his passion-roughened voice, Mary Katherine raised her lust-filled gaze to Jacob's to find him treating her to a heated, narrowed stare. “Yes?”

    “Go.” He put a hand on each side of the tub in preparation for rising.

    Mary Katherine fled the premises.

Chapter Eight

     

    “We almost there yet, son?”

    For perhaps the thousandth time that night, Jacob pulled his thoughts away from Mary Katherine and her reaction to him earlier. It was a difficult thing to do, almost as difficult as it had been for him not to chase after her when she'd run out. The only things that kept him from doing so were the thought that he'd be seeing her later and the fact that he'd needed to prepare for the run that he was now conducting. He focused on his passenger's question.

    Even though he knew she wouldn't be able to see it because it was dark as pitch in the woods, Jacob smiled down at the elderly woman at his side. Reassuringly, he patted the frail hand that gripped his arm. “Yes'm, we are. The house is just up ahead.”

    “And we are 'spected?” This question came from the other woman, the older woman's daughter.

    “Yes, ma'am. I believe we are expected,” Jacob told her. In truth, he was praying that Dr. Quinn, a stationmaster in Ripley, had gotten the message. Since nothing had been planned ahead of time, it was very likely he hadn't.

    “Again, I