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Page 196

| The chickens clucking at her fingertips, Sasha took comfort in the warmth of the eggs against the palm of her hand as she lifted each one from its nest. Then she left the chicken house, her basket bulging with eggs, and began searching around the yard for Lightning. She was beginning to get worried. The pup usually escorted her to the chicken house, but this morning she had been nowhere in sight. |

| Sasha's shoulders sagged as she walked on toward the cabin. "She probably decided to abandon me also," she whispered to herself. "How can I bear this loneliness?" |

| Inside the cabin, Sasha placed the basket of eggs on the kitchen table and was preparing to make a custard when the sound of heavy iron wagon wheels pounding like a giant hammer along the land in the distance reached her. She could hear the shouts of the driver to the animals pulling the vehicle. |

| "Now what?" Sasha said, sighing. Grabbing the rifle she now kept loaded and standing beside the door for quick use, she ran outside, the skirt of her cotton dress whipping around her legs as she ran toward the gate of the massive fence. She looked around her for signs of any hired help that may have heard the approaching wagon, but saw no one. Had everyone left? Was she more alone today than she had even imagined? |

| Upset at Ashton for this carelessness, and recalling the threats of the kangarooer the day before, Sasha poised herself with the rifle. Then, reeling from side to side like a cork tossing in a storm-swept sea, the wagon came into sight around a bend and |

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