Someone to watch over me

took over pushing the wheelbarrow. “You’re a good person, Miss Brewster.”
    Lily shook her head. “Not as good as you think. I tried them all on one last time yesterday, instead of bringing them to you sooner. None of them still fit me. But it was hard to let them go.“
    “When we make some money, we’ll buy you a new one. To remember us by,“ Judy said.
    Lily smiled. “First buy Cynthia a new trumpet. It’ll sound much better with a violin than a harmonica does.“
    “It certainly would,“ Judy said, with a hearty laugh.
    When they caught up with the others, the girls were fidgeting. “Now may we open the boxes?”
    Judy nodded, and they ripped into them, exclaiming their delight as each dress, shoe, and hat appeared. The pretty girl said, “Oh, Judy, you must wear the red one! It would be divine on you. And look, the shoes go with it, and a perfect little hat. Try it on right now. Please!“
    “Only if you’ll try on the one with the pink ruffles. It’s simply you!“
    “ You’ll have to take it up at the hem,“ Lily warned. “I’ll come back with a needle, thread, and scissors. I meant to bring them and forgot.”
    The girls abandoned their boy clothes and tried on the dresses with glee. They pranced awkwardly around in the woods in their high heels and hats, complimenting each other. Even Cynthia unbent enough to hug the coral print dress to herself and laugh with delight.
    Lily herself couldn’t have been happier with the result. The two girls who still had their long hair looked lovely. The ones with the short haircuts got the hats and didn’t look bad at all. For all her selfish dithering, she’d never been so pleased about anything she’d done before.
    “Okay, girls, take them back off. We’ll have to go back to that little creek and bathe before we get them dirty,“ Judy said.
    “Who’s going to look out for the creepy man?“ Cynthia asked.
    “We’ll take turns,“ Judy said.
    “What creepy man?“ Lily asked.
    Judy explained. “Just this older guy with a suit and a hat and a satchel. Last time we were cleaning ourselves up in the creek, we noticed him watching us. When he realized we’d seen him, he came out of the woods, strutting as if he were young and handsome, and was vulgar to us. Wanted to know which one of us wanted to go into the woods with him first.“
    “He talked to us like we was whores,“ Cynthia said angrily.
    “Prostitutes,“ Judy said. “Not that it’s really a better word. It just doesn’t sound quite as nasty, Cynthia.“
    “I don’t care. He was a nasty man himself,“ Cynthia countered.
    I’ll bet it was Donald Anderson, Lily thought. I hope Roxanne never knows.
    “You better start cleaning up soon and practicing your music.“ She would have liked to invite them to Grace and Favor to bathe in her bathroom, but she wasn’t sure Mr. and Mrs. Prinney would approve of going quite that far to help them. “You’re expected to start performing this evening.”
    Judy took the wheelbarrow back for Lily and waited outside the kitchen door for the scissors and thread.
    “You just missed Jack Summer,“ Mrs. Prinney said, when Judy had gone. “He looked awful. I fed him. He said he had to talk with you and Robert later today.“
    “I’m so relieved to hear that,“ Lily said. “Did he say what he needed to talk about?“
    “Not to me. But he looked terribly serious.”
    “He would, after what he probably went through in Washington.”
    Lily went up to her room to wash her hands and face and take a little rest. She was troubled about what the girls had said about the creepy man watching them bathe. She should have asked them when it was. It might not have been Donald Anderson, though the description they gave—a man in a suit and tie and carrying a satchel—certainly sounded like him.
    And there was something else she sensed vaguely she should have asked, but it was hiding at the fringes of her mind.
    She turned her thoughts instead to the girl band. She’d have to convince the Prinneys, Mimi, and Robert to go to town tonight and cheer the girls on. Somebody had to be the beginning of a crowd, or a crowd wouldn’t form. Maybe invite Chief Walker and even Ralph Summer. And she’d done what Mr. Bradley, the greengrocer, asked her to do. She could call in that chip as well.
    Chapter 20
    Jack Summer and Robert turned up at Grace and Favor within minutes of each other—just coincidentally about half an hour before dinner. The first floor