The girls wished her good night and started to go upstairs.
“Lucy!” Mrs. Heath called her back. “Help me lock up down here.”
Was she trying to keep her and Lucy apart? Vicki wondered. Did Mrs. Heath suspect something? That was hard to tell. In any case, Mrs. Heath was keeping a close watch. She and Lucy would have to be careful tonight.
From nine until midnight was a long stretch. Vicki changed into the borrowed night clothes and put out her light. She heard Lucy go to bed and, at last, Mrs. Heath. She rested but was afraid to sleep lest she and Lucy both sleep straight through the night. The house was absolutely quiet. The night grew chilly.
On the stroke of midnight, by the luminous figures on her wrist watch, her door opened soundlessly and someone slipped in. Vicki was surprised at how hard her heart beat. She waited until the figure stepped into the moonlight, until she saw Lucy’s face, then whispered:
“Wait. I’ll get out of bed.”
“Don’t turn on the light, not yet.”
Both girls perched on the edge of the bed, wrapped in robes and sweaters. They were able to see each other’s faces clearly in the moonlight. Lucy said softly that Mrs. Heath was asleep on the other side of the wall.
“She’s a sound sleeper.”
“I hope so!”