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For a split second, Daisy wished his hands were on her waist, and that she was going to the ranch.

“It’s been good to see you again,” Matt told Lily just before he took his place on the buckboard.

“Likewise,” Lily said. “We still owe you a shirt, so next time you are in town, come by the shop so we can measure you.” She had thought nothing could ever make her blush again, but the vision that popped in her head of her hands on his broad chest made her face burn.

When his brown eyes locked with hers, the heat in her body jacked up several more degrees.

“I will look forward to it,” he said in a deep drawl.

“I hope she gets a good reception,” Lily said as all three women waved at the two wagons until they were nothing but dots out there in the distance.

“Alma deserves some good in her life after what she’s been through.” Lily brushed the dust from her skirt.

Beulah nodded and took a step back toward town.

“We all do. Let’s go back to my store and have a glass of something cold—maybe iced coffee today, with a little heavy cream and sugar.

I’ve decided on the spur of this moment that we will have our meeting in the church until the new preacher arrives.

I’ll put the word out tomorrow. Maybe the menfolk won’t be so against us when we are gathering in a place of worship. ”

“You own this building?” Lily fell into step with the two other women.

“How?” Daisy asked.

“It’s just one of my many properties in town,” Beulah answered. “Orville’s daddy built the church and parsonage and leased it to a group who were dissatisfied with Tobias. Orville’s parents raised him in that place, and my folks raised me in the other one.”

“So you own one church and attend the other?” Daisy asked.

“That’s right,” Beulah answered. “It created quite a stir when we married and didn’t go to the same place on Sunday, and might have even been when folks started thinking that I wasn’t being a submissive wife.

I never got the whole story, but evidently the church was in financial trouble a long time ago, so my father bought the property and now it’s mine. ”

“That’s quite a story,” Daisy said.

“Yes, but the truth is stranger than fiction. Maybe God is showing us that He never intended for us to be used like a doormat.”

Lily wasn’t sure that God had anything to do with the way things had happened since Eve partook of that fruit, but she didn’t say anything.

She did, however, shorten her long stride to match theirs.

“I would love to change out of these dark clothes before we have our coffee. I’m sweating so bad that my undergarments are getting damp. ”

“Me, too, so let’s stop by the shop before we go on down to Beulah’s place,” Daisy suggested.

“I’ll wait until you get there to add the ice to the coffee,” Beulah said. “That way it won’t all melt before you arrive.”

Lily tried not to think about all the moisture that had poured down her neck into the stiff collar of her black jacket.

Instead, she visualized Alma’s little girls running and giggling across green pastures full of sheep and baby lambs.

Someday, if luck was with her, Alma might even find a new love out there in the country.

She deserved to have a companion that would love her and treat her right.

All women do. Miz Raven’s voice was clear.

Lily agreed with a slight nod, but no matter what Miz Raven said, she didn’t believe that the day would ever come when she could honestly feel like she deserved a man like Matt Maguire.

A strange air seemed to fill the whole town of Autrie on Sunday morning, even though the sun was out. Just the way Lily remembered the moments right before a tornado dropped out of the sky.

“Do you feel kind of eerie, too?” she asked Daisy when they left the store and headed through town to the church.

“No music out of the saloon. Few people on the street. Even the day that Preacher Jones was buried did not create such a ghostly feeling,” Daisy answered with a shiver. “I feel like we should be wearing black again instead of our white outfits.”

“Me too,” Lily replied.

Beulah came out of her store, locked the door behind her, and fell into step with them. “If the ladies can all muster up the courage, we fire the first shot in Autrie for women’s rights this very morning.”

“Do you feel something strange?” Lily asked.

“Yep, it’s like when there’s about to be a gunfight on the street. Everyone scampers to a safe place, and even the saloon is silent,” Beulah answered. “But it all passes. One man usually lays bleeding on the street and the other is buying everyone a drink in the bar.”

“Seems like the wind is afraid to make the leaves on the trees wiggle a little this morning,” Daisy said.

“I don’t think it’s even this quiet before a gunfight at high noon,” Lily added.

“To tell the God’s honest truth, I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never seen anything like this outside of a tornado,” Beulah said. “Maybe this is the calm before the storm, and all hell is about to break loose.”

Lily wondered if anyone had thought far enough ahead to form an idea about what the women would do if all their menfolk refused to even attend services that morning, and perhaps even demanded that their women didn’t go, either.

