“We’re getting you out,” June said, and Emily faced her now.“Right now.Tonight.We have a plan.”
“What in the hell is going on upstairs?”Emily asked, composing herself.Her mind was reeling.
June raised an eyebrow.“The plan.Quick now, put this on.”
Through the bars, she passed Emily a piece of white cloth that Emily didn’t recognize until she held it up to view it in the dim light.
“Stone’s coat?”she asked incredulously.“What are—”
“Just put it on,” June told her.Dizzy with questions, Emily complied.
“Got it,” Eliza said triumphantly, and Emily’s cell door suddenly swung open with a creak.She darted over the threshold with relief.
“Ugh, you smell like ’er now, don’t ya?”Eliza said, screwing up her face.“Well, come on.Let’s get back to the stairs before the cops come down.”
“The police are here?”Emily gasped.
“Yes,” June confirmed.“The matrons called them when the riot started.”
“Riot?So that’s what I’ve been hearing?”
“You ain’t as clever as they said you were,” Rose muttered.
“Well, we needed a diversion, and I couldn’t very well set the place on fire again,” June said with a shrug.“Let’s go.”
She started down the hall and the others followed, Emily hurrying to keep up.When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the sounds from above became louder.
“We told the girls you were telling the truth,” June informed Emily.“That you’re a reporter here to break the story of this place, and hopefully get us all out.Fortunately, I’ve got cred, and after what happened with Annie, well…” She shook her head darkly.“It didn’t take much to convince them to do this.Besides, I think—” Another series of bangs overhead.Women jeered and shrieked as male voices tried and failed to bellow over them.“I think they needed to blow off some steam, anyway.”
“So what happens now?”Emily asked.She looked down at her disguise and worriedly up the stairs.
“Well, we’ve snagged one of Stone’s coats for you for a reason—”
“She added two more bleedin’ locks to ’er door since the fire,” Eliza said, “but she can’t keepmeout.”She beamed smugly.
Emily looked at her small friend and nearly laughed, despite the situation.
“You have to pose as a doctor,” June continued.“Most of these cops won’t have met Stone, they usually talk with the warden when they come.Last time they were here was for the riot in the summer of ’59.So they won’t know the difference as long as you act convincing.And here, we got to fix your hair.”June pulled the pins from her own bun and smoothed Emily’s down, then twisted it and pinned it back.It was a surprisingly intimate gesture that made Emily feel somehow taken care of.
But she hesitated, watching them all.“Can’t I just tell them who I am?To let me out?”
June withdrew her hands from Emily’s head and gaped.“This is thecops, kid.They aren’t gonna believe you.You’re wearing a blue dress, in case you forgot.I knew a Blue once who said she was Queen Victoria!”
Emily opened her mouth to protest, but held her tongue this time.She’d dismissed June and Eliza and their knowledge before, with deadly consequences.They were here now, trying to break her out.She had to trust that they might know something she didn’t.“So what happened at the last riot?”she asked instead.“What can we expect?”
She glanced at Rose, who was standing still, staring up the stairs, knife in hand.Had she already attacked one of the police with it?
“Well, they didn’t take anyone down to the station,” June said as another crash sounded upstairs.“ ’Cause they’re just gonna get charged and sent back here anyway.So they contained the prison, wrestled everyone back into their cells.But some of the girls aren’t rioting, they’re just in their cells staying safe.Your friend, Penny?”
“Peggy?”
“Yeah.Lizzie said she’s terrified of cops, so the two of them stayed out of this, but Lizzie said good luck and she’s rooting for you.”
Emily smiled in wonder.They’d all finally come together—for her.For each other.
“So…we need to get you out that door somehow,” June was saying.“It’s Christmas Eve.Not sure if you knew that.I figured the cops would have a skeleton staff tonight, and the matrons, too.Even Warden’ll probably be off somewhere with her family.I hope,” she added.“The police may not know you’re not a doctor, but Warden’s another story, and the matrons.We might have to improvise, kid.”
Emily nodded.“Okay.”Then a thought flashed to mind.“The files!”She said, “Annie’s records and the drug trial, the documents—”
