Courting Holly Read Online Free PDF Page B

skin was like soft leather, and she loved the feel of it. What would be so wrong in petting an alligator? she’d reasoned. She’d looked over her shoulders and put on her rubber boots, then taken a single step into the marsh.
    “Holly Elizabeth Landers, you come back right this very moment!” Momma’s voice had reprimanded.
    She was a Landers! When did she become a Graham? Had she, legally? Holly closed her eyes and collapsed on her bed. “This is too much, God. Why?”

Chapter 4
    B ryce finished the notes for his brothers regarding the oversight of operations for the plantation. He’d worked late into the night to be available for Holly. He closed the lid of the drop-front mahogany secretary. He’d had the desk designed with the same wood and hand-carved moldings as his father’s desk. Bryce’s desk gave him a small area to keep the papers pertaining to the operation of the plantation separate from his father’s legal and family papers. He slipped the key into his pocket and turned at the voice of his mother. “You’re up bright and early this morning, son. How are you?” His mother leaned against the doorway with a mug of coffee in her hand.
    “Fine. That smells good.”
    “I made a full pot. Did you sleep?”
    “I managed a few hours. I take it you knew all about Holly and her family?”
    She stepped farther into the room. “I knew John wasn’t her biological father, yes. And I knew Emmett Landers was her real father. I didn’t know about the letters or the reasons for keeping Holly in the dark.”
    Bryce stood, walked around to the front of his father’s desk and leaned against it.
    “How is she doing?” She took another step into the home office and sipped her coffee.
    “This information didn’t surface at a good time. I cannot imagine dealing with the loss of a parent and discovering that kind of news. I am your son, right?”
    His mother smiled as she sat in the soft-cushioned sofa and arranged her nightgown and robe. “Yes, you are my son and your father’s.”
    “Well, I knew I was his, we have too many similar features.”
    “That you do.” She winked and took another sip.
    “Do you have any idea why Allison Graham would have chosen to keep this information a secret from Holly?”
    “I’m afraid not. It was a subject Allison never wanted to talk about. I do know from your father that John was quite concerned he’d lose Allison to Emmett when he returned from the war. She truly loved Emmett. But she loved John, too, for that matter. I cannot imagine being forced to choose.”
    “Nor I.” Bryce raked his hair back from his face. “Mother, I want to do right by Holly but she is so vulnerable right now. It is going to take all of my strength and willpower not to succumb to my own desires. I almost asked her to marry me last night. It is a blur. I do remember promising that I would take her to Venice under one condition, that she’d come as my wife.”
    He heard a sharp intake of breath from his mother and caught her gaze.
    “It was more of a tease, but truth is truth. I do love her and I do want her to be my bride, but this is not the time to ask, or act.”
    “Be patient, son. There will be a time and a place. You know the passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1. ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.’ I cannot speak to God’s timing but I do know from the few short years I have lived, that ultimately God’s timing and purpose is best.”
    “Yes, but is this God’s timing or man’s? Do the careless actions of Whit Butterfield equal God’s plans or did man interrupt God’s perfect plan?”
    She placed her coffee mug down and motioned for him to take a seat beside her. “I cannot say what happened the other day with Mr. Butterfield was God’s perfect plan for Allison, but I do know that God was very aware of what would happen. Why He allows people to make mistakes that harm themselves or others, I do not know or understand. But I do know