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“Please, Grace, it is truly important.”
“Nothing can be so important as to come to my door at such an indecent hour,” she snapped. “Now goodnight, Mr. Herdeson.”
She turned and walked back to her table and sat down. Her hands trembled too hard for her to pick up her needle again. Grace let out a long breath and tried to gather her wits about her.
The presumptuousness of that man. To think he can come calling at all hours of the night.
That, too, had been a truly disturbing after-effect of Daniel’s death–the constant stream of men who would not stop trying to woo her. Kyle was just one more in a long list of men who promised they would take care of her, give her a comfortable life, and a happy home. Some took her rejection and left her alone. Others were more persistent about trying to earn her affection.
And then there is Kyle, who is something else altogether.
Grace stood and stoked the fire in the hearth. The chill in the air was deepening, and she still had many hours of work left ahead of her. Grace knew she would probably not sleep.
It seems that’s bec
oming more and more commonplace these days.
The minute she sat back down, the rapping on her door sounded again, this time more insistent.
“Mr. Herdeson, please leave,” she called out. “This is highly inappropriate and–”
She bit off her words as her door crashed inward. Grace leapt to her feet, searching her immediate area for something to defend herself with. Kyle Herdeson stood just inside the threshold, his eyes glassy, an unhealthy, waxy pallor to his skin. He looked unfocused and swayed unsteadily on his feet.
Recognizing that Kyle was deep in his cups, Grace swallowed hard and licked lips that had suddenly gone bone dry. Her heart was jolted by a lightning bolt of fear and threatened to beat out of her chest. She tried to remain calm and in control of herself. It was the only way she was going to get through this.
“Mr. Herdeson,” she started, her voice even. “It seems you have had a bit too much to drink. I think it is time for you to go home and–”
“I love you, Grace,” he said with a slight slur in his words. “That’s what I realized today. I am in love with you.”
“Yes, well, perhaps you will feel differently once you have had a chance to rest–”
He shook his head violently. “Listen to me. I am in love with you,” he spat, “have been for a long time now. And I think your Daniel dyin’ was God’s way of telling us we need to be together.”
His words drove a white-hot spike of rage straight through her, driving away some of her fear. That he would dare mention Daniel’s name to justify his relentless and unwanted pursuit of her enraged Grace well past the point of reason.
“Get out of my house, Mr. Herdeson,” she hissed. “Leave now.”
“No, you need to hear what I have to say,” he says. “You’re going to listen to me.”
“I most certainly am not!”
He staggered forward, looming over her. A crazed light shone in his eyes, and the fear that had been pushed to the back of her mind flared up again, overwhelming the anger that had taken hold just a moment ago. He reached out and grabbed her arm, a sneer on his face that chilled Grace to the core.
“I love you, Grace. And it’s time you stop this mourning you’re in,” he hissed. “I can provide you with a good home. I can–”
“I do not love you, Mr. Herdeson,” Grace spat. “Now, please leave my home.”
His grip on her arm tightened, and the fear in her belly spread, making her entire body tingle and tremble with it. He leaned closer, trying to kiss her, and Grace turned her face, trying to pull away from him, but she could not break his grip on her. He shook her like a rag doll, screaming at her, an incomprehensible string of words streaming from his mouth.
Grace groped at the table, nearly crying out in relief when her hands fell upon the fabric shears. She fumbled with them before getting a grip on them. Kyle was still screaming and shaking her violently when she swung the shears blindly. He cursed and stumbled backward, a bright red line on his cheek. She watched in grim fascination as crimson rivulets raced down his cheek.
Kyle cursed and held his hand to his face, his gaze narrowing malevolently as he stared at her in silence for a long moment. That crazed light in his eyes deepened and the fear that smoldered inside of Grace’s chest burst into a roaring bonfire.
He is going to kill me. I really think he is going to kill me.
As Grace moved to pull away from him, he reached for her, and her bodice ripped with a sound that filled her with a terror that nearly made her heart stop. She threw her hands up to cover herself, backing away from Kyle who seemed more emboldened after seeing her flesh exposed like that. His face flushed and his eyes were filled with a sense of lust that terrified Grace.
She swung the shears wildly again, but this time, Kyle managed to catch her arm. Grace let out a cry of pain as he wrenched it and the shears hit the ground with a loud clatter. She heard the sharp crack of flesh-meeting-flesh a moment before her head was rocked to the side, and her face felt like it had been set on fire.
