Read Online Hooked by Stef Ann Holm - Free Book Online Page B

Brooks—Meg’s brother.”
    It was then that Gage’s cool faltered and he nearly choked on his smoke.

Chapter
4
    A t 6:45, Meg looked out the window for the last time; then she swore to herself that she wouldn’t go toward it again. She found it very discouraging to pace away her Friday and Saturday evenings in front of the window waiting for Mr. Wilberforce to come calling.
    Perhaps he hadn’t taken the hint. Perhaps she shouldn’t have given him a hint. Margaret wouldn’t have. Meg had.
    Regardless, how could Mr. Wilberforce have taken her seriously with Harold Adams talking to her as if she were an infant? Meg had told Harold she wasn’t receiving visitors on Friday and Saturday night because she would be “indisposed”—another word learned from her mother when Mother didn’t want her lady friends to come over unexpectedly.
    Resigned to the fact that Mr. Wilberforce wasn’t coming, Meg went upstairs to put on her nightgown and robe.
    She paused by Grandma Nettie’s door, which was cracked open, light spilling into the hallway.
    â€œCome in, Margaret, I want to talk to you about the saloon.”
    Meg wasn’t upset about that. What had bothered her more was Harold insisting he show her the damage done to the Blue Flame. Meg had seen for herself the flyers pasted on the front of the building. If Harold thought that was a big deal—Grandma Nettie chaining herself to the White House would be a capital offense.
    Chief Officer Algie Conlin of the Harmony Police Department had come over this morning to write Grandma a citation. Mr. Pickering of the Blue Flame wasn’t pressing charges. He simply wanted the mess cleaned up and since her grandmother had refused, she had to pay a fine and the cost of hiring somebody to take the papers down.
    Grandma Nettie sat on the sateen bed quilt, and she patted a spot beside her. “Sit down, dear.”
    Meg walked into the bedroom that belonged to her parents and lowered herself on the edge of the bed.
    Grandma still wore the oyster-colored blouse waist and crow-black silk skirt she’d had on at the hotel. “You’re upset with me because of the saloon.”
    â€œI told you, it’s not that, Grandma. I don’t like how Harold thought it so awful he had to broadcast the news right in front of Mr. Wilberforce.”
    Grandma pulled several of the pins from her gray hair and unwound her thick bun. “If Harold feels it necessary to call you out in public because of something I did, then he needs a dosing of sulphur and molasses.”
    â€œI’d be happy to give it to him.”
    â€œMargaret,” Grandma Nettie said, taking Meg’s hand. “I’m likely to have considerably more notoriety in the future.”
    â€œWhat are you planning?”
    â€œMore flyers. Only this time I won’t paste them up. I’ll pass them out on the streets to my sisters.” Grandma Nettie’s expressive face changed; a bright spark of purpose held her features captive. “As long as women accept the position assigned to them, their emancipation is impossible. I have to make them understand that having the vote is the best way to be heard.”
    She took Meg’s other hand into hers. “You could be quite an asset to the sisters, Margaret. Let me know if you’re interested.”
    â€œI can’t . . . ladies don’t do such things.”
    Meg liked the feel of Grandma Nettie’s silky thin skin next to her own. She laid her head on her shoulder and snuggled against the woman beside her. Meg loved her Grandma Nettie dearly. She did things Meg used to do on a smaller scale. Oh, not fighting for the suffragette cause; but hoydenish things. Trifling behavior that Mrs. Wolcott told her was above her now that she had converted to true refinement.
    Whispering into the crook of her grandmother’s neck, her Colgate’s cashmere perfume smelling comforting