Ever Bound by Odessa Gillespie Black

had.
    “Seems we can’t get away from this curse. I ran from it and now it’s found you.” He sounded different. He’d dropped the slang he normally used, and his shoulders seemed more squared. “Mr. Rollins is under the impression that we’re here out of need, and in ways we are, but I chose this life. I forfeited a large amount of wealth and comfort to be with your mother. To this day, she doesn’t understand how very little those things mean to me. Many of our few quarrels have been over what I left behind but not because she wants me to provide her with more but because of the hard work that followed upon leaving my father’s prosperity behind. I try to assure her that I would rather have her and work myself to the bone for the rest of my days than meaningless paper. That’s all money is to me.”
    “What exactly was wrong with the other woman that made you so against marrying her?” I said.
    “She confessed to me one day while we were talking that she didn’t believe in God the way Christians do. Eliza believed the earth was its own energy source, and that we were all different forms of energy that are recycled with each life. She had this crazy notion that she could conjure up dark forces that could take a soul and put it into another human body after the first body died. Essentially, she claimed to be able to make a person come back in a different body in a future life.” My father chuckled openly. “That was just one of her claims. So, needless to say, your God-fearing mother was a breath of fresh air.”
    “Didn’t they have witch trials for people like her?”
    “She would have been tried convicted and hung twice or three times to ensure they’d killed her, but that was a few hundred years ago. The sixteen hundreds I do believe,” Pop said with a mischievous grin.
    I never knew he was educated.
    “Don’t be sorry for how you feel, Son. The people in that big house are no better than you. And don’t let that spoiled rotten little winch ruin you. I’ve seen the likes of her before, and they don’t stop until they get what they want. You’re just going to have to beat her at her own game. Don’t run like I did.”
    With my eyes trained on Pop, admiration welled in my chest.
    He’d never spoken so openly to me.
    I couldn’t believe my mother and I were so much alike. We’d fallen in love with someone who appeared out of reach. And if Annabeth had anywhere near the endurance Pop demonstrated, then I knew she would beat Grace, and that we could be together one day.
    Pop and Mama’s romance seemed to be born again in Annabeth and myself. Since my father and mother had gone through so much to be together, I had to make Pop proud. I had to see this through.
    “I want to marry her, Pop.” The words were out before I could stop them.
    “You have my blessing,” he said. “Good luck on getting the man of the house to agree.”
    “Hey.” I nudged him. “Can you read?”
    Pop smiled at me.
    “Better than you ever will.” Pop chuckled. “Let’s not focus on my lies, though I want to point out how much trouble they can cause a man. I think you’re going to have to work your hide off to regain Annabeth’s trust.”
    “I think we have something that even time can’t touch and no matter what, I’m going to show her that I’m in it for the long haul.”
    Mama entered the room and approached the footboard of my bed. She looked to be holding on to the post for stability. She looked down at the floor.
    “Mama, what’s the matter?” I asked.
    “Mr. Rollins has requested that you stay away from Annabeth. If he sees you even glance in her direction, he’ll send us away,” she said.
    My father turned a shocked expression to Mama. “What is he accusing our son of?”
    “What about Grace? Doesn’t he want me to stay away from her too?”
    “He’s not accusing Colby of the barn fire. Oddly, he wasn’t even mad,” Mama said sadly, but there was more. “Grace spilled the truth right in