Free Running Wild by Denise Eagan Page A

for the kill .
    “But marriage ,” Star continued, turning to him. “That
is a different story altogether. I am entirely committed to the cause. I shan’t
marry until women are granted the right to vote.”
    Women’s rights, back on safe ground. Or at least ground that
wouldn’t turn into a volcano and trigger an embarrassing eruption. Tornadoes,
though, and earthquakes and hurricanes, were still a possibility. “How is your
remaining a spinster going to further women’s suffrage?”
    “Why, to be sure, I doubt it will help at all other than to
insure my voice stays with the cause. You must know that once a woman marries,
she is legally required to obey her husband, even if he demands her silence.
I’ve no wish to obey anyone.”
    A dry chuckle slid from Nick’s throat. “Yeah, that much I
know.”
    She grinned. “Am I so transparent, then?”
    “Were you tryin’ to hide it?”
    “No,” she answered. “It would be impossible, at all events.
Regardless, if I married, should I ever be permitted to vote—I could, you know,
move to Wyoming where women have the right—I should be obliged to obey my
husband’s orders to vote for a certain candidate. I could not abide that.”
    “Which,” Nick pointed out, “is one argument against female
suffrage. If a woman’s bound to obey her husband, allowing her the vote only
gives a married man two votes instead of one. Where’s the fairness in that?”
    “Yes, I’ve heard that argument, but you must acknowledge how
it discounts the many unmarried women who are not legally obligated to
obey anyone. Like me.”
    “Then,” Nick said, “maybe you oughta be fighting not to give all women suffrage, but just the unmarried ones.”
    “And,” Star answered, “once again women are penalized for
marrying. Moreover, women are often compelled to marry, for how else are
we to support ourselves when we are not permitted to earn a living wage?”
    “All I’m sayin’ is that when a woman marries, she and her
husband become one—one mind, one voice. I’ve seen what it’s like when the
babies come along. The wife is working all the time. She doesn’t have
time to read newspapers or follow politics, so it only stands to reason that
the vote is in her husband’s hand.”
    “I hate to delude you, Nicholas, but a woman can—and
does!—think and diaper a baby at the same time. Moreover, these are not regulations that men must follow, so why should a woman submit to them? Our
country puts no limitations on men for voting; he may be a drunkard, illiterate
or just plain stupid, but still he may vote. He may never have read a newspaper
in his life, and may even be one of those despicable kinds who would actually sell his vote, and yet he retains the right.”
    “Ah, now we’ve hit bedrock. This isn’t about voting rights,
but bribin’ rights.”
    “No—I—” She stopped and let out a small laugh. “Why I
suppose there is something to that, for we do deserve equality in all matters,
including bribery!”
    “Practical, ma’am, if not honorable. We turn right, here,
down this trail. Single file for some distance. We’ll have to argue later.”
    “We are conversing ,” she said primly, raising her
head in mock disdain. “Not arguing.”
    “O.K., but admit I’m winning the conversation ,” he
answered flashing her a smile.
    Star’s eyes rested on his mouth for a moment, before she
raised them to catch his gaze. Her face flushed and something hot galloped through
her eyes. Lust. It shot him in the chest, then spread through his blood like
wildfire across the prairie. She wanted him, just as much as he wanted her, and
he was no longer convinced that her advances were just teasing. She might be in
earnest. . . Damn, but if he didn’t somehow rein in that lust, Ward and Morgan
and the whole damned Montgomery family would be coming after him with tar and
feathers.
    After a moment, she nodded.
    He swallowed and fought for levity. “Well now, there’s
somethin’ I