“He needs to be outdoors,” Mike said, retaining the leash. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.”
“Get one of my grandkids to show you where the creek is,” Perry said. “Dog probably needs water after driving all day. I’ll walk you over there, introduce you to the crowd.” He gave Tamsyn a flippant salute. “We’ll talk all you want after dinner.”
Mrs. Christie herded them toward the first house behind the main residence, chatting a mile a minute with Melly and Tamsyn, although they could hardly get a word in edgewise. The soldiers followed behind with amusement on their faces. With pride, the housekeeper showed them through the house, which had three bathrooms and eight bedrooms. “We used to entertain a great deal when Mrs. Norwood was alive. Gets lonely up here otherwise. Of course not now, with all the people living here.”
“I hope no one was displaced to make room for us,” Tamsyn said.
“Oh they didn’t mind. You’re our first visitors since Mr. Norwood shut the ranch down and everyone is excited. We don’t get any news since the power failed in the cities—we have our own of course—and also I understand one of you is a doctor?”
Melly raised her hand. “Are there people in need of care? I understood there was a nurse practitioner?—”
“Doris Hampner and she’ll be glad to see you. It’s a big responsibility watching over all the folks here and I think she’s burned out.”
“We’re only here for a day,” Jeff said immediately.
“But I’ll see as many people as I can,” Melly rushed to add. “After I have a chance to consult with Ms. Hampner of course.”
The housekeeper nodded and folded her hands on her apron. “All right, I’ll leave you to settle in if there aren’t any questions?”
“Thank you for making such a fuss over our arrival,” Tamsyn said, feeling she was supposed to be the primary guest and spokesperson. Mrs. Christie had given her the master bedroom, which embarrassed Tamsyn a bit, since she felt Jeff and Melly should have it, as he was in command. She’d share with Cody of course.
“Dinner’s in forty minutes now,” Mrs. Christie said as she lingered on the threshold. “Mr. Norwood likes people to be prompt to the table.” With a wave she descended the steps and walked away.
“Being here is like we’ve gone back in time to before the outbreak,” Tamsyn said, looking at the faces of her companions. “They’re trying hard to keep life going as if nothing had happened, aren’t they?”
“I’m guessing he has the resources to do that,” Jeff said. “For a while. Unless he’s putting on a show for us, which doesn’t make much sense.”
“I’ve visited here before, although it was a long time ago, and it was the same,” Tamsyn told him. “Mrs. Christie was younger. Well, we all were. My Dad was here on a buying trip. He wanted to add to our herd’s gene pool and strengthen the bloodlines.” Her throat ached with unshed tears. Memories were assaulting her.
Cody came to her, taking her elbow and then giving her a side hug. “We’d better get a move on if we’re going to show up at this guy’s dinner table on time as ordered.”
“Why am I tempted to be late just to see what happens?” Ryan quipped.
Jeff shook his head. “Bad idea. This guy’s the ruler of his isolated domain here and I want to pick his brain on the situation in this area so no offending him unless we have to.”
Tamsyn and Cody ascended the stairs to the master bedroom suite, closing the door behind them when they reached the room. “You doing okay?” he asked her.
“I’m working on it,” she admitted.
Pulling her in for a hug, Cody rubbed her back. “You’re doing fine. I know the captain appreciates your getting us in here for intel gathering.”
“Right now I’d like to take a long bubble bath in the tub in there and then spend a few hours in this bed with you,” she said.
“But the feast awaits,” Cody said with a rueful grin. “Do you suppose he’ll feed us beef?”
She laughed. “Undoubtedly, even now in the middle of an apocalypse, Perry will want to show off the quality of his product. I did too—remember that dinner I fixed for you and the others?”
“The steaks were awesome,” he replied, rubbing his stomach. “Best I’ve ever had. I’m sure Perry can’t do better.”
* * *
The dinner was long and cozy, although there were quite a few people at the table. Perry sat at the head of course and he insisted Tamsyn sit to his right. One of his sons ended up at the foot of the table and her group and his family were seated alternately around the gleaming wood. Zach had managed to be placed next to Fleur, the AGcycle riding daughter and Jeff was opposite Tamsyn with Melly next to him. She had the oldest Norwood son for her dinner partner and Cody was down the table next to Esme, one of the younger daughters. Perry informed her Esme was in charge of his drone fleet and other tech aspects of running the ranch and had been in line for a cushy job in the capital city running a government high tech center before the flu hit.
Jeff told their story, of how he and his team were retired Special Forces soldiers, come to the planet to take up veterans’ acres and ranch. Tamsyn didn’t think Perry was buying the story any more than she had when they explained it to her but he courteously allowed the captain to continue, relating how the soldiers had set the planetwide warn-off beacon and escaped the capital city in the ‘borrowed’ APC’s. She was sure he glossed over a lot of things, including details she remembered him sharing with her at her ranch. Melly briefly interjected her share of the tale, being a newly licensed doctor coming home to Randal Four to take a job at the hospital in the capital but instead landing all unknowing in the middle of the apocalypse. Her parents had died at home and her brother had survived in a shelter her prepper father had built.
“Jeff and the guys saved my life,” she said, “When a swarm of the infected came at us from the spaceport terminal. It was close but we made it to safety.”
Tamsyn gave an overview of what had happened to her town of Rosewater and a laconic recap of the events on her ranch, culminating in her sending the two school buses full of refugees off to safety while she fled to her own ranch, meeting Melly and Jeff and the others on the way.
