Spindle(53)

Briar gasped. “Is that what they’re saying? I had to tell him about Sadie, that’s all. I-I’m the one who knows him best.”

“Tut-tut. Don’t you worry what those gossips say. Once you leave this mill, you won’t care one hoot what they think. Concentrate on your future. Do what you need to survive. Even you have to agree with that advice, don’t you, Ethel?”

Ethel shrugged. “I suppose. We’ve got to be smart. Children are orphaned,” she said and looked at Briar. “Or they try to force you into a match you don’t want.” She pointed to Mim. “You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond.”

“And what about you, Ethel?” asked Briar. “Has anything happened to you?”

“You know why I’m here. The mill is a stepping-stone to earn money for college and a better life.”

“Yes, but we don’t know what brought you here.”

Ethel picked up the box and led the way to their room.

Mim looped her arm through Briar’s. “Better give up, Briar. She’s keeping it to herself. That’s why she’s so annoyed with me. I poked her too hard about it when she first moved in. I suppose she’s entitled to her secrets.”

Ethel stuck out her tongue before putting the box on their bed. “Mark my words. One day we’ll have the vote and you’ll see what a difference it will make. We could use your help, though.” She held out stacks of leaflets. “You can come with me tonight to hand these out.”

Mim picked a leaflet from the box. “WCTU? Aren’t they for prohibition? I’m not sure I want to push for that.”

Ethel frowned. “What, it’s not like you go out to the saloons every weekend.”

“No, but I like to think I could if I wanted to.”

Ethel snatched the leaflet away. “You wouldn’t be caught dead in a saloon and you know it.” She turned to Briar. “And you? Do you think the cause is more important than keeping open the option to do something you don’t do anyway?”

Briar sighed. “I don’t know what I think anymore. Sure, I’ll come with you to hand out leaflets.” She would consider it penance in case it really was her fault the mill girls were getting sick.





Chapter Twenty-Eight



Ethel marched purposefully down the street with Briar double-timing it, trying to keep up. “We’re going to be late,” said Ethel. “Hurry up.”

“How many are we meeting?” Briar asked.

“Only a handful tonight. It’s the factory girls taking this side of town. Some ladies’ auxiliaries are canvassing other districts. Sunrise keeps growing and growing. We want to make sure it grows in the right way. Fewer saloons, more schools.”

The gathering was held outside another boardinghouse. Briar didn’t know the other operatives, as they were mostly older, and Ethel said they worked in the weaving rooms or in the new shirtwaist factory.

“A new recruit,” said a woman in a crisp shirtwaist and long cotton skirt. “I’m Miss Ellison. Welcome to our group.” She shook Briar’s hand.

“Now that we’re all here, let’s divide up the leaflets. We’ll start with our own street then work our way into town. Give them to whoever makes eye contact but focus on the women. Remind them we have strength in numbers.”

Briar and Ethel took their allotment and started on the boardinghouses on the right-hand side of the street. At this time of night, most of the operatives not on the town would be in their parlors.

The first house they entered was Annie’s. About a dozen girls sat around, playing various parlor games or reading.

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.