They made room for her when she walked up to the sorting room table and set down the carry sack. “Fresh muffins,” Tess said. “Have a snack. Then it’s time you all got to work.” She walked out.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Ruth wiped her eyes. “Muffin. Work.”

“Where did you put your stuff?” Meg asked Ruth.

“My aunt and uncle are holding on to it until Ruth is ready for it,” Theral said. “They want to help. They haven’t forgotten that Mr. Wolfgard is letting them have Lawrence’s share of the produce from the Green Complex’s garden. He didn’t have to do that.”

“Muffin. Work,” Merri Lee said, opening the sack and taking a muffin. “The Courtyard’s guests are arriving this afternoon, and we all need to set a good example.” She eyed Meg. “You okay?”

“I’m sad for all of you, but I’m okay.” The pins-and-needles feeling was gone, leaving no indication that a cut would reveal anything of use to her friends or the Courtyard.

Without a question that needed an answer, without some kind of justification, she couldn’t make a cut without upsetting her friends, not to mention Simon.

They ate the muffins and went to their jobs. Meg opened the Private door and ignored the stare she received from Nathan. “You can sulk about being left out, or you can have one of the fresh Wolf cookies Jerry Sledgeman brought from Eamer’s Bakery.”

Sulking as a sport could not compete with fresh, beef-flavored cookies. Since Meg had a feeling Simon was going to be a little sulky too, she set aside two of the beef-flavored cookies for him.

•••

Walking back to A Little Bite, Tess stopped when she saw Henry looking at her over the wooden gate that opened onto his yard. She glanced at the Liaison’s Office and the sorting room’s open window. <You heard?>

<I heard,> he growled. <Nothing to be done about that sow.>

<Nothing to be done,> she agreed, then silently added, Yet.

<Kowalski asked to borrow a van or the pickup from the Utilities Complex tomorrow to move the possessions he stored at his family’s den. I will go with him and discourage any more talk of trash.>

The coils in her hair relaxed. The Grizzly’s presence would discourage many things, but it wouldn’t hurt to suggest to Simon that the Hawks keep an aerial watch while one of their own was in enemy territory.

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 16

Windsday, Juin 13

“Pull into the customer parking lot,” Monty told Officer Debany. Kowalski was taking a couple of personal days to move into the two-family house across from the Courtyard, so Debany was standing in as Monty’s driver and partner.