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Y ou look like crap—literally,” Lily said when she awoke the next morning.

Daisy raised up on an elbow and showed off lovely white teeth when she smiled. “So do you, my friend.”

“I think it has passed,” Lily whispered, for fear that just saying the words would jinx everything.

“If I look like you, then I would guess that we both need to fill up a trough and clean up a little before we go to the church to see how the rest fared,” Daisy grumbled.

“We might have enough water left to—” Lily didn’t get the words out before Amanda and Bea pushed the barn door open.

Bea pulled the scarf away that covered her nose and mouth. “Y’all need a bath.”

Amanda removed the cloth away from her own face. “I’m glad you survived. We’ve all been worried about you. Are the horses dead? Miz Beulah has worried about them all night, as well as you two.”

“We got them into the stalls just in time,” Lily said. “We’ll get cleaned up and come to the church. Or maybe we’ll just go to Beulah’s house for breakfast, if that’s where we are eating this morning.”

Bea grabbed Lily’s hand and tugged. “We’re just having hoecakes and jelly this morning. Miz Maggie is making them for us in the church a’cause everyone had to stay there last night. No one could go to the other places. I slept on the floor in front of the altar. Does that make me like baby Jesus?”

Lily kept a straight face even though it was tough. “I think it just might.”

“Is everyone all right?” Daisy asked. “No one got hurt, did they?”

“No, we are all safe. Hot and sweaty, but no one is hurt,” Amanda said. “As soon as this settles out of the sky, we’ll all be taking baths.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we wash our faces,” Lily agreed.

“We’ll draw up some water for you from the well so you can wash up properly,” Amanda said and looked around at all the dust piled up everywhere. “I guess we will be cleaning this barn and doing laundry all day.”

“Looks like it—but there’s enough water left in the trough for us to wash up before we come up to the church,” Daisy said.

“See you in a few minutes, then, and be sure to put something over your noses and faces before you leave. The wind has died, but the air is thick. I’m going to fill up some buckets to take in to heat for the dishwashing job,” Amanda told them. “We’ll let you have some privacy.”

“Why did everyone gather in the church?” Lily asked. “They could have stayed—”

“Beulah was afraid that the strong wind would blow the houses away,” Amanda said. “She’s been through a couple of these before, so we listened to her.”

“She said that God wouldn’t mess with a church,” Bea added.

“Miz Beulah is a smart woman,” Daisy said.

“Yes, she is,” Amanda agreed. “We’ll see y’all in a few minutes, then?”

“Soon as we get cleaned up a little,” Lily replied.

As soon as the barn door was closed, Daisy stripped out of her dust-covered undergarments and splashed water up from the trough onto her body. “I would love to sink down in a real bath—but if I did, there would be nothing but mud left for you.”

Lily drew up two buckets of water, carried them to the horse stalls, and poured some in each of the troughs while Daisy made herself presentable. “What’s coming next?” she groaned when she had finished.

“What do you mean?” Daisy asked as she removed clean clothing from the satchel she had brought with her when they left the shop.

“Snakes. Dust storms. Sleeping in a barn.”

“That’s the downside,” Daisy said. “Then there is finding out secrets, bonding with all kinds of women, making friends. Think positive. Your turn to wipe away the dust and sweat.”

“And the bad attitude,” Lily said as she stripped out of her smelly clothing and squeezed a cloth full of clean water over her body. “That helps a lot.”

“Amen.” Daisy grinned. “But it’s not helping my grumbling stomach.”

When Lily and Daisy stepped out of the barn, a strange, uncanny pall had settled over the whole area.

Lily had seen gray skies before snow began to fall.

She had seen rolling clouds and even lived through a couple of tornadoes, but she had never seen dust still hanging in the air almost obliterating the rising sun.

“This is horrible. The children are going to have to stay inside all day,” Daisy said.

“Unless ... Is that thunder I hear?” Lily cocked her head to one side.

Daisy picked up the pace. “We had better hurry. We’ll be caked with mud if it starts to rain.”

Elijah held the door to the church open for them and motioned them inside. “Real clouds have covered up the sun, and it’s going to rain, for sure. Y’all get on in here.”

