She pulled them out of her daypack, and he pulled them out of her hand.

“Sheriff’s office is on the other side of the square,” he said, still growling. “Show up at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.” Virgil walked out of the saloon.

“I’m confused,” Jana said. “Am I hired or not?”

“Talk to Virgil in the morning,” Tolya said. “In the meantime, here is Barbara Ellen Debany, your housemate.”

Blond hair, blue eyes, some freckles across the nose and cheeks. Early to mid-twenties, so they were close to the same age.

“I’m so glad to meet you,” Barbara Ellen said with more enthusiasm than seemed warranted. “My friends call me Barb.” She glanced at Tolya. “My human friends call me Barb.”

“I’m glad to meet you too.”

“There are papers you need to fill out,” Tolya said. “Then you should go to the hotel and get the key for your room.”

“But you just said …” Jana looked at Barb.

“You’ll be more comfortable in the hotel until you have a chance to pick out furniture for your bedroom,” Barb said.

That made sense. Jana filled out the paperwork and had barely written in the final answer before Barb handed the papers to someone named Yuri and hustled her over to the hotel.

“What’s the hurry?” Jana asked.

“Our house was one of the few that was cleared out, so we have to replace everything we want, right down to the kind of hangers you prefer.”

That sounded daunting.

“The thing is, we all get to pick from whatever is available, but it’s first come, first served, and even though things are jumbled, it’s easier to select things from a place that looks like a warehouse yard sale than going into houses that …” Barb blew out a breath. “That look like someone still lives there. Depending on where they choose to live within the new town boundaries, some of the folks coming in today will have to clear out the houses by themselves. Everyone is expected to put in at least a couple of hours of sorting a day, but I think it’s harder when other people’s clothes are still in the closet, and there are photographs on the walls. You know?”

Jana didn’t know but could imagine it quite well. “I’d like to swap out some clothes so I have what I need for a couple of days.”

“We’ll go to the house next so you can do that and also choose your bedroom and take a look at what I’ve already selected for the living room, dining room, and kitchen,” Barb said. “And you might want to choose a bicycle. There’s a ‘bike corral’ next to the hotel and guests can borrow a bicycle to get around or just for fun. But it’s also the place where bicycles retrieved from emptied houses are being stored and can be claimed.”

“Oh.” Jana tried to hide her disappointment. “I thought I would be getting a horse.”

“Not enough room in the yard to keep two horses—or even one horse, for that matter, which is why my horse is at the livery stable. I have a bicycle as an alternate way to travel from home to stable. Or just to get around for shopping if I don’t want to take Rowan out. You can choose a car—people are mostly keeping whatever was parked in their driveway, but almost every parking lot around the square is stuffed with unclaimed vehicles. The catch is that residents are limited to one tank of gas each month to make sure the government vehicles, medical vehicles, and public transportation have enough fuel. That’s why most people use the buses or walk or ride a bicycle.”

A different way of life. An active way of life.

“Oh, and go easy the first couple of days,” Barb added. “A few people felt a bit sick because of the difference in altitude and drier air. Don’t push too hard and drink lots of water.”

The water she could do. Pushing too hard? That would depend on her boss.

For the rest of the day, Jana viewed her new home and made a sketch of her bedroom, as well as the third bedroom she and Barb wanted to turn into a shared office. They went to one of the buildings that was stuffed with furniture and selected everything they wanted for her bedroom and the office. From there, they went to household storage and packed a box with linens, hangers, curtains, and everything else they could think of needing to set up their house.

“Do you like dogs?” Barb asked suddenly when she turned a corner made by a wall of boxes and stopped.

“Sure, I like dogs,” Jana replied. “Haven’t had one since I was a kid, but I like them.”

“Want one?”

Jana blinked. “They have dogs back there?”

Barb laughed. “No, pet supplies. Dog beds and leashes and other stuff.”

“Not much point adding that stuff to what we already have until there’s a dog.”

“Oh, there are plenty of dogs. Being the almost-vet, I’ve been taking care of all of them until I can find homes for them.”

Jana heard an undercurrent of emotion and wondered if Barb had been given a time limit on finding homes for the pets that had been left behind.

“Horse first, since being a mounted deputy is part of my work.” And part of the reason she wanted this job. “Then we can look at the dogs and go from there.”

Barb smiled. “Horse first.”

They finished up all the “moving to a new place” insanity with a quick look at the free books.

Barb handed her a paper shopping bag. “Each new resident is allowed to take a bag full of books.”

Jana eyed the piles of books and hoped she didn’t look greedy. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope.”

