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Maudie followed suit and sat down in one of the other four chairs. “Yes, it is. I’m only sorry that I can’t be here for every meeting. Ten miles is just too far to come all the way from Nechesville every week.”

Lily stopped halfway to the door leading to the living quarters. “We have three friends who are going to open a seamstress shop in Nechesville.”

“Oh!” Maudie’s voice raised an octave. “That’s wonderful. Maybe I can have them fit me for a dress for the wedding. It’s going to be the event of the whole year, right here in Autrie.”

“Wedding?” Daisy asked.

“These ladies can tell you while I get some coffee cups.”

When she returned, Edith and Maudie were both having a muffin, and evidently they hadn’t said anything about their niece or about the judge, because Daisy had a smile on her face.

“Did you hear that Edith is officially our first customer?” Lily asked. “She had me set back that bolt of white brocade for her niece’s wedding dress.”

“That’s wonderful,” Daisy said. “They were telling me that you have done some bartering for two old church pews to give us more room for the ladies’ auxiliary meetings.”

Lily set a full sugar bowl on the table, then poured coffee for each of them. Daisy raised an eyebrow, and Lily slid a sly wink her way. “They said that they couldn’t get coffee this morning at the Crockett.”

“Sometimes I have it as a little midmorning pick-me-up at home,” Maudie said with a shrug. “But I don’t tell my husband. He thinks he’s been married to a lady for the past thirty years.”

Edith laughed. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them, will it?”

“Amen to that,” Maudie answered.

“Their niece is getting married to Judge Wesley Martin in the fall,” Lily said. “Remember that he mentioned his fiancée Sally Anne when he stopped and talked to us after church services?”

Daisy’s eyes widened, but as Lily had hoped, she kept her composure. “Yes, I do recollect that he said something about her not being able to attend services that day. Do I understand that we’ll be designing and making her wedding dress?”

“We hope we will, if she likes the brocade,” Lily said, but thought, Of course Miss Princess Sally Anne will like the brocade.

“I really think she will,” Edith said.

“She has several pictures of dresses that are all the rage in Paris that she wants to work with.” Maudie finished off her muffin and drank down the rest of her coffee. “We should be going, Edith. Our husbands will think we are conspiring against them.”

“We are,” Edith said with a short chuckle. “Not really, but it doesn’t hurt them to think that. Makes them nice to us for a few days. We’ll walk down to the wagon yard and get Elijah to deliver those pews before the first meeting.”

“And you can come in for a dress measurement whenever you have time.” Lily smiled, walked them to the door, and opened it for them. “It was so nice to meet you both. Have a wonderful day.”

She closed the door and turned around and hurried over to hug Daisy. “Hearing that we will most likely be making the wedding dress had to be a shock. I’m sorry that’s our first customer.”

“Thank you, but it’s not like I ever expected him to ask me to marry him—and I’ve had some time to let it settle that he is marrying a very wealthy young woman from right here in town,” Daisy told her. “After the way he’s looked down at me, if he did drop to one knee, I would laugh in his face.”

Lily took a step back. “That’s the spirit. The past should not define us. What we do in the future should be the story of our lives.”

Preach on, sister . Miz Raven was back in Lily’s head. But be sure you totally trust what you are saying, because if you don’t, you won’t be able to help others believe .

Daisy sank down into the sofa, dabbed at the sweat on her forehead with a hankie, and stared at the ceiling. “That doesn’t mean that I’m not aggravated at him.”

“Throw your hairbrush at the wall when you think of him and the fact that he won’t sell us the building.” Lily eased down onto a kitchen chair.

Daisy giggled and then laughed out loud. “Or maybe when either of us start looking back more than forward, we should beat up a pillow.”

“Or maybe have more than one shot of good liquor.” Lily laughed with her. “Which reminds me, I promised Edith that we would have some liquor for the coffee we serve the next time she comes in the store. How do we buy that stuff here in Autrie?”

“We could get Elijah or Matt to go to the saloon and get us a bottle,” Daisy answered. “No!” She sat up straight. “That’s not right. If we want to be a voice for women’s rights, we should go in the saloon ourselves and buy a bottle of their best whiskey.”

“With the seal intact, so that we know it hasn’t been watered down,” Lily suggested.

Daisy stood up and narrowed her eyes into little more than slits. “We might as well go right now and strike our first blow for women’s rights.”

