Free Given by Lisa G. Riley, Roslyn Hardy Holcomb Page B

turned and walked away. When he felt they were far enough away from the boys, he said, “All right, ladies. You can join me now.”

    They both crept from behind a tree. They'd been keeping to the trees as they walked parallel to him. “Did you kill those boys?” the old woman asked.

    Jacob smiled and put her hand in the crook of his elbow again. “No, ma'am. It was obvious to me that they'd missed their afternoon naps, and I simply made sure that they took them.”

    “Don't you think they'll tell someone about you when they wake up?”

    “I'm hoping they won't remember me at all. You see, sometimes that little trick I did on their necks can make memories a little fuzzy. And if they do remember me, the fake accent will throw them off. AlsoI'm hoping I scared them enough that they won't say anything about tonight, or barring that, that they're too ashamed to admit that they let a Negro get the best of them.”

    The old woman made a skeptical sound. “Depending on that much hope can be a mighty dangerous thing.”

    Jacob didn't answer, but privately, he agreed.

    * * *

    They arrived at Dr. Patrick Quinn's house without further incident. Jacob had the two women wait in the trees while he went up and rapped that night's signal on the veterinarian's door. He didn't have long to wait before the door was pulled open by a tall white man whose gray eyes always seemed to be looking at people impatiently.

    Jacob grinned but said deferentially, in case the doctor had the wrong kind of company, “Good evening, Dr. Quinn. I just thought I'd drop by and see how those tables and chairs you ordered from my family are suiting you.”

    “Ah, Jacob, it's good to see you,” Dr. Quinn said with genuine pleasure and flashed him a charming smile, the one that all the ladies (except for Grace) seemed to swoon over. Grace couldn't stand the man, calling him a Neanderthal because he refused to work with women on the underground, which to Jacob's way of thinking, made him a smart man indeed. “Bring them on in,” the doctor told Jacob as they shook hands. “I've prepared everything.”

    Jacob gladly turned them over, all the while thinking about Mary Katherine and all the things he had to teach her about the consequences of licking her lips in front of a naked man. They could be all night.

    * * *

    Dressed in a white muslin nightgown, Mary Katherine sat at her small vanity table brushing out her hair. Totally ashamed of the behavior she'd displayed earlier that day, she could barely look at herself in the mirror. She definitely couldn't meet her own eyes. “You were a complete wanton, Mary Katherine,” she whispered to herself. The knock on her back door made her pause. This time she did catch her eyes in the mirror, and what she saw worried her. Pure anticipation.

    The knock on the door had nothing to do with helping some poor soul and everything to do with helping herself. She knew immediately that it was Jacob, and she realized that some part of her had been expecting him. He was not the kind of man who would let her get away with what she'd done that day. He'd view her behavior as a promise.

    Now he was there to collect.

    Fingers pressed to her mouth, she rose from her chair in a classic pose of indecision. Should she let him in? She had no illusions. If she opened the door to him, they were going to make love. She knew she wanted to; that was not the problem. Her dilemma was whether it would be worth the risk.

    Knocking sounded again, and breathless, Mary Katherine picked up the lantern and moved toward the stairs. She arrived at the door and, nervous and just a little afraid, froze.

    “Mary Katherine. Open the door.” Jacob's voice flowed through the wood, soft and seductive, and she closed her eyes against its spell.

    “Mary Katherine. Open the door.” His voice was even softer now, smoothly sliding across her skin like a physical caress. She shivered, and this time her eyes fell shut of their own volition, in