Read Ever Bound for Free Online Page B

all.”
    “Well, Mr. Man of the Cloth, is that it? Are you done preaching to me now?”
    “For now, until I see you making another mistake, and then I’ll be obliged to put my two cents in, then too. You’re turning out just like your sister.”
    Annabeth swung a flat hand toward my cheek.
    My hand went up, catching her wrist with a speed I didn’t know I had.
    She stumbled and fell against me.
    I gathered her in my arms.
    The flash of heat in her cheeks and our proximity sent shards of hot glass all over my body.
    Loose spiral sprigs fell from the crown of braids and curls on her head. The creamy curve of her neck and her bared shoulders led my gaze downward.
    I shook it off and pulled away.
    This was why she couldn’t be alone with that sorry bastard. He didn’t have a gentleman’s bone in his body.
    “Don’t you ever compare me to my sister. I don’t go into the woods with every boy I’ve met since I was twelve years old.” Her chin lifted indignantly. “Grace Rollins is an abomination. A Jezebel, really. I only hope you were as respectable and honorable as you expect me to be.”
    My blood thickened to molasses, and my tongue was as heavy as an ox yoke.
    I could only stare down at her golden brown eyes. I couldn’t tell her that I agreed. That her sister was something worse than everyone thought she was. Nor could I admit that I had been less than honorable. I had been weak. No it hadn’t been my fault, but maybe I could have done something more to stop her sooner. I couldn’t stare into an angel’s eyes and tell her I’d fallen into the clutches of the devil.
    “Well, you’re probably the only person to deny her. She’s stooped to atrocious levels I would never in a lifetime imagine stooping. She doesn’t care who she hurts, and she’s not at all above hurting family or friends.” A single tear trickled down her cheek. Annabeth brushed past me.
    Feeling half numb, I walked the rest of the way to the cottage.
    Not saying anything when Annabeth had given me the chance was worse than any usual white lie. Like it was going to snowball into something…something really bad.
    Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, came from everywhere and nowhere, bugging me as I poured feed into the horses troughs.
    Okay. I wasn’t supposed to lie to my neighbor, but when I told her, I suspected her sister of some form of witchery, she was sure to call me a liar. It wasn’t possible to tell her I’d been defiled and the way of how it happened in the same story and not make myself look like a tramp. And a lunatic.
    I scooped more feed.
    Love thy neighbor, came from that same everywhere/nowhere place not too long after.
    Yes, I knew what that meant, but I couldn’t help but laugh a little. And the more I thought about it, the more I did.
    I sat down in the barn floor and literally guffawed.
    Good one, God. Love her?
    I was pretty sure that was one of the most impossible things he could have asked of me.
    But I wondered if there shouldn’t have been some commandment such as, thou shalt not strangle thy neighbor even if he or she angers you to insanity.
    I found a straw broom and swept the floor so hard some of the bristles began to fall out. I swept up the dirt onto a flat board and turned to find Mama in the barn doorway. I put the dust just past her and stopped. “What?”
    “We only have one broom. You should go ahead and admit your feelings,” she said with a smug sound in her tone.
    “I’m just as mad as I was a few days ago, only now a different girl is the source of my anger. This girl. She makes me crazy. Every time I try to help her, she lashes out at me, and when she tries to help me with soothing words, I end up lashing out at her. It’s like this explosive…” I paused out of frustration at the loss of words for it. “She’s like a tornado meeting a hurricane. She’s a force of nature I don’t know what to do with. When I’m near her, I want to grab her, and throttle her into