“You excited to see your auntie, Adeline? What’s her name?” Tansy asked.
“Ruth,” Adeline said. The night’s sleep seemed to have done her good, and she looked around the forest with clear delight, pointing out every bird and beetle. Aster supposed, like most folks, she had never ventured outside her hometown—until now. “I’ve never met my auntie,” Adeline went on, confirming Aster’s suspicions, “or at least, not since I was a baby. But my ma talked about her all the time. Said they were like peas in a pod growing up. She passed last year—my ma. Vengeant got her.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Tansy said. “I lost my mother, too.”
Aster and Clementine rode behind them in an easy silence. Aster was feeling a little more clearheaded now that it was daylight, having shaken off whatever malaise had gripped her last night. It was probably just leftover effects from the ravener attack, she decided. She was glad she’d dusted the bastard.
“It’s strange to think we’re about to leave the Scab,” Clementine said, pulling a waxy, star-shaped leaf from one of the trees as they passed. She pressed it to her nose and inhaled. Neither of them had ever seen this much green before. “Did you ever think we’d get this far?”
“Just been taking it day by day,” Aster confessed. At the beginning of all this, the idea of finding Lady Ghost had seemed about as likely as running away to the moon. But now …
“You think we’ll ever go back home?” Clem asked. “I don’t. But it’s so hard to imagine never returning.”
“You don’t want to find Ma and Pa?” Aster asked carefully.
Clementine was quiet for a moment. “I think they’d want us to be happy,” she said finally. “I think they’d want us alive. Even if that meant we’d never see them again. I mean, that’s why they sent us to Green Creek in the first place.”
But Aster heard the longing in her voice. There was no way to know if their parents still lived in the same camp, if their parents were even alive themselves anymore. Aster had mourned their loss the day they’d abandoned her. But Clementine, as always, still held out hope for the best. Maybe she imagined their whole family living happily together again one day.
Aster knew better.
* * *
It was about midday by the time they reached Two Pines. After a long discussion, Violet and Aster decided to go on alone to meet Adeline’s aunt—there was no reason to risk everyone’s safety, and a big group would only draw attention. Zee and the others would wait for them in the forest at an arranged meeting point while Aster and Violet rode into the tenant farm.
“Let me do the talking,” Violet muttered as they went down the road. “No one’s going to believe you’re an honest rangeman—or an honest anything, for that matter.”
Aster bristled. “More likely, I’m going to have to be the one who vouches for you. This woman’s going to see your shadow and slam the door in your face. And who could blame her?”
Violet let out a little huff. Their plan was to convince Adeline’s aunt that they were rangemen who had found the girl abandoned. Mallow had shown them how to wrap their chests flat, a habit she herself had taken up ever since leaving Green Creek, so that they might more easily pass as men. And Zee had given them his rangeman’s badge, which could be shown to authorities to prove they weren’t vagrants. As long as they got out before their favors burned through their dustkerchiefs, their cover would remain intact.
Even so, Aster’s throat tightened with mounting apprehension. She hoped Adeline’s aunt would be too excited to see her niece to question the people who’d brought her.
Aster followed the signposts down a side road that led to Mr. Cottenham’s farm, where Adeline said her aunt worked tending fields of tobacco. The farm was about a mile and a half east of Two Pines proper, where the fairbloods lived behind the safety of a deadwall. The shanties that lined the sea of tobacco leaves reminded Aster exactly of the house she had grown up in—cheaply and impatiently built, the wood weathered and cracking, the roofs beginning to hunch in on themselves, as if in apology. There was no deadwall to protect these homes from the vengeants, only crude iron wardants and bunches of dried grayleaf hung from the windows. Several families sat outside on benches, eating their midday meal and drinking dipperfuls of cool water from the well.
Aster and Violet dismounted from their horse before helping Adeline down.
