Chapter 2 - Hallum
HALLUM
Isupposed it was just as well that Tasha was having such a hard time enticing a human doctor to join us here, considering how long it was taking to get the new hospital built.
I’d expected that the small structure would have been completed by now, but this spring had been a surprisingly wintry one, slowing our progress with freezing temperatures and heavy snow that not only hadn’t melted yet from previous falls, but just kept coming.
It had snowed again overnight, and today was another bright, cold day that promised no improvement in temperature, despite the sun beaming down over the scene.
“Good morning, Warden,” Shiloh, Rivven’s wife, said, walking through the freshly fallen snow from the nearby saloon. We’d chosen to build the hospital near Rivven and Shiloh’s place as the saloon was a central point between my property and that of the other men in my province.
“It’s so pretty out,” she said, a small smile playing about her lips, her breath turning to silvered smoke in the air.
“Greetings, Shiloh,” I said. I followed her gaze to the place where the hospital should have been standing right now and felt impatience prick in my claws. “Pretty means very little to me when there are things to be done.”
“Well, whether you can get your things done or not, it’s pretty all the same,” Shiloh said with a little laugh. “Might as well appreciate it.”
I had not met enough humans to understand if this sort of attitude was a common one or not. I supposed it made a certain amount of sense that Shiloh might be interested in the aesthetics of the scene rather than the utility, since she was an artist.
But Shiloh was also not responsible for getting the blasted thing built.
I did not like falling behind on plans or projects. It set my fangs on edge and made it feel as though every part of my uniform was fitting wrong.
“At least the doctor has not yet been hired,” I admitted, though saying the words out loud brought me no comfort. Whether a doctor had been found or not, I was responsible for this portion of things.
Shiloh’s next words brought me even less comfort.
“Oh, has Tasha not contacted you yet? She just sent a message in the group chat.” Shiloh pulled her human-style tablet out of her coat pocket.
She angled the screen my way, then seemed to think better of it, swiftly pulling it back so that I could not see the screen.
“Ignore that. There was a bit of weird conversation in there last night about, er, never mind. You don’t need to see that.
But Tasha messaged to say a doctor had been hired and would be arriving soon. ”
“Soon?” I reminded myself that Shiloh was not a military officer under my command, nor was she one of my convicts. I could not bark orders and demands at her. I steadied myself, forcing what I hoped came across as calmness into my voice. “How soon?”
“Sorry, I don’t know what kind of shuttle she’s taking or how fast it is,” Shiloh said. “I’m sure Tasha would have more information.”
“The hospital will not be ready.” I did not like to say it, but I had never been one to shy away from an inconvenient or uncomfortable truth. The facts simply were as they were. There was no changing them, only making plans around them.
“Well, I’m sure that will be alright,” Shiloh said. “I know she was supposed to have a room to live in at the hospital, but she can stay with us at the saloon for now.”
“You do not have a spare bedroom,” I pointed out.
“That’s true,” Shiloh agreed, “but she could maybe kind of camp out in the dining room like Tasha and Tenn did when they came to stay when I first arrived here. We could set up a nice little cot or something. Just temporarily.”
I did not approve of that idea. Rivven’s saloon often served as a social space for himself, Xennet, and Dorn.
While Rivven would be preoccupied with his own wife, whom he was entirely besotted with, Xennet and Dorn would likely not give this new female doctor a moment’s peace if they knew she was staying at the saloon without her own bedroom walls to enclose her or a door to put between them.
Not that I thought they’d do anything truly wrong or inappropriate – if I did not trust them, I would not allow them to participate in the bride program in the first place.
They were ultimately good, if sometimes ridiculous, men.
But they could try a man’s – or woman’s, I supposed – patience like nothing else I’d experienced.
They’d likely pester the woman beyond the bounds of sanity, and we could not afford to lose the one and only doctor who’d agreed to come and fill the post.
There was nothing for it.
“She will stay with me.”