Tess is very glad she has a fair amount of experience sneaking around. In the months they've been here, Tess has learned the precise location of every loose floorboard, every creaky door. While Ellie stalls the least relaxed man to ever walk the earth, Tess tiptoes back and forth, shoving towels out of sight.

But she's not quite quick enough. The most precarious thing to move is the lye itself, and there's nowhere easy to put it, nowhere to hide it. She's got both hands on the tub when she hears Ellie thundering up the stairs, and she knows she won't make it to the bedroom where it'll neatly slide under the bed, so she just puts it back down on Joel's workbench and drags a drop cloth over it.

By time Ellie's in sight, and Joel right behind her, Tess is at the door to head them off.

"What's with all the thundering around?" she demands. "What happened to patrols?"