“Afternoon, gentlemen. Don’t often get strangers around here,” said an older man who looked at them suspiciously from underneath his sunhat. He was working a wad of chaw around in his mouth. His eyes flicked down to Violet’s shadow, but he made no comment.
“We’re looking for a woman named Ruth,” Violet said briskly, slipping into her most authoritative tone and flashing the rangeman’s badge. “This girl here is her family.” She gestured to Adeline.
The man’s expression softened at the sight of the young girl. “Ruth Sheppard?”
Adeline nodded, and the man smiled. “I’ll take you to her.”
He led them through the camp. The workers wore their exhaustion like heavy coats, and two raveners walked up and down the rows of tobacco, making sure no one fell behind or tried to start any trouble.
Ripping hell, Aster thought when she saw them.
That was the last thing they needed.
The man brought them to a house with a tidy little flower garden outside and an iron wardant twisted into the shape of two girls skipping together. Adeline looked at it curiously, mimicking the pose.
“Keep still now, Addy,” Aster murmured. She wet her lips as the old man knocked on the door.
“Ruth’s usually home right about now, but she might have gone next door,” he said. “She and Ms. Crane have been known to play cards during their midday meal with some of the other ladies. Can’t tell Mr. Cottenham, of course. He wouldn’t like it to know any of us were gambling with his money, let alone a bunch of women…”
But then the door opened. A woman with gray-streaked hair and weathered brown skin stood in front of them, thin as a rake, with the same dark eyes as Adeline.
“Walter? Who are these two?”
“I was hoping you would know. They say this girl is family of yours.”
“Auntie Ruth?” Adeline asked, stepping forward tentatively.
The woman’s hand went to her throat. Her eyes widened with shock. “Adeline?”
Walter smiled. “I’ll leave you all to it, then. You know where to find me if you need anything.”
Ruth ushered them into her house and closed the door. Aster was struck by an almost physical longing as she looked around—replace Ruth’s spun-wool blankets with her own mother’s, and they might have been in Aster’s childhood home.
Ruth wrapped Adeline in a fierce hug, kissing the crown of her head. Tears streamed down both their cheeks.
“I never thought I would see you again,” she said, releasing Adeline so she could get a better look at her. Aster’s body flooded with relief. Ruth cared for the girl. That much was clear. “I don’t understand how this is possible—I got a letter from my brother-in-law saying he was planning to sell Addy away to a welcome house. I did everything I could to convince him not to, offered to take Addy in myself, even, but he said he needed the shine, and that was that.”
Ruth smoothed the girl’s hair with her fingers. Adeline’s face was split with a grin. Never once, despite their efforts to cheer her up over the past two days, had Aster seen Addy smile before this. It made Aster’s heart swell with a joy that she herself hadn’t felt since …
Well, since she had been Addy’s age.
“She looks so much like my sister when she was little,” Ruth went on, standing back up with difficulty. “That’s us out front, you know—the two wardants playing skip. Did you know her, or…?” A cloud passed over her sunny excitement. “How did you come by Adeline, anyway?”
“We’re rangemen,” Violet said smoothly. “We work together. We came across Adeline on our way north for a job. Seemed she’d been abando
ned by the ravener who was supposed to take her to the welcome house.”
“But why?”
Violet shrugged. “Who can guess at the reasons a soulless man does anything? Maybe a more lucrative job opportunity came up. Regardless, it wouldn’t have felt right to leave Adeline alone out there.”
“Yes, of course,” Ruth said absently. But the cloud was darkening. “So you—you stole her from the welcome house system, then? She’s here unlawfully?”
Aster hesitated, her own smile faltering. “Would you rather us take her back?”
“No, of course not. My sister would want me to look after her girl, I’m sure of it. But…” She hesitated, then lowered her voice. “Someone will come for her, won’t they? The welcome house, or the law? Both? And if you all found me this easily, then it’s only a matter of time before they do as well.”
Adeline had begun looking around her new home, opening the drawers and cabinets, seemingly unaware that she was still in danger.
