Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,59

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