“Mommy?”
“What is it, baby?” Lottie glanced toward Grey, who was sitting a few feet away and pointing into the trees. She hoped it was Casey coming back from his summons to St. Louis. “Is it Daddy?”
Grey shook his head. “No Daddy. ‘Sstn. Iz ‘Sstn.”
Sstn? Lottie didn’t know what that word meant. She set her knife, sling template and fresh leather off to the side and pushed to her feet. A wave of vertigo made her vision swim, and she had to brace her hands on her knees a moment until her vision returned. Once steady, she walked to where Grey played and squatted down next to him. “Sstn?”
He nodded, popped a thumb in his mouth and resumed pointing at the trees. “‘Sstn,” he repeated.
“What’s an ‘Sstn,’ Grey?”
Grey removed his thumb with a wet suction noise, and a trail of spit dribbled down his chin, forming a thin saliva string from his lips to the wet digit he was no longer sucking. Lottie closed her eyes and swallowed hard. She wasn’t normally bothered by Grey’s thumb sucking habit, but today seemed to be different, and she thought she might vomit.
Pushing her fingers tight to her lips, she breathed deep, trying to reclaim her hold over her stomach. She felt downright ill. Maybe she would take Grey to Grace in the garden and see if her mom could watch him while she took a nap. Finally, in control of her rebelling stomach, she opened her eyes and looked in the direction Grey still pointed. Movement caught her eye. Someone was coming through the trees toward them.
Her heart skipped a beat and resumed at double its normal rate. Casey? Grey said it wasn’t, but she still hoped.
“Ow! Kingpin!” the person in the trees yelled. “Ow! Knock it off. Ow! Ow! Ow! Damn dog. Stop it! You know me, King.”
Lottie swallowed back her snicker, scooped up Grey, and headed toward Tristan who had just stepped from the tree line, dragging a mostly grown German shepherd behind him.
“Tristan?” she called.
“Hey, Momma,” he said when he caught her eye from across the clearing. “Ow! King, le’go!”
Lottie whistled, and King, who’d been tugging on Tristan’s pant leg near his boot, promptly let go and bounded toward her. “Sit,” she ordered, and King dropped to his haunches. “Good boy.” King wagged his tail at the praise, and she ruffled the fur behind his ear while Tristan finished traversing the clearing.
“Casey here? I need to talk to him.”
“No,” Lottie answered, nerves fluttered in her belly.
Tristan frowned. “What ‘bout Noah, he here?”
“Sort of. He’s with Jaesen at the river. One of the moorings broke loose, and they’re trying to fix it.”
“Damn,” Tristan mumbled and looked in the direction of the river platform as if he could see it through the trees. He shook his head. “I’d hoped to have built it sturdy enough to hold.”
“I’m sure it was sturdy enough, normally, but we had a bad storm yesterday, and the log was dislodged when the river rose.” Tristan nodded, but it was clear he barely heard her. His distraction made her nervous. “What’s wrong? Why are you here?”
Tristan fished in his pocket and pulled out an envelope. He looked at it, then handed it to her. Lottie took it and read the front. It was addressed to Private Tristan Louis Bell of Fort Sutton. Another army dispatch? She shook the envelope, calling attention to it and cocked an eyebrow in silent question. Taking Tristan’s nod as permission, she lifted the flap, pulled out the document, and began to read. “You’ve been summoned to St. Louis.”
“Seems so.”
“Why?”
“That’s what I was hoping Case could tell me. But you said he isn’t back yet.”
Lottie shook her head. “I expect him any day though.”
“Doesn’t help me right now,” Tristan said with a deep sigh. He ran a hand through his short blond hair. “I’m going to go find Noah. See what he has to say about it.”
“Okay,” Lottie said to Tristan’s back as he left her side without waiting for her acknowledgment. A shiver of unease tickled her spine and the hairs on her neck lifted. Two summonses back to back dragging both Casey and Tristan to St. Louis… Well, it didn’t look good. Both men held a vested interest in her, the settlement, and the women who resided here. It made her wonder if their superior knew something about them all.
“Shall we find out what Noah has to say?” she asked Grey.
“‘Ampa ‘Oah,” Grey murmured in agreement. “‘A.”
“That’s what I thought,” she said and trailed after Tristan.
She had yet to reach the tree line when Ally yelled, “Lottie?”
Changing direction mid-stride, Lottie went to her side, concerned. She shifted Grey in her arms to make it easier for her to squat down next to Ally and the infants. “You okay? Does Max or Cody need something?”
