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Page 113

| the banks, her eyes became fixed on the wings of a dragonfly, and then the flitting motion of a water strider. |

| A frog leaped from the far bank and broke the image apart, and also Sasha's moment of reverie. She shook her head, as though to clear her thoughts, suddenly aware that it was not smart to stay away from the others very long. There were too many dangers in being alone, nakedand a woman. |

| After pitching her washed shirt and breeches ashore, she took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface of the water. She swam fully immersed, her skin already feeling soothed of its tormented itchings. Enjoying these moments of weightlessness and itch-free skin, she broke to the surface to get a gulp of air, then dove back deep into the water again. |

| She glided through the water, her arms stroking smoothly, her legs kicking. And just as her lungs told her that they needed another reprieve and she was ready to rush back to the surface for a breath of air, her heartbeat seemed to lodge in her throat when a hand suddenly grabbed her around one of her ankles and held her in place beneath the water. |

| Desperately afraid, Sasha twisted herself around so that she could see who had joined her, but the water was too dark to make out anything except for that hand still locked around her ankle. |

| And then the hand was gone and she was trying to reach the surface for that badly needed breath of air, but she was caught off guard a second time. Before she reached the surface, a hand was on her breast, caressing it. |

| Wild with rage and fright, she slapped the hand |

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