The Edge of Dreams (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #14)

He closed the door behind him. I couldn’t resist a small smile of satisfaction. Who would have thought, a couple of years ago, that Daniel Sullivan would ever have admitted that my suggestions were useful to him? We had come a long way together!

Sid and Gus were in earnest discussion at dinner, over the best way the suffrage movement should move forward. Sid thought the time had come for more desperate measures. Suffragettes in England were chaining themselves to the railings outside the Parliament buildings. They were attacking policemen and their horses. Gus heartily disapproved of this.

“If we want to have the average housewife on our side, we have to behave in a way she can admire,” she said. “We have no hope of succeeding until every woman in the country realizes that it is her right to vote, and that she is being denied her full participation in society.”

“So how do we win over the housewives of New York, let alone Kansas and Alabama?” Sid said. She turned to me. “You’re a married woman, Molly. You have to keep the peace with a typical male. What do you suggest?”

“I wish I knew,” I said. “It’s part of allowing women control over their own lives, isn’t it? We’re raised to be told that men are wiser and more experienced and that they know what’s best for us. I suppose it’s the education of girls that must be changed. For myself, I ruled the roost over my younger brothers after my mother died. I refused to wear a corset then, and I leap at Daniel now anytime he tries to lord it over me.”

Gus laughed. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t class you as the average housewife. You’ve run your own business. You’ve moved in a man’s world. You’ve faced danger many times. Most women are content to stay home. They want to be protected and cossetted.”

“Do you think that’s really true?” Sid asked. “Is it perhaps that nobody has offered them alternatives?”

“Look at the other girls who were at Vassar with us,” Gus said. “They were receiving a first-class education, but most of them couldn’t wait to be married and become mistress of their own homes.”

“Not all of them have given up the cause, Gus,” Sid said. “I’ve been mining the Vassar alumnae list and have rounded up four of them for our meeting tomorrow night. Two were before our time, one after, but one of them will be familiar to you. Does the name Minnie Bryce ring a bell?”

Gus looked up, frowning. “Minnie Bryce. Wasn’t she a senior in our dorm when we were freshmen? Tall, and rather imposing-looking.” Gus’s eyes lit up as a memory came to her. “I remember now. She was the one who gave us a talking-to after we climbed the ivy to get in that open window one night.”

“Of course. I’d forgotten that.” Sid chuckled. “She threatened to report us to the house mother, but she never did. Must have been a good sort at heart.” She took a swig from her wineglass. “Well, she’s now Minnie Hamilton, married with four sons. She’s just the sort of person we need in our sisterhood. She can influence the next generation of young men.”

I must have yawned. Gus glanced across at me. “Molly, you’re looking tired. You’ve been sitting up too long and we’ve been boring you with our diatribes. Off to bed with you.”

I stood up. “I’m not at all bored, but I really am feeling like a limp rag at the moment, so please excuse me. I must accept that it will take a while to get over what happened yesterday.”

“Of course it will,” Gus said. “There is the matter of delayed shock, as well as the bump on your head and your poor ribs. Do you need me to bind them for you again before you sleep?”

“I’ll be just fine, thank you,” I said. “I’m leaving the doctor’s binding in place as long as possible. But perhaps I will take another of the sleeping powders you offered me. It helped me to sleep well last night, and I am aching all over at the moment.”

Soon I was lying in the comfortable bed and fell asleep. But this second night was not as successful. In my dreams I was back in that confined, dark space, trying to get out, searching for my baby, and when I awoke my head was throbbing. I lay there in the dark, listening to the night noises of the city—cats yowling on some distant rooftop, the revving of an automobile engine, a police whistle. They were unsettling noises, reminding me that I was in a city of danger, that even in my friends’ house I could never feel truly safe.





Nine

In the morning I felt hollow-eyed and groggy as Sid brought Liam in to see me. He, in contrast, seemed remarkably healthy and happy, giggling when Sid pretended to bite his toes.