“Did you have to go to the Parkers’?” Ruthann asked from where she stood near the darkroom door.
Nate shook his head. “By chance I found them both just a few blocks away.”
Stuart looked from Nate to his sister to where Norah still embraced her brother. “Will someone explain what’s happening here? How is Jeremy— Why is Jeremy—?”
Norah stepped back from her brother, her face lit in the happiest smile Stuart had seen in a long time.
“I’m hoping he’ll tell us now that you’re here,” Nate said. He stood perfectly straight, as if expecting prison guards to come bursting in through the door at any moment.
“I escaped,” Jeremy said. “While we were out working the quarry.”
Stuart’s heart sunk. It was the worst thing he could have done. How were they supposed to prove his innocence when he ran off? It made him look untrustworthy and—frankly—guilty.
“How?” Norah asked, her eyes wide.
“It’s easy enough if you know what to look for. Happens more often than the prison lets on,” Jeremy said.
Nate narrowed his eyes. “Because most of the time they catch the prisoners before the town can get its feathers ruffled. Which means they’re out there looking for you right now.”
Jeremy looked at him, his eyes serious. “I know. And the last thing I want is to get any of you into trouble, but I had to come.” He paused, looking at each of them in turn. “You need to leave town. All of you. Our parents and Charles and Mary too,” he said to Norah.
“I don’t understand.” Nate crossed his arms. “Why?”
The expression on Jeremy’s face had gone pale and fearful.
And Stuart knew.
“They found out,” Stuart said, his voice hollow. “Maddox, Chase, all of them. How?”
“I don’t know,” Jeremy said. “I suspect they paid someone who paid the guard who was in the room with us. That’s all I can think of. But it doesn’t matter, because Maddox knows I’ve talked, and he knows what you’re doing. You have togo.”
Norah nodded. “All right. We’ll run home and then come back here for you.”
Jeremy shook his head. “I’m not going with you. Maddox will be angry when he discovers you’ve all left. He can take his frustrations out on me.”
“No!” Norah grabbed his arm, clearly horrified at the suggestion while Ruthann wrapped a comforting arm around Norah’s shoulders.
Stuart glanced at Nate, trying to discern what he thought about all of this.
“Ifwe were to leave—” Stuart started, but a pounding at the front door interrupted him.
“Harper! You in there? Open the door!” Sheriff Young’s voice was urgent and commanding.
Norah’s eyes widened. “You have to hide, Jeremy. Now!”
Jeremy shook his head. “I did what I came here to do. I’m going to let them take me back. You should all go upstairs, pretend you never saw me. I’ll tell them I snuck in.”
“No.” Nate shook his head. “I’m not letting all of this fall on you. I’ll tell them you heard that Ruthann had fallen ill, and you wished to help.”
The pounding on the door came again. “Harper! Open up!”
Jeremy tried to protest, but Nate remained resolute. Ruthann opened the door to the darkroom and motioned for Stuart and Norah to go inside. Norah hesitated, and then slipped in. Stuart followed her and held open the door for Ruthann.
“No,” she said softly. “If Nate remains out here, my place is with him. Norah, Caleb is upstairs sleeping. If anything happens . . . will you take him with you? Bring him to my mother’s. I’ll come for him as soon as I can.”
Norah nodded as Stuart swore under his breath.
“Ruthann, no. Nate, tell her—” But he didn’t finish the sentence. The door cracked under a heavy thud.
