Place Of Her Own Read Free Page A

back. “We’ll pray and see what the Lord says. You’re welcome to stay as long as you need to. Tomorrow, if you like, we can set up a little room for you in the barn.”
    “I’d be most grateful.”
    Katherine scurried into the room, carrying a bundle of sheets, blankets, and what appeared to be a feather pillow. Shelton swooped up the bundle from her hands. Stunned, she stood there frozen, her vivid green eyes wide with some emotion he couldn’t quite identify. Was it shock?
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    She lowered her head and looked at the floor.
    “Kate, you’re not my servant.”
    She scurried out of the family living area. A moment later he heard a door close and latch. She was afraid of him! Why?
    Shelton recalled the last moments he’d spent with Kate five years ago. He’d tried then to tell her how he felt. His tongue had felt like cotton. When he attempted to kiss her, she’d started to run away. He had ordered her to stay.
    Dread suddenly filled him. He had been only sixteen—and a fool.
    He plopped the linens on the sofa. Driven to clear the matter up, he marched toward Kate’s room.

    A charge of lightning had coursed through Katherine’s body when Shelton’s fingers brushed up against hers. Behind the closed door of her room she felt safe. Her body leaned hard against the wall. Her mind flew back to five years ago, two weeks before Urias had come to rescue her.
    Katherine hid her face in her hands. The shame, the fears … Her knees weakened. She fell into the bed and buried her face in the pillow. Tears soaked the quilt Grandma Mac had made for her when she first arrived.
    A gentle tap on her door caused her to cling to the quilt.
    “Kate, it’s me,” Shelton whispered. “Please open up. I wish to speak with you.”
    She couldn’t face him. She couldn’t allow him to ever be near her again.
    Shelton gave another tap on the door. “Kate, I’m sorry. I just realized what you must have been thinking all these years about me. I never meant to hurt you.”
    Fresh tears poured down her cheeks.
    “Forgive me, Kate. Please.”
    Katherine refused to speak. She couldn’t even if she wanted to. A lump the size of an apple stuck in her throat. She slid off the bed, pulling the quilt with her and wrapping it around her. Sitting Indian style, she rocked back and forth as the demons of the past surfaced.
    Memories of the beatings from her drunken mother switched to the peddler who had once owned her bond. He was a gambler, and she hadn’t stayed with him long. She washed his clothes, fixed his meals, and thanked God daily that she was alive. She prayed her mother would rescue her. But Mother never came. Soon the ugly truth of what her mother had done to her became clear.
    As Kate grew older she became the property of other men. No one knew the horror of the favors she’d had to endure.
    “Oh, God, please don’t let these memories come back,” she cried into the quilt.
    She had lost her faith and her identity when Wiley owned her. How Michael Pike ever purchased her bond from that ugly man, she didn’t know, but she’d been grateful to be owned by someone who didn’t beat her.
    Hiram Greene purchased her a year after that. She’d lived with the Greenes since the age of fourteen. They had never abused her the way the others had. But watching Prudence, who was about the same age as she was, enjoying the normal pleasures a young girl would have, was difficult. And living in the Greene house, seeing all their wealth and luxury, made her life even harder. But Prudence Greene proved to be a true friend. The love she showed her allowed her to once again step out in faith and trust God. She’d asked God to forgive her for her anger, for her lack of faith, and for the sinful life she’d been forced to live.
    But in moments like these, when her mind traveled over the darkness of the past, she found it hard to believe God had truly forgiven her. She knew it in her head. She knew