“Folks, what seems to be the problem?” she asks, her voice carrying clearly through the day to where Sue and I crouch in the shadow cast by the stable.
A scrawny white woman in a blue bonnet steps forward. “That scientist never showed to give those injections the mayor promised, so we came to find him. But he said he doesn’t have any more!”
“You gave them to the Negroes, now you need to give them to us!” yells a short white man. A chorus of people shout agreement.
Miss Duncan holds her hands up for calm, just as I have seen her do a thousand times. “Folks, settle down. I am sure there will be enough serum for everyone. Let me go in and speak with Mr. Carr and see what seems to be the problem.”
She pushes past the crowd of people, and they part like the Red Sea. Miss Duncan raps on the door of the building. A very harried-looking Gideon opens it just enough to let her inside.
“If the colored folks hadn’t gotten stuck none of them would want to, either,” Sue says, her tone mild.
“Did you get an injection?” I ask.
Sue snickers. “I’ll take my chances with the dead.”
I nod in agreement. I like my chances with a pair of Mollies a great deal better.
Miss Duncan reappears and gives everyone a calm smile. “Thank you so much for your patience, and I have excellent news. Mr. Carr is distilling a new batch of serum as we speak. He assures me that it will be available after supper, so please feel free to come back then and he will see you.”
This settles the crowd somewhat, and people begin to wander off. Sue gestures for me to follow her. “Stay low, we don’t want Miss Duncan to know we were spying on her.”
“Sue, what are you not telling me?” I ask, once we are out of earshot. We head back toward the center of town to Gideon’s house. I still need to grab my Mollies, after all.
She glances at me askance. “What do you mean?”
“Miss Duncan. Why did you not want her to see us?”
Sue huffs out a breath and stops in a patch of shade, wiping her sleeve across the sweat glistening on her dark brow. She leans against the side of the building and gives me a direct look. “I don’t trust her. She’s been strange ever since Baltimore fell. Furtive, maybe a tad bit guilt-stricken. And not just on account of her getting romantic with Redfern. The way the school fell, well, it was odd. I woke to screams and the dead were already inside the walls. You know how things work, it never should have gone that way.”
“You think Miss Duncan fell asleep on her watch?”
Sue nods. “I think she would’ve left us all to die if she hadn’t needed help clearing out the dead. But she knew it was too much for her, so she came back to find us. I think all this time Miss Duncan ain’t been any better than the rest of them, just a bit nicer about hating us.”
I blink, a sensation like falling coming over me. “Not Miss Duncan, Sue. She would not have done that.” I have to believe there is at least one person in the world who gives a fig about me. Miss Duncan has always been kind and fair.
“Why not? Summerland was the plan for all of us all along, you and Jane just got an early introduction. You think Miss Duncan somehow was the only one at Miss Preston’s who didn’t know?”
I shake my head. “Just considering it is terrible.”
“Maybe. But you know firsthand that we weren’t nothing but lambs to be sent to the slaughter. Just because they dressed us nice doesn’t change anything,” Sue says sadly. “Anyway, I’m going to find a spot to hide out until this heat passes. Come find me after supper, we’ll take a turn up on the wall and see about that horde.”
I nod, and Sue goes about her business, wending her way back through town. My heart is heavy as I enter Gideon’s house, the possibility of Miss Duncan’s duplicitous nature a weighty matter, and sprawled on the chaise like she owns the place is Jane McKeene.
“Hey there,” she says, grinning from ear to ear. “What’s a girl got to do to get a bath around here?”
My heart leaps with gladness to see her on the right side of iron bars. I should be happy that she is free, and I am. But I am also sorely vexed that the last time I saw her she treated me abysmally.
Even though I would like nothing more than to share with Jane the things I have learned over the past couple of days, to plot and plan like we did in Summerland, I give her the cut direct and make my way to my pantry to spend some time by myself, mulling over the events of the day.
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
—Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
—JANE—
Chapter 19
In Which I Get the Lay of the Land
I stretch languidly as I wake, enjoying my first day of freedom in a very, very long time.
Well, free from jail, anyway. There’s still the horde outside the Nicodemus gates, biding their time and waiting to get in.
After Sheriff Redfern set me free I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go. My acquaintances from the Summerland patrols were staying in a barn just outside the middle of town, and Miss Preston’s girls and the girls from Landishire Academy weren’t far off from there. But the Duchess and her girls were staying with Gideon, and even though I was vexed with the scientist for selling the town the scientific snake oil I figured this last option was the best one. After all, I wasn’t quite sure whether the fine white folks from Summerland would try lynching me again. I figured the last place they’d look for me would be in the house of the son of Abraham Carr.
Katherine came in a short while after my arrival, still quite a bit cross with me, but I had yet to see anyone else. The Duchess, Sallie, and Nessie all seemed to have disappeared. Even little Thomas was gone. Lily skulked past at one point, her glare nearly enough to set my clothes aflame, but there was no point in poking that hornet’s nest just yet. I’d talk to her eventually, but not when feelings were so raw.
I know when to leave well enough alone, even if it might not always seem like it.
I was most disappointed to realize Gideon was nowhere to be found. Even after our last conversation there was still a small part of me that thought I might be able to talk some sense into him. It didn’t even matter if he’d stuck half of the town with his silly serum. If I could just convince him to talk to the mayor about an evacuation plan, we might yet stand a chance. There was a time when the self-important bastard had listened to me, and if I could get him to see the truth in things, well, perhaps we could save a whole bunch of lives.
Because despite all my conflicted feelings about him and his foolhardy belief in his own brillance, I still felt a little soft toward him. It ain’t my fault. The heart wants what it wants, and I was still entirely too fascinated by Gideon Carr.
But Gideon was also out and about, so I rooted around in the kitchen until I found a hard crust of bread and a rind of cheese that was mostly fine, ate my makeshift dinner, and then fell asleep while debating whether to bathe.
Now sun streams through the windows, open to let in a bit of air, and the stink of the dead carries on the breeze. It’s a grim reminder that my freedom is tenuous at best.
A rap comes at the door, and another. It sounds like an official sort of knock, so the last people I expect to see when I open the door are Sue and that strange girl, Callie.