The curriculum at Miss Preston’s stresses loyalty, and I have to say that my dedication to my fellow students is incomparable. Of course, they share my sentiments. I daresay that there is not a thing Miss Preston’s girls won’t do for one another.
The fittings go without incident. I fidget all the way to the dressmaker’s and back, expecting at any moment the driver will pull the iron pony over and Miss Anderson and Mr. Redfern will slaughter us for what we know. But, despite the tension I sensed in Miss Preston’s office, they seem completely unconcerned with both the upcoming dinner party and with me and Katherine. That doesn’t ease my worry, though. They could just be playing the long game, biding their time, waiting to end me and Katherine until after I’ve relaxed my guard.
None of that makes any sense—if they somehow suspected we’d been there at the Spencers’, we’d likely know already—but that’s the way it is with panic. It takes you by the throat and doesn’t much listen to reason.
Days go by, and after turning the events of the previous week over in my head, I can’t decide how I feel about the mystery of Lily and the Spencers. The longer we go without word from them, the more disconcerting the lack of news; but then, the more days pass without any further panic or shambler sightings, the more likely it seems the Spencers simply did leave for another city, whether by choice or by force. It’s an unsettling conundrum, and I don’t like it one bit. It sure would set my mind at ease if Lily were to find a way to tell us what happened.
By the afternoon before the mayor’s dinner party, Katherine’s anxiety seems to have retreated into the background as well, and she is beside herself with excitement. She chatters about it to the other girls, and when they tire of listening to her she finds me and talks my ear off.
“What do you think Mrs. Carr will wear? I wish we could wear a corset, or even a bustle.” She flips the pages in her catalog and settles down next to me in the grass. I’m sitting under the big oak out back, what my momma used to call a hanging tree, the branches spread apart and thick and growing parallel to the ground, a tree perfect for climbing or stringing up a man. When I first got to Miss Preston’s I used to run off and hide in the branches of this tree, climbing as high as I could and hiding amongst the dense boughs. Eventually Miss Anderson discovered my hiding spot. She waited until I finally came down, taking the strap to me so bad that I couldn’t sit for a week. Maybe that’s why there ain’t no love lost between me and the woman. Even my earliest bad memories of the school are tied to her.
Katherine nudges me. “See, they’ve modified it so it collapses and you can sit down. Isn’t that just marvelous? And look at the silhouette.” She thrusts the fashion catalog at me so that I can see the bustle, which juts out of the rear of the woman’s hips and makes her look like a demented wasp.
I push the catalog away. “Where’d you get that?”
Katherine gives me a long look before sniffing indignantly. “Really, Jane, as though you’re the only one to smuggle in contraband. Everyone has a little something, you’re just the only one who gets caught.”
I cover my face with my hands and pray to the Lord above for strength. “Kate, has it occurred to you how odd it is that the mayor would invite us to a formal dinner, just like that? It’s been over two weeks since the lecture, and he didn’t seem to think much of our heroics until a week later. Not to mention the fact that he’s embroiled in some scandal involving the Spencers.”
She gives me a narrowed-eyed look and sighs, pulling back her catalog and flipping through the pages. “I don’t find it odd at all. He’s obviously a busy man. And his wife is known for the care and dedication she takes when planning the details of her soirees. Anyway, how do you know the mayor didn’t help the Spencers start a new life somewhere fine? All this panic is completely unnecessary. Besides, we’ll be there as Attendants, not as real guests. It’s not at all the same.” Her gaze gets all dreamy and faraway. “I wonder how many courses there will be. My mother went to a dinner once where they had seventeen courses. Seventeen! She said by the end she was so stuffed she could barely even taste the food. Can you imagine?”
I perk up at the mention of Katherine’s mom. She’s as much a mystery amongst the girls at Miss Preston’s as my own mother. “Is that so? Does your mother go to a lot of dinner parties?”
Katherine’s expression shutters and she bends back down to her magazine. “A few. What about your mother, Jane?” Her tone is mild, but it’s clear she’s avoiding my question.
“Oh, my momma’s been to a few.” None since the last dinner party held at Rose Hill Plantation, though. It was just after the major returned, battle weary and grim, talking about the end of the world and God’s judgment. Momma sat me next to her at the table during the dinner as she always did, stroking my hair like a favorite pet. The neighbors were used to this behavior, since they’d been to dinner at Rose Hill a number of times. It seemed normal to all of us, but the major’s expression grew stormy throughout the courses. When momma had me grab the Bible after dessert to read a few passages to the neighbors, the major’s simmering temper exploded.
“You taught a darkie to read? Have you lost your goddamn mind, Ophelia?” he screamed while the neighbors watched, bug-eyed. Momma sent me off to Auntie Aggie to get tucked into bed before she escorted the neighbors out, making excuses for the major, talking about the stress of war and the horror of watching half of your regiment get slaughtered only to rise up and start eating the other half.
