Houston looked at the floor. “It has to do with my husband and Mr. Fenton, but I don’t believe that I will be arrested.”
“I don’t think we can chance it,” Blair said. “You’ll have to stop driving.”
“Wait a minute!” Miss Emily said. “Fenton must have known about this for a long time. He didn’t just learn about it yesterday and come storming to your house to threaten you. Is that right, Houston?”
She nodded.
“It’s none of our business, of course, but am I safe in saying that a great deal happened at the Taggert house last night, and that it’s likely that Fenton’s declaration of his knowledge of you was only part of what happened?”
Again, Houston nodded.
“My guess is that Fenton has decided that what we do isn’t all that harmful, and so he allows us to go safely into the camps. If I’m correct, and I do know Jacob, he’s probably had a few laughs about the silly women dressing up and enjoying themselves. I say that we continue the visits. For myself, I feel better knowing that, in a way, we’re protected.”
“I don’t like it!” Meredith said.
“And how do you propose secrecy?” Sarah asked. “It doesn’t matter about Fenton, anyway. He overlooks half of what goes on at the camps. Remember last year when that union official was found beaten to death? The official verdict was ‘death by person or persons unknown’. Surely, Fenton knew who did it, but he keeps his hands clean. Do you think he’s going to prosecute the daughters of the leading citizens of Chandler? My father, after removing some of my hide, would go after Fenton with a shotgun.”
“If we’re an object of humor, and we’re protected by the mine owner himself, then what’s the use of all the secrecy?” Nina asked. “Why don’t we wear lace dresses and travel in pretty carriages and just distribute the goods?”
“And which miner will let his wife accept charity from the rich town women?” Miss Emily asked. “I think we should keep on with things just as they are. Houston, I want you to consider this very seriously: do you think Fenton’ll press charges against you or the other women?”
And risk exposing that he’d stolen everything from a three-day-old baby, Houston thought. “No,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll be arrested. I say that we proceed as always. The few men who know what we do have a vested interest in keeping our secrets. If that’s everything, I say we adjourn and go home.”
“Just a minute,” Blair said, standing. “Nina and I have something to say.”
Together, Blair and Nina told of an idea they’d been working on for weeks, of a ladies’ magazine that, in code, informed the miners of wh
at was going on throughout America concerning the organization of unions. They showed sample articles and talked of distributing the magazine as a gift to the women in the coal mines.
The women of The Sisterhood were hesitant at first to agree. They’d already experienced fear when they’d learned of Fenton’s knowledge.
“Are we committed or not?” Miss Emily asked, and the women began discussing the new magazine.
Hours later, it was a quiet group who left Miss Emily’s parlor, each woman thinking about the possibility of arrest of either herself or one of her friends.
“Houston,” Blair said as the others left. “Could we talk?”
Houston nodded, but couldn’t bring herself to tell her sister what’d happened. Blair just might start blaming herself again, and Houston didn’t need more misery right now.
“You want to tell me what happened last night?” Blair asked when they were alone. “The gossip says that you left him. Is that true?”
“True enough,” she said, refusing to cry. “I’m staying with Pamela Younger, Jacob’s daughter.”
Blair looked at her sister for a long time but offered no advice nor any comment. “If you need me, I’m here to listen, but in the meantime you’ll need something to keep you busy. The first issue of Lady Chandler’s Magazine will have to be submitted to the Coal Board for approval and I want it to be as safe and innocuous as possible. I need articles on how to clean clothes, how to take care of your hair, how to dress like a duchess on a coal miner’s salary, that sort of thing. I think you’ll do a great job of writing them. Can you go with me now and we’ll buy you a typewriter? I’ll show you how to use it this afternoon.”
Houston hadn’t thought about how she’d spend her time when she didn’t have Kane to care for, but now she realized that, if she didn’t do some work, she’d sit at Pam’s and curse herself for being such a fool as to love a man like Kane Taggert. “Yes,” she said, “I’d like to be busy. I’ve had some ideas about how the miners’ wives could brighten up the cabins and how they could add a little beauty to their lives.”
Blair put Houston to work with so much to do that Houston didn’t have time to think about anything. As soon as Houston got one article completed, Blair had an idea for another one. Pam was so interested in Blair’s magazine that she converted her kitchen into a stain-removal center and tried to find a really effective way to clean velvet. The entire house reeked of ammonia by the end of the day, but Houston was able to report that “two tablespoons of ammonia and two of warm water rubbed well into the velvet with a stiff brush” did the job. Blair said she might make it the headline story. Pam smiled at this, but Houston knew her sister was being sarcastic.
The writing gave Houston a perfect excuse to stay inside and not face the townspeople. Pam left the house often, telling no one where she was going, and was able to keep Houston up to date on the gossip, reporting that Kane stayed alone in his big house with no servants and no friends.
“And no relatives. That should make him happy,” Houston said. “Now, he can work uninterrupted, with no interference.”
“Don’t be bitter, Houston,” Pam said. “Regretting what could have been makes a person miserable. I know. What do you think of including this dye recipe in the first issue? A pennyworth of logwood and a pennyworth of soapbark. I’ve renewed my black felt hat with it twice, and it worked quite well.”
“Yes, of course,” Houston said absently, as she scrubbed away the ink that filled the typewriter keys. Blair had told her that when Remington first issued the typewriter, the keys were constantly jamming together. When the owners looked into the matter, they found that the typists were too fast for the mechanics of the machine, so they decided to make the keyboard as difficult as possible to use. They placed the most frequently used keys all over the board so the typist would have to reach constantly, and thus she’d be slowed down. By chance, the top letters spelled QWERTY.
Two weeks after Houston left Kane, the railroad car that he’d had made for Opal arrived, causing a great stir in the town. With tears running down her face, Opal went to Houston and talked about what a wonderful man she’d left, and how could she do such a thing, and a woman wasn’t a woman without a baby and, with Houston not even having a husband, it was all too horrible to contemplate.