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L ily carried two stuffed pillowcases and a satchel from her bedroom into their shop, where Daisy was already waiting.

Her thoughts ran in circles, from worrying that some of the women who had offered to join the campaign might just be doing so to fit in, to wondering whether only a handful would show up that evening.

Maybe others would trickle in one by one but then go back to their husbands after a couple of days.

She felt as if she were missing something important, so she mentally checked off what she had packed in the pillowcases.

Were other women doing the same thing? Were they nervous about leaving homes that they might not go back to for weeks, or maybe even all summer?

She was ready to make that commitment, and would try to encourage others, but she wasn’t a wife who possibly loved her husband.

Nor was she a mother who might not see her children for a while.

“Are we really doing this? How many do you think might join us?” Daisy asked.

“We are, and I have no idea if we’ll have half a dozen or a hundred,” Lily answered. “This is a much larger step than I ever thought we’d be doing in less than two weeks.”

“I wonder what it will be called in fifty years,” Daisy said. “When a couple of generations of women have passed, what will history refer to these days as?”

“We already are called ‘suffragists,’ but this battle will definitely have a name before it’s all said and done.” Lily dropped her pillowcases on the floor. “I knew I had forgotten something. I need to tuck in my writing tablet and a pencil.”

“I put extra in my things. I’ll share.” Daisy took a few steps toward the door, then stopped. “You’re not going to believe this.”

Lily’s heart stopped. Had Gertrude and her protestors already arrived to block their way? If things got violent, would two little pistols keep her and Daisy safe?

“Holy hell!” she gasped.

She was afraid to blink for fear that she was just imagining what was before her. Finally, she rubbed her eyes with her fists and then looked out the window again. The scene had not changed.

Daisy took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh.

“I don’t think hell is holy, but I agree with you.

I never expected such an outpouring. Beulah said we had given the women courage when we waltzed into the saloon and bought a bottle of whiskey and stood up for ourselves.

To tell the truth, I felt kind of sorry for Frannie after that.

If Miz Raven hadn’t found me in Spanish Fort that day, I could have been just like her. ”

“If Joshua Jones was out there yelling at the women, it might really be holy hell,” Lily whispered, still unable to believe that so many women were joining them. There had to be a hundred out there—maybe even more—and lots of children skipping along beside their mothers.

“Pinch me. I’m dreaming,” Daisy said.

Lily blinked a few more times, but still nothing changed.

Edith and Sally Anne led the parade of women down the street.

All of them were looking straight ahead with their heads held high.

Babies were in carriages. Smaller children seemed to think they were going on a trip.

The ones who had no children helped others by carrying their satchels or pillowcases.

“It’s time to lock the door and support the cause,” Daisy said.

“I wish Miz Raven could see this.”

Daisy opened the door and stepped outside. “She would be so proud.”

“Hello!” Beulah called from the buckboard of a wagon. “Y’all throw your things in the back and crawl on up here with me. I’ve got room, and you might as well ride as walk.”

“Why . . . ? What . . . ?” Lily stared at the wagon loaded high with supplies.

“I’m puttin’ my money where my mouth is,” Beulah declared. “These woman and children have to be fed—and besides, all that meat in my store will go bad if we don’t get it used up. Now, hitch up them skirts and get on up here. We’ll ...” She stopped and pointed.

The women from the saloon had lined up behind the other women, bringing up the rear of the parade.

Some of them marched with their heads held high.

Others looked more than a little sheepish.

Lily understood both. Every time she had gone into Spanish Fort after she’d started working at the brothel, she felt inferior to the women on the street, but she bluffed her way through the experience.

Beulah finally found her voice and yelled, “Welcome! No woman will be turned away.”

Several of those women, who had been staring at the street, seemed to take courage in Beulah’s words and lifted their heads.

Daisy hiked her skirt and hopped up onto the buckboard, and Lily followed right behind her.

Lily remembered the last time she’d ridden in a wagon, and the emotions that had rushed through her body when Matt put his hands on her waist. Even through several layers of clothing, she had felt a rush of heat.