“What are you doing out here?” Lily asked as she jogged past him.

“Bringing mail.” Elijah slammed the door shut behind them. “I’m going to hand it off to you, Lily, and ride like the devil is chasing me to get back to the wagon yard. I figure I’ve got about five minutes before the mud balls start falling on me.”

Lily took a stack of letters from him. “Have you heard anything about our list of demands?”

“I was thinking about how to tell all y’all.

I sat in on the meeting, and there was a lot of arguing—some of it even from the women who are following Gertrude.

She especially took offense at the idea of women wearing pants and teaching once they were married,” Elijah answered as he put a bandanna over his nose and mouth.

“The judge is supposed to come out here this evening, but I don’t imagine he’ll make it until the skies are clear. ”

“Thank you, Elijah, for bringing this to us and for all your support.”

“You are welcome.” His eyes crinkled with a smile. “I hope you stand your ground.”

“Oh, we will,” Lily assured him as he left.

Sally Anne hurried from the front of the church. “Is that letters? Why didn’t Mr. Elijah stay with us? Do I have a letter?”

“He needs to get back to the wagon yard,” Lily said. “Let’s go on inside and we’ll see who has mail.”

She walked up to the pulpit, flipped through half a dozen pieces, and handed two to Sally Anne. “Looks like this is your lucky day. And here’s one for Edith from Maudie and one for Amanda from someone in Oklahoma.”

Bea danced around her mother’s skirt. “Who is ours from? Will you read it to me?”

Amanda held the envelope to her heart. “It’s from your grandma, and yes, I will read it to you.”

Lily wanted nothing more than to read her letter, but she needed to eat first—even if it was just hoecake and jelly.

The one little biscuit she’d had the day before was long since gone from her system, and she was feeling more than a little faint.

Her stomach growled at the smell of fresh bread wafting through the church.

“If I faint, shove food down my throat,” Daisy whispered.

“Does that mean you aren’t thinking about Claude right now?” Lily asked out the side of her mouth.

“All I can think about is something to eat and a cup of coffee to wash this wretched dust from my throat,” Daisy said. “Are you thinking about Matt?”

“Matt who?” Lily answered with a sly grin.

The hard-driving rain settled the dust from the air but left such a mess that the ladies spent the entire day cleaning.

Daisy had slept poorly the night before, so by evening, she was ready for supper and to turn in early.

But Lily had told the whole group that the judge was coming to discuss the list. Little did he know that Daisy Lindberg was in no mood to negotiate.

Daisy, Beulah, Sally Anne, Amanda, Edith, Maggie, and Lily all lined up on the front pew of the church that evening after supper when Judge Wesley Martin walked down the center aisle and took his place behind the lectern. He held his head high and looked down his nose at the group of women.

Daisy caught his eye and glared at him. He would not intimidate her with his position in town or with that sneer on his face.

Then he held up the petition Daisy had so carefully written up. “This, and the implication of a neglect of wifely duties, is an atrocity.”

Daisy folded her arms across her chest and used all her willpower not to storm forward and use words that would bring lightning down through the rafters.

“The majority of your husbands and fiancés have signed it. I did not. I do not have to put my name on a document that says I will respect my wife and not lay a hand on her. That should be a given, and if my fiancée doesn’t trust me to honor her, then perhaps she shouldn’t be married to me.

That said, while we have crossed out the demand that women wear pants and teach school after they are married, we have conceded that families can sit together in church and conceded on the rest of the smaller demands.

Otis Ramsey said that he will agree to give the women who work for him in the saloon an eighty-twenty split, but that’s as far as he will go.

I suppose this means you can all go home tonight. ”

Daisy could see Sally Anne’s spine stiffen when she popped up on her feet.

Frannie stood up from the second pew on the right. “All the rest of the women can go but we won’t, not without a fifty-fifty split. We’ll stay right here and starve before we take a penny less than that.”

Rachael stood up and said, “And I’m staying with them until you sign a petition that says I can continue to teach school after I’m married.”

“We will agree not to wear pants in public, but we want to wear them at home. Working in the fields in a skirt and all the undergarments is a hassle,” came a voice from the back of the church.

“I suppose you had better take the petition back and talk some more,” Sally Anne said.

