you like, but let’s leave my mother out of it. Tell me, love, why
 
 should I purchase you instead of these other lovely women?”
 
 Meg let her eyes grow round as saucers. “I’m being sold?
 
 Someone is selling me like a piece of fucking meat?”
 
 Beck shook his head. “Language there, darlin’. You’re in a
 
 market, trussed up like a pretty, plump pigeon. Did you think you
 
 were just hanging on the chains for show?”
 
 “Your…I apologize, sir. The girl is rather ignorant,” said the small
 
 man named Rhys. He barely came to Beck’s waist. Compared to
 
 Beck, he looked like a boy. A boy with a bushy beard and a pointy red
 
 cap. All the jailers wore them.
 
 “I am not ignorant, asshole.” Meg wasn’t sure why the other
 
 women weren’t screaming at the violation of their persons, but there
 
 was no way she was going out without a fight. “I have two, count
 
 them, two degrees. I have a bachelor’s in both History and English
 
 Literature.” Combined, they had only been enough to get her a job
 
 managing a software store, but, by god, she had them. Of course, now
 
 she wished she’d chucked her college education in favor of some self-
 
 defense training. She was pretty sure her knowledge of Chaucer and
 
 the War of 1812 wouldn’t help her out of her current dilemma.
 
 “I did not mean it that way.” Rhys’s fists clenched in obvious
 
 frustration. Meg noticed that he always tried to maintain a soft tone
 
 when speaking to her. He was polite, even when she cursed him. “The
 
 girl is obviously intelligent, though lacking in any kind of manners.
 
 She is from the Earth plane.”
 
 Beck turned from the smaller man and back to her, his mouth
 
 hanging slightly open. He stared at her, as though he couldn’t quite
 
 process the words. It gave Meg a chance to study him.
 
 He was tall. He had to be at least six foot four. He would tower
 
 over her. Meg herself was only five foot five, and a rather rounded