PEARL
“What do you expect me to do, Mabel?”
She had given me some water, held the glass while I drank though I implored her to let loose my hands. They tingled at the loss of blood flow, ached with the bite of the rope.
“You will come with me, of course,” Mabel answered as if I were a daft child. “You talked her into this, into stealing another woman"s husband, you will talk her out of it.”
“I b-barely know the woman.” It wasn"t a lie. The water had washed away some of the fuzziness in my head. “Yes, she is a suffragette and part of the Political Equality Association. I"ve s-seen her at meetings, at events. But I"ve barely said a few words to her. I never persuaded or urged her to take your husband.”
Minnie Johnson was that kind of woman; when you were raised as a socialite, when you
