Free Inherit the Sky (Lang Downs 1 ) by Ariel Tachna

beginning to scrub them.
Caine didn’t have an answer for that, so he retreated, leaving the cook to his task. Regaining the living room, he peeked down the other halls and through the other doors, taking stock of the different rooms.
In addition to the living room, which dominated the first floor, he found a dining room and a small, modern office with a relatively new computer and printer. Climbing the stairs, he counted four bedrooms including Uncle Michael’s. The closet in the master bedroom was as empty as the others, but Caine couldn’t bring himself to invade Uncle Michael’s space. He chose one of the smaller bedrooms instead.
    Deciding the first order of business was to treat his hand, which had started throbbing again, Caine rummaged in the bathroom cabinets until he found everything he needed. The hydrogen peroxide stung even worse than the alcohol as it bubbled deep in his hand. Caine made himself clean it three times before putting more antibiotic ointment on it and covering it again. His jaw hurt from clenching it so tightly by the time he was done, but he was at least relatively certain it was clean. He went back downstairs and carried his bags up, then flopped on the bed and stared at them, trying to work up the will to unpack.
Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep fully dressed.
    S
HOUTS from outside roused Caine from his dozing. He blinked a couple of times before remembering where he was. Sitting up, he scrubbed at his face, wincing when the movement put pressure on his injured hand. He glanced around for a clock. Five thirty. He had time before dinner still. He could start unpacking and still have time for a shower. He didn’t want their first impression of him to be half-muddled from sleep. He was starving, but after the conversation with Kami before his nap, he decided against looking for a snack now. He’d wait it out until dinner.
    He slid his new boots off, rubbing at his ankles. The tight elastic had chafed even through his socks. Maybe he’d wear his tennis shoes to dinner instead of his boots. It would be one more thing setting him apart, but it had to be better than rubbing blisters on his ankles so badly that he couldn’t wear his boots tomorrow when he went out to work with the others.
    He hoped Macklin’s dismissal of him this afternoon hadn’t been a sign of how the foreman intended to treat him in the future. If so, they’d be having words again before long. Caine refused to be pushed aside like he had nothing to contribute to the station. He had a pair of hands and a level head. He could learn everything else.
    “Stop jumping to conclusions,” Caine scolded himself. “For all you know, he was eager to get back to his loved ones. You didn’t even ask if he had a family on the station. He could have been eager to see his wife and kids.”
    Somehow Caine didn’t think that was the explanation, but it gave him a plausible excuse for Macklin’s dismissal. He spent the next hour sorting his clothes on the bed in his new room: winter clothes for work, winter clothes for around the house, summer clothes for work, summer clothes for around the house. If the piles were disproportionate toward clothes for around the house, Caine was nonetheless pleased to see he had clothes in all four piles. His T-shirts might not last more than a single summer, but he did have clothes he could work in when the weather was too warm for the long-sleeved shirts he’d bought in Boorowa the day before. He put the work clothes in the drawers of the big chest and hung the rest of his winter clothes in the armoire. He stuffed the summer clothes back in a suitcase and shoved it under his bed.He’d look for an attic or something later, but that would do for now. Grabbing his toiletries kit, he went to get ready for dinner.
Chapter Seven
     
    B
Y THE time Caine finished his shower, the smell of dinner permeated the house, reminding his stomach he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It rumbled loudly as he