“Do you realize?” Her tears refused to fall, but they hovered in a thick sheen over her eyes. “We have passed violence, passed mere revolution. Nationalist against Communist—this is civil war. You’re enlisting yourself as a soldier.”
“Maybe I am.”
“But you don’t have to!” Juliette did not mean to yell. But here she was. “You’re not actually one of them!”
Kathleen pulled away vehemently. “Aren’t I?” she asked. “I am at their meetings. I draw their posters. I know their protest calls.” She tore her jade pendant off. Held it up, in the moonlight. “Short of these riches, short of my last name, what is stopping me from being one of them? I could just as easily be another face in the factories. I could just as easily have been another abandoned child thrown onto the streets, begging for scraps!”
Juliette breathed in. And in. And in. “I am selfish,” she whispered. “I want you to come with me.”
Around them, the lamps flickered, then turned off completely. With only moonlight illuminating the gardens, Juliette wondered briefly if this was some indication that trouble was coming to the Scarlet house. It was not; at times like these, trouble no longer needed to act under the guise of darkness. Trouble was a roaring, raging fire.
Kathleen offered a small, shaky smile, then tied her pendant back on. “We have been allowed selfishness,” she said. “But so many others in this city have not. I cannot find my own peace unless I help them, Juliette. I cannot find my peace with this city unless I stay.”
Juliette knew what a losing argument looked like. A long second passed, and Juliette waited to see if her cousin would falter, but she did not. Kathleen’s expression remained determined, and some part of Juliette knew that this was a goodbye. Her face crumpling, she reached for Kathleen, pulling the two of them close in a tight hug.
“Do not die out there,” she snapped. “Do you understand me?”
Kathleen choked out a laugh. “I’ll try my best.” Her embrace was equally fierce, as was her expression when they released each other. “But you . . . We’re under martial law. How are you to—”
“They can block off our trains and dirt roads, but we’re the city above the sea. They cannot monitor every swath of the Huangpu River.”
Kathleen shook her head. She knew how stubborn Juliette was when she needed something done. “Find Da Nao. He’s a Communist sympathizer.”
“Da Nao the fisherman?”
“The one and the same. I’ll get a note to him telling him to wait for you.”
Juliette felt a hot stone of gratitude roil in her stomach. Even at a time like this, Kathleen was running tasks for her. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I don’t care if this makes me too much of a Westerner. I need you to hear my indebtedness.”
“You only have two hours, Juliette,” Kathleen said, waving her off. “If you’re going to run . . .”
“I won’t make it, I know. I’ll buy everyone more time. I can hold off the purge until morning at least.”
Kathleen’s eyes widened. “You’re not going to approach your parents, are you?”
“No.” Juliette didn’t know how they would react. It was too risky. “But I have a plan. Go. Don’t waste time.”
Afar, a bird had started cawing. The sound was high-pitched, a warning from the city itself. With a firm nod, Kathleen stepped back, then gave Juliette’s hand one last squeeze.
“Keep fighting for love,” she whispered. “It is worth it.”
Her cousin disappeared off into the night. Juliette allowed herself one ragged breath. She let the quavery sound rush outward and tear a rip into her composure before she inhaled deeply and clutched her hands over the silk of her dress.
When Juliette stepped back inside her house, the living room remained silent, the messenger still lying on his side. She picked up the fallen letter and lifted her head, staring up the staircase. The light in her father’s office was off. Now she knew: in the third-floor sitting room, her parents and whoever else they had deemed worthy to invite in were discussing senseless massacre for the sake of the Scarlet survival.
Juliette squeezed her eyes shut. The tears fell then, finding an easy path down her cheeks.
Keep fighting for love. But she didn’t want to. She wanted to hold love to her chest and run, run like hell so the rest of the world couldn’t touch it. It was exhausting to care about everyone in the city. She thought she had the power to save them, protect them, but she was still one girl, shut out of everything important. If she was going to be treated like a mere girl, then she would act like one.