“We’ll put it to him, see what he says.”
“Where you go, he’ll go,” Stebbs said.
“I know it.”
“Tough caring about people, isn’t it?”
Lynn considered the long, cold winter that had passed happily, with Lucy sharing her basement and a stolen night with Eli sharing her cot. Without them, she would’ve been alone for the dark hours, staring into the blackness fighting off grief and madness. “Wouldn’t trade it,” she said.
“You’re sure this is necessary?” Eli asked, dissecting the crudely penciled map that Stebbs had drawn.
“They’ll only grow stronger. The scavengers will keep looting the countryside until there’s nothing left for anyone in the area. We’ll all be begging them for something sooner or later,” Stebbs answered, bouncing a grinning Lucy in his lap. Not even the seriousness of the adults could cut through her happiness at avoiding bedtime.
Vera stood at the stove, boiling stream water for Lucy, with a concerned frown. The stove heated the little stream house so well that Lynn felt a trickle of sweat running down her chest.
“I know you don’t like it,” she said to Eli. “But you need to know I wouldn’t do this if we didn’t need to.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m not killing people for spite. This is about living.”
Eli weighed her words, his gray eyes searching hers for answers. “What do you want me to do?”
“The important thing is going to be distracting the ones on the ground. Once the tower sentry is out, they’ll be blind,” Stebbs said. “The man guarding the hall is capable, so he goes next. But that still leaves us with five men that can find cover and wait us out.”
“Four, if we assume Green Hat is a decent fellow,” Lynn added.
“Assume he’s not,” Stebbs said. “If he is, all the better.”
“So I create a distraction?” Eli asked. “Something to draw everyone out?”
“Exactly,” Stebbs nodded, pointing to the map. “I’m sending you out to set a fire at the hall. The stockpile is there. They need it to retain a position of power.”
“Wait,” Lynn interrupted. “A fire? It’ll take a while to get one started. How’s Eli safe while he’s trying to set it? And how does he get past the guard?”
“Your momma ever teach you anything about Molotov cocktails?”
“Uh, no.”
“Easy enough—gasoline in a glass bottle, stoppered with a rag that Eli lights. He tosses a few of those onto the roof and those shingles will go up in a flash.”
Eli nodded in slow agreement. “Sounds good, but that still leaves the guard.”
“It’s all in the timing. You hear that first shot take out the sentry and you’re running toward the hall. The men will be trying to figure out where that shot came from. The guard at the hall will leave his post to see if it’s the tower sentry doing the shooting. That’s your window to get in there and toss the fire.”
“What’s his window to get out?” Lynn asked.
“You and I and our rifles,” Stebbs answered as Vera pulled Lucy from his lap. She gave Stebbs a dark look that he either missed or ignored.
Lynn shook her head. “I don’t like it.”
“I’m the best option,” Eli said. “I’m quicker than you, and you’re a far better shot. With you and Stebbs in the trees, I’m probably safer there than I am sitting here talking.”
Lynn looked down at her hands and didn’t answer. Stebbs continued. “The two important shots are the sentry and the hall guard. Once Eli sets the fire, they’ve got a choice; let their easy life go up in flames or risk our bullets. They’ll risk it, but her daddy’s a smart bastard. He’ll know what we’re up to and send people to find us while the others fight the fire.
“Lynn, you take three good shots and then I want you to move to a new position. Best case, he only sends one man up after you and you can pick him off as he comes, then concentrate on the town.”
“What about you?” Vera asked, her worried eyes searching his face. “How many shots will you take before you move?”
“Sweetheart, I’m too old and twisted to be moving. Once I’m set up, I’m there for the duration. Hell or high water.”
“Probably be hell,” Eli said. “We haven’t seen a lot of rain lately.”
Lynn found his hand under the table. Her gratefulness for his humor couldn’t be expressed in words.
“When do we go?” Eli asked.
Stebbs and Lynn exchanged glances, the lightness of the moment vanished. “Before the sun comes up,” he said. “Eat well, rest, clean your guns.”
Lynn squeezed Eli’s hand; she wouldn’t let go of him until she had to.
They left the stream house together, not making excuses for their departure. They walked silently hand in hand toward her home. Lucy had been sleeping as they finalized their plans, and Lynn had settled for placing her hand on the little forehead in farewell. Her skin was soft and cool to the touch. Lynn didn’t think she’d ever be able to touch the little girl again without fear of feeling fever burning underneath her skin.
“What did Vera tell her, about Neva?”
“The truth, to a point. She told her that her mother made a sacrifice in order to save her, because she valued Lucy’s life over her own.”
“That is the truth,” Lynn said, thinking of the last lingering glance Neva had given her, along with instructions to tell Lucy she loved her. “How is Lucy doing with it?”
“As well as can be expected. She asks questions that are hard to answer, and she’s quiet for long periods.”
Lynn snorted. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
They went downstairs together. “I want to give you a handgun,” she said. “I’ve got a few. I won’t have you on the ground unarmed.”
“Stebbs has been letting me borrow his rifle to shoot, but I’ve never even touched a handgun, country girl.”
“We’ll practice now.”
He took her hand, guiding her over to the cot. “There’s better ways to spend our time. I’m not standing out in the cold and the dark shooting a gun when I could be warm in here with you.”
“You’ll regret it.”
He pulled her down next to him and she rested her head against his shoulder. “I’ll regret it more if these are our last hours and we spend it with a gun instead of each other.”
Lynn leaned into him. “Don’t talk like that.”
“Besides, Stebbs told us to rest.”
“Yeah,” she teased.
“I don’t want anything more than to hold you, Lynn.”
His arms encircled her and she felt the calm that always came with him welling up from a place she’d thought only Mother could touch. She turned her face into his chest so that he couldn’t see her tears as she cried quietly, knowing that Mother would have never risked her own skin for the sake of others. In a few hours, Lynn would climb a tree miles from her own pond to fire bullets she couldn’t spare so that Eli, Lucy, and countless strangers downstream could have a drop to drink. She inhaled Eli’s smell, buried her face deeper into his chest, holding on to him until the world would make her let go.
It was bitterly cold when they emerged in the dead of night to meet Stebbs. They huddled together for warmth, not even bothering to tease the older man when he came from the direction of the stream, rather than
