Chapter 11
Daylight didn’t make things better. Heather had firmly told herself, as she and Clary were marched through what once had been the free town of Unity, that things would be better in the morning. But if anything, they were worse.
The sky was a uniform gray, and instead of the usual smiling faces of the townfolks, all Heather could see were downcast expressions.
El Aguila’s plan had gone almost flawlessly. He had taken the majority of the citizens by surprise, so there was little resistance, and the town was overrun in less than two hours.
Then, to their dismay, Heather and Clary were marched through the streets with their friends and neighbors watching all the way to Andrew’s house.
Neither he nor Julie was there, and Christopher had also been removed from the premises. Then Heather and Clary were locked in the spare room and left there until the morning.
Heather knew she had to have slept, but it wasn’t for long. Consumed by fear for what had happened to Mark and the others, she couldn’t seem to get comfortable. Now, as daylight spread over the town, she looked out of the window at the dreary scene.
“What’s going on?” Clary asked. She had a thick, bruised lip and one black eye.
“They’re taking all the men down the street to the bridge,” Heather said, watching as armed bandits forced the men from houses in lines. They were ushered down the street and then over the bridge. Heather watched them go with growing dread in her heart.
“Heading to the mine, I’ll bet,” Clary said, looking up at the ceiling. “Thomas told me that El Aguila has always been very keen on the copper mine. He’s stolen more of the shipments than I think Thomas could bear to talk about.”
“But why?” Heather asked. “He’s been after this little patch of land for a while, and I can’t work it out.”
“He said it’s not just about here,” Clary said. “We’ve seen some of the other towns he’s taken over, and they’re all around here. Maybe he has some great plan for this whole area, and Unity was the last bit he needed to get. You know, like the last puzzle piece that needed to slot into place.”
That didn’t make Heather feel any better. “When we were on the train, he spoke about a factory he was opening here. I guess that was a lie.”
Clary shrugged. “Could be. Could be he’s still planning something like that.” She sighed. “Don’t lose hope. There’s still Mac. He’s not going to let this lie. That’s for certain.”
Heather turned to look out of the window again and said a prayer, remembering the sermon that Father Sumner had given on Sunday.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
I must remember that and hold on to the belief that He will guide our steps and help us in this terrible time.
“Okay,” Heather said, turning back from the window. “Clary, I’ve been thinking. If we’re going to get out of this, we’re going to have to play it smart.”
“All right,” she said, sitting up. “What do you have in mind?”
All night she kept thinking about Uncle Alex and how he had said that everything was a business arrangement, even marriage. That was when she had come up with the plan.
“He’s going to want to hold us women as hostages to keep the men in line,” Heather said. “We’re insurance. But we can be more. If we let Alex think the idea is his, we can get the women of Unity a certain amount of freedom.”
“How?” Clary asked.
“Men still need to eat, laundry needs to be done, wounds tended, children minded,” Heather said. “Unless his bandits want to do those things, we’ll end up doing them. If we are prepared to make a deal, we could negotiate.”
“I’m not seeing how that helps anyone but him,” Clary said frankly.
“Only because you’re not thinking like a businessman.
If we say that we’ll do these things freely, without fuss, so long as he allows us the freedom to move about without guns at our backs, we can get a rebellion started.
Then we aren’t relying on a man all the way in New York to solve our problems. We can find out how to get weapons to everyone in town again and blow these bandits back to where they belong. ”
Clary smiled and then winced at the pain in her face. “Nice speech. I’ll bet you could rile up a corpse to follow you. Let’s do it.”
Heather nodded. “We’ll have to play a little game though, and hope Uncle Alex won’t see through it. You’ll oppose my ideas, saying they’re dumb and no one will go for them. Okay? I’ll eventually give in, and then he’ll take the idea as his and make it happen.”
“How do you know it will work?” Clary asked.
Heather shrugged. “I don’t, but it’s a good deal better than anything else I came up with.”
Just then there was the sound of the key scraping in the lock. The door opened slowly, whining on its hinges.
Nick, one of Uncle Alex’s most trusted henchmen, stood in the doorway. He was a thin, wiry man with a long face, limp brown hair, and little ratty eyes that darted around too much. “Come on. Boss wants to see you.”
Heather stood up, hiding the pain she felt in her right hip, and smoothed down her dress. Clary got up with some groaning and stood beside her. She had taken a real beating when the bandits captured the coach.
