Tracie Peterson - [New Mexico Sunset 03] Read Online Free PDF

are a worse enemy to our cause than men.”
    “You mean she doesn’t get the reaction she wants from women and so she calls them an enemy?”
    “No, of course not!” Angeline exclaimed. “She simply means that sometimes women are too misinformed and need to be educated.”
    “Sounds like the same argument you told me that men give for why they won’t approve women’s rights to vote.”
    Angeline was temporarily silenced at her mother’s logical argument. Finally, she decided she needed to put the conversation on a more positive track and switched to another related, but seemingly neutral topic. “I did so enjoy being around learned women, Mother. I always knew that you and Aunt Jenny and Maggie were women of knowledge, but these women have attend ed college and they seem to know so much.”
    “Wisdom is a powerful thing, Angeline. Solomon was wise and he still struggled to make the proper judgments.”
    “Proverbs 7:4 says, ‘Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman.’ Willa told this to me, Mother. God, Himself, gave a clear picture that wisdom is a feminine virtue.”
    “Is that all you perceive in that verse? Did you pay any attention to what came before it or went after it? You can’t rip pieces out of the Bible to fit your causes, Angeline.”
    Angeline seemed genuinely deflated, and Lillie felt sorry for her daughter. “Look, I would very much like the right to vote.” Angeline perked up at this declaration, but Lillie waved her into silence and continued. “However, I will not fight a cause that degrades the rights of one to boost the rights of another. Nor will I see God’s hand in a fight that leads people into civil disobedience and self-declared war against one another.”
    Daniel chose that inopportune moment to come whistling through the back door entrance. Lillie fell silent as she heard
    Daniel cast aside his doctor’s bag. Entering the kitchen, Daniel noted the stern expression on his wife’s face and an even more troubling look of composed anger on his daughter’s.
    “What are you two arguing about this time?” Daniel asked seriously.
    Lillie got up and went to embrace her husband, while Angeline stood and waited by the table. “It seems,” Lillie told Daniel softly, “Angeline wants to accompany a leading suffragist on her lecture circuit.”
    Daniel grinned. “Suffrage, eh?” He looked at his daughter with genuine affection, but she saw it as a patronizing gesture.
    “I know what both of you are thinking and you’re wrong!” Angeline declared. “I believe in this cause and I intend to fight it for all I’m worth. I may not be old enough to benefit from it yet, but in a few years I’ll be twenty- one, then I’ll be able to hold my head up high on the way to the voting place.”
    “Whoa, Angeline,” Daniel said, stepping away from his wife. “There’s no reason for you to get so upset.”
    “You and Mother think I’m a child,” Angeline protested, “but I’m not. I’m a grown woman and I have rights, and I intend to fight for those rights. Willa Neal is a wonderful woman. She has a great deal of knowledge, and she’s graduated from a very fine college back east.” She paused long enough to point a finger at her mother. “And while I might have expected this from Father, I thought you would understand. But I see you’re just as misinformed and naïve as Willa said most women are.” Turning to leave, Angeline paused at the door. “I believe in this cause, and I believe what she says in regards to what needs to be done. With or without your permission, I intend to join her.”
    Daniel’s face changed instantly from compassionate to fiercely stern. “That’s enough, Angeline. You’ll do no such thing until we deem it acceptable and in your best interest. Now, apologize to your mother.”
    Angeline turned up her nose and stormed from the room. There was no way she intended to apologize. Not when she was right!
    Feeling very