“People do that?” Briar asked, aghast.
Ethel nodded. “Not often. But you should be prepared.”
All their leaflets were gone with half an hour to spare before the curfew bell. When they returned home, the parlor games were still going on. The group was pushing chairs into a circle around the room, setting up for another game.
“Got a new one,” called Lizbeth as they entered the room. “Join us. It’s called Crossed and Uncrossed.”
Once everyone was settled, Briar between Ethel and Wheeler, Nell supervised as they passed a pair of scissors to their neighbor, and said either crossed or uncrossed. Nell would then tell you if you were correct. The purpose was to discover the secret about what made the pass a crossed or uncrossed pass.
Briar was among the first to figure it out and tried to give Wheeler hints. Each time she spoke was like a test, asking can we go back to the way we were?
By the end of the night, all the girls knew the trick but several of the boys left the game baffled. And Wheeler hadn’t answered her silent test.
“I don’t understand,” said a new boy named George, shaking his head and grinning. “But I’m determined to figure out if I’m crossed or uncrossed. Tomorrow night?”
“Yes, yes!” Lizbeth said. “Everyone, let’s meet here again tomorrow night. No telling the secret.”
“I’m going to get it out of Briar by then,” joked Wheeler.
She shook her head. “Only hints. You’ve got to figure it out yourself.” Her words held a double meaning. He did need to figure out what he wanted. And so did she.
Nell and Lizbeth, the spontaneous organizers, stood at the door to the parlor saying good-bye to everyone.
Mim slipped in just before the curfew bell sounded, and she gave Briar a wave on her way to the stairs. George paused in the doorway and watched Mim pass.
Briar smiled. Another one smitten. He’d be back for sure, hoping Mim would join in the games. “Good night, all,” Briar said.
She missed nights like this: fun and carefree, like a few months ago when her deepest concern was getting to work on time. Back when her seventeenth birthday felt so far away and it looked like she knew where her future was going. Suddenly her birthday was looming and her future was tied to a fairy-tale spindle and an evil fairy who wanted her dead.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Why are you in such a kerfuffle?” asked Mim after supper the next night when the room-mates gathered back in their room. A third girl had taken ill on the spinning floor, but she was one who worked on the far side of the room, giving Briar hope that her spindle wasn’t the cause. The overseer, instead of getting upset by another operative down, spent the day in his office with his feet up on his desk.
“Wheeler is stopping by,” Briar admitted. The thought had been playing out in her mind all day.
“Interesting.” Mim burst into a grin.
“To play parlor games of course.” Briar anxiously squeezed her fingertips.
Mim leaned against the desk. “Don’t waste your chance. You can remind Wheeler what you once had. If you want to.”
What she wanted was to know if they could go forward, not back. To decide, she needed to spend time with him again. It wouldn’t take long. She’d know pretty quickly if the old feelings were still there.
“Don’t go putting such thoughts into her head,” Ethel said, stepping into the room to grab her box of leaflets. “Come with me again tonight, Briar. They want to hand out more leaflets. Not everyone finished their lot.”
Mim ignored Ethel and got out her cosmetics. “With my help, you can’t go wrong. We’ll sweep your hair up into a pompadour and turn you into a Gibson girl.”
Ethel cocked her head and put her hands on her hips. “You don’t want a man who doesn’t want you,” she said, cutting straight to the heart. “And what about Henry? Are you sure he’s only a friend to you? I’ve seen you reading that letter he sent. Surely it’s memorized by now.”
“Ethel! Spying on me?” Briar tried not to blush, but she could feel her face heating up. Henry was still as unlikely a beau as before—an insincere flirt. Of course Briar was missing him. They were friends. Didn’t mean she was pining.
Briar glanced between the two room-mates. Ethel, always so serious and working hard to reach her goals. Mim, always out for fun, yet not lazy in the least. Handing out more leaflets suddenly seemed exhausting.