I did not like falling behind on plans or projects. It set my fangs on edge and made it feel as though every part of my uniform was fitting wrong.
“At least the doctor has not yet been hired,” I admitted, though saying the words out loud brought me no comfort. Whether a doctor had been found or not, I was responsible for this portion of things.
Shiloh’s next words brought me even less comfort.
“Oh, has Tasha not contacted you yet? She just sent a message in the group chat.” Shiloh pulled her human-style tablet out of her coat pocket. She angled the screen my way, then seemed to think better of it, swiftly pulling it back so that I could not see the screen. “Ignore that. There was a bit of weird conversation in there last night about, er, never mind. You don’t need to see that. But Tasha messaged to say a doctor had been hired and would be arriving soon.”
“Soon?” I reminded myself that Shiloh was not a military officer under my command, nor was she one of my convicts. I could not bark orders and demands at her. I steadied myself, forcing what I hoped came across as calmness into my voice. “How soon?”
“Sorry, I don’t know what kind of shuttle she’s taking or how fast it is,” Shiloh said. “I’m sure Tasha would have more information.”
“The hospital will not be ready.” I did not like to say it, but I had never been one to shy away from an inconvenient or uncomfortable truth. The facts simply were as they were. There was no changing them, only making plans around them.
“Well, I’m sure that will be alright,” Shiloh said. “I know she was supposed to have a room to live in at the hospital, but she can stay with us at the saloon for now.”
“You do not have a spare bedroom,” I pointed out.
“That’s true,” Shiloh agreed, “but she could maybe kind of camp out in the dining room like Tasha and Tenn did when they came to stay when I first arrived here. We could set up a nice little cot or something. Just temporarily.”
I did not approve of that idea. Rivven’s saloon often served as a social space for himself, Xennet, and Dorn. While Rivven would be preoccupied with his own wife, whom he was entirely besotted with, Xennet and Dorn would likely not give this new female doctor a moment’s peace if they knew she was staying at the saloon without her own bedroom walls to enclose her or a door to put between them. Not that I thought they’d do anything truly wrong or inappropriate – if I did not trust them, I would not allow them to participate in the bride program in the first place. They were ultimately good, if sometimes ridiculous, men. But they could try a man’s – or woman’s, I supposed – patience like nothing else I’d experienced. They’d likely pester the woman beyond the bounds of sanity, and we could not afford to lose the one and only doctor who’d agreed to come and fill the post.
There was nothing for it.
“She will stay with me.”
3
LUALHATI
The first two faces I saw on Zabria Prinar One were ones I recognized. Tasha and Warden Tenn met me when the doors of the big, honking interstellar shuttle opened after landing on a sun-drenched patchwork of snow and reddish muck.
The third face, however, was new. And unlike Tasha’s broad smile or Warden Tenn’s warm orange gaze, his expression gave me nothing but a cutting sort of coldness.
Or maybe that was just the planet’s cold air getting to me through the seams of my coat. As I so often preferred to do, I’d gone for fashion over function, wearing a long, white, belted trench coat and knee-high boots with sexy, spindly heels. Not exactly the best outfit for arriving on an isolated ranching planet/penal colony, but I loved this jacket and boots, and I wanted to make a good first impression. I had to spend so much of my time in scrubs with my hair scraped back that I’d always devoted extra attention to the clothes I wore outside of work.
But it did mean that I was now a wee bit chilly willy.
“We are so glad you could join us as our resident provincial physician,” Tasha said, still beaming. “And on a personal note, I am so happy to work with you again!”
“Stop! You’re so cute,” I said with a laugh. “Come here.” I pulled her into a hug, which she enthusiastically accepted. I found myself slightly choked up, having not hugged anyone since I left my job on Elora Station.
The same day I left Bryson.
Since then, I’d been furiously packing and completely ignoring him. And then, I’d been on the hired shuttle out here. It was a big vehicle, with my own guest bedroom and lots of storage for all my boxes.
“This is my husband, Warden Tenn,” Tasha said, pulling away from the hug. With a grin, I kept my arms open towards him, raising my brows. He looked surprised, but pleased, and leaned in to give me a swift hug.
“And this-” Tasha began after her husband had patted me once on the back and let me go.
“Must be Warden Hallum!” I finished for her.
Tasha and I had spoken several times to hammer out our arrangement, and she’d filled me in on all sorts of details about this place, including telling me about the warden overseeing the province I’d be living in. She’d explained that, compared to her own husband, Warden Hallum was a stricter and more serious sort of man.
Looks like she wasn’t exaggerating…
Like Warden Tenn, Warden Hallum was absolutely massive, at least seven feet tall, with a shoulder span that I imagined could chew up any doorway you tried to shove it through. Unlike Warden Tenn, however, his huge frame didn’t have any hint of familiar ease or relaxation in it. He stood with his hands firmly placed behind him, his back so straight I could easily believe that he had a rod of metal running right up his spine.
Or a big stick up his bum.
