The Marine's Queen
types of things under the direction of the women. Kam and Joe spent the daylight hours working on a new barracks, large and more comfortable than the current one. Webb helped the women cook.
    “ We all had the proper meds before we started our journey,” Callie answered Webb.
    Joe took another bite of the bread. The wild herbs added a distinct flavor. Until the women started cooking, he hadn’t known food ingredients could vary so much. Nobody wasted time making soldiers’ food interesting. Meals only needed to nourish.
    The meat, scrub deer, melted on Joe’s tongue. The juices filled his mouth as he savored the treat. Did civilians always eat like this? The women didn’t act like the food was anything special, but the other marines were taking slow, careful bites the same as he was.
    “ Do you like it?” Callie said from Joe’s right. She’d insisted he sit at the head of the table they’d constructed from newly felled trees cut with their laser saw.
    “ It’s very … good. Different from what I’m used to eating.” Joe hadn’t spoken with Callie alone since they’d discussed the future two days ago.
    “ What are you used to?”
    Joe wondered how to describe the frugal conditions they’d always lived in. These barracks were the largest living area they’d ever called their own. “Our food was plain with no herbs added.” He floundered, inadequate to compare this delicious meal to his previous life.
    “ Not anymore. From now on your food will all be like this. Acacia has discovered many edible grains and spices. She found a tasty root we can make tea with.”
    Joe nodded, savoring more of the meat.
    “ We baked that with nuts from those trees that resemble oak trees,” Callie continued. “The stone oven Mak built works wonderfully.”
    Joe ate and listened, noticing the other women jabbered to his men much as Callie did to him. As soldiers, mealtimes were silent refueling stops. It should have been irritating to have the laughter and multiple conversations going on around him. It wasn’t.
    He looked forward to the time spent around the table. Webb had told him that civilian families always ate in this chaotic fashion. Joe decided he would think of their group as a family. At least for a little while.
    * * * *
    He was bathing.
    Callie stood in the shadows of one of the large trees that surrounded the pool of water. The sun heated the water to a comfortable temperature at this time of day.
    Joe dove under again, staying down long enough to make her nervous. Callie stepped into the open just as he surfaced. His sharp gaze found her immediately.
    The water came as high as his waist, though its crystal quality hid little from her view. “Did you need me?”
    Callie forced her gaze to stay on his face while she considered his question. Did she need him? On a material level she did. Her people wouldn’t have survived without Joe’s help. Did she need him on an emotional level?
    “ Can we talk?” Callie turned her back as Joe waded out of the water. She heard the soft whisper of clothing sliding over wet skin and waited another moment before turning back toward him.
    Joe watched her with his familiar wary expression. His wet clothing clung to the muscles of his thighs and his groin.
    Callie dragged her stare away from his body. “Can we sit in the shade?”
    Joe followed her to a spot beneath a large tree. She sat on a log worn smooth by weather and time. He sat on the ground and pulled on his boots.
    “ I’m worried about Roz and Grace,” Callie began.
    “ Has Roz done something?” Joe snapped.
    “ No!” Callie wondered at his unusually quick anger. “Why do you think that?”
    Joe relaxed a bit. “He spends a lot of time with her and the child.”
    “ That’s what worries me. I think the two of them are becoming very attached to Roz. You’ve already told me that if we leave you can’t come with us.”
    “ It would be a death sentence for us and probably for anyone with us.”
    “

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