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have many business opportunities that keep me occupied. She is accustomed to getting to church on her own.”
    Carlyn gave him a cold stare. “As am I. So please step aside.”
    Instead he moved closer. “You look a little desperate, my dear. Are you thinking if you can only get to the church house, you will find help for your problems?”
    “The Lord is a present help in trouble.” Carlyn held her ground even though everything in her was screaming to run.
    “That is what the preachers tell us. But if you think I’m your trouble, you are so wrong. I am the answer to your troubles. I am your help, Carlyn.”
    The smile lingering on his face made her insides clinch. She would have to jump in the ditch to get away from him. Then again, surely he wouldn’t attack her in broad daylight.
    “I think not.” She backed a step away from him. The ground on the lip of the ditch felt soft under her feet.
    “You’re not afraid of me, are you, Carlyn? I don’t want to hurt you. Only help you. All you have to do is be nice to me.”
    “Shall I bake you an apple pie, then?”
    “I was thinking of something a bit more interesting than that.” His smile broadened into a leer. “A few favors. That’s all I’m asking. No one else has to know. I’ll tell the sheriff I was convicted that it was my Christian duty to be generous to a widow.”
    He reached toward her again. She leaned away from him. “Don’t touch me.” She put force behind the words.
    “But I want to, and I get what I want. Always.”
    Carlyn looked at the road behind them in hopes of seeing someone coming. People should be making their way to church, but the road was empty. Even Curt Whitlow couldn’t arrange an empty road.
    “Do you dare attack me in broad daylight? Somebody might ride by and then what of your reputation.”
    “Money trumps reputations.”
    “Not in the Lord’s eyes.”
    “You think he might be watching?” He laughed and snaked out a hand, faster than she thought possible, to grasp her shoulder.
    “The Lord is always watching.” She tried to shake off his hand, but couldn’t.
    “Do you think he might reach down to stop me? I think not.” Curt tightened his fingers on her shoulder. “Besides, the Bible says a man is obliged to pay his debts. And since you have no man to pay your debts for you, the obligation is yours. Whatever happens next week in regard to the sheriff carrying out the law and removing you from my house, my dear Carlyn, you are still in arrears. I have a right to my proper due. Why would the good Lord interfere with that?”
    “You are despicable.” Carlyn spat the word at him.
    He laughed. “Save your sweet talk for later, my dear. First things first. That barn across the road, we can arrange payment there out of the public eye since that seems to concern you.”
    She tried to jerk free, but he yanked her toward him and fastened his other hand around her upper arm. He was stronger than she expected. Always before she’d thought she could handle him, but that was with a gun and Asher between them. Now she was alone with no one to help her.
    A verse her father often quoted in his sermons rose up in her mind, and she looked up and spoke it aloud. “‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.’”
    “I already told you, Carlyn.” He leaned his face closer to her. “I am your help.”
    She screamed and kicked at him. His horse shied and took off up the road, but Curt’s grip simply got tighter, bruising her arms.
    She stopped fighting and tried to think. “I’ll tell the sheriff.”
    “I wouldn’t make threats, my dear. That could go badly for you.”
    She went limp then, pretending a faint that surprised him. His grip loosened enough that she twisted out of his grasp but lost her balance and slid down into the ditch. She landed on her back. He came after her, his boots slipping on the incline. Carlyn scooted backward away from him, but her foot caught in her skirt.
    It would