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Chapter Twenty-Two
When Rory first moved in with Shavonne, her new cabinmate was pissed off. She’d been told she’d have a single and as a mom with a newborn, she was not in the mood for being messed with.
“I’m not supposed to talk to you. I’m just going to pretend you’re not here,” she’d said.
In practice, Shavonne was the one not there. She spent nearly all her time at the nursery or sleeping.
That was three weeks ago. Before Rory got blisters on her hands from shoveling hay. Three weeks during which she was still invisible, Zeke and no one from his crew came home, she ran out of iPod battery, and she found enough automatic weapons to kit out an army—on paper at least.
Her nightly break-ins at HQ had turned up torn fragments of what looked like a weapons inventory. It was the millionth occasion she’d patted her body down looking for her phone to call Zeke. It might be enough to get this place raided, though not enough to crack what was going on here underneath the furious letter writing, recruiting and building taking place.
But in the week leading up to her intention deadline, all that changed. Shavonne, it turned out, was quite the raconteur. Rory got booted from her kitchen corner to a new job as a farmhand helping to take care of a herd of goats, and everywhere she went, people called her name, launched into conversation and congratulated her on the coming bond with Orrin.
She went from being the local pariah to most popular girl in town. It was exhausting being so social. All the talking gave her a sore throat. It was odd being the center of attention and having so many new friends who seemed genuinely apologetic for her freeze-out and concerned about how she was fitting in. She went from eating all her meals alone to people vying to sit next to her in the dining hall to ask about her day. It was cramping her style.
It did make breaking into Orrin’s apartment in the late afternoon when she knew he wasn’t there easier. No one thought it was odd that she was sneaking her intended a basket of baked goods. They’d have thought it certifiable if they’d known she broke in to steal the antenna from the signal jammer so it would forever blink green but never successfully block a transmission again.
The only peace she got was when she was laying fresh straw for the goats.
“It’s a head spin,” she told Petunia, scratching the black goat behind her ear.
“Baa,” Gertrude agreed, butting Rory’s thigh, impatient for her turn at a head scratch.
“Wait till they learn I’m pregnant,” she said.
The new piece of information didn’t rock the goats, but it was designed to make Orrin pause. With the inventory in her hands she didn’t need to risk getting any closer to him. She’d figured a pregnancy would snooker him. She’d be a beloved and revered expectant woman, readying to birth a highly valuable new citizen for Abundance and she’d be legitimately entitled to put off her bond with Orrin until after a bouncing baby arrived.
She hoped.
Hope never figured into her regular work life as a con. It was agitating having to rely on it now. She had another freaking breakout because of it. She was wearing her stress all over her chin.
“Th
is would be a better plan if I’d been able to discuss it with my partner in crime,” she told Violet, nudging aside the goat who tried to eat the edge of her sweatshirt.
Zeke had been out of contact too long in the scheme of things and she missed him terribly, but they’d needed to cool off, so the separation had come at a good time, and now she had too many people to talk to so really it was fine that he wasn’t here. Cadence certainly thought so.
“Aaag,” said Petunia.
“That is potentially a problem,” she said. “Pregnant women have sex but I think it will make Orrin furious that he didn’t get to impregnate me first and turn him off.”
Orrin looked at her as if she were virgin territory he could stick a flag in and call his own, but if it was abundantly clear some other man had already done that, he might turn his attention elsewhere. That was what she was banking on, reducing her value to him and having his ego step in to break his intention as punishment.
“Not that you care, Bernadette.” She pushed the largest of the goats aside to fill their trough with fresh water. She was almost sure it was floppy-eared Bernadette who’d been screaming at her and Zeke when they’d argued in the field. She made sure to smile a lot around Bernadette in case Zeke was right about goats being attracted to happy faces. No one needed a goat enemy.
“The other problem is that this plan puts a timeline on things. I can fake a lot but not being six months pregnant. We need hard evidence of those weapons pronto.”
“Baaaah,” said Petunia.
“Yes, all right. I hear you. I don’t know if Orrin will buy me being pregnant. The good thing is they don’t do tests here. I don’t know where the weapons on that inventory are, or what this recruiting drive is about, and if I tell him I’m pregnant, I have less time to find out. Also, the only time I’m alone now is when I’m with you guys because frankly you’re all very bossy and you smell funny and no one else wants to hang out with you.”
Bernadette screamed.
Rory put her hands up in protest. “I take back the bit about you being smelly.” She mouthed the words, “But you are.”
Bernadette apparently lip-read. She screamed again.
“Okay, okay, I’m a low-down dirty rotten lying toad. There is this awful hollow feeling in my chest. I can’t get rid of it. I thought I was coming down with a virus but it’s not that. There are other symptoms. I find it difficult to sleep and it’s not about not having anything to read. I’ve never daydreamed so much in my life. I have these feelings of longing. It might even be pining. I don’t feel like myself at all.”
