The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna Page A

I’ll do. When she meets Karl, she’ll see. I have to find a way .
    Teeth chattering, Kate stepped into the cold water. A blast of wind nearly knocked her down. She grabbed for the rope with both hands. The wind would be against her all the way home. About halfway across the channel, a volley of hard waves swept up and caught her by surprise, pulling her off her feet. Though she held tightly to the rope, her body floated on the fast current, feet pointing northward, icy hands simply holding on now, not advancing, just holding on. She squinted toward the mainland. Not so far away, not so far.
    She would have to move forward on the rope, hand over hand. The only way. One hand had to let go. Let go! She opened her left hand and reached out, but spray and rain blinded her and a wave tugged her away, and when she grabbed forward again her right hand slipped and the lake swallowed her whole.
    She went under and up and under and up, gulping for air, trying to keep her head above the choppy swells. She was a strong swimmer, but the waves were stronger. They pulled her down and forward and under and tossed her up again. She flailed her arms but the current had her. The deep black lake was in charge. She screamed into the darkness but there was no one to hear. Water over her head, in her ears, her nose. Ben’s voice coming to her, singing for her to wake up, floating away, Mother scolding about broken eggs, Miss Fleming beckoning— Yes, I can swim. I can make it! Miss Fleming is waiting. The girls in the dorm. Father!
    A wave tossed Kate toward shore. She grabbed for an overhangingbranch and held on but the lake ripped her away, the rough bark burning her hand. Ben! She strained to envision his face as she gulped air and then gulped water and floundered toward the surface, muscles aching. This is what it feels like to drown. I’m going to drown! The shore was near but rushing quickly past, farther and farther from home, and the sky was bright with stars so far away that Kate watched herself as if from above, tiny in the huge lake, as insignificant as a water bug. Arms and legs heavy, leaden, barely moving.
    Let go, I could just let go and float up to the stars. Easy, so easy .

CHAPTER TEN
    CHARLOTTE WOKE FROM A DREAM of Karl climbing through her open window, his dark thick hair, wolf eyes, bare chest, spicy body slick with sweat . . .
    She sat up, breathing hard, oddly aroused. Thomas stirred beside her.
    â€œThomas,” she whispered. “There’s somebody out there. I heard something in the trees.”
    She moved to get out of bed but Thomas pulled her back. “Just the wind.”
    She lay next to him, listening. His arm was around her and he kissed her cheek and moved his large palm across her nightgown until he found her breasts. She quivered, then relaxed under his touch. She sighed as his warm hand moved down her flat stomach, down to her muff, which he held like a ball, moving a finger around her wetness, into her wetness, breathing against her ear. When he drew her hand onto his erect penis, she caught her breath. She loved him for that, the way his body wanted hers. She moved her hand slowly up and down the strong length of it until he crawled on top of herand rocked into her, gently at first, rubbing against the walls of her wanting, then harder, in rhythm with her breathing, his breathing, her tongue teasing at his nipples, his face in her hair, her hands on his buttocks, pushing with him, together, rocking together, her body taking over her mind until she shook and he moaned and flowed into her and lay panting, the two of them panting.
    After he finally rolled away, she lay in the dark, listening to his sleeping breath. She closed her eyes and slowly fell back to a dreamy state where Karl waited for her just beyond the window.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    KATE’S OUTSTRETCHED ARM bumped against something solid, and her icy fingers grabbed hold. A ladder? She hung on against the current. Her wet