“Do you all have anywhere else you can go?” Violet asked, sharing an uneasy look with Aster.
Aster wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when they attacked the ravener, guns blazing. She’d been certain it was the right thing to do, but had no plan for what would come next. And then, after, she’d hoped Adeline’s aunt would know what to do. But everything the woman had just said was true. What if Aster and Violet were just handing her a death sentence?
And Addy …
Aster stared at the woman, mouth dry. “You need to leave. Go somewhere else.”
Ruth blinked. “I … I suppose I could try to get us far enough away to start over in another town,” she began. “We could change our names maybe, our look … but I don’t have the shine for something like that. No shine at all really.” She looked around the little house. Aster realized almost nothing in it was even Ruth’s to sell—like the house itself, all the furniture, dishes, and clothes would have been loaned to her by the landmaster, Mr. Cottenham, the total cost added to her family’s debt.
“I can promise to love her like my own daughter, but I cannot promise to keep her safe,” Ruth went on. “Maybe … maybe it would be better for her to go to the welcome house. At least they’ll be able to take care of her—”
A stab of fear in Aster’s gut. A memory rose up in her mind from where she’d buried it, clawing its way back to the surface like a monster that refused to die. The moment her parents had told her they were selling her and Clementine off to the welcome house, the betrayal that had broken her so completely she had never been able to put herself back together.
You’ll be better off there, Dawn. Her mother’s voice, deceptively soothing and sweet. I promise they’ll take care of you.
“Wait,” Aster interrupted then, so quickly she forgot to mask her voice. She covered it with a cough. “Let my partner and me talk it over.”
Aster nodded at Violet to join her outside, trying to hide how shaken she was. She closed the door behind them. Violet put her hands on her hips, squinting in the sunlight.
“What’s there to talk about?” she asked. “We can’t do anything more for these people.”
“We can. We have to.” Aster went over to their black mare and reached into the saddlebag. She pulled out the coin purse, heavy with all the shine they’d collected since Green Creek.
Violet’s eyes widened. “No…”
“Violet, we don’t have a choice. They’ll come here, they’ll come and kill the aunt, you know they will. And then they’ll take Adeline back to the welcome house. They need to go somewhere else, and not a damn hole in the ground waiting to get killed. They need to be able to start a new life far enough away that the raveners will give up looking for them. And for that they need shine, lots of it. Or it’ll all have been for nothing.”
“If you don’t—if we don’t keep that shine for ourselves, then your whole ripping journey will have been for nothing,” Violet hissed. “Lady Ghost—”
“We can’t leave them to die!” Aster kept her voice low, but her anger bled through. “And we can’t let what happened to us happen to that girl.”
Violet sighed and laced her hands over her head.
“It’s not that I don’t care. I do. I promise you I’m not the black-hearted bitch you seem to think I am.” Aster flinched. Violet clearly hadn’t forgotten Aster’s harsh words last night. “It’s just that sometimes you have to be practical. You have to make hard decisions. And if you don’t get your favor removed, you’ll die, too, Aster. You all will.”
Aster dropped her shoulders. Looked through the window. Ruth had sat Adeline down at the kitchen table and was pouring her some tea, so calm in the face of this sudden upheaval to her world.
They have a chance at the life that was stolen from me and Clementine.
“We’ll give them my share at least,” Aster offered.
“Don’t be a fool. That’s not even enough to make a difference. Unless you want to give them Clem’s share, too?”
Aster said nothing, but the corners of her mouth tightened.
“That’s what I thought.”
The breeze blew between them, carrying the sweet scent of the tobacco plants with it. The farmworkers who’d been eating their midday meal were packing up their things now, getting ready to head back to the fields. Aster’s favor burned more intensely beneath the fabric of her dustkerchief. They didn’t have much longer.
“Look, it comes down to this,” Aster said finally. “We can figure something out, we always do. But this is it for them. This is their only chance.”
