“That floor is filthy,” Anna said.
“The cells will be worse. Better get some rest while you can.”
“She’s right,” Mrs. Bates said, taking a seat on the floor beside her. “Very practical. You’re a sensible girl, Miss Miles.”
Anna lowered herself carefully on Elizabeth’s other side. “Why don’t they lock us up?”
“Mrs. Lewis asked to see the warden,” Mrs. Bates said. “I suppose we’re waiting for him to arrive. Where are you from, Miss Miles?”
“South Dakota,” Elizabeth said, choosing a location least likely to be familiar to anyone here.
“You’ve come a long way,” Anna said. “Do your parents approve of your work for women’s suffrage?”
“My parents are dead. I live with my aunt, but I’m afraid I lied to her about where I was going. She wouldn’t have approved.”
Mrs. Bates shook her head. “So many of the older ladies just can’t imagine a world different from the one in which they’ve always lived. They actually consider themselves fortunate not to have to think about politics and government.”
Elizabeth would consider herself fortunate never to have to think about it. That was all Thornton talked about, politics and government contracts and how he was going to make a fortune selling rifles to the army. Near as she could figure, government was just the biggest of the big cons, with everybody trying to get the best of it for themselves and sting the other guys. Thornton seemed to think he was the smartest of the bunch, too. “I’ve noticed that most older people don’t like things to change.”
Mrs. Bates smiled, probably because she was pretty old herself. “Change is coming whether anyone likes it or not.”
“Where are you from, Mrs. Bates?”
“New York City. I’m afraid I convinced Anna to join me on this trip. I’m sorry to have gotten her into this.”
“Nonsense. I’m glad I came,” Anna said, although she looked completely terrified.
“Do your parents approve of your work for the cause?” Elizabeth asked the girl.
“My father is dead, but my mother knew I was going to march with Mrs. Bates outside the White House. I think she was rather proud of me for that. It’s my brother, David, who doesn’t approve. He thinks he needs to protect me now that Father is gone. Do you have a brother, Miss Miles?”
“No.” Was that a lie? She couldn’t be sure, and she couldn’t allow herself to think about it now.
“Then you have no idea how overbearing they can be. David would keep me in a glass case if he could.”
“He only wants you to be safe,” Mrs. Bates said. “He loves you very much.”
“Being loved can be a form of bondage in itself, don’t you think, Miss Miles?”
Elizabeth had no idea. “If it is, I’ll bet it’s more pleasant than this kind of bondage. Do you live with a disapproving relative, too, Mrs. Bates?” she asked to change the subject.
“No, just my son.”
“What does your son think about you marching?”
“Gideon believes in our cause.”
Which didn’t exactly answer the question, but Elizabeth didn’t really care. She was only making conversation to pass the time.
“Will they really keep us here for three months?” Anna asked.
“I don’t think President Wilson has the stomach for that,” Mrs. Bates said. “He’ll probably pardon us after a day or two, as he’s done before.”
A day or two wouldn’t help her at all. “Can you refuse a pardon?”
“Refuse?”
“Yes, refuse to be pardoned and stay in jail.”
Mrs. Bates considered this. “I don’t know. They always try to make us pay our fine so we don’t have to go to jail at all, but we refuse because that would be an admission of guilt, and we haven’t done anything illegal.”
“You sound like you want to stay in jail, Miss Miles,” Anna said.
“Only if it serves the cause,” Elizabeth said, pleased that she’d come up with such a pious-sounding lie.
Anna’s stomach growled, and she pressed a hand to it. “I wonder when they’ll give us supper.”
One glance at Mrs. Herndon’s evil smirk made Elizabeth think they’d starve before she took pity on them.
Gradually, the other women followed Elizabeth’s example and sat or lay down on the floor, some using their coats as makeshift bedding as the room warmed from the massing of over forty people. Quiet conversations died away as fatigue claimed them. Would the matron really keep them sitting here all night? And if she did, what did Elizabeth care? At least she was safe.
After what seemed hours, Elizabeth felt as much as heard the disturbance outside. Someone was coming.
“Get up. Put your coats on,” she said to her companions.
Anna had been dozing again. “What?”
“Get up! Someone’s coming.”
Then the others heard it, too, and began to stir. Before they could shake off their lethargy, however, the door burst open and an ugly old man strode in like he was the king of England. From the looks of him, he ate little babies for breakfast, so a few dozen suffragettes were no more than a nuisance.
One cruel man was a bother, but behind him, she saw a crowd of men straining to get at them, and for the second time that day, Elizabeth knew real fear.
Mrs. Lewis stood up. “Mr. Whittaker, we demand to be treated as political prisoners.”
“Shut up! I have men here to handle you. Seize her!”
Like somebody had pulled a cork from a bottle, the mob outside surged through the open door. They wore no uniforms and carried no weapons, but they didn’t need any to overpower the weary women.
“They’ve taken Mrs. Lewis!” someone screamed.
A brute who looked like an ape grabbed Anna’s arm. “Come with me, sweetheart. We’ll have a good time.” Anna screamed and struggled, but another man took her other arm and they lifted her off her feet and whisked her away.
“You damn suffrager!” a mug said, clapping a beefy hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “My mother ain’t no suffrager!”
Elizabeth thought of a few choice things she could say about his mother, but she clamped her mouth shut and forced herself not to struggle. It didn’t matter. He and his buddy still nearly tore her arms from their sockets as they pulled her outside and across the yard. Biting back her cry of pain, she concentrated on keeping her feet. No sense giving them an excuse to drag her. All around her, women screamed and struggled and men shouted obscenities, but she saw only shadows in the pitch-dark yard. She tried to run to keep up with her captors, but her skirts tangled and tripped her, and she stumbled at last, so they dragged her the rest of the way.