“Tomorrow. Mrs. Belmont offered to bring her back along with some of the other former prisoners in her private railroad car.”
“I can’t imagine anything more boring than sitting in meetings and listening to lectures on women’s rights,” Mrs. Vanderslice said with a delicate shudder. “Oh, I know it’s important,” she added when Anna was about to protest, “but why do they have to have so many meetings?”
For some reason, Elizabeth felt compelled to defend Mrs. Bates. “I’m sure the meetings are very interesting.”
“I hope you never have to find out, darling,” David said. “You and Anna have already done more than enough to promote women’s suffrage.”
“But we’ve hardly done anything at all,” Anna said. “We’ve only gone to one protest.”
“Are you calling the time you spent in that horrible place ‘hardly anything’?” David asked.
“Many of the ladies have been jailed several times,” Elizabeth pointed out, glad for the time she’d spent with Mrs. Bates learning about the history of the movement.
“Ladies with no family to look after them, I’m sure,” David said.
So David was showing his true colors. Elizabeth didn’t dare glance at Gideon. “By ‘families,’ do you mean husbands?”
“It’s a husband’s duty to keep his wife safe, and you can be sure I take that responsibility very seriously, my dear.”
“What about a brother’s duty to keep his sister safe?” Anna asked with feigned innocence.
David, still oblivious, didn’t notice she was feigning. “I take all my responsibilities seriously, which is why I won’t allow either of you to put yourself in harm’s way again.”
“You won’t allow us?” Elizabeth asked sweetly.
“A wife must be ruled by her husband,” Mrs. Vanderslice said. “David only has your best interests at heart.”
“Indeed I do, and while I know the suffrage movement is important, I can’t let you subject yourselves to that kind of danger again.”
So Gideon was right, as Elizabeth was sure he’d remind her when next they spoke privately. Except they’d probably never speak privately again. The thought made her want to weep.
“What if every husband felt as you do, David?” Anna argued. “What would become of the movement?”
“I’m sure the unmarried ladies would continue,” David said.
“But I’m an unmarried lady.”
“Yes, but—”
“And I have the time and energy to devote to the effort,” Anna continued relentlessly. “I should be on the front lines of the struggle.”
“But—”
“She has you there, David,” Gideon said. “We should send her straight to President Wilson. I’m sure he’d be no match for her.”
“But Anna is just a girl,” her mother said.
“I don’t think so,” Gideon said, turning to Anna. “She’s changed since she came back from Washington. Haven’t you noticed?”
Anna beamed at him. “I’m glad someone has.”
“But we can’t allow her to go gallivanting off to protests and getting herself arrested,” Mrs. Vanderslice said. “What young man would be interested in a girl who does things like that?”
“None of them, I hope,” Anna said. “I’ve been thinking I might not marry at all.”
Elizabeth only cringed a little bit. Anna’s timing could have been better.
“Anna!” her mother cried. “What a terrible thing to say.”
“It’s not terrible at all. I could become a teacher or a social worker or—”
“Why would you want to do something like that?” David asked.
“To feel useful.”
“Being a wife and mother is a very useful vocation for a woman,” her mother said.
“Maybe we should go back to discussing business,” Gideon said with a grin.
Elizabeth snatched up her napkin to cover her answering grin. Why did he have to be so appealing?
Mrs. Vanderslice knew how to control her brood, however. “David, what did you think of the sermon this morning?”
And David knew his role as well. He replied at length, successfully boring everyone until the meal was over.
Gideon took his leave shortly after they retired to the parlor. Elizabeth would have liked to acknowledge that he’d been right about David, but he probably would have been disgustingly smug about it, so it was just as well she never had the opportunity. Anna accompanied Elizabeth back to the Bates home for what was supposed to be their last night without Mrs. Bates, but at breakfast the next morning, the maid brought them a telegram. Mrs. Bates was going to remain in Washington for a few more days. As a result of the outstanding show of public support at yesterday’s meeting, the Judiciary Committee of the House was going to consider the suffrage amendment immediately, and they needed everyone to call upon their representatives to encourage the House to bring it to a vote.
“What does she mean about public support of the meeting?” Anna asked when they’d both read it several times.
“I don’t know. Let’s see if the newspapers are here.”
They were in the parlor, and Elizabeth and Anna read the account of the mass meeting held Sunday afternoon at the Belasco Theater, which had been packed to the rafters with four thousand people. The crowds were so thick on Madison Place that the president couldn’t get out of his front gate to go for a Sunday drive.
“It says they presented every woman who had been jailed with a special pin,” Anna said. “Do you suppose we are to receive one?”
Now Elizabeth felt terrible that she and Anna hadn’t gone. “If we are, I’m sure Mrs. Bates will bring them to us.”
But if Mrs. Bates stayed in Washington for a few more days, Elizabeth would most likely not be here any longer to receive hers. In fact, she might never see Mrs. Bates again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Oscar Thornton looked positively jubilant. Gideon didn’t think he had ever seen the man really smile until today. The meeting with General Sterling at David’s office this afternoon had gone smoothly, with Thornton reporting he now owned over ten thousand rifles and expected to purchase several thousand more the next morning.
The general wanted to know the locations of all of these rifles so he could verify their existence. When Thornton worried about how long that would take, the general reminded him he would delegate that task to military officers stationed near the locations, rather than go himself. He wasn’t interested in wasting time, either.
The two dickered a bit over the selling price for the rifles, but Gideon’s assessment had been correct: the general was more than willing to pay whatever Thornton asked.
“It’s the government’s money, not mine,” he pointed out, “and the government needs your rifles, Mr. Thornton.” He glanced over to where Gideon sat at the end of the meeting table, taking notes. “Are you the one who does the figures, Mr. Bates? How much will the United States owe Mr. Thornton?”