River

Jake

I’ve brought all the food over to the front window, and pulled one of the armchairs over too. I’m just sitting here, eating more than I have ever been allowed to eat before, and staring out the window. There’s a little gap in the curtains that is easier to see through than the lace, so I am peering through that. I don’t want to take my eyes off Mister Gregor’s front door. I feel so proud that he chose me to be his watchman. I will do this job right.

Also, I know that Rosy is his wife. He said that the bad men might try to harm his family, and that has to mean Rosy. I am not just doing this for him. I am doing this for her.

She was always so kind to me before she left to get married. I suppose all the ladies are pretty nice to me, most of the time, but she was especially so. She told me that I reminded her of her little brother. I am definitely not going to let anything happen to her.

A man walks past the window and I shrink back a little, although I’m pretty sure he couldn’t see me through the little gap in the curtains. He walks over to the house right across the street from Mister Gregor’s house, and leans against the wall there, behind a tree that is in the front yard. It’s one house over from where I am. I can see him from my window, but I’ll bet that tree would be blocking the view from Gregor’s house. So I know that I am the only one that can see him.

I stare at him with all my might, watching to see what he looks like, what he might do. He looks like one of the men who work at the docks. He stands there for a long time, and eventually sits down, still back behind the tree next to the house, still staring at Gregor’s house. I will watch him as long as he stays there. I don’t even look away long enough to get more food out of my bag - I reach my hand in without looking, keeping my eyes on the man.

I will do this job right.

Mason

It’s like Stu said. The hill is a real chore to climb, basically a cliff, but I’m able to get up it by grabbing on to rocks and tree roots and such. When I get to the top, I look carefully around before standing up, to make sure nobody is there that could see me. Yes, Natchez seems to be south of here along the cliff, the residences closer to me than the town center. I don’t see anybody about.

I stick to the outskirts, moving along until I find what I am pretty sure is Gregor’s street. I stand at the north end, concealed behind some shrubs, looking down the street, and my luck holds.

I see the fellow, David, coming up from the south. I dip further behind the shrubs. I want to see if he is following my instructions. He glances around himself, then ducks behind a tree on the east side of the street. I don’t see him come out, so I have to assume he is concealing himself there behind the corner of the house, using the tree as cover.

Gregor’s house must be the one across the street. I look at it. Pfsh, of course it is large and pretentious. Not the biggest house in Natchez, but far more than that grubby foreigner and his whore deserve. I suppose she’s in there.

Well, I don’t figure there will be anything else to see here for a while. It looks like David is obeying me, so I know he’ll see anything that happens. I guess I’ll make my way back down the cliff to my grove. Later I’ll have Stu bring David and Ben to give me their report.

I’ll have him bring me something to eat too. I’m hungry but I can’t risk going in someplace to buy some food. At least the lovers in my grove left me some cups for water from the spring there. But it is aggravating to have to skulk around trying to avoid being captured. That reward is Gregor’s fault too. I have so much to pay him back for. So much to make her pay.

Ben

I have stopped myself from telling him a thousand times today. I want to warn Gregor, I want to help him, I want to find a way out of this trap that I am in. I have no desire to report back to Mason about his activities. This is going to end in Gregor being hurt, or his family, and I don’t know how I am going to live with myself.

But every time I resolve that I am just going to do it, just march up and tell Gregor that I have something he needs to know, I think better of it.

Mason has us over a barrel. I am quite sure that he will make good on his threat to have us arrested as his gang members. Using Stu, he’ll probably even figure out a way to do it and leave town laughing while David and I hang. And I know for a fact that I have seen Stu’s face pointed this way several times today, staring over at me from the other end of the docks. I can’t have him see me talking to Gregor in private. He’ll know what I’m doing. He’ll tell Mason.

But that isn’t even the worst of it. Even if I escape justice, I still can’t imagine how I am going to explain any of this to Samuel. I’ve been too cowardly to confess to him about my involvement in Mason’s robbery on the Trace that day, months ago. I’ve had plenty of chances, but have never been able to make myself just say it. If I had managed to tell him before now, chances are he would just have been amused, and we would have gotten past it. But that can never happen now. Mason is here, controlling me, and I am right in the thick of his scheme. There is no way this is going to remain secret. I am sure by the time this is over the whole town will know about it, and my deepest fear is that Samuel will learn of my involvement. Gregor is his friend. He will never forgive me for betraying him.

I am so thoroughly trapped, and I have no idea how to get out of it. I wish it was as simple as chewing my foot off like I saw a fox had done once in a trap I had set. There’s nothing I can chew off to get myself out of this one.

Gregor

I’m letting Geoffrey manage still. He does a great job of it, coordinating all the men to shift the driver, pull the ropes, set the hammer, line up the piles. So I’m just one of the crew at the moment, doing what he tells me, heaving ho on command. It’s a relief to strain with my body, without having to think. It leaves my mind free to communicate constantly with Wolk, keeping track of all the pieces on my board.

I feel so blasted sorry for Ben. Wolk tells me that he is so distressed about the fix he finds himself in, that he is actively envying a fox caught in a trap, for the ability to solve the problem by chewing off its own foot. He wishes it was that easy. Poor Ben!

I can’t rescue him, though. He is entirely correct that Stu is constantly looking down this way, and if I were to draw Ben aside and tell him that it is fine, and I know everything, that would get back to Mason and my trap would be ruined. So I have to let Ben continue to suffer miserably with guilt and remorse and fear.

In the meantime, everything else is falling into place. Jake is apparently having the time of his life gorging on candy and staring at David from behind the curtain.

David is trying to stay awake while slumped down behind the tree at the side of the neighbor’s yard across the street from my house. He still isn’t well, my touch this morning not enough to fully eradicate the infection from Mason’s loathsome blade, and David is feeling feverish again. I’ll have to find a way to touch him again sometime soon. In the meantime he is noting the movements of my servants, watching Moses work in the garden, seeing Nadine hang up some laundry to dry. He has not seen Rosalind, and I am glad that she has chosen to remain within the house today.

Moses is trying hard not to look too obviously at David, who he spotted right away ducking behind the tree. It is taking everything in him to follow my instructions to just let the house be spied upon. He would much rather storm across the street and give David a good drubbing. I appreciate his self-restraint. He has decided to rather ostentatiously split some firewood with an ax at the side of the house, trying to look as intimidating as possible. I don’t know about David, but I imagine that if I was doing something that could lead to a confrontation with Moses, I’d be intimidated as hell.

Mason apparently snuck up the cliff on the north side of town to get a look at my street too, saw David at his post and then stared at my house for a while. It makes me shudder to think of even his gaze touching my home.

Thomas has already spoken to a couple of the other militia members in his unit, and they are formulating a plan for where to station members in the area to be ready to pounce when Mason appears.

Everything is in place.