HUNGER TWISTED ANNA MCKENNA’S BELLY AS SHE followed the deer track, leading the blood bay colt behind her. She didn’t know where she was, and many days of walking hadn’t lessened her fear that someone followed her. Every sound in the forest made her heart leap into her throat. Were they looking for her, the relatives who’d taken her in, claiming to want to give her a home? Would she starve to death before she found her way back to civilization? Would someone manage to take Shiloh’s Star from her no matter how far she traveled?
“Trust and listen,” Mama’s voice seemed to whisper in her ear. “Trust and listen.”
Thoughts of her mama caused tears to spring to her eyes. Thoughts of Daddy too. Both of them were gone now. Daddy killed in the war. Mama of pneumonia, the doctor had said, but Anna was pretty sure Mama died of a broken heart. The red colt had been a gift from her parents. Shiloh’s Star was all she had left of them, and she wasn’t going to let anybody take him from her. Not anybody. Including Cousin Luther.
Anna dashed away the tears with her fingertips, and as she did so, the pine trees parted and the path spilled onto a rocky plateau overlooking a beautiful emerald-colored valley. It was shaped like the boomerang she’d once seen in a general store. To her left, in the distance, she saw what looked to be a small town. Much closer and on the opposite end of the curve, she saw a house, barn, and outbuildings, cattle grazing in high grass.
God willing, she would get something to eat and maybe have one good night of sleep before she and the colt moved on.