“That’s right,” Miss Twyla said. “If you and the girls are here, I’ll help you look after them, same as I’m helping Crispin. But if you leave, maybe you’d best think of going a long ways away from all of us. Maybe one of those towns out west that need good workers. And if you leave and have any sense at all, you won’t tell Cyrus where you’re going.”

Sobbing, the Sierra fell into one of the chairs.

“For you, being around that man is like drinking a glass of poison every day,” Nadine said. “Maybe it just makes you sick, makes you weak, makes you forget who you really are and what you really want. But if you keep drinking, sooner or later, the poison will kill you.”

Simon wondered if Nadine had drunk that kind of poison when she was young. If she had, she’d also stopped drinking it. So had Theral MacDonald. She’d run away from an abusive mate. That Jack Fillmore was still sniffing around, still a threat, but Theral wasn’t crawling back to him. So there was a chance the Sierra would make a good choice for herself and her pups if she had a little time to think.

“We’ll all meet back here in one hour,” Simon told her. “You’ll give us your answer then.”

The Sierra ran out of the coffee shop, brushing past a female, who looked at them with big eyes and said, “Is it always so dramatic here?”

“Who are you?” Simon snarled. He wasn’t close enough to catch her scent, but her voice sounded vaguely familiar.

“Emily Faire. The nurse practitioner who is going to be working here? I have a letter from Mr. Ferryman for Mr. Wolfgard.”

Simon nodded, remembering where he’d seen her before. She had been in attendance as the healer when Meg made the cut and saw the possible future for the River Road Community.

He looked at Vlad. <You weren’t much help.>

<Why should both of us wear a target?> Vlad replied. <Besides, I was keeping track of the fluffball to make sure she didn’t grab a teakettle and hit someone.>

For the terra indigene, Merri Lee would always be the Teakettle Woman from Charlie Crowgard’s song about Teakettle Woman and Broomstick Girl.

“Come up to the office and we’ll discuss your employment,” Simon told Emily Faire. Then he pointed to Nadine. “This is Nadine Fallacaro. You’ll have a room in her apartment on the days you’re working here.”

“Really?” Emily Faire didn’t sound enthusiastic. She probably wondered how often Nadine attacked other females with a knife.

They hadn’t seen this behavior in the woman until now, but Simon was wondering the same thing.

Nadine sighed. “I’ll show you the apartment when you’re ready.” Her eyes widened. “Gods! I forgot about the muffins. Didn’t even hear the timer.”

“I took care of them,” Tess said, stepping in from the hallway. Her hair was green and curling. She wasn’t calm, but she was safe enough to be around the rest of them.

Simon walked past Montgomery on his way to HGR’s office.

“Simon,” Montgomery said quietly. “Would you really take Sierra’s girls away from her?”

“Yes.”

“Away from all of us?”

A good man, Simon thought. Intelligent and courteous. A man who had been trying to work with him from the first day they met. A man who understood loyalty. A man who had been separated from his own pup for a few months and wouldn’t willingly do that again.

A man who cared.

“If it came to that, the pups would be close enough that you and Miss Twyla could visit them,” Simon said.

“But Sierra couldn’t see them?”

“No.” He waited, but Montgomery didn’t say anything more. “One hour, Lieutenant.”

Simon and Vlad went upstairs to talk with Emily Faire about the terms of her employment. Since their original idea was for her to divide her time between the Courtyard and the River Road Community, they offered her one of the duplexes in the community, thinking that, being an Intuit from Great Island, she would want to live as close to her kind as possible. But she surprised them and asked if there was an inexpensive apartment in Lakeside that she could rent because she had a feeling she was needed here full-time and that someone else would be more suited to run the little clinic in the River Road Community.

Yes, they had an apartment she could rent, if she wanted her own den instead of a room with Nadine, but they didn’t have much furniture to offer.

Vlad took her across the street to show her the available apartments in the building where Nadine and Merri Lee resided. Simon watched them from the office window.

So, Emily Faire had a feeling she was needed here full-time? Why? Did that feeling have something to do with that Cyrus or the Elders? Or did she just want to learn more about the terra indigene and Meg and living around them was a way to do that? A new addition to the Courtyard. She hadn’t seemed overly excited while witnessing the scene in the coffee shop, so maybe they wouldn’t be adding another exploding fluffball to the female pack.

That was a problem for another day. Right now, he wanted to shake off the drama and go for a quick run before he had to deal with whatever problems the Sierra’s decision would cause.

Maybe he could pester Meg for a few minutes before going for a run. The pester game couldn’t last more than a couple of minutes before it stopped being fun for Meg. If she was still reading that book, she’d growl at him for interrupting her. He’d bring a snack from A Little Bite to distract her. She must be hungry by now.