Six months?
Emily’s mouth opened, but her father beat her to it.
“Six months, your honour?”he asked.“I had thought maybe perhaps a shorter stay.I cannot imagine it would take more than—”
“Sir, are you questioning the authority of the Bench?”the judge demanded.
William cleared his throat.“No, your honour, it’s only—”
“You have told me that she requires reform.Six months is the standard sentence for cases of this type.Little of value can be accomplished in less time.My decision stands.She will be released back into your custody on the nineteenth of December.”
He then actually waved them out of his courtroom as though keento be rid of them.William met Emily’s eyes, her own unpleasant surprise and fear reflected in his.This was a sham, hardly better than a kangaroo court.
She followed behind the bailiff and her father, cursing as her heart raced.She knew her father could be relied upon to tell Doris of the change in plan, but her mother would be beside herself, and angry with William, no doubt.And Emily…she hadn’t bargained for this long a sentence, and felt a little nauseous.But she took a few deep, steadying breaths and willed herself to keep her head.
When they reached the large foyer, the bailiff told them to wait while he retrieved the paperwork “and a woman,” he said rather cryptically.Emily puzzled for a moment, then recalled a section of the Female Refuges Act that declared prisoners were to be taken by a female bailiff to the industrial refuges.What was the concern?That the accused women were so scandalously out of control that the male bailiffs might be wantonly seduced?Emily refrained from rolling her eyes.This whole thing was so painfully obsolete.
“Emily,” her dad said under his breath after the bailiff had gone.“There must be something we can do, this—”
“No, Dad,” Emily said, her mouth dry.“I can do this.”Nellie Bly’s words came back to her, a line from her article when she began to question her own ability.
Did I think I had the courage to go through such an ordeal as the mission would demand?Could I assume the characteristics of insanity to such a degree that I could pass the doctors, live for a week among the insane without the authorities there finding out?I said I could, and I would.
“It’s fine,” she said.“I can do it.”
He shook his head, then reached forward and pulled her into a tight hug with his single arm.She breathed in his aftershave and blinked hard.“Will you tell Doris what’s happened, please?”she whispered, and he nodded.“I’ll write as soon as I can, I promise.Tell Mom I love her.It’s going to be okay.Doris told me not to get into any trouble, and I won’t.I’m just there to observe.It’ll be okay.”
She wasn’t entirely sure why she kept saying it was going to be all right.Perhaps if she said it enough, they might both believe it.
“It’s an adventure.Keep thinking of it that way,” her father advised.“That helped me in the field.It’s an adventure and you’re there to tell the story.Just tell the story, Em.”
She thought back on her last conversation with Doris, two days before, when the details of the plan were finalized.
“This is a great scoop, and an important one.But get in, get the story, and get out,” her boss had told her, actually holding Emily by the shoulders with her large hands, locking eyes with her.“Observe, but do not deliberately put yourself in harm’s way, or I shall chain you to your desk for the rest of your career.I mean that, Emily.Watch, listen, learn, and take notes, not risks.”
“I’ll be careful, I promise,” she told her dad now.“I love you.”
They quickly pulled apart as the bailiff returned with a stern-looking woman in uniform who beckoned to Emily.
“Come on this way.I’ve called ahead.They’ll have finished supper over there by the time we arrive, so let’s get on with it.I don’t want to be out all night.”
Emily was ushered forward, clutching her bag tightly.She glanced over her shoulder to see her father standing alone in the hall, his eyes conflicted, but also full of pride.He offered a tight smile.
Good luck!he mouthed.
She faced front again, swallowed hard on the irritating lump in her throat, and set her feet toward the next step in her career, the great leap into the rest of her life.
CHAPTER 13
EMILY
The Mercer Women’s Prison, Toronto—June, 1961
The drive to the prison took less time than Emily had imagined, and, sitting in the back seat of the bailiff’s car, she was filled with a mix of emotions.Never in her life had she done anything so audacious, and she was surprised by the exhilaration it wrought.But there was also nervousness, and fear.Shock, too, at how easy it had been for two men to arrange the incarceration of a woman who wasn’t a minor and had committed no crime.She was also in disbelief that she would be in the Mercer for twice as long as she’d bargained for.But she couldn’t dwell on that.She did her best to focus on the thrill of this chase, the adventure that awaited her.The thing was done now; there was little point in regret.
I said I could, and I would.
The bailiff pulled up at the curb outside the prison on King Street, and she was ordered out of the car.It was after six o’clock now, and the early-summer sun was beginning to lower in the sky to the west, cooling the air.Emily had worn an outfit appropriate for court: a brown tweed skirt and cream button-up blouse with an olive-green cardigan—both of which the wind now cut through.As she waited for further instructions, she looked up at the prison, thinking how it hadn’t been long since she’d wandered around its perimeter and spoken with June Jones.