“Are you sure?” Lily asked her. “The fireworks will be starting soon, so folks who frequent those places are going to want one more shot before their families drag them home. We could wait and go tomorrow morning when things are quieter.”

“No, ma’am. This is an excellent opportunity to show the town we aren’t afraid of anything.

The more people who see us, the better. I hope the very engaged, pompous Wesley is in there.

” Daisy slammed her hat down on her head, picked up her purse, and marched across the floor.

“You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to. ”

Lily followed her outside. “I’m going with you, for sure, but making a scene could affect the amount of business we have. Are you sure about this?”

“We are the only seamstress shop in town. Like Beulah said, folks come in her store because there isn’t another general store, and if the only reason you are going is to protect me in a fight, then you can stay here,” Daisy told her in a daring tone.

“Honey, I’m not going to protect you, but rather whoever gets in your way,” Lily informed her. “When you are this angry, even I wouldn’t cross you.”

Daisy stopped at the door. “I shouldn’t be this mad.”

“Men!” Lily picked up her own purse and headed for the door. “Can’t live with them, and we get hanged if we shoot them.”

“I already said the same thing—but yep, when they take up residence in your heart ...” Daisy let the rest of the sentence drop and followed Lily outside.

The sidewalks were packed with people, so they had to make their way through the crowd. Music blared from the piano in the saloon, filling the air with a lively tune that Daisy had played all too often at the Paradise. When she reached the open door, she marched in like a woman on a mission.

Cigar smoke hovered around the ceiling like gray winter clouds. The stench of sweat, blended with chewing tobacco and cheap whiskey, filled Daisy’s nostrils, but she held her head high and headed for the crowded bar.

“You ladies are in the wrong place,” the man from the middle of the room called out. “The café is on the other end of town, and the Crockett Hotel is on down the street.”

“Neither of those sell whiskey, do they?” Lily snapped.

“I’ll buy you a shot.” A man got to his feet and slung an arm around Daisy. “For a dance, I might even buy your big old friend one, too.”

She took a step forward, picked up his arm, and dropped it like trash. “I’m not interested in a shot or a dance. I came in here to buy a bottle of whiskey, so stand back and leave me alone.”

That’s when she saw the judge sitting at a nearby table with a scantily dressed woman whispering in his ear. It took all her willpower not to storm over to where he was sitting and knock the smirk off his face.

The dark-haired woman, whose clothing wouldn’t have sagged a clothesline, glared at Daisy with big brown eyes. She popped her hands on her hips in a defensive gesture, crossed the room, and went nose to nose with Daisy. “Your kind isn’t welcome here.”

Four other women, dressed just as scantily, appeared out of nowhere to stand beside her. “Meet Ruby, Lula, Betsy, and Molly.”

“And we agree with Frannie,” Molly growled. “Your kind ain’t any more welcome here than we are in your church.”

Daisy folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot on the wooden floor. In some ways she felt sorry for the women. She might have worked in an upscale bordello, but the job was the same, no matter where. Not sorry enough to walk out the door or let them talk down to her, though.

Frannie glared at her and then shifted her eyes over to Lily. “If you’ve got a mind to dance, I can probably rustle up a man who don’t mind sinking his head into your bosom.”

Laughter rang out in the room so loudly that it drowned out the piano music.

“I’ll leave that job to you and your kind ,” Lily whispered in an icy-cold tone that put a damper on all the laughter.

Had Lily really just voiced aloud what Daisy was thinking? And how had they both gotten so far from their past so quickly?

A few men—the judge included—threw money in the middle of the table.

No doubt about it, they were betting on which woman would win if Frannie pushed it any further.

The piano music stopped, and an almost eerie silence filled the room.

Daisy focused on Frannie, and neither of them blinked for a long, pregnant moment.

Finally, Frannie gave Daisy a solid shove.

Daisy’s fist was a blur as it made contact with the woman’s eye.

It didn’t matter who the woman was or what she did to make a living, no one had the right to put her hands on Daisy.

Frannie dropped to the floor, grabbed Daisy by the ankles, and brought her down with her.

Lily reached down, grabbed Frannie by the arms, and pulled her up to her feet.

“I’m protecting you, woman!” Lily hissed. “Daisy has been trained to fight, and she’s already mad. So take a moment to think about the beating you are about to get.”