I considered telling a few others, but word was going to get around quickly, come the morning. When I got back to the house I found Eliza sitting on one of the crates, her leg bouncing as she stared into space. I touched her gently on the shoulder to jerk her out of it.
“It’s okay.” I cupped my hand to her cheek and stroked it with my thumb. “You’re freaking out, aren’t you.” This was typical for her. She’d put up as much of a front as possible in front of other people but in private, all bets were off. She looked up at me and nodded. I pulled her head close to me and held her as tears started to roll down her cheeks.
“I’m thirty seconds into leading these people Fiona. Barely into the job, and tomorrow I’m going to be forced to deliver the worst possible news to them. It was a close race as it was, honey. What am I going to look like after this?”
It wasn’t a close race-it was a landslide. Marcus might have had some chance of winning but the addition of Azan had killed any possibility of a young leader. But the important thing was that she felt like it was. It wasn’t going to help matters for me to tell her otherwise. “You’re going to look like the woman and the leader who brings these people through the trials ahead of them. You’re going to stand up there tomorrow and show them that we are going to endure this.”
“I feel helpless.” My heart hurt to hear her so upset. I had faith that we could figure something out, but I knew what it was like to feel as if nothing was ever going to get better.
“I know, sweetheart. But let me tell you, between the two of us? We’re going to be just fine. You trust me, right?”
“Yeah.” She dried the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath.
“You know that I’m the smartest person here, especially when it comes to plants, right?” She barked a laugh.
“Yeah.”
“Then what’s the problem?” I reached a hand down and helped her up. “Come on, let’s get to bed. We have a long day tomorrow and nobody likes dealing with you when you’re short on sleep.” That earned another laugh. I told myself that I wasn’t actually lying to her. I was projecting the confidence she needed to see. The rest was going to have to wait until tomorrow.
Word of the potato blight had indeed made its way around camp because we were awoken by the pounding of fists on our door.
“God. Damn. It.” Eliza swore underneath the covers.
“I’ll keep them at bay. Take a minute, compose yourself.” I looked down to make sure I was decent and opened the door to be greeted by a mob.
“Are we going to lose all our food?”
“We’re going to starve!”
“What are you going to do about it?”
The questions were thrown at me like blows and I briefly considered going back inside. Instead, I cupped my hands around my mouth and took a deep breath.
“SHUT THE HELL UP!”
That worked. For the moment. The shouting was reduced to whispers and murmurs as I put my hands out and moved the crowd away from our house.
“Now, who the hell has been talking to you people?” My eyes stalked the crowd for a guilty face. Somebody had opened their mouth and made this a thousand times worse than it needed to be. When I found out who it was, the panthers that stalked the edges of camp were going to get a very nice dinner for themselves.
“I overheard Alexander!” One voice replied.
“Your father was talking about it with one of his friends!” Another crowed.
“ENOUGH!” If it was my father who was responsible for this… “Look, I need you all to fuck off and get yourselves to the center of camp. When Eliza is ready, and no sooner, she will come and address you. Until then, anyone who harasses me or my family is going to have a very bad day! Understand?” If looks could kill, I would have died on the spot. Being the daughter of Jacob Alvaro hadn’t won me a lot of favor with the colony. Having my wife elected leader only made it look like there was some serious nepotism going on, though I knew better. Even those who had been kind to us didn’t like being ordered around by an Alvaro anymore.
I stalked back into the house and let out a long breath. The adrenaline rush of getting the crowd away from our house was starting to wear off and suddenly I felt more exhausted than I was the night before. When I looked up I saw Eliza, dressed and put together. She ran to hug me. “You’re a marvel, Fiona.”
“Right back at you. Give me five minutes to get relatively clean and then we’ll go address the panicked masses.”
While I shucked my pajamas off in favor of working clothes I could hear Eliza in the next room muttering to herself. I didn’t need to hear what she was saying to know what she was doing. She was rehearsing.
Walking into the group of people felt a little like stalking as quietly as possible through a
