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was Jacob standing in the darkness. She let him in, pausing to stare at him for a moment, so terrified that words failed her. Things were pretty disordered on the Gist line since Cameron had been captured, but it was not so muddled that they would send the same conductor to her house twice in a matter of days.

    “Please tell me you came just to give me a message,” she said through a throat tightened with fear.

    “No. I came for the cargo.” When she just stared at him without moving, he continued. “I know it's uncommon, but I was sent to pick up this cargo.”

    Mary Katherine felt as though all the blood were being squeezed from her heart. A trap. It had to be a trap. From the intense look on his face, she knew his suspicions were the same as hers. Without thinking, she grabbed his upper arm. His biceps were so large, her hand barely made it a quarter of the way around. “Why did you come?” she asked.

    “If you keep asking me questions of that nature, Miss Day, I'm going to start thinking you don't want me around,” he said with a soft drawl that didn't match his fierce expression. “Yes, I know it might be a trap, but I've got talents that should allow me to get away. I couldn't let someone less skilled take the chance.”

    Mary Katherine shook her head. She wondered what talents he referred to. All the Adamses were good at directing the fugitives, but Jacob had been on the Gist line for less than six months. Of course, he might have been doing the same work elsewhere. Conductors were, by nature, a closemouthed group, but for him to deliberately step into a trap…

    “I've thought for quite some time that you're fit only for a lunatic asylum,” she said in fierce, low tones. “You have now confirmed it.” She balled her fingers into her palms to prevent them from wringing his neck when that ridiculous grin appeared on his face. Rolling her eyes in disgust, she glanced over her shoulder at the doorway to the hidden room. The runaways hadn't come out, but she could hear them moving around. She had to get them out, but… “Does your father know?”

    “Of course,” he said, as if the question were superfluous. “He agreed with me that I should go.”

    Mary Katherine closed her eyes. The most aggravating man ever, but she still didn't want to send him to a certain death. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “You have to get word to me that you're safe or otherwise.”

    His brows shot up. “Or otherwise? You know as well as I do that if I'm captured, I won't contact anyone.”

    “Jacob, this is no time to be stubborn.”

    “If I'm safe, I'll let you know. The other, I'll decide at the time. Now get my cargo. I've got a long ride ahead of me.”

    In total violation of protocol and years of training, Mary Katherine opened her mouth to ask where he was going, then closed it again when he directed a fierce scowl at her. Without another word, she walked over to the stack of barrels, triggered the mechanism, and entered the secret room. She'd given her charges some food, and they had placed it and their spare clothing in a rucksack. Ben pulled the bag over his shoulder as Sarah rose from her seat on the bed. Just a few days of regular meals had put some flesh on their rawboned frames, and they looked much better than they had when they arrived.

    They exchanged brief hugs as they thanked her over and over again; then she brought them out of their hideaway to hand them over to Jacob. He greeted them brusquely and turned to walk out the cellar door, but she grabbed his arm again. “Remember, you promised me.” With a quick distracted nod, he agreed, and then they vanished into the darkness.

    * * *

    Jacob led Ben and Sarah out into the alley directly behind the boardinghouse. Gist Settlement had an intricate network of such alleyways, which greatly aided the secret network. They couldn't be more beneficial if they'd been planned that way, and Jacob suspected that they had. On the other hand,