“No, we don’t blame you,” said Erin. “Your man brought you to us rather than see you die. And we stood up rather than see him get hanged based on nothing more than supposition and fear. People have been afraid for months. Newcomers were a convenient target. I’d prefer not to fall into that trap.”

Joe said nothing. But then, he always had been a tight-lipped bastard.

“My father had a way with people …” Erin studied the ground at her feet. “He kept them calm and gave them hope. Gave them a purpose. Once he was gone they lost it. No one seemed to know what to do or who to listen to. And too many people wanted to be heard.”

“Everyone wanted to be top dog,” said Ali. “There was a lot of infighting. Dan, Finn and I copped a fair amount of suspicion for arriving so soon before it all went bad.”

Ros watched everyone with an eerie calm. Or at least it seemed eerie to him. Though any time he couldn’t read her it spooked him out. He just hoped she knew what she was doing. It felt a lot like skipping through a field of landmines to him.

“We’d even talked about the possibility of leaving a couple of times,” said Ali. “But Finn was so certain things would calm down. I think they just wanted to feel safe. But the fear of other people and what they might do ate at them. ”

Erin nodded.

Joe stepped forward. “You trust Nick?”

“I do,” said Ros. “Implicitly.”

“You’re trusting him with our lives too,” said Erin. “Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” said Ros. “It you want us to leave, we will, and without malice. But I’m hoping you’re not going to do that. Neither of us mean any of you harm. We never did.”

And suddenly every eye in the place was on him, measuring his worth. None seemed openly hostile. Plenty, however, looked guarded.

“It’s hard to know who to trust these days,” said Ali, her hands smoothing over her baby bump. The woman had to be afraid. Delivering babies wasn’t always as simple as nature intended. There were no doctors on standby here, no one who could really help if things went to shit.

He was just glad he and Roslyn weren’t in that situation. Yet. Hell, they’d never even talked about kids. His mind emptied. It just blanked. The idea scared every last thought clear from his head. Talk of future plans was such a bizarre notion.

Roslyn as a mother. Okay, he could imagine that.

But him as a father? Fuck.

There went the fourth heart attack for the night. It was all he could do to keep to his feet.

Ros tucked her hand into his, a silent statement of solidarity. He held on tight.

“Alright,” said Joe. “He’s fine with me for now. We can talk more about it later.”

Erin nodded jerkily. He had the worst feeling the woman was about to cry. But then, it had definitely been one of those nights.

Ali gave him and Roslyn a small, mysterious woman-type smile.

Duncan stared off into the distance. He’d been close to the late Captain Sean. The lack of ready acceptance wasn’t really a surprise. Maybe this wouldn’t work out, staying with these people. But if Roslyn wanted to try then it was fine with him. Safety in numbers and all that. It might be nice for her to be around people who wouldn’t sell her out anytime soon. His faith in people had disappeared over the years, but the events of last night were making him think twice.

Cool little fingers squeezed his hand.

“It’s going to be okay,” said Ros.

“Yeah,” he said, feeling pretty amazed actually. “I guess it is.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“I’ve been watching you,” Nick announced, like it was something unique.

“That’s nice. But you do tend to do that.” Roslyn sat down on the end of their mattresses and tugged at her shoelaces, toed off her joggers. It had been a seriously long day. Her shoulder ached. “I have noticed.”

They’d been at St Catherine’s for a week. The rambling building had been converted into an Art Gallery/Cafe/Gift Shop some years back. Today they’d finished sorting the remaining foodstuffs in the cafe, taken the rotted and or otherwise useless goods out back to be burned or buried. Mattresses and sheets and so on had been gathered from nearby shops and houses to stuff inside the ‘cells’. While far from roomy, at least these cells didn’t have bars on the doors. They were comfortable enough, though the nights regularly dropped to zero degrees Celsius.

Apparently the good folk of Blackstone didn’t tend to come this way on account of the climb up the mountains chewing up gas. Plus, St Catherine’s sat on the edge of a tourist town. All the folky arts and crafts you could hope for, but farming supplies? Not so much.

“I’ve seen the way you look at Ali, Dan and Finn,” he said, obviously going somewhere with all this. Probably nowhere good, knowing him.

“I know. Isn’t it beautiful to see people so in love?” She lay back on the bed and grinned at the hot man currently glowering at her. “So refreshing after all the bloodshed and violence.”

Nick grunted and knelt on the end of the bed. He reached back and tugged off his own boots. “That wasn’t what you were thinking about when you looked at them.”

“No? Wow,” she drawled. “Can you really read minds now, Nicky? That is so cool. So what was I thinking?”

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” The man gave her a hard little smile and her belly quivered. Her belly and her sex. And maybe her knees too, damn it. Fortunately she was lying down.