Marked In Flesh (The Others #4) - Anne Bishop Page 0,55
directed him to the road and the turn toward the Crowgard’s part of the Courtyard—which meant passing the new sign. He smelled fear, but neither man said anything.
“The information you received that makes you think a big storm is coming,” Steve said. “You didn’t get that from Meg, did you?”
Simon shook his head. “From Jean.”
“Gods above and below.”
He could hear Steve trying to steady his breath. “Simon, Jean is . . .”
Simon hesitated, thinking of what he’d just said to Meg about keeping information within the pack. But he’d already told Steve and Jerry that a storm was coming. He didn’t feel easy about telling them more, but he removed the letter from his pocket and handed it to Steve. “Her brain is sick. That’s not why she sees what she sees, but maybe it’s the reason she chooses to remember what she sees.”
“Gods,” Steve said again after he read the letter. “All right, we’ll purchase what we can afford.”
“Buy what you can get. The Courtyard has money. We’ll pay for it. You’d better buy what you can for the River Road Community too.”
“Yeah, all right.” Steve handed back the letter. “One thing the ‘Meg, the Trailblazer’ e-mails have done for us is provided us with an expanded network of Intuit settlements. We’ve started a second list of what each settlement makes and what it wants to buy. The village council already decided to purchase as much as we could from our own.”
“Send that list to Meg and Vlad, since Meg doesn’t remember to check e-mail.” He pointed. “Pull up at the bridge. That’s the lake Meg wants you to see.”
“The campus doesn’t have a lake, but there is a creek that runs through that land. I think we could find a spot that could be opened up to make a natural swimming hole,” Steve said. “We’ll take another look when we get back to the island.”
They drove back to the Market Square, letting Simon out when they reached the access way.
“By the way,” he said as he opened the door. “Can Sledgeman’s Freight haul livestock?”
“Sure,” Jerry replied. “We have a big trailer for livestock. Mostly use it for horses, but it will work for other kinds of animals. You need something relocated?”
“Yes. They will be coming soon.” Simon got out of the car, then waited until Steve moved to the front passenger seat before adding, “And you need to find someone who can ride a horse and look after some young bison.”
They stared at him. “Bison?” Steve said.
“Eleven of them. We can split the herd between the River Road Community and the Courtyard.”
Their expressions reminded him of Skippy when the juvenile’s brain wasn’t working quite right. Hoping Jerry had enough sense not to drive before he could think, Simon went into Howling Good Reads to get ready for their guests.
• • •
Meg called the female pack, including Eve Denby, assuring everyone it would be a quick meeting but it needed to be now.
“Girl stuff,” she said and started to close the Private door. As she expected, Nathan scrambled off the Wolf bed and let out a protesting arroo at being shut out. But when he saw the rest of the girls, he turned around and went back to the bed. Guarding against feral deliverymen was one thing; dealing with the human females, whom he couldn’t bite, was something else.
Meg glossed over the meeting with Steve Ferryman. While the campus on Great Island was interesting, it didn’t have anything to do with them. But the part about supplies . . .
“I don’t usually slip into squirrel mentality until autumn, but with more and more companies being owned by HFL members, Simon has a point about buying what you can while you can,” Merri Lee said.
Meg frowned. “Squirrel . . . ?”
“Buying cans of soup, jars of spaghetti sauce, and boxes of spaghetti. Stocking up on toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues. And the things we girls need because no one wants to run out of those supplies in the middle of a blizzard.”
She looked at them, surprised that no one felt the alarm that she had. “So this is normal?”
“In Lakeside? Sure.”
She blinked.
“Meg, you weren’t thinking about these kinds of supplies last winter, but when the radio announcers warn of a big winter storm, we pay attention,” Merri Lee said. “And believe me, we don’t take TP for granted.”
Ruth nodded. “You expect every last roll in the store to be bought when that happens.” Then she frowned. “Why do you