Lonely Rancher Bought a Deaf Girl Sold by Her Drunk Father—Then Realized She Heard…

Chapter 2

The laughter from the nearby men was immediate and crude, the specific laughter of people who have mistaken cruelty for wit. Silas didn’t look at them. He counted coin into the drunk’s hand — enough for the horse, and something extra, which was not enough for what he was really buying but was what he had and was going to have to be sufficient.

The drunk yanked the rope toward him with the instinct of a man who hadn’t thought through the implications of the transaction. The girl flinched — the only flinch he ever saw from her — and stepped behind Silas, instinctively, without looking at him for permission.

“She’s yours,” the drunk said, slurring it. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Ain’t worth feeding.”

Silas untied the rope from her wrist and dropped it in the dirt. He guided the mare out of the pen without ceremony. The girl fell in behind them with soft, deliberate footsteps, not hurrying, not hanging back. She held a thin shawl over her shoulders and nothing else.

At the wagon, she stopped and waited.