The realization brought a sickening weight to her gut.
She and James had been so wrong.
CHAPTER 34
Perhaps it is our imperfections
that make us so perfect for one another.
~ Douglas McGrath
Manhattan, New York
Late January 1896
“That her?” Ian asked.
James nodded, a burst of pride swelling his chest. Six weeks ago, he wouldn’t have thought it possible to love a woman like Primrose Eames. But now he couldn’t believe it’d taken him so long to see the incredible woman concealed within. She was a bloody marvelous lass.
And she was his.
Or soon would be, he hoped.
“Aye, that’s her.”
Prim circled the entrance of the Majestic Hotel on 35thand Broadway with more than a dozen of her suffrage sisters. She waved a banner calling for votes for the women who birth all the male voters on the face of the earth. He gave her points for cleverness and more for stalwartly rejecting the uniformed officers trying to part the ladies to form safe passage for the governor.
Moses had parted the Red Sea with greater ease.
The police were outnumbered and having a difficult time of it. The number of women rallying today had more than doubled since the last demonstration he’d witnessed. Some familiar faces dotted the crowd. Daughters and even matrons of old Knickerbocker families he wouldn’t have thought intrepid enough to join in. Maggie would be sorry she missed it.
The governor, Levi P. Morton, exited the hotel as if he were expecting a rotten tomato to come flying. His bushy silver muttonchops stark against his red face. The women pressed forward and his sweet Prim was right on the front line, waving her banner in his face.
He only wished he could hear what she was saying.
“Looks feisty.” Tam rubbed his jaw as if trying to make sense of it all.
The twins had returned with him from Scotland, eager to have their own go at America. For all that they lived for pranks and social disruption, their first foray into New York had overwhelmed them.
Or perhaps just the sight before them had.
“Aye, she is.”
An officer hooked his arm around Prim’s waist and dragged her back from the governor. She gave such a good fight, even as he pulled her away in the direction of a waiting paddy wagon. Though the urge was strong to rush to her defense, James tamped it back. It wasn’t likely to be the last time she got hauled away like that. He hated to set a precedent she wouldn’t appreciate him following.
“Well, I guess we should go bail her out, don’t you think?” Tam asked.
James grinned. “We’ll give her a few hours. She might be mad if we didn’t.”
* * *
“Come on, Mrs. Eames. Ladies. All of you.” A guard unlocked the holding cell. “Your bail’s been posted.”
“Bail?” She laughed. “How can bail have been posted when you had no grounds to arrest me in the first place? Any of us? It’s our right to peaceably assemble.”
The ladies in the cell with her cheered.
“Or haven’t we even that right?”
