Chapter 52

The leaves were then added with a lime mixture and filtered. The resulting paste was dried and cut into bricks. The bricks were wrapped in plastic and stored in the rooster’s cabin until the men on horseback came for them.

“You are quite strong for your size,” the head guard said one day as he weighed her burlap bag. “You do more than those other two together.”

“I eat more,” she said to him. His name was Raul. Cam appreciated the way he noticed when work was done right.

“Then you’ll get more,” he assured her. “You should tell your companion Beatrice to do more, too. I don’t think the general is very happy with her work…either in the fields OR his cabin.” He looked Cam directly in the eyes, hoping she’d know what he was talking about.

Yes, Cam knew exactly what he was referring to.

That night Cam talked to the three other women and told them what he had said.