Chapter Nine
A c**k crowed. There were stirrings in the stables. Footsteps. Voices. The smell of coffee making her dizzy. Intense hunger made her entire body seize up.
“Ooo, now, ain’t she sweet?” A syrupy-tongued youth leaned on the stall door and gazed down at Hannah, who lay like a possum in fetal position, eyes still closed, though she heard every word. “You think he’ll let us have a piece of her pretty ass?” the young man asked the older man who stood beside him. He slurped a drink from his mug, while Hannah smelled the scent of alcohol on their breath as keenly as she smelled the coffee.
“I think the b***h is ripe for pluckin,” his friend replied.
“What’s Eldon mean, work her, huh?”
“You remember that little w***e we had in here a few months ago? Short, sassy little thing wit
