The Price of Pleasure Read Free Page A

thoughts. She looked down to see blood streaming from the slash, staining what was left of the white lawn skirt she wore. Curse it! She might’ve mended it, but she didn’t think the fabric could take another scrubbing before disintegrating.
    Forcing herself to slow, she looked back in her wake. She knew better than to leave such a trail—splintered branches and now blood on a broad leaf. After a deep, calming breath, she returned to her task of picking through spiny palm fronds until she reached the trail to their camp. Ten minutes of sprinting up the hillside brought her to the arch of banana leaves serving as an entryway to their home.
    â€œMen!” Tori gasped as she lurched into the clearing. “Men and a ship!” She bent over, sucking in air, then sank down, her thighs tight against her mud-speckled calves. No one answered. “Cammy?” she called. Nothing. Their hut, supported high in an ancient banyan, was silent. So help her, Cammy had better be in there. How many times had Tori ordered her to remain in the camp?
    And Cammy would’ve been able to remember if she hadn’t begun losing her wits at a spectacular rate.
    Rushing to the ladder, she took two bamboo rungs at a time, then hurried to the door flap made of old sail. She yanked open the cloth to peer inside. Empty. Tori looked away and back as if she hadn’t seen correctly. What if Cammy wandered all the way down to the beach this time?
    There were two trails to their little shelf of land on the hillside, one hidden and one more hidden. She’d already run the length of the former, so she dashed over to the latter. Halfway down she found Cammy sitting back against a tree, breaths shallow, face waxy, her lips chapped and cracked.
    Tori shook her shoulder, and after a few seconds Cammy opened her eyes, blinking against the light. “Where is your hat, Tori? Have you been in the sun?”
    Relief soughed through Tori’s body like a breeze. Cammy scolding was much better than Cammy sleeping like the dead.
    â€œWith your fair skin, it’s just common sense…” She trailed off when she saw Tori’s bloodied leg and wet, tattered skirt. “What has happened now?”
    â€œMen and a ship. After a giant chased me and ripped my clothes, I lost track of the hat.”
    Cammy gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach her distracted hazel eyes. “We can’t be too careful about our complexions, now, can we?” she asked vaguely.
    Vague. That was the best way to describe Cammy now. Before, she’d been a vibrant woman, as vibrant as her fiery red hair, with a crisp, lively intelligence. Now she seemed wilted, and her clarity of mind faded in and out with no discernible pattern.
    Tori mentally counted to five. Sometimes, when Cammy got that unfocused look about her, Tori wanted to shake her. “Did you hear what I said? We’re not alone.”
    Just when Tori decided she wouldn’t understand what was happening, Cammy asked, “What were they like?”
    â€œThe one that came after me had the coldest, most piercing eyes I’ve ever seen. I had to put him in the ravine to stop him.”
    â€œThe ravine?” she asked. “Oh, how I wish I could’ve seen that.”
    Tori frowned at the fresh memory and said almost to herself, “It really is true about the bigger you are, the harder you fall.” She shook her head. “The rest of them were slashing at the foliage, getting ready to enter.”
    â€œSailors combing the brush.” Cammy shivered. “History’s repeating itself….”
    Both froze when the birds nearby fell silent. “We’ve got to get to the camp,” Tori whispered.
    â€œI’m going to slow you down. You go and I’ll follow.”
    â€œWhy, yes, that’s just what I’ll do,” Tori said while wedging a shoulder under Cammy’s arm and lifting her. After painfully slow moments, they