While Ethel worked the room, Briar spoke with one of Annie’s friends. “How is she tonight?”
“Worse. The doctor’s really worried. They’ve called in her parents. Her dad will be here tomorrow to take her home. She was the oldest of twelve. I don’t know how they’re going to manage having her back at home without her wages.”
“They’ll manage just fine,” piped up another girl. “It’s Annie who’ll have the hard time when she gets better and finds herself playing nursemaid to all her siblings again.”
Ethel returned to Briar’s side. “Hand them each a leaflet,” she whispered.
Briar thrust a paper into each girl’s hand. “Tell Annie I’m sorry.”
They continued down the row of boardinghouses, Ethel chatting up the cause with anyone who would listen, Briar thinking about Annie and Sadie.
She felt terrible that the two had gotten so sick. What if the cause was the spindle? She wouldn’t be able to tell anyone; no one would believe her. If she started talking about a fairy-wood spindle that could make girls ill they’d think she’d lost her mind, then she’d lose her job, and then where would the children be? Hopefully Miss Fanny would come up with a way to get the spindle off the frame.
One thought niggled the back of her mind, though. Henry. What role did he play in all this? He had been at her side for as long as she was in Sunrise Valley and then practically overnight he was gone. A fairy had appeared, and a magic spindle was now in her spinning frame. She couldn’t figure out how everything was connected.
Next house was their own. A loud burst of laughter came out of the parlor as they opened the front door. A heated game of progressive Tiddledy Winks was going on, and Wheeler, a master at flipping the winks, had worked his way up to the head table.
Briar froze in the doorway. She’d forgotten he was stopping in. It was so strange to see him here. He and Sadie usually went out instead of hanging around the parlor where he and Briar once spent all their time. Ethel started right in, passing out the leaflets while Briar stood in the doorway. Wheeler looked up and waved before concentrating back on the game.
Ethel was quick to pass out the leaflets as she’d already spoken to each of the girls about the WCTU before. She saw who Briar was fixated on, then stood in her way. “Let’s go.”
Once outside, Ethel marched to the next house. Then she stopped. “You’re not thinking about Wheeler again, are you?”
“No,” she was quick to answer back. Too quick.
Ethel cocked her head. “What if I told you Sadie was going back home to her parents? Would you still not be thinking about Wheeler?”
“She is?”
“They want her to recuperate on the farm. Wheeler’s moving north; she’s moving south. They’re never going to see each other again.”
“Oh.” Briar’s heart took the news with mixed emotions. As long as Sadie was still around, it meant she didn’t have to decide on her true feelings about Wheeler. She’d been trying so hard to move on and in that process had noticed things about Wheeler and her that she didn’t necessarily like. Not that she was comparing him to Henry, but Henry was so steady. She always knew where she stood with him, and that accounted for a lot. Could she ever trust Wheeler again?
Ethel led the way up the walk. “This is our last house. Why don’t you do the talking this time? You’ve heard me plenty.”
“But I couldn’t. I’d get all tongue-tied.”
“You have to start somewhere, Briar. If you’re afraid to try, you won’t get anywhere. Weren’t you scared when you first applied at the mill? Yet you still did it.”
“I had no choice,” she said. It was easy to do something when it was for the children.
“Consider this your first lesson in proactivity. I know you want to keep your family together, but to do so, you’re going to have to learn to advocate for others. It’s not about you, it’s about them. Tell these operatives how meetings like these can help us all. We can go from feeling helpless and powerless to hopeful and powerful.”
Briar gave Ethel a skeptical look.
“Baby steps. You’re still finding your voice. Read the leaflet out loud and invite them to come.”
“I can do that.”
Ethel held back, making Briar open the door. The parlor was half-empty and when Briar stepped in she had everyone’s attention. They were all clearly looking for some excitement to walk through the door.
Briar gave them a shaky smile. “I’m distributing leaflets for the WCTU meeting this week.” She thrust a paper at the closest girl. “We have a special speaker coming in to teach us all how we can band together to make a difference.” She continued around the room, handing out the leaflets while Ethel stood quietly by the door. Briar answered a few questions, checking with Ethel for accuracy, then said good-bye.
Outside, Briar breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wasn’t so bad, was it?” asked Ethel. “It won’t always be so easy. These ladies weren’t carrying rotten vegetables to hurl at us.”