Would it turn out that the three of them—and maybe the preacher’s wife—would be the only ones who showed up?

When they got closer and she could see that the yard was full of wagons, buggies, and horses, she realized that the building would be packed full. “Oh my!” she gasped. “Do you think they’ll have room for three more?”

“If we have to, we’ll sit down front on the altar,” Beulah answered as they carefully wove their way through the horses and wagons. “Be careful where you step or we’ll be scraping and cleaning our good shoes when we get home.”

When they entered the church, the women were on one side and the men on the other, just like always.

Daisy figured there would be celebrations that afternoon at the saloons.

Men would be patting each other on the backs and buying drinks for one another because they had all put their women in their proper places.

She was still visualizing that when she, Daisy, and Beulah found enough room on the back pew to sit, but they were shoulder to shoulder. Beulah, bless her heart, glared at the backs of the women in front of her. Daisy patted her on the knee and whispered, “We won’t give up.”

“Damn right, we won’t,” she hissed.

“Good morning, everyone.” The preacher, Tobias, took his place behind the big oak lectern.

“We welcome all the newcomers and invite you to keep attending our place of worship until your new preacher arrives. This morning, I am going to speak to you from Colossians where it says that wives should submit unto their husbands. This does not mean that a man should be abusive to his wife, but that there should be mutual respect in a marriage.”

Edith stood up, crossed the aisle, and sat down beside her husband, Jasper.

Sally Anne, who had been sitting beside her, followed her example and wiggled into the space between the judge and his assistant, Benjamin.

That created an exodus—one by one, the women began to move across the aisle.

When there was no room left in the pews, they stood behind their husbands with their babies in their arms and other children lined up beside them.

Gertrude remained on the other side of the sanctuary with six in her group.

Their noses were held high, and an air of self-righteousness surrounded them.

Beulah stood up and went to the other side to stand behind the last pew.

Daisy and Lily joined her without hesitation.

Tobias ignored the bunch of them and kept right on talking about how God made man first and woman second to be a helper to the man.

That’s when all the men got to their feet and walked out of the building.

Tobias glared at the women on the right side of the church.

His jaw worked so hard that his beard seemed to dance, and his breath came in short bursts.

“What do we do now?” Lily whispered to Beulah. “He looks like he might drop dead with apoplexy.”

“We stand right here to support the women,” Beulah told her.

The noise of wagons leaving the yard was the only sound that was heard for several minutes. The ladies who had been standing sat down in the vacated seats.

“This is unacceptable in the eyes of the Lord,” Tobias finally said. “I will not tolerate such insolence in my church.”

His wife, Maggie, who had been sitting with Gertrude, got to her feet and moved to the other side.

Gertrude and her four followers sat right where they were.

The preacher closed his Bible, stared at his wife with angry eyes, and said, “Don’t come home tonight.

One of these women can take you in until you come to your senses. ”

“You can stay with me,” Beulah called out.

When he reached the back of the church, his glare toward Beulah was so full of fire that she should have melted into nothing but a pile of ash right there at the back of the sanctuary.

But she met his stare with her own, and for a full minute it looked like he might raise a hand to her.

Then he walked out without even looking back, with Gertrude and her four minions waddling behind him like ducklings.

Edith got to her feet and walked up to the lectern. “If our sweet Maggie has to move out, then I’m going with her. I will go home and pack a bag. I’ll sleep on the sidewalk before I back down, now that the line has been drawn.”

“I’ve got permission to use the other church and parsonage,” Beulah said, raising her voice.

“And I own the property next to the church. My old home and barn are also available for anyone to use, to anyone who wants to join us. I will be closing the general store until the men come to their senses.”

“What about food?” Sally Anne asked.

“We can use what I have, and I’ll make arrangements with Elijah to bring us supplies. He’s not against our cause,” Beulah answered.

“Are we going to need to close our shop?” Daisy asked Lily.

She nodded and said loud enough for everyone to hear, “If Elijah will move my sewing machine into the church, we’ll close up our place, too. Daisy and I have to work on Sally Anne’s wedding dress.”

Sally Anne held up a hand. “No, ma’am, you do not. If Wes can’t accept this small thing, then there won’t be a wedding.”

Daisy could almost hear the men telling one another that if they gave the women an inch, they would take a mile. Well, guess what? she thought. We just took a whole mile today.