“Who was that?” Ally asked. Her arms held Maggie’s son Max tight to her.
“Tristan.”
Ally’s mouth dropped open, and she glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the orchard where Zoe was working. “Tristan? As in the Tristan?” she asked after dragging her gaze back to Lottie.
“One in the same,” Lottie said. “I thought you knew him. Weren’t you enlisted the same time as Zoe?”
“Yes.”
“But you never met him?”
“I wasn’t in the same medical tower. I never met Zoe before going to Gates.”
“Ah.” Lottie didn’t know what else to say.
“Is he here for Zoe?”
“Ah,” Lottie stalled. Tristan had been a FAP soldier during Zoe’s enlistment, and their love affair was practically a legend at Gates.
“It’s something else?” Fear flashed in the depths of Ally’s eyes.
“Yes,” Lottie admitted. She was never a good liar. The best she could do was refrain from speaking.
“Are they after us?” Ally shuddered and squeezed Max tightly. He mewled in distress, but Ally clearly hadn’t heard him. Her free hand dropped to Cody, her daughter, sleeping on the ground beside her.
“I don’t think so.” Lottie shifted a squirming Grey in her arms. He was bored and wanted down. “He’s been summoned to St. Louis just like Casey.”
Ally nodded. “And it’s not about us?”
Lottie stood. “I need to go,” Lottie said, ignoring Ally’s question. “Find out what Noah thinks.”
“Oh! Yes. Go,” Ally agreed quickly. “You need to be there.”
“Thanks,” she said over her shoulder as she hurried away. The path to the river took ten minutes usually, but Lottie thought for sure she made it five. Popping out of the trees, she came to a stumbling halt. Noah, Jaesen, and Tristan were standing in a tight circle, reading the summons. Lottie’s labored breathing sounded loud and easily masked the men’s quiet murmuring.
Noah glanced at her and waved her over. “Any news of Huxley?” Lottie shook her head. Her feet felt frozen, and she squeezed Grey tighter. Noah nodded and turned back to Tristan. “You have no other choice—unless you wish to go AWOL right now—you need to go to St. Louis and appear before Green.”
“But, if it’s about us…” Lottie trailed off with a squeak.
Noah left the knot of men to put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to meet his gaze. “That, Child, is why I will go with Bell. If we leave now, we’ll get there before his summons date. I’ll talk to my contacts, find out what—if anything—happened to Huxley. And if something did happen. We’ll abort Bell’s summons and come back here to discuss our next steps.”
“Momma,” Tristan said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I know Case’s usual route to and from St. Louis. If he’s on his way back, then we’ll meet up with him. I’ll make sure he knows you’re worried.”
Lottie swallowed but nodded. She hated being powerless to help but trying to find Casey in St. Louis would be a personal disaster. She kissed Grey on the forehead. If she were discovered anywhere near the city, she would have to go back to Gates, and she couldn’t do that. Not again.
“I can leave right now,” Tristan said, pulling her back from her dark thoughts. “If you’re ready, Noah.”
“I need to pack,” Noah said. “I’ll meet you at the Arrowhead in thirty.”
Tristan acknowledged Noah with a nod. “I’ll meet you there.”
When he made to move past Lottie and Grey, she gently touched his arm, stopping him. “Are you going to say hi to her?”
He shook his head. His expression pained. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Tristan ran a hand across his face, then stuffed it in his pocket. Rocking on his heels, Tristan said, “You know I have to go to St. Louis.”
“So?” Lottie asked, prompting him for more. “That shouldn’t keep you from her. She’s been waiting a long time to see you again.”
“Momma,” he said, his tone anguished. “If I go… If I see her… I’ll never want to leave.” A pulse of pain flared in her chest at his words. “I can’t risk it. Not today. Not right now.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “If I see her, I’ll never be able to lie to First Lieutenant Green. He’ll see right through me. I…”
Lottie squeezed his forearm.
“He can’t know about you… Or her.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
“‘Sstn?”
“Yeah, squirt?”
“Stay?”
“Not this time, squirt.”
Grey popped his thumb in his mouth and sniffed making Lottie pat him on the back. None of the men he knew and loved seemed to stay, and she wondered what that did to him. She hoped Grey would bounce back from each loss, but sometimes she had her doubts. “Come back as soon as you can,” she whispered.
“I will,” he said. And with a final pat to her hand, he left her side.
A moment later Lottie jerked in surprise when Jaesen put his arm around her, his free hand rifled Grey’s hair. “It’ll all work out. You’ll see.”
“I hope so, Jaesen. I hope so.”
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