The Hayloft Girls: Max Finds a Home

By Jillian Hannold

Max is on guard, especially since she just ran away from the Willow Wood Orphanage and the horrible Mrs. Fry. Its getting cold and dark on this October day, and she needs a place to sleep for the night. Thats when she stumbles upon a horse farm in the middle of nowhere.

Being a horse lover, Max knows this is where shell stay for a while until she can come up with a long-term plan to survive on her own. She immediately finds a friend in a horse that seems just as alone as she feels.

When Max goes up to the hayloft to find a place to sleep, she discovers shes not alone. She meets Danny, a girl whose situation mirrors her own. The two girls continue to hide out, become friends, and make the horse farm their shelter. But Max and Danny are worried when the owners become suspicious. They wonder if they are safe or if they are in trouble.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Mar 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480845558

Jillian Hannold

Jillian Hannold grew up loving horses in her small town of Walworth, New York. She used to play in the haylofts with her friends and take care of her horse, Belle. Hannold lives with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs in Walworth, New York.

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Copyright © 2017 Jillian Hannold.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-4554-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4555-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904834

Archway Publishing rev. date: 03/29/2017

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

To Chris, for always encouraging me to live my life

to the fullest and for making all my dreams come true, and to God, for everything

Acknowledgments

I am thankful for everyone over at Archway Publishing for helping make my book into what it is. And I am deeply grateful for my family, who has supported me and encouraged me, and for my friends Leigh and Becky. Without them, Danny and Max and their adventures wouldn’t exist. I cannot begin to explain how grateful I am to my parents, Cindy and Jerry for more reasons than I’ll ever be able to put down on paper.

Chapter 1

M ax sat down on the curb and put her face on her knees. She took a few deep breaths and tried to relax. It had been hours since she’d run away from Willow Wood Orphanage, and she was sure no one was following her. That old bat probably hasn’t even noticed that I’m gone, Max mumbled under her breath. The air was cold and crisp, and she could feel a slight wintery bite on the end of her nose. It was still early in the morning. The sun had just started to peek its face over the horizon. It was October, so the air would warm up a little bit as the day went on but not much.

Max found herself daydreaming about mornings like these. She would wake up with the sun and find herself warm and cozy in her fluffy pink bed. Her room was also pink, but you would never know it, since the walls were plastered with horse posters. She could still smell the cinnamon rolls hot out of the oven and the freshly brewed coffee her parents made, and she could still hear the old country music playing from the antique radio that hung underneath one of the cabinets in the kitchen. She could hear her parents working on the crossword puzzle together, asking questions and giving answers to one another. Her father was terrible at them, so he was always asking for help.

The sound of a car passing snapped her back to her reality. Max tied her shoes, grabbed a granola bar from her backpack, and started walking down the sidewalk again. She often