Falcorans' Faith by Laura Jo Phillips Page A

guest house, glanced at the ground car parked beside it and decided to walk to the garrison clinic.  This was one of the rare times that she’d requested a guest house for herself.  She usually stayed in the Katres’ house when she was visiting the ranch, unless they were there.  Then she stayed with the Lobos.  She nearly smiled at herself.  Two years earlier she never would have guessed that she would not only be welcome on the Dracons’ ranch, but a trusted friend to both Saige and Lariah.  She honestly couldn’t understand why they had forgiven her for the things she’d done.  She was grateful for it though, and would never do anything to betray either of them again.
    Even so, her greatest loyalty was to Summer Katre, and always would be.  She was the first person in Darlene’s entire life to give her the benefit of the doubt from the moment she met her.  Even when she’d learned of the terrible crimes Darlene had committed, Summer had stuck by her, believing that there was good in her, even though Darlene hadn’t believed it herself.
    She cut across a grassy meadow, wet from the previous night’s rain.  Winters on this side of Jasan weren’t too bad.  Nothing like the winters of her childhood in the American mid-west on Earth.  She shivered at the memory and pulled her jacket closer around her.
    She reached the top of a low hill that overlooked the valley that held the garrison.  The new clinic wasn’t finished yet, but it was getting there, along with the new research center.  There was no sign of the destruction caused by the explosion just a few weeks earlier.  This was the first time she’d seen the progress on the two buildings in a couple of weeks, and she was impressed with how much had been done.  Since the explosion, Darlene had been going to the clinic next to the Lobos’ house to help Doc when she was on the ranch, but today he’d asked her to meet him at the new clinic to help make some decorating decisions. 
    She grimaced.  Doc’s guess that she knew more than most people about interior decorating was correct.  She’d once prided herself on her knowledge of such things as designer fixtures, fabrics, furniture, and colors.  The most luxurious, and most expensive, of course.  But that had been another time, another life, another Darlene.  The more she embraced her new life, the more worried she became of falling back into her old one.  Which was why she maintained outward reminders of her inner changes.
    The network of fine, thin scars that covered her face and body were far less noticeable than they’d once been, thanks to Doc.  Darlene knew very well that, if she’d wanted to, she could have easily hidden them with make-up.  But, while she did wear make-up to accentuate her arresting blue eyes, she did not attempt to hide the scars.  Nor did she allow her hair to grow beyond the short, blonde fuzz Doc had given her that first day of her new life.  She was still a woman, still feminine, and still beautiful, in spite of the scars.  She was also strong, and physically confident in an entirely different way than she’d been before. 
    Darlene Summers had been transformed during her trial by fire, and though she still had occasional nightmares of that time, she liked the woman she had become.  In her old life she’d been afraid of so many inconsequential things.  Losing her beauty, her youth, her status, her power over members of the opposite sex.  Becoming used up, washed out, forgotten.
    She was afraid of only one thing now---reverting to the person she’d once been.  Still, as much as she disliked revisiting the past, there were two people in the Thousand Worlds that she would never refuse, no matter what they asked of her.  Summer Katre.  And Doc.
    She saw Doc’s ground-car parked next to the new clinic and let herself in the front door.  Even though the interior was still bare walls and floors, she could see that it was going to be even nicer than the