“You are flushed,” Beulah said. “You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?”

“No, ma’am, I am not!” Lily declared, and almost blurted out that she could have been in the same shoes they were wearing a few years before.

“Are you mad because I’m not turning the women from the saloons away?” Beulah asked, as if hearing Lily’s thoughts. “They have the right to fight for better circumstances, just like we do.”

“Of course they do,” Daisy said. “I can be aggravated at Frannie, but it’s not because of her job. It’s more that she made me mad in the saloon.”

“And even then,” Lily said, “it was more that you were letting off steam because you were mad at ...” She stopped before she said too much.

“At that damned judge,” Daisy went on, “because he wouldn’t sell us the store.”

“He is probably the most pompous man in the entire male population in Autrie,” Beulah said.

“To get back to this wagonload of food ...” Lily waved a hand toward all the women. “I didn’t even think about feeding this crowd—but then, I had no idea there would be so many. Do you think there’s any left who aren’t brave enough to join us?”

Beulah snapped the reins, and the horses began to move. “From the looks of this parade, I’d say only a handful stayed behind to support Gertrude and her merry little band of followers.”

“Where did you get this rig?” Daisy asked.

“The wagon and the horses are mine,” she answered.

“Elijah takes care of them for me. Sometimes I still like to go saddle up one of them and ride out into the country. I’ve even gone all the way to the sheep farm when they’re having a celebration like sheep-shearing week. And I do not ride sidesaddle.”

“You are a brave woman,” Lily said. “Are we going to keep the horses and wagon at the church?”

“I’ll put the horses in the corral behind the barn and stake them out through the day to eat whatever green grass is in the pasture.

I’d thought I would keep the wagon in the barn, but from the looks of this group, we’re going to need all the space we can rustle up for sleeping quarters.

My rig will be fine in the churchyard,” she answered.

“How do we decide who sleeps where?” Lily asked.

“I have no idea, but we’re women on a mission,” Beulah said. “It won’t be hard to work all that out when we get there.”

Long before Beulah parked the wagon, the buzz of conversation inside the building filtered all the way out into the yard. Lily slid off the buckboard and then helped both the other women down. “From the sound that’s coming from inside the building, it looks like we’ve got a full congregation.”

Beulah parked the wagon and headed for the door.

“Yep, women all over Texas are tired of being treated like property. I’m hoping that the news travels far and wide, and that we’re setting a precedent for others to follow.

Today is the first time I’ve been in this place.

My folks never did like the loud preaching—but hey, after Tobias said what he did to Maggie, I’m not sure his heart is right, either. ”

Even though Lily was anxious to get inside the building, she walked slowly so that Daisy and Beulah could keep up with her. “This is going to sound silly, but I just thought of something. You’ve brought food enough to feed these women for a few days, but what about plates and spoons?”

“All in the wagon,” Beulah answered. “Elijah helped me load up everything he thought we might need from the wagon yard right after we all left the church, and then he helped me with all the food and supplies I’m donating from my store.

I wouldn’t have been ready to join the parade if I’d have had to do all this myself.

And he’ll be bringing us whatever else we might need a couple of times a week.

I don’t care if we completely wipe out my stock—I want this to accomplish something good. ”

Daisy swung the door open. “That’s amazing.”

Beulah shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at the sky. “No clouds in sight.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Lily asked.

“I don’t want to get struck by lightning for instigating all this,” Beulah chuckled and stepped inside the sanctuary.

Lily followed her down the aisle and up to the front pew, where Edith and Sally Anne were sitting. Fussy babies and children who didn’t want to be in church for the second time on a Sunday filled the rows, and some of the single ladies and pregnant women were lined up against the back.

Lily figured that Joshua Jones was flipping back and forth in his grave so fast that he was too dizzy to even preach his way into heaven. After all, the women’s group that had put him into a fatal stew were all in his church and were planning to strike a blow for the very rights he was so against.