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and extended the bowl for a second helping.
    Simone could feel Garvey Davis’s stare as she refilled his bowl. It made her uncomfortable, especially knowing that he considered himself her husband now. She had to think. Had to do something to help herself—but what? What could she do? Where could she go to be safe? And why, at seventeen years of age, did these have to be the questions that had haunted her all of her life?
    “You’re a mighty purty woman, Simone,” Davis said with a leer when she brought the bowl of food. Her name on his lips came out sounding like See-moan , but it was the intensity of his gaze upon her body that made Simone feel ill. “Yessir, I’m gonna like bein’ a husband,” Davis said before beginning the entire shoveling action again.
    Simone had heard enough. She quietly crossed the room to where the beds were partitioned off from the rest of the house. Spreading out a blanket, she put her change of clothes atop it, then retrieved her mother’s Bible and prayer book. She didn’t know why they were so important to her, but she couldn’t imagine leaving them behind with Garvey Davis. But neither did she know what to do with either one. Her mother had always encouraged her to read the Bible daily, and while Simone had very nearly read the entire thing cover to cover out of boredom, she refused to hold the words in esteem. God hadn’t seen fit to keep her mother alive, and neither had He rescued Simone from a fate worse than death.
    She toyed for a moment with the well-worn cover of the Bible before adding it and the prayer book to the articles of clothing. Next, she went to her trunk and pulled out a small leather pouch that Naniko had made for her. Inside she had two coins, both of which she’d stolen from her father during one of his drunken stupors. She had no idea what they would buy her, but they might possibly be useful to her journey and she couldn’t leave them behind. Lastly, she reached back into the trunk and pulled out two pelts. For more than three years she had managed to keep these pelts hidden from her father. They were choice pieces and would bring in a tidy sum of money, and that was exactly the reason Simone had hidden them there. Caressing the soft fur and touching it to her face, Simone could only hope they would bring her freedom and safety.
    Binding everything together in her blanket and securing it with strips of rawhide, Simone drew a deep breath. In a matter of moments she would have to face Garvey Davis and explain her actions to him. With any luck, he’d be too happy with what he already possessed to worry about whether or not she stayed. Or maybe he’d actually care that she was not a willing participant. Simone could only hope to find some thread of compassion in this stranger. She had just turned to retrieve her threadbare coat when Garvey Davis pushed back the curtain.
    “Well, well. You’re an anxious little thing, ain’t ya? Figured I’d have to drag you in here.”
    Simone froze in place. She could tell by the look on Garvey Davis’s filth-smudged face that he had now turned his attention from food. Mustering up courage amidst her anger, Simone tightly hugged her coat to her body. “I’m leaving,” she told him flatly.
    “Beg your pardon?” He seemed momentarily taken aback by her words.
    Simone felt a tingling charge resonate through her body. “I don’t figure on being your wife or anyone else’s. I realize, however, that my father has sold this property to you and that I no longer have a home here. Therefore, I’m leaving.”
    He stared at her a moment longer, then broke into a hearty laugh that shook his frame like a pine tree in the wind. “You do talk real good. Your pa said you had a way with talkin’—something about your Frenchy ma teachin’ you proper-like. But you ain’t goin’ nowhere. I paid good money for you, and I intend to get my money’s worth.”
    He moved toward her, but Simone darted around him. “No!” She