Anna was asleep again, or at least her eyes were closed. Good for her. There was no sense wasting energy trying to listen to all this claptrap. The rest would do her good. Elizabeth wanted to sleep, too, but she thought Mrs. Bates might be disappointed in her, so she tried to listen some more.
They were talking about Mrs. Nolan now, the really old lady who’d disappeared that first morning. Nobody had seen her for days, and since her sentence was up, they all thought she’d been released. But the judge called her name, and to Elizabeth’s surprise, she stood up. She was on the front row and looking a lot more spry than the last time Elizabeth had seen her. Then a lot of people seemed surprised about something. Elizabeth was amazed when the judge said the old lady was only seventy-three years old, although that was still plenty old for going to a workhouse, she supposed.
Mrs. Nolan sat down, and the judge lit into the warden again. Something about how they’d all been arrested and sentenced in Washington, D.C., and why were they imprisoned in Lorton, Virginia?
Elizabeth couldn’t figure it out, either, probably because her head ached so badly. She rubbed her forehead, but it didn’t help. She tried to pay attention, but the words didn’t make sense anymore, no matter how closely she listened. She thought it must be the rushing sound that was filling her ears and her head, and why was the room getting so dark when it wasn’t even noon yet . . . ?
• • •
Someone screamed, and Gideon saw that the blue-eyed girl had slumped to the floor in a faint. Before anyone else even moved, he was out of his seat and beside her.
“Get her out of here, Gideon,” his mother whispered.
He lifted the girl into his arms and carried her to the back of the room. One of the guards opened the door, and he stepped out into the hallway. An ancient sofa sat against the wall, and Gideon carried her to it and laid her down.
He didn’t have a lot of experience with ladies who fainted. At least he hoped she’d just fainted. But even if she had, he didn’t have the slightest idea what to do for her. Luckily, he didn’t have to do anything. After he’d stared at her for a few minutes, admiring the curve of her cheek and the smoothness of her skin, her eyes fluttered open.
Those beautiful eyes. This time, they filled with alarm.
“You fainted,” he hastily explained. “I carried you out to the hall.”
“I never faint,” she said a bit petulantly.
“You probably never go on hunger strikes, either.”
She blinked a few times as if trying to bring him into focus. “You’re Gideon, aren’t you?”
“How did you know that?”
“You’re with David.”
“You know my mother and Anna, then.”
She started to nod, then winced and lifted a hand to her head.
“Would you like to sit up? That might help.”
“Nothing will help, but yes, I would.”
Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have taken the liberty of putting his arm around a young lady whom he had just met, but since he’d already carried her bodily from the courtroom, he figured the regular rules didn’t really apply in this situation. He slipped his arm under her shoulders and helped her sit up.
For a moment, she looked as if she would faint again, but she fought it off and, after a few deep breaths, she looked up at him. “Why aren’t you in there with the other lawyers?”
“Because I’m here with you. And how did you know I’m a lawyer?”
“Your mother brags about you.”
That made him smile.
She smiled back, a glorious sight indeed.
“My mother didn’t brag about you,” he said. “Who are you?”
“Elizabeth,” she said, and her smile vanished. “Miles,” she added after a moment, as if she’d had to remember it. “Elizabeth Miles.”
“I’m honored to meet you, Miss Miles. Are you ill?”
She frowned at that. “I’ve been on a hunger strike, remember?”
“No, I meant your voice. You sound like you’ve got a cold.”
“Oh.” She touched her throat. “No, not a cold. Force-feeding.”
Rage boiled up in him again. His mother had told him the stories of other suffragists who had been jailed. “Did they hurt you?”
Amazingly, she smiled again. “Of course they did. What’s going to happen to us now?”
Gideon needed a moment to control his anger. “We’re hoping the judge will order all of you sent back to Washington, to the jail there.”
“He’s not going to set us free, then?”
“He doesn’t have that authority, I’m afraid. In fact, our legal argument is that you shouldn’t have been sent outside the District of Columbia in the first place. We’re trying to get you out of that horrible workhouse and back to D.C. Then we can work on getting you released.”
“So we’ll still be in jail.”
“I’m sorry, but yes, probably. We hope it won’t be for long, though.”
She closed her eyes and sighed, and he silently cursed himself for causing her distress. “Of course, when you get back to D.C., we’re going to ask that judge to release you, and he might grant you bail while he decides.”
She didn’t seem too pleased about that. “But we can refuse to pay it, can’t we?”
“Of course you can, and it might even be in your best interest to do so. Where are you from?”
“Uh . . . South Dakota.” She’d had to think about that, too. She must have been even more ill from the hunger strike than he’d thought.
“You’re a long way from home. Many of the other ladies are, too. If you’re released on bail and go home, and then the judge decides you need to serve out your full sentences after all, you’d just have to come back here again.”
She nodded her understanding and closed her eyes again. She must have been exhausted.
“May I get you something?”
She opened her eyes and glanced meaningfully around the barren hallway. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m sorry. I guess it’s just the habit of a lifetime to offer help to a damsel in distress.”
“Do you meet many of those?”
“Not many, and certainly none as interesting as you, Miss Miles.”
“If you’re flirting with me, Mr. Bates, you’re wasting your time. I’m sure I won’t remember any of this.”