Chapter Twelve

"No. I'm not going any higher."

"Very well. Officer, do you stay with your bid of 3,500 Florins?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Excellent. 3,500 Florins ... going once. 3,500 Florins ... going twice..."

The gavel cracked on the table. Trish flinched at the bang, which seemed to her as loud as a shot. That gavel announced a turning point in the life of prisoner #4. She had just become the property of another person.

"Sold ... for 3,500 Florins! Thank you, Officer!"

Officer Eve Bousquet smiled slightly and nodded. She managed to conceal her joy and relief of having so narrowly won custody of Trish. She had bluffed perfectly. She would not have been able to bid any higher than 3,500 Florins, but fortunately her rival had not realized that.

Meanwhile, the uniformed cop assisting the auction pulled Trish to her feet. On her chest he wrote the sale price and her new owner's last name: "Bousquet". Trish returned to where the other prisoners were kneeling and stared at the grass in front of her ... trying to