Free The Edge of Dreams by Rhys Bowen Page B

promised Daniel that I wouldn’t mention his investigation. I managed a bright smile as she brought the plate across to the table. “I’m afraid Daniel is overreacting at the moment. I think my being involved in the train crash yesterday has really unnerved him, especially after what happened to us earlier this year.”
    “I can certainly understand that.” Sid put a plate of spring onions and tomatoes next to the ham. “But this Italian gang is no longer making threats to you personally, is it?”
    “No. That’s all settled,” I could say with honesty. “The moment all charges were dropped against their leader a sort of truce was established. I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to subdue them completely, with new Italian immigrants pouring into the city all the time. Daniel thinks that we’ll have to learn to live with them.”
    “I’m glad I’m not in his position,” Sid said. “Wanting to do the right thing but always having to compromise. It can’t be easy.”
    “No,” I said. “His mother wants him to leave the police and go into politics.”
    “Senator Sullivan. It has a certain ring to it, and he’d garner the Irish vote,” Sid said with a smile.
    “Oh, and speaking of Daniel’s mother,” I went on, as I reached to put a slice of apple in front of Liam. “Daniel dropped another little bombshell as he was leaving. He’s been to Sloane’s and ordered a couple of beds so that his mother can come to stay immediately and help me hire another maid.”
    “Perfectly sensible, given the circumstances,” Sid said.
    “Whose side are you on?” I demanded.
    “Nobody’s side, just seeing Daniel’s rationale in doing this. He knows you aren’t in any fit state to go to Sloane’s and buy beds yourself, so he’s saving you the trouble. And it would also make sense to have your mother-in-law around for a while as you get the house up and working again. You can’t go shopping at a department store with a wriggling baby on your hip. And we might not always be available to babysit. Gus has been asked to give a lecture on Professor Freud’s interpretation of dreams and the latest research in Vienna, so she’ll need to prepare for it.”
    She leaned closer to me, lowering her voice. “Between ourselves I rather think she sees herself as an expert in diseases of the mind and hopes to be invited to lecture in more academic circles. Some of Dr. Freud’s colleagues in Vienna were clearly impressed by her forward-thinking, you know.”
    “Wouldn’t she require some kind of academic credential before she could lecture at a university?”
    “Oh, definitely. But where would she find anyone qualified to teach her over here, and who is likely to accept a woman to study as an alienist? If she ever tried to present a thesis it would most likely be rejected. Doctors in this country completely reject the notion that the inner workings of the mind can be unlocked through dreams.”
    I thought privately that it was unlikely Gus would study long and hard enough to become a doctor of anything. Sid and Gus usually tired of their latest enthusiasm quite quickly. Wisely I kept quiet. Maybe she really did have a calling to become an alienist. She certainly had a lively enough mind for it.
    “It’s a constant struggle for us women to be taken seriously, isn’t it?” Sid said, now speaking in a normal voice again as she put bread on the table. “Yet another state has rejected a woman’s right to vote even in local elections. It seems as if our suffrage movement is making no progress at all. I’ve been trying to get our suffrage sisters back into the saddle after the summer to plan our next campaign. The problem is that most women are either at the mercy of a husband or their family. If the family goes to Newport for the summer, they have to go along. I’ve been trying to round our group up and set them back to work. It’s like herding cats, Molly. They’re all in favor of the idea of women’s