One of the truckers who had given her a ride had stopped to refuel his semi and eat, and had shown her the rooms she could clean up in.One of the waitresses had been nice and helped her figure out how to use the basic shower.
It had been pure heaven.She’d never felt so clean in her life, but had been extremely nervous the whole time she was naked, so she hadn’t tried again.At the convent, everyone took sponge baths, or sometimes half of a wine barrel was brought out for a shallow, tiny bathtub she had to kneel in.
Angel decided to wash her clothes and hang them to dry over the shower rod.She took off what she was wearing and washed it as well.She hated being naked, so she wrapped a towel around her torso.
She knew her phobia had to do with Sister Mary’s comments about how ugly her body was, and no one would ever want to see it.Now that she thought about it, the woman hadn’t had anything nice to say to her in the seventeen years she’d lived at the convent.
When she was done with that task, she used a washcloth and the sink to wash her body, just as she’d done most of her life.
When she was dry, she unbraided her long, thick hair and used her fingers to comb through it before washing it in the sink.She’d become so used to living like this, she didn’t think anything of it.
The sink was a little high, so she had to contort herself to reach it, and it took a bit longer to finish.When she finally got all the soap out of it, she wrung out as much water as she could before wrapping a towel around her head.
At the bottom of her bag, she pulled out the small Ziplock baggie that contained all her belongings, including a toothbrush, a comb, hair ties, a small amount of money, and a few other essentials.
She picked up her rolled-up blanket and walked into the bedroom.She stood next to the bed for a moment before pressing her hand down on it.In the convent, she’d only had a cot to sleep on, and since she left, she made do with the blanket, and if she was lucky, she could place some straw under it.The thought of lying in a real bed made her stomach ache.
As the minutes passed, she felt increasingly like an impostor for some reason.Her thoughts were becoming muddled because of her lack of sleep the night before, so she lay down on the floor by the bed and rolled up in the blanket.She was out a moment later.
Chapter Five
Thomas looked up whensomeone knocked on his open office door.
“Come in, Todd.Thanks for coming.”
The ranch hand stood in front of him with his hat in his hands.
“How did it go last night?”Thomas asked.
“You were right.Those men did try to get to the girl, but Ray and I beat the tar out of them and threw them over the fence.They took off in their truck.”
Thomas sat back.Dammit.He was glad he’d made the decision to have his men watch over her, but he wondered how many times she’d been threatened in the past.
“Was there anything else?”he asked.
Todd nodded.“We heard the girl talking to her animals.It was the saddest thing I’d ever heard.She called them her family, the only one she’d ever had.She told them she was giving them up so they could have a good life because she loved them, but she would miss them, and then she cried for a long time.”
