Chapter 75: Apparently She Had Excellent Taste in Cats

The returning man backed behind his sled at the sight of the bodies. Edrik started toward him until Dove called him back. She pointed down the road from Thorne’s back, unwilling to spend another hour finding out how many friends the dead men had.

"He can stand there and be horrified," she told Edrik. "I’d like to be horrified somewhere with a chair." He watched the stranger a moment longer before following them around the garden center’s rear parking lot and back onto the road beyond the bridge.

Before dark, they reached a fenced water department garage beside the south road. Two repair bays faced the yard, with parked work trucks along one fence and a guard standing beside the gate. The man had his hand on the latch until Dove lifted her face from Thorne’s fur. He breathed in, stared, and lost his grip on the latch.

"You’ve got a woman with you," he said, staring while another worker stopped dragging a hose across the concrete. "Out here, in this weather? Bring her inside. Someone tell the keeper we need the upstairs room."

"Excellent, because sleeping in a truck sounded terrible," Dove said. Thorne waited for the gate to open before carrying her through, while Edrik walked close enough to block the worker who suddenly wanted to help her down.

Thorne lowered her beside a parked truck, then shifted behind it and dressed from his bag while Edrik stayed with her.

Inside, a stove warmed the cleared repair bay. Men sat around folding tables between shelves of tools, and several fell quiet when she slipped off her cap. Her blonde hair shone when she shook it loose, and the nearest man drew a long breath before remembering to look away. Another nearly lowered his spoon into his neighbor’s mug. Thorne gave him a look that suggested he should concentrate on lunch.

The keeper accepted two owned blankets for two nights in their room. He showed them the metal stairs against the back wall, then pointed out Pine Ridge School on a map, farther south near Three Rivers. She marked the school before folding the map.

Upstairs, the old staff room held two bunks, a table, and a washstand beside a window overlooking the yard. The stairs ended outside its solid, locking door. Dove could hear the downstairs stove being fed without having to share her bed with whoever fed it.

They used the downstairs stove to heat beef and carrots from their recovered cans, with a pot of mashed potatoes beside them. Thorne filled three bowls, then gave her another spoonful when she pointed. After dinner, she checked Edrik’s dressing. His cut had settled, but she told him that being able to move his hand didn’t mean he should lift everything they owned. He accepted this with the expression of a man planning to try again later.

Day Thirty-Two began with her usual wash, using water brought out of her space into the basin. Her skin felt clean, her fur dried soft, and Thorne found three excuses to pass close enough to breathe against her hair before she told him to sit down.

Four toothbrush sets arrived in Sprout’s daily box, each holding two brushes and toothpaste. Selling three paid twelve normal coins. Six fresh Favor unlocked a fourteen-coin grooming kit, and she needed one newly stored item. A new daily exercise task offered three normal coins for fifteen active minutes. Walking, gentle exercise, or willing private activity counted; being carried did not.

"Walking counts, so keep your suggestions out of my bed," she told Sprout. "And stop calling toothpaste a romantic opportunity."

Thorne’s pleased reaction helped bring her Favor purse to nine hundred eleven after the fresh earnings and mate extra. She kept one set for four, leaving nine hundred seven. Downstairs, the other three sold for soap, oatmeal, and dried apples. The single mission reward brought her normal balance to thirty-six.

She stored the soap and left the grooming kit unbought. Fifteen minutes sorting supplies and walking the watched yard paid the exercise reward, bringing her normal coins to thirty-nine. At the washstand, Thorne chose the dark brush. Edrik already owned a worn one, so she shared the toothpaste and caught him watching her in the glass above the basin.

"We’re cleaning our teeth, not signing anything," she told him. Thorne laughed with his mouth full, immediately regretted it, and earned a delighted grin from her. She liked being able to laugh without checking who might hear.

Later, while filling her mug from the downstairs hot-water barrel, she heard two carriers discussing Milepost. A dragon from the Warren had been asking about a small white fox woman. The carrier glanced at Dove’s loose blonde waves and smiled before returning to his friend. Her white tail stayed covered beneath its tan sleeve, and her cap hid her ears.

He had personally watched Ash show Milepost’s keeper a canceled order and ask which way she had gone. He knew nothing about what happened afterward. Dove finished filling her mug before walking upstairs, keeping the water steady until she could shut their door.

"Why is he looking for me? He spent enough time acting like I’d tried to kill him," she told Thorne. Relief had arrived with the anger, which annoyed her almost as much as Ash did. "And apparently I’m a small white fox. Small? Have they met me?"

Thorne’s eyes dropped to the knit shirt stretched across her chest before he caught himself. Color rose along his cheekbones, and Dove lifted her mug to hide a smile. "Thank you for checking. Very thorough of you."

She agreed to send a folded message with the carrier, after Thorne checked that his regular route went back toward Milepost. They were safe, traveling willingly, and not waiting to be collected. No next stop went on the paper. Thorne took it downstairs for delivery to Ash, then returned alone and closed the door.

"If someone sees me, he’ll probably hear eventually," he said. "I’m the only black panther. The others are white or gray."

Dove stared at him. No wonder they had kept his description out of the message.

"I picked the rare one?" she asked, reaching for his hand. "Well, now I’m even more pleased with myself. You should have mentioned that while I was busy admiring everything else."

Edrik laughed from the bunk, where he had been checking his dressing. "What about me?" he asked, looking at her with enough warmth to make the question feel much less casual.

"Do I have you? I didn’t know I had you," she said. Edrik met her eyes with a slow smile. "You haven’t asked properly." Thorne pulled her against his side, pleased by the noise she made when her own teasing came back to bite her.

"Your girlfriend has excellent taste," she informed her panther. His thumb moved over her knuckles, but something in his expression changed, leaving her wondering what she had said wrong. Then he looked straight at her and said, "You’re not my girlfriend, Dove."