The first house is completely empty, still waiting for a family to move in; the second contains furniture, but no sign of people. The third, though, has pictures on the walls, ones I recognize from the night Jackson, Katherine, and I snuck into the Spencers’ homestead. I’m in the right house.
The click of a gun’s hammer cocking back ain’t good news, though.
I put my hands up. “Mr. Spencer, we’ve never met, but my name is Jane McKeene.” I turn around slowly. Only the rifle ain’t held by Mr. Spencer.
It’s Lily pointing the rifle at my face.
“Jane McKeene,” she says, the barrel wavering just a little. The electric lamps from outside cast enough light that I can see her clearly. She wears a sleep shirt and her hair is piled on top of her head. She’s skinnier than I remember, but other than that she looks fine. “You better tell me why you’re here and my brother ain’t.”
I smile despite myself. Now, here’s the thing about Lily. She’s a good girl. Sweet as can be. But there’s only one thing she cares about, and that’s Jackson. You ain’t never seen a brother and sister dote upon each other the way Lily and Jackson do. But that’s where I have a problem. Even though I had nothing but love for Lily while Jackson and I went together, she had nothing but an abiding rage for me. There’s not a lot of love for the girl who steals your brother away in a world where family is so fragile, where people lose each other daily. I understood it, even if I didn’t much care for her attitude.
After Jackson and I had parted ways, I think she’d developed a bit of a grudging respect for me. But that ain’t going to matter if she thinks Jackson is in trouble and I had something to do with it. Which is why there is no way in any of the seven hells that I’m going to tell her that her brother’s likely turned shambler, especially not when she’s pointing a rifle right at my face.
“They got him with the work detail,” I say. It’s the hardest fib I ever told. “Mind putting the rifle down?”
She does, her reluctance visible. “My brother know they got us living with shamblers over here?”
“What are you talking about?” I shake my head. “Wait—start at the beginning. How did you and the Spencers end up here?”
Lily props the rifle on her shoulder and sighs, a sound that is far too grown-up for her small frame. “The Spencers’ crops didn’t do so good last year, so Mr. Spencer was having trouble paying the mortgage in Baltimore County. He went to Mayor Carr to ask the man for a loan, and you know what Jackson says about borrowing money from rich people.”
“‘Borrow a dollar, pay with your soul,’” I say. It was how Jackson got locals to trust him instead of the banks, even though his rates were straight usury as well.
Lily nods. “It so happened that Mr. Spencer couldn’t pay when the mayor’s men came to collect. So the mayor gave him a choice: he and his family could leave the county on their own, or go west to this new settlement. You can guess which one Mr. Spencer picked. Before I could even get a note to my brother, we was on the train here.”
“So, the Spencers brought you here voluntarily. That must have been tough for you.”
Lily shrugs. “It’s been mostly okay. A few of the families came here because they ain’t got a lot of sense. They talk a lot about how the Negro should be serving white folks, that we needed to reinstate that ‘natural order’ the pastor is always going on about. That’s why everyone is mad right now. The drovers they brought here to oversee the Negro patrols and fortify the border think the Negroes in your part of town should be taking all the risk to herd the dead, not them. Of course, Miss Katherine says everyone is right to be concerned, that this place ain’t safe, no matter what kind of precautions we take.”
“Kate is here?”
“Yeah, she lives next door. She’s the one that’s got people to talking about safety and such. She’s so pretty and smart! She’s brilliant at smiling and saying a few words that gets everyone to thinking the way she does without them even knowing it. I want to be like her when I grow up.”
I scowl. “Figures, I’m starving and she’s over here having tea parties and pontificating.”
“Anyway, Pastor Snyder says that the Lord will deliver us from hardship, but Miss Katherine says it’s all a lie, and after what I seen . . . I’m scared, Jane. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
“Well, I’ve been out on the walls for a week now, and I don’t want to make you feel any worse, but I’ve seen one too many fresh shamblers to feel like these folks have the protections of Summerland figured out.”
“It ain’t the walls or border patrols that concern me.”
I blink. “What are you scared of, then?”
She sighs heavily. “Right. Okay. Let me get my boots, and I’ll show you.”
She disappears and comes back carrying the rifle awkwardly and a pair of boots. She hands me the gun. “Just for a minute. That’s mine.”
“Where’d you get it from?”
She pulls the boots on. “I won it fair and square from the Elkton boys up the street. I got a pair of boots out of it as well. You never seen a couple of stupider boys.”
I grin. I always did like Lily.
“But it’s how I won it that caused this whole problem I’ve got,” she continues. “Come on.”
We make our way outside, Lily leading the way. We’ve walked a little ways before it occurs to me to ask, “Ain’t you scared to be out this