“Why didn’t we come here first?”

“I know. I’m one of the book sorters. I already have my bag of freebies, so it’s probably good that there is always more than one person here. Otherwise, I’d be too tempted to walk off with a paperback a day.”

“Are we sharing books?”

“We can, unless there’s one we both really want as a keeper.”

“Then let’s fill my bag with things you don’t have yet—unless I really want a copy for myself.”

“Deal. And you can take a couple with you to the hotel and I’ll take the rest of them with me and put them in your bedroom.”

“We need to pick up more bookcases,” Jana said, eyeing the books.

“Definitely.”

They finished up and Barb headed for the house they would soon share, saying it was still recommended that the humans reach their homes before full dark. Jana walked to the hotel and went into the gift shop. She had a couple of note cards in her daypack from her stash of stationary, but she bought a few postcards that were photos of the surrounding land and the native wildlife.

The last thing she did before going to bed that night was write a quick note to Jenni Crowgard in Lakeside, using a postcard with a picture of a bison on the front.

CHAPTER 16

Windsday, Messis 15

At seven o’clock, Jana found the breakfast buffet in the hotel’s dining room and filled a plate with a balance of carefully selected food. Claiming a seat at a table, she went back for juice and coffee. Then she sat down and tucked in, despite her stomach having first-day-of-work jitters. Those would settle—she hoped. Even if they didn’t, she would not throw up on her boss and give him the satisfaction of firing her before he officially hired her. And if he did fire her, all bets were off about the condition of his shoes after that discussion.

Finding the visual perversely amusing, Jana also found her appetite.

No one had talked about pay, but Anya Sanguinati, who was the hotel’s manager, had told the new residents that while they were guests at the hotel their meals were free as a way of using up food that would spoil. People staying at the boardinghouse were also given their meals. She would have thought the Others would want the humans to prepare food in their own homes, but Barb had explained that the people who had initially come to Bennett had been considered a transitory work force. With the arrival of the people hired at the Lakeside job fair, the transitory work force was evolving into permanent residents. Eventually, new food supplies would be needed and people would have to pay for groceries or for a dinner out, but for now, everyone could focus on settling into their new homes and new places of work and not give a thought about cooking dinner.

The fact that the majority of that transitory work force had been male, single, and in their late teens or early twenties might have been a factor in that decision. Or not. Hard to tell since the terra indigene were making up the rules.

Speaking of terra indigene …

Jana hurried back to her room to brush her teeth and give herself a last chance to change her mind about what to wear for her first day on the job. That was another thing that hadn’t been mentioned. The sheriff could wear whatever he wanted, but were deputies supposed to dress in a uniform? Wearing jeans made sense to her if she was spending part of her day on horseback, but was there a specific shirt or color that would be identified as the law? And was there anyplace in town that sold uniforms?

She’d figure it out. She had to. Most likely, this was the only chance she would have to be a serving police officer, and Virgil Wolfgard was already against having her on his staff. Typical male. But she wasn’t going to buckle or back down. She’d stood up for herself against every man at the academy, and she would stand up for herself now. Besides, once she got her horse, she could do her work and avoid the sheriff much of the time.

She put a few personal items in her daypack, double-checked that she had her room key, and headed for the sheriff’s office.

* * *

* * *

“Here she comes,” Kane said from his post in the open doorway of the sheriff’s office.

Virgil pounded a nail into the last corner of the sign he’d attached to the cellblock wall, then stepped back to admire his work.

Tolya had wanted a human deputy, saying humans would be more inclined to ask for help from someone who wouldn’t bite them. What was understood and not said was that Virgil wasn’t interested in helping humans; he was interested in protecting the terra indigene by eliminating two-legged problems with swift, bloody efficiency. But leashing him to a small female? What good would that do? He’d listened to what some of the humans had said yesterday. They thought it was a joke. A female deputy? Ha ha.

If anyone except Simon Wolfgard had chosen her, Jana Paniccia wouldn’t be reporting to work this morning. At least, not reporting to work with him. But he knew Simon. More important, he trusted Simon—and Simon had seen some potential in this female.

Time to find out if she still showed potential now that she was here.

* * *

* * *

Jana smiled at the man lounging in the doorway of the sheriff’s office. It was a professional smile—friendly enough that men wouldn’t mutter “bitch” after she walked by but not warm enough to be in any way mistaken for an invitation to be friendly. When he removed the sunglasses and she saw the amber eyes, she hoped he wouldn’t be interested in finding out if she was friendly.