Chapter 18

 

Julia pushed up the sash of Mary’s bedroom window, propping it up with a somewhat sturdy piece of wood, scavenged from a broken crate in the other room. Drops of rain peppered the outside of the window as Julia stood there, looking down on the alley below. She stretched out her hand, catching a few droplets in her palm, and then brought them to her mouth. It was a tradition she and her brother had done as children, slurping rain from their hands, the tastiest water to be had. Julia smiled at the memory and reached out her hand again but pulled it back sharply.

Even in the darkness she could see a shadow cross the alley below. As she watched, another darted past her line of sight. She could see nothing but the outlines, dark forms making their way from Old Nelson road to the narrow passageway that led to Mary and Robert’s front door.

Mary was in the other room. Lucy was sleeping just across the bedroom.

“Mary,” Julia said calmly, “can you come to the bedroom please?”

She inched toward Lucy, who was only just waking up. She did not cry in the usual way of babies. She only lay there peering up at Julia, expectantly.

Julia could hear her sister-in-law groan at her request. Mary was exhausted. Neither of them had been granted much sleep in the last few days. Their worry for Robert’s safety had grown steadily as they waited, but Julia knew their troubles were about to get much worse.

Julia pulled Lucy up from her laundry basket bed and cradled her gently to her chest. She bobbed up and down slowly as she walked for the window.

A narrow ledge was just outside. It wasn’t much but it could give them enough stability to make their way to an adjoining roof and freedom beyond. Julia had been eyeing it for days, praying they never would have need to use it.

“Mary, there’s something we need to talk about,” Julia pleaded, circling the room in search of a blanket for Lucy to protect her from the rain.

Mary appeared at the bedroom door, weary and despondent. Her eyes were swollen from crying and her hair a tangled mess from her constantly pulling at it.

A powerful knock rattled the entry door. Mary started and whirled around in terror. “Oh my God, what do we do?”

Julia walked toward her slowly. “We need to take Lucy and go.”

“But Robert, he’s coming back.”

Even with her child directly in front of her, Mary made no movement to take her from Julia. In the last few days Julia could not coax her to nurse her child or rock her to sleep. Since Robert’s disappearance it was as if little Lucy didn’t exist anymore.

“We have to think of Lucy now,” Julia said, not wanting to admit her brother might have been killed like Jeremiah had.

Another hard knock sounded. “Mary Crandall?” came a gruff voice from the other side.

Mary shook her head fearfully as Julia pulled Mary’s cloak from the end of the bed. “I cannot leave him.”

“You must. For Lucy’s sake,” Julia hissed, trying to hand her the cloak.

The rain pelleted down in sheets, bouncing off the still sun-hot bricks and parched pavement. Steam rose from the stones.

The knocks on the door ended and a determined pounding began, rocking the thin wood of the door and inching the small table barricade farther into the room.

“We have to go now,” Julia said. She reached for Mary’s sleeve but missed by a fraction of an inch.

Mary was already walking into the main room when the door finally gave way and three men burst in.

Julia recoiled back to the window. Good God, if only Mary had come when Julia first called for her. With Lucy snug beneath her blanket and Mary’s cloak, Julia slipped through the window, and perched herself on the ledge, making herself as slim as possible. She listened as the men went about the rooms. She waited for Mary to appear, all the while inching toward the adjoining roof.

Above the rain, Julia could hear them turning over tables and chairs, moving the bed and smashing knickknacks. And then Mary screamed sharply and Julia stopped. Lucy began to stir beneath her layers of protection and Julia closed her eyes, willing her to settle down.

“We only want the bitch,” one of the men said, as Mary moaned in agony. “Where is she?”

Mary let out another yelp.

Julia’s heart lurched at the thought of leaving Robert’s wife behind. If she stayed on the ledge they’d find her before long. If she left both she and Lucy had a better chance of survival.

“My baby,” Mary said from somewhere in the room. “Please don’t hurt my baby.”

“No one checked outside the window!”

Mary had given her up.