They walked demurely out of the room and down the stairs without saying anything. All they did was hold each other’s hand. Heather knew hers was shaking, and she felt a little better knowing that Clary’s was also damp with nerves.
Uncle Alex had set himself up in the parlor, lounging in a comfy chair. On his right, with a gun pointed at his head, was Andrew. He looked pale and tired, as though he too hadn’t slept a wink the night before.
“Ah, Heather, Clary, how wonderful of you to join us,” Uncle Alex said, magnanimously welcoming them with a grand gesture. “Come and sit on the sofa.”
They did as they were told. Clary scowled but said nothing. Heather kept her eyes downcast.
“I was just explaining to Andrew here how pivotal you were in the overthrow of the town,” Uncle Alex said.
“That’s a lie!” Clary snapped. Nick, who stood beside her, nudged her with the barrel of his gun. She winced and then closed her mouth.
You shouldn’t react, Heather wanted to tell her. We have to make Uncle Alex think that we are being cooperative and are beaten. This won’t work if he thinks there is still fight in us.
Luckily, Clary didn’t say anything further, and Uncle Alex continued his story.
“I can understand why Clary is so upset at the idea that she had anything to do with this,” he said.
“It’s embarrassing, and I might have slightly exaggerated their involvement.
It was more of a passive than an active role that they took on.
Mark and Ben were the active ingredients in the little cake of mayhem I sent into your town last evening. But you know that.”
“Yes,” Andrew said, his voice steady and calm. “I still don’t know what the point of it all was.”
“Ah yes, I can imagine that you are a little confused. Let me just assure you that it has nothing to do with you,” Uncle Alex said.
“It’s about Mr. MacGregor, isn’t it?” Andrew asked, his eyes never leaving Uncle Alex’s face. “Mr. Rossi told us all about how you used him to spy on Mac and his business dealings.”
“Ah, Vincent has been quite chatty, hasn’t he?
” Uncle Alex said with a shake of his head.
“Well, we can fix that. I’m sure Pedro and Nick here will get around to dealing with him shortly.
I must commend your wife and Diane for their excellent medical skills though.
Saving a man who was marked for death like that … Truly amazing.”
“I’ll pass on your compliments,” Andrew said.
Uncle Alex laughed coldly. “No, you won’t.”
Andrew sighed. “So why am I here? Why are they here? What do you want?”
“You’re here because we need to discuss how things are going to work from here on in,” Uncle Alex said.
Then he gestured to Heather and Clary. “And they are here to remind you of what’s at stake.
I would have rather had your wife and child here, but your wife is still busy patching up the injured.
” He shrugged. “I suppose we can’t have everything our way, now, can we? ”
“No, I guess not,” Andrew said through gritted teeth.
“Good. So, as you may have guessed, I want every able-bodied man in the mine and the smelter. You’re behind schedule, and we need to fix that,” Uncle Alex said. “I need a lot of funds for my grand plan.”
“And what about us?” Heather asked.
“What about you?” Uncle Alex asked. “Well, you’re insurance, so …”
Heather decided to put her plan into action. She raised her gaze and spoke clearly and concisely. “I suppose you want us to be your insurance and cook your meals.” She said it with a sneer as though it was the worst thought.
“And do your laundry, I suppose,” Clary added with matching disgust. “Well, we won’t do that, will we?”
“Heavens, no,” Heather said. “The women of Unity are not slaves.”
“I think since the only other option is death, you’ll do what you’re told,” Uncle Alex said.
“Quite a few of the women would probably prefer death,” Andrew said.
This went on for a while, far longer than Heather had thought it would, and then, as though by magic, everything slotted neatly into place, as though some unseen hand had been guiding it.
Clary beamed when they were sent out to the kitchen to start cooking. “You are a genius,” she said in a low but excited voice. “He ended up doing exactly what you said.”
“Shh,” Heather said, also smiling. “We’ll ruin everything if we look too happy.”
They bowed their heads, and as Nick entered the kitchen to keep an eye on them, Heather felt a glimmer of hope. All she could hope was that Mark was all right and that, despite Uncle Alex’s words, no one was too angry with him and Ben for the part they had been forced to play in this whole fiasco.
With the takeover of the town complete, Uncle Alex set about organizing things the way he wanted them.