The neighbors nodded and made polite clucking noises as they walked to their iron ponies. They believed my momma, but they hadn’t felt the way she tensed when the major yelled, or the way she gripped my arms when he called me a darkie. I was old enough to know that things were about to get bad at Rose Hill. But I wasn’t afraid of the major.
No, I’d seen what happened when momma didn’t get her way. It never ended well.
Two days later, the major was a shambler with a bullet in his skull and I had my first harvest at ten years old.
“Jane, are you even listening?” Katherine’s sigh jolts me from my reverie. There’s an ache in my chest from thinking about my momma for too long, and I curse myself for getting lost in the past. Now I’m going to be maudlin for the next few days, remembering times gone by. This is why it’s better not to think about Rose Hill at all.
“Jane!”
“What?”
“I do believe that’s Jackson waving to you from the tree line.”
I glance up, and sure enough there’s Red Jack, jumping around on the other side of the barrier fence like he hasn’t got a lick of sense. I shake my head and point him toward the back of the school, through the trees to the old slave cabin. We used to meet back there when we were something more than uneasy friends, and I hope he remembers the spot. If anyone from the house sees him, they’re going to wonder why a boy is tromping around the school grounds, and I’ll be in hot water.
I wait a full minute or so before climbing to my feet and going to the back of the yard. Katherine stays put, flipping pages and muttering to herself about my inability to appreciate good fashion. The sound of fighting comes from the practice grounds as I cut toward the back of the property. The younger girls have their first evaluations coming up at the end of the month. How they rate will determine their rankings, and those rankings will one day make the difference between eking out a living on one of the mayor’s cleanup crews or an assignment as a lady’s Attendant, offering protection and companionship while living the good life.
I manage to make my way to the barrier fence without discovery, and Red Jack is there, leaning against the tall wrought iron and looking like he hasn’t a care in the world. His nonchalance is belied by his split lip, swollen eye, and the blood dotting the front of his waistcoat.
“Uh-oh, did Harvey Parker finally catch you fooling around with his wife?”
Jackson scowls at me. “Very funny. No, this is what happens when you try to sneak into Mayor Carr’s estate.”
“You went trespassing at the mayor’s? Near as I figure, you’re lucky to still be breathing.”
“That’s the same thing his boys told me. Luckily one of them is a fan of the dog races, and he did me a favor in exchange for making sure a few of the well-known puppies never make it to the track to run again.” Red Jack winces as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other, hand holding his side.
Katherine gasps, stealing up behind us like a shambler in the night, me near to jumping out of my skin from the surprise. I scowl at her, but she ignores me. “You aren’t going to kill a dog are you? That’s awful.”
Jackson raises a single brow at her. “Of course not, I ain’t a monster. There are lots of kids in the city who’d like to claim a stray as their own, that’s all. And you’d be surprised how easy it is to switch out a winner for a similar-looking loser.”
“You came all the way here, half-broken, just to tell me that the mayor’s boys almost stomped you into mush and that you’re planning on fixing a few races in the future?” I ask, interrupting. I ain’t at all endeared to the friendliness between Jackson and Katherine. It’s petty, but I’m okay with that.
Jackson shifts slightly and sighs. “You heard those people at the Spencers’. Mayor Carr has something to do with Lily’s disappearance. I need to get into his house and figure out what.”
I open my mouth to offer some paltry platitude, when I’m interrupted by Katherine saying, “Maybe we could help. We’re going there for dinner.”
I shoot Katherine my best Are you stupid? glare, but Jackson’s already perked up. “Going where for dinner? Mayor Carr’s?”
Katherine nods, bouncing up onto the balls of her feet and back down again. “Yes! We got invited to this fancy dinner party on account of saving so many folks at the lecture a couple of weeks ago.”
Jackson looks at me and I shake my head. “We’re going as Attendants. Fancy servants with sharp weapons. But you didn’t want our aid before, and we ain’t going to have time to help now with whatever poppycock plan you dream up. Plus, I ain’t so sure this whole invite is on the up and up. We’ll have our hands full just taking care of ourselves.”
Katherine sighs heavily. “You have such a morbid outlook, Jane. That doesn’t make any sense. Good Attendant positions aren’t getting any easier to land. This is a real opportunity.”
“Nothing those Survivalists offer is an ‘opportunity,’” I mutter.
“When are you two supposed to go?” Red Jack asks, a familiar twinkle in his eye. He is planning something, and whatever it is ain’t going to be good.
“Tomorrow,” Katherine says. “We even got new dresses. It is going to be quite the event.”
Jackson nods, and just like that I know I’m in for some kind of mischief. I glance at Katherine, hoping maybe I can convince her this is a terrible idea, but she’s just giving Red Jack this friendly grin and I bury my face in my hands. Despite my best intentions I’m about to be sucked into some kind of high drama.
I am surrounded by nothing but suicidal muttonheads.