“Will do next time,” I whispered. And it wasn’t like we’d had time to talk.
I thought about the bag I lost in the drain; I doubted telling him would help anything. I mean, they knew I was gone, and they knew I was near Medford.
From our hole, we heard the townspeople call out to each other. Epps yelled to one of his neighbors, “Blasted Libratiers want us all to go to the meeting hall.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“They’re flushing out the citizens, so they can check houses without them watching.”
“Is this because of the robe?”
“We better not talk.” He was right. We could talk later. What mattered now was getting as far away from Bollard as possible.
We stayed there so long, I fell asleep. Greer must have too because we were both startled when the shelf swung open. The light blinded me for the first few seconds. When my vision cleared, I saw a woman with braided hair holding up a flashlight. Greer rushed out of the tunnel to her.
“We need to get you out,” said the woman I assumed was Elsa. She hugged him and then we climbed from the cellar.
We followed her through the back door and into a tiny kitchen. Greer and I shared a small bench at the kitchen table.
Epps put a pot of soup before us. Elsa followed with empty bowls and cups. Epps handed Greer a carafe, and he poured coffee for the two of us.
Elsa and Epps sat across from us with mugs of their own. Elsa shook her head in disgust. “I would have set the table real nice for you two, made a cake, but with the Libratiers lurking around, a chocolate cake sitting on the table would keep them here for hours.”
Epps poured himself a cup of coffee. “A pot of coffee might keep them around too, but we’ll take the risk.”
Greer shook his head in disgust. “I’m sorry.”
“We’d been lost if not for you,” Epps said. “You’re as good as a son, isn’t he?”
“Potato, sweetie?” Elsa smiled and dished out the bowls of steaming white soup. Above ground, it was way too hot for soup. Their house had to be at least eighty degrees, but I took it and thanked her. Elsa was without guise, sweet, and I wondered what brought her to hating the Merrics so much that they would hide strangers in their cellar. Then again, if it was anything like my story, I didn’t want to know.
“We’re sorry we couldn’t get you earlier,” Elsa explained, as if what they had done already wasn’t enough. “The Libratiers have been all over the town taking food and clothes. I can’t believe you were once a member.”
“Compulsory, dear, like most terrible things in life,” Epps said. “Besides, things were different then.”
“Or we were different,” Elsa replied as she handed us napkins. “They were at some houses three or four times. Poor Humphry. Over six hours on the first visit and then two more hours. They set themselves up there for the night as if they thought you were going to simply march out to the river. They only checked here two times; the last time they came for more food.”
Epps took a quick swig of coffee and said, “They’re at Humphry’s because he makes his own whiskey. I’m sure they’ll look for our guests at the bottom of every barrel. May find them there too. I was clever. You’d be proud of me; I bought two barrels and opened them right there for the Libratiers. They should be drunker than a nun on Tuesday before too long.”
Greer placed his napkin in his lap like a gentleman at Sunday dinner and not like a fugitive on the run.
Epps picked up his spoon and held it over his soup. “I hired entertainment as well; keep ‘em busy. We should be covered for your big escape. I got lookouts in the town. The locals think it’s because of the bathtub gin I have in the attic, non-taxed, so you can imagine. You should be all set. And don’t you be getting worried. Elsa baked ‘em some bread. They’re hungry, you know. Hungry before even getting started. Terrible way to start a manhunt.”
“We plan on giving the boys some soup after you’re gone.” This was odd. Here they were hiding the two people they were looking for and the Epps were still going to feed them, the enemies.
“The Libratiers are with the Merrics, and they shouldn’t be taking food from the citizens. Plenty of food has been allocated for those troops, and you need that food to make it through the winter,” Greer said.
Epps shook his spoon at Greer. “No worries. People are handing supplies to them. It’s the way we are. Been that way for a long time, hasn’t it? Rich getting richer, poor giving crumbs away because they know hunger. The problem is the rich don’t know hunger and the poor don’t know full.”
“The rich don’t know when they’re full,” Elsa said between bites of soup. “Why else hoard all that they have? No, the rich are always hungry. Give the poor a meal and they are satisfied; give the rich a meal and they want more.”
Greer put down his spoon. “I’m sorry I mixed you up in all of this.”
Epps shook his head. “The time for comfortable has passed, my boy.”
“I’m afraid comfortable passed us decades ago,” Elsa said. She added, “It’s time for action.”
“And we’ve got news for you.” Epps sat forward on his seat, a smile on his face. He’d apparently been looking forward to this bit of the conversation. “Now, remember that what I’m about to tell you is halfway between mostly true and totally true.”
Epps raised his coffee to his lips and lowered it again without drinking. “The Libratiers were heading south until they found your companion’s robe. I’d tell you to head south but with Boston between us, it’s near impossible to get through