“I think Emily’s right,” Sonya said finally.“I think we need to get someone in there.”
“And I don’t necessarily disagree,” Doris said, setting her cup down and crossing her legs with an air of business.“But Emily is still very junior.”
“I know I am,” Emily admitted, as everyone looked at her.“But you also know how much I want this.I want what you all have.”
“Mm.But what I have is a career I love and children I also love who I can’t leave for weeks or months on end for an investigation,” Sonya said.“I can’t do this, and I can’t ask my mother to help for that long.I’m sorry, Doris.”
Doris nodded.“Maeve?Virginia?”
Maeve shook her head regretfully.“I wish I had the flexibility, but I can’t.With the kids, you know how it is.”
Virginia exhaled in a huff.“Except if any of our husbands were taken away for work for weeks or months, it wouldn’t even be a conversation, now would it?”
“True, but I also wouldn’t want to leave my children for that long,” Sonya said.“I’d miss them sorely.”
Emily watched them all in turn, these women she looked up to.The fact that they were married, working mothers was unusual enough, particularly for middle-class women.But the truth was that all the husbands of the women atChatelainemust have had some level of understanding or appreciation for their wives’ jobs.She couldn’t see how you could do it otherwise.A familiar sensation tickled at her throat as she thought of Jem.He was not one of those men, and she wondered how these women had foundthosesorts of men, or convinced them to accept their careers.At any rate, supportive as their husbands might be, it was the children that now held them back from career freedom.That much was clear.
Maeve chuckled heartily.“What I would have given to have this kind of scoop land in my lap when I was first coming up.I understand why you want it, Emily.I really do.It’s a dream.”
“Well,” Doris said, with a heavy air, “my concern is that it will, in fact, turn out to be quite the nightmare.”
They were all silent, eyes darting between teacups and Emily, who ignored the nerves in her gut.She was either going to do it, or she wasn’t.There was no sense being nervous.
“So none of the three of you can take this,” Doris said.“And Emily…” She pinched her maroon lips, the same colour that now lingered on the rim of the teacup.
“I want to do it,” Emily said as firmly as she dared.
“She may be junior,” Maeve said, shifting in her seat, “but it looks like she’s the only one whocando it, Doris.”
Doris still looked unconvinced.
“Then should we abandon the infiltration attempt altogether?”Sonya suggested.“We could just run the story about this Incorrigible Law.There’s enough meat on those bones already, isn’t there?”
“Yes, but the conditions inside that place where the women are being held at the behest of such a tenuous law, being subjected to all sorts of horrors because of it—”
“That’s the real scoop,” Virginia finished.
Silence again.They all knew that was true, and Emily was hesitant now to say anything that might create a wedge for further resistance from Doris.She still hoped her boss might consent.
“Is there any other way to do this?”Virginia pressed.“I don’t know…see if some contact inside the prison might sneak Emily in for a quick glance?Some disgruntled employee, a guard or some such?”
“We have no contact except for this anonymous note-writer,” Doris said.
“And what happens if she goes in and gets found out?”Virginia mused.
“Better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” Maeve quoted, winking at Doris, who offered a reluctant smirk.
“And by then, we’d have the story,” Emily said.“How could Legal complain about that, if it’s big news?The Mercer prison won’t want a headline announcing they’re trying to sue us for breaking a story about how they’ve abused their inmates for the past seventy years.”
Doris let out a grunt.“Well, you’ve got me there.”
“And maybe I wouldn’t have to be gone more than, say, a month,” Emily offered.“We don’t know yet how the sentencing works under this Act.If someone brought me to a judge, saying I was incorrigible, maybe they could, I don’t know…request a short sentence, just enough to straighten me out.”
“Perhaps,” Doris said, “But as you say, we have no idea.And that’s a wild card I don’t particularly want to gamble on.”
“Well…” Emily sat forward now and cast around for another argument to convince her boss.“Nellie Bly got her scoop at Blackwell’s Island in two weeks.”She shrugged.As a woman journalist, Doris knew who Bly was, of course.
“And perhaps it is time for a revival of the ‘girl stunt reporters,’ ” Doris said.“Though I admit, I don’t ever like to put my own girls in harm’s way.There’s enough harm to be had out there without your job adding to it.”She paused.“But let’s say I agree, Emily…how would we get you admitted?”