“We will either go together or not at all. And for the record, Mr. Martin, since you are not willing to put your name on that petition”—she marched right up to the lectern and removed the diamond engagement ring from her finger—“you can have this back.”

“Sally Anne, don’t do something rash,” he scolded.

“ Rash means impulsive. I’m not doing this on a whim. I’ve given it a lot of thought, Wesley. I wish you all the best, but that won’t be me by your side,” she said and went back to her place between Edith and Beulah.

“I’ve said my piece,” the judge said and stepped away from the lectern.

“I’ll leave this here so you can see that it has been agreed upon, and if Frannie and the other saloon women want to stay here and negotiate on their own, then that’s between them and Otis.

I’m washing my hands of the whole affair. ”

“Frannie and her friends will be moving into my house with me,” Sally Anne called out.

The judge stopped in his tracks and glared at her. “Do you have any idea what you are doing, woman?”

“I do,” Sally Anne said.

Wesley turned his gaze to Edith. “You had better talk sense to her. Not only will her reputation be ruined, but so will yours.”

Edith turned so white that Daisy thought for sure she would have to send someone for the smelling salts, but she rallied and met Wesley’s eyes. “You better go on, now. She has made up her mind and made her own decision.”

The judge stormed the rest of the way down the aisle and outside. When the door slammed shut, Edith turned to Sally Anne and said, “What have you done? You will never find a husband now.”

Frannie crossed over to stand in front of Sally Anne. “Thank you for being so brave, but we can’t let you do this. We appreciate everything all y’all have done for us, but—”

“I got my letter from Victoria, and a second one from Zula.” Sally Anne stood up and turned to face the group.

“I have been waiting for this mail for weeks now,” she said, then told them the story she had already told Lily and Daisy.

“I told Frannie she could have my house to run a respectable brothel out of once I left. I’ve also talked to Molly, who is quite happy to go with me as my assistant, so we will be leaving as soon as I can make arrangements.

It will take a few days—maybe even a couple of weeks—to get my affairs in order, but we should be in England and fighting for women’s rights all over the world by fall. ”

Edith fanned herself with her hand. “Why can’t you do that right here in Texas?”

“We’ve made some progress these past couple of weeks,” Amanda reminded her. “And we are going to renegotiate the demands. What you did was brave, but—”

“You are right, Amanda. We have made progress, and hopefully we have set an example for other women, but this has been my dream for a long time. Y’all be happy for me.”

“We will, but we will miss you so much,” Frannie said.

“Okay, then.” Sally Anne smiled. “Let’s think about the things that we didn’t get.

It’s a long time until school takes up again this fall.

What if the two teachers start up a private school?

We can look into the law concerning private schools.

What if it was a girls’ school, where you encourage the young ladies to grow up to be lawyers, doctors, or whatever else they want? All you need is a—”

“You can have my house and barn free of charge,” Beulah offered. “You can keep my horses and teach the ladies to ride.”

“And shoot a gun, as well as learning to read and write,” Daisy added.

“Oh my! That’s a wonderful idea,” Rachael said. “Start them young to be independent. But who in town would even consider such a thing, or even give us a small salary?”

“I can take care of your salary if I can volunteer to help teach etiquette lessons a couple of days a week,” Edith said. “I’m going to be lonely when Sally Anne leaves, and that will give me something to do. I’m sorry that I pushed her towards Wesley Martin.”

“Can we see a show of hands from you mothers who might be willing to enroll your daughters in Miz Rachael’s new school in the fall?” Sally Anne asked.

Nearly all the hands shot up in the air.

“Okay, then, we are down to the pants issue,” she said. “Personally, I own several pair that I intend to take to London with me. There is no written law that says a woman cannot dress as she pleases in her own home. So, what do you say?”

“I say that we can live with that, and Gertrude and the others will feel like they’ve won a little bone to chew on,” Lily said. “That said, anyone that needs a pair of women’s pants made to fit them, come visit me and Daisy at the seamstress shop.”

“Shall we have supper and pack up our things to go home tomorrow?” Maggie asked.

“Together!” Daisy grabbed Lily’s hand and raised both into the air.

“Together!” the echo behind them resounded off the walls.