“Speaking of people who are fixing to kill you,” says Cecily, “what’s the overseer going to have to say about you not showing up at the mill?”
“It’s closed today, on account of the fire. Overseer’s wife is still missing, and the Prices are all the way over on the other side of town, seeing about Maria.”
If the overseer’s wife was at the theater last night, Cecily never saw her. And she’s a hard one to miss, on account of the fact she’s got a birthmark the size of a quail’s egg that sits smack-dab in the middle of her forehead.
“So, if Mama didn’t send you, how’d you know where I was?”
“I followed you,” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Last night, after you came for Mama.”
“Jesus, Moses,” says Cecily. “You’re going to get me killed.”
“No one saw me. I swear.”
“What about now? You walking down here in broad daylight. You don’t think that’s going to raise anyone’s suspicions?”
Moses holds up a pail and points to a rod he’s got leaning against the wall. “I told everybody I was going fishing, so if they see me down here, it won’t be no big surprise.”
Moses has got all the answers, and it scares her a little—how sure he is of himself. He doesn’t understand that the Prices and the people they employ aren’t the only ones who can turn on him. That for the right bribe, any one of the folks in the quarters might be convinced to give him up.
“You can’t be coming down here,” she says.
He retrieves a small bundle, wrapped in a kerchief, from inside the pail. “If you don’t want me coming down here, then I guess I’ll take this ham hock home with me.”
Cecily’s stomach growls, and she snatches the bundle out of her brother’s hand. When she folds back the cloth, she finds not only the piece of pork but a heel of bread and a rind of cheese. “Moses, where’d you get all this?”
“I ain’t telling.”
If this were any other day, she might hit him upside the head and tell him to stop taking stupid risks. But she’s too hungry to argue.
She eats all the pork, but saves a little of the bread and cheese, in case her mother doesn’t show back up again anytime soon.
“I brought you this, too,” Moses says as he peels off an old sweater that belonged to one of the Price boys and hands it to her. “It’ll be snug, but I thought you might be cold.”
“I already took your jacket,” she says as she sinks her fingers into the thick wool.
Moses shrugs. “I’ll find something else.”
“Moses,” says Cecily slowly. “What I’m doing is dangerous. For me and for anyone who helps me.”
“Who said anything about helping you?” His smile is lopsided, too many big teeth in a too-small mouth.
“It’s not funny.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“I’m going to run. Just as soon as me and Mama figure out the details. But none of this works if anyone gets so much as an inkling that I’m alive.”
“I can help.”
“You trying to put Mama in an early grave?”
“She doesn’t have to know.”
“If you get caught down here, what our mama knows is going to be the least of it.”
GILBERT
Gilbert figures that if Louisawas badly injured, she might have been taken to a nearby home for treatment. So, he starts knocking on doors, beginning with the houses that face the green and working outward.