Violet rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands.
“Damn you, Aster,” she muttered.
“The others will understand. If they were here they would make the same choice.” She knew in her heart it was true.
“Of course they would. They’re soft like you. And they’ll do whatever you tell them, because you’re their leader. That’s why you have to be practical, like I said. If you’d ever been head girl, you’d know that.”
“Don’t give me that old song and dance. You were just looking out for yourself back at Green Creek. You’ve said as much.”
“I had to. No one else would.” But then Violet seemed to come to some decision, and her expression settled into something that was almost boredom. “Anyway, you do what you want. Give her the shine, if that’ll make you feel better. I just want to get out of here.”
Aster swallowed and nodded. Relief coursed through her. Still, her mind whirled with doubt as they rapped on the door and waited for Ruth to answer. As blunt as Violet had been, she still had spared Aster the obvious, unspoken truth: there was no way they would make back this much shine in the little time they had left.
But just as true was the fact that, as honorable as their reasons had been, it was their fault Adeline was on the run from the law in the first place.
They’d gotten her into this mess, and they would get her out.
Ruth cracked the door open, looking at Aster and Violet expectantly.
“Thanks for your patience, Ms. Sheppard,” Aster said. “We’ve been talking, and we have a bit of spare shine we’d like to give you. Help you start your new life somewhere else, as far away as you can go.” Aster held up the coin purse. “A little over five thousand eagles in here, ought to be enough.”
Ruth’s eyes widened. “I cannot possibly accept this.”
“Please,” Violet insisted, and Aster was surprised to hear the genuine goodwill in her voice. “For Adeline.”
“I only wish someone could have done the same for my sister,” Aster added.
Ruth took the heavy coin purse. Her eyes shimmered with fresh tears, which she wiped away quickly. “I don’t know how to thank you—by the Veil—”
Aster held her hands up. “We’re honored we could help.”
Ruth thanked them again, pulling them both into a hug. A flood of homesickness washed over Aster, followed by a surge of pride and contentedness such as she had never felt. Stealing f
rom the brags had brought a rush of satisfaction every time, true, but this—this was like a solid meal that stuck to your ribs and would leave you full for days. For just a moment, all her pain and shame fell away.
This, Aster thought, letting out a shuddering breath.
This is why I’m here.
That was when she heard the sound of voices from behind them. Aster turned, her stomach dropping. Walter was at the front of a group of half a dozen farmworkers, all armed with sickles and other tools, marching towards the house with purpose.
“I knew there was something wrong with you two,” he shouted, his voice harsh and accusing. “They’re not who they say they are, Ruth! They’re the Green Creek girls. That there’s one of the stolen horses.” He held up a wanted poster as proof. “Grab them, boys!” he ordered, the group within mere yards of the house now. “And remember, McClennon wants them alive!”
* * *
Aster didn’t have time to process the turn of events, didn’t even have time to mount her horse before Walter swung his sickle. Instead, she grabbed Violet by the hand and took off on foot.
“Come on!” she shouted.
They broke out into a sprint across the hardpacked earth, side by side, until they disappeared into the cool green shade of the tobacco fields. Aster’s heart kicked in her chest in time with her footsteps, the impact of each one rattling through her bones.
“They won’t hurt Ruth and Adeline, will they?” Violet asked, already short of breath.
“They have no reason to,” Aster panted back, though she was reassuring herself as much as anything. The posse was hot on their heels, their footsteps pounding into the fields after them.
No chance they’d be able to outrun them for long.
Aster tore off her dustkerchief. Their cover was blown anyway, and the pain only slowed her down. They had to make it back to the forest, back to the meeting point where Zee and the others were waiting for them.
And here we are leading a ripping mob right to them—
“This way,” she hissed to Violet, forcing the thought down. She ducked sideways, running across the rows of plants now instead of down them. Their only hope was to lose the men in the maze of green.
The Good Luck Girls Page 23