A Snatch of Pepper
by Avery Sam
Copyright Information
A Snatch of Pepper
by Avery Sam
© 2026 Avery Sam
All rights reserved.
Author: Avery Sam
Contact details: averysam.parachute371@passinbox.com
Book cover, illustration: Avery Sam
Editing, proofreading: Avery Sam
This e-book, including its portions, is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced, resold, or redistributed without the permission of the author.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Even inside one of the huts and away from the fierce anvil of the afternoon sun, the air was like a furnace.
To distract herself from the sweat forming on her brow and under her arms, Pepper hummed a little tune as she swept the coarse dirt floor. With no money for glass in the windows, it was a never-ending task to keep the dust from getting absolutely everywhere.
Wearing just a simple homespun dress, Pepper did her best to get the laborer’s hut as clean and tidy as she could. It took effort to pull the narrow cots away from the walls and sweep up the dust, but they worked hard on the dueño’s lands and deserved a modicum of comfort when they arrived home at the end of another long day in the agave fields.
Pepper poured a tiny bit of water from the clay pitcher to wash the roughhewn wooden dishes and aluminum cups that the men used for their simple meals, all the while wishing she could step outside and pour the water over her head just to feel it trickle down her body and between her breasts to get some relief from the omnipresent heat.
Once the pillows stuffed with corn husks were fluffed and the hunk of wood that they used as a table was polished with her rag, Pepper pronounced the hut done and then moved onto the next one. There were currently 16 in use, each one housing four men who came from all parts of Mexico to earn a few coins tending to the spiky agave plants that somehow managed to grow in the dry, cracked soil.
Cleaning the laborers’ huts was difficult work, but there weren’t many other options for a girl like Pepper, born the seventh child to a woman who worked as a cook in the big house and one of his foremen, who regularly drank up his week’s wages before remembering that he had a family to feed.
As such, Pepper and all her siblings had been turned out to beg or do whatever menial tasks they could find so they could have a mouthful of beans and rice to eat in the evening.
Using her handmade broom to try and tease out the piles of dust that had built up in the corner of ...