When it came to the women, he made sure that they were under guard at all times.
However, as the days passed and no one kicked up a fuss, the work got done and everyone kept their heads down, the guards began to get bored.
Heather and Clary spread the word, one woman at a time. When they went out to hang the laundry or get new supplies from the store, they told the plan to whomever they met along the way. The other town women were more than happy to play along and work quietly against their oppressors.
“I know where they’re keeping the guns,” Sarah said one evening as a group of women sat around in the parlor of what had been Michael and Emily’s house.
Their guard, a fat and lazy bandit called Simon, was outside having a cigar.
Emily had refused to allow him to smoke in her house, and he had been only too happy to step outside and get a break from all the female company.
“Where?” Heather asked.
“The town store,” Sarah said.
“Great, now we know where they are. Now. How to get them to our husbands,” Lizzy muttered. “Ouch!”
“Are you okay?” Sarah asked, leaning over to Lizzy to see what had happened.
“I’m fine. I just pricked my finger again. I really hate sewing.”
“Well, they’re not going to let you near your forge now,” Emily said.
“Or any of us near our men,” Grace, the baker, said. “They even forced Herman into the mines. I don’t think he’s swung a pick in his life.”
“We’re getting off track,” Heather said. “The plan is to find a way to get the guns out.”
“Which we won’t be able to do because the store is under guard, as are we, all the time,” Emily said, pushing her needle through the hem of a pair of trousers she was mending with great force.
Heather nodded. “Let’s not worry about that right now. I have an idea. What we need to do now is find a way to get word to the men. Tell them what we’re planning.”
“That’s going to be hard,” Grace said. “We only get a look at them when we take the pots of food across the bridge. They’re being kept on that side, sleeping in the old tents again. It’s horrible.” She began to cry.
Lizzy put an arm around her shoulders. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. “The easiest way to solve this problem is for us to arm ourselves first and then get the men.”
“You make it sound easy,” Sarah said.
“That’s because it is,” Lizzy said. “Thanks to Heather here, they won’t suspect a thing.
They’re not looking at us, not really. They think they’ve won, and that’s a mistake.
We need to wait until they are completely complacent, and then we strike.
I’d give it another couple of days of us being demure and kind and putting up with them. Then we blow them sky high.”
“How?” Heather asked.
“Leave that to me,” Lizzy said. There was a cold gleam in her brown eyes that chilled Heather’s blood.
That evening, when she was returned to Emily’s house along with Diane, Julie, and Clary, Heather took the time when they were making dinner for Uncle Alex to tell them about the plan.
“Sure,” Diane said, speaking softly. “It’s a good plan, right up to the point where it’s not.”
“What does that mean?” Clary asked as she peeled potatoes at the kitchen table.
Nick was their guard. He stood in the corner, picking his nails clean with a big knife. He liked to flash it around menacingly when he was alone with the women. Heather found it disconcerting.
“Hey! Stop that whispering!” he snapped.
For a couple of minutes, they were silent.
Then Clary whispered, “What did you mean about the plan?”
“Just that things don’t always go as anticipated,” Diane said. “We need a backup.”
“What about Mac? He has to know there’s a problem by now,” Julie said. “He must be on his way.”
“And if he’s not?” Heather asked. “We might need to save ourselves.”
“I said, shut your traps!” Nick said, appearing right behind them. He leaned over Heather’s shoulder and brought the knife down, point first, into the wooden table with force.
Heather and the others recoiled, screaming in fright that was only partially exaggerated.
“What was that for?” Julie demanded, her fright turning to anger instantly. “We were talking about dinner. Do you honestly want to hear us discuss who is going to do what?”
“No,” Nick said. “I don’t want to hear any of you saying anything.” He smiled at Heather in a sickening way.
She swallowed.
“Get to work,” he said.
They didn’t say anything else for the rest of the evening until they were taken upstairs to bed. Still sharing a room with Clary, Heather curled up on her slice of the narrow bed and tried to push the fear from her mind.
She wished that Mark was there, that he had his arms around her and that she wasn’t so terribly frightened. Diane had confirmed that he and Ben were alive and well and working in the mine. She had treated them for the injuries sustained when they were captured.
Heather held onto that thought tightly in her mind. Soon, she would see Mark again, and she would throw her arms around him and never let go again.