toys to some motherless girls? Do you have a verse for that one? Because I’d love to hear it.”
“I’m sorry—what did you—”
“Perhaps you have one for when a woman’s sight is still blurred in one eye because her father-in-law smacked her so hard in the face that she saw stars? Or what’s the Bible verse for when a man tries to give you paper money to make you behave as he wants you to? Do you think Ephesians has a view on that? Fifty dollars is quite a sum, after all. Large enough to ignore all kinds of sinful behavior.”
Beth’s eyes widened. Margery thrust her head down.
“Alice, dear, this—uh—this is all a private ma—”
“Is that godly behavior, Pastor? Because I’m listening really hard and all I’m hearing is everyone telling me what I’m apparently doing wrong. When actually I think I may have been the godliest one in the Van Cleve household. I might not spend enough time in church, granted, but I actually do minister to the poor and sick and needy. Never looked at another man, or given my husband reason to doubt me. I give away what I can.” She leaned forward over the saddle. “I’ll tell you what I don’t do. I don’t call in men with machine-guns from across state lines to threaten my own workforce. I don’t charge that same workforce four times the fair amount for groceries and sack them if they try to buy food anywhere but the company store, until they run up debts they’ll die before they can pay back. I don’t throw the sick out of their company homes when they can’t work. I certainly don’t beat up young women until they can’t see, then send a servant over with money to smooth it over. So tell me, Pastor, who really is the ungodly one in all this? Just who needs a lecture on how to behave? Because I’m darned if I can work this one out.”
The little library had fallen completely silent. The pastor, his mouth working up and down, regarded each of the women’s faces: Beth and Sophia stooped innocently over their work, Margery’s gaze flickering between the two of them, and Alice, her chin up, her face a blazing question.
He placed his hat on his head. “I—I can see you’re busy, Mrs. Van Cleve. Perhaps I’ll come back another time.”
“Oh, please do, Pastor,” she called, as he opened the door and hurried off into the dark. “I do so enjoy our Bible studies!”
* * *
• • •
With that final attempt by Pastor McIntosh—a man who could not accurately be described as the soul of discretion—word had finally traveled around the county that Alice Van Cleve really had left her husband and was not coming back. It had not improved Geoffrey Van Cleve’s mood—already weighted down by those rabble-rousers at the mine—one jot. Emboldened by the anonymous letters, the same troublemakers who had tried to resurrect the unions were now rumored to be doing so again. This time, however, they were smarter about it. This time it had been done in quiet conversations, in casual talks down at Marvin’s Bar or the Red Horse honky-tonk, and often mentioned so swiftly that by the time Van Cleve’s men had arrived all there was to see was a few Hoffman men legitimately downing a cold beer after a long week’s work and just a vague sense of disturbance in the air.
“Word is,” said the governor, as they sat in the hotel bar, “you’re losing your grip.”
“My grip?”
“You’ve been obsessing about that damn library and not focusing on what’s going on at your mine.”
“Where did you hear such nonsense? I have the firmest of grips, Governor. Why, didn’t we discover a whole bunch of those troublemakers from the UMWA just two months ago and shut that down? I got Jack Morrissey and his boys to see them off. Oh, yes.”
The governor gazed into his drink.
“I got eyes and ears all over this county. I’m keeping track of these subversive elements. But we have sent a warning, if you like. And I have friends at the sheriff’s office who are very understanding about such matters.”
The governor raised the slightest of eyebrows.
“What?” said Van Cleve, after a pause.
“They say you can’t even keep control of your own home.”
Van Cleve’s neck shot to the back of his collar.
“Is it true that your Bennett’s wife ran off to a cabin in the woods and you ain’t been able to get her home again?”