Page 55 of Amaros

Chapter Twenty-Eight

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ATORRENT OF WATERand hail fell through the hole in the roof of the main structure again.Most of the water sank into the hole in the floor, but the rest flooded the room.“We’ve got to do something about that,” Zoe said to Grace.They were standing in the doorway, watching the indoor waterfall.

“No kidding,” she agreed.“Did you find any books about how to repair a hole in a roof?”she asked.

Zoe shook her head.“Nope, but we could at least put some tarps over it.”

“It’s a big hole,” Grace said doubtfully.“You’re not thinking of getting up there right now, are you?”

“Hell, no,” Zoe said with a laugh.“We’ll have to wait for the storm to stop first.”

“We should cover the window in our bedroom to keep the weather out,” the teen said.

It was supposed to be Zoe’s room, but she didn’t mind sharing, for now anyway.“Doors would be good, too,” she said.“How hard could it be to chop down some trees, cut them into planks and nail them together?”

“I’m betting it’ll be a lot harder than you think,” Grace guessed.“We’ll need hinges, don’t forget.”

“Not to mention nails, hammers, saws and everything else,” Zoe added.

“Camriel seems keen to turn this place into a real home,” Grace said.“They could be here for years if this war stretches out.”

“Yeah,” Zoe agreed, trying not to sound wistful.She’d already become too attached to Amaros.It would kill her to fall for him, then lose him once the war was over.“Let’s set up the bookcase,” she decided.They’d eaten some of the meat from the café that they’d cooked last night and had scoffed down hot coffee for dinner.Powdered milk was better than nothing, but it was nowhere near as tasty as fresh milk.

“Which room should we use as our library?”Grace asked.

“Not this one,” Zoe said, hiking her thumb at the torrent.

Laughing at her lame joke, they walked through the main structure.They stopped at a gigantic central room that had a large fireplace.“This would be a fantastic great room,” Grace suggested.“We could put couches and chairs around the fireplace.The library can go along the back wall.”The fireplace was in the center of the room rather than set into a wall.Four doors led to the hallways.

They turned to view the back wall.It would be able to hold several large bookcases on either side of the doorway.

“All we need is light and we’ll actually be able to read,” Zoe said.“Maybe we can string up chandeliers of some kind, if we ever get power in here.”

“Firelight will have to do for now,” the teen said.“We should gather some wood tomorrow.”

“It’s going to get bitterly cold once winter sets in,” Zoe figured.“It’s already a lot colder here than I’m used to.”

“I usually stick to warmer places, too,” Grace said.“At least our sleeping bags keep us warm at night.”They’d both slept a lot more peacefully now that they had the cots.“What?”she asked when Zoe snickered.

“I was just picturing Camriel trying to fit on one of the cots,” she replied.They were too small for Amaros and he had to scrunch up his body to fit on his.

“He’ll have to tie two of them together,” the teen said in amusement.“Even if he does, his legs will hang over the end.”