“I haven’t heard any news at all since the telephone call I received this morning. At that time, you didn’t even know where the prisoners were being held.”
“Yes, well, since then we’ve learned that the women who were arrested yesterday were taken by train to Virginia, where they are being held in the Occoquan Workhouse.”
“A workhouse?” This was worse than he could have imagined.
“That’s right, and others have been held there before. It’s a horrible place, Mr. Bates, filthy and cold and the food is rancid and full of worms.”
“Then we’ve got to get them out of there. You say you have an attorney already working to free them?”
“Yes. We do not believe the government is willing to free them just yet, however, which is why they were sent to Virginia. We suspect they want to make an example of them in hopes of discouraging others from joining the protests.”
Gideon considered the wisdom of that strategy for a moment, and his opinion of President Wilson’s leadership abilities sank even lower than it had been. “They don’t know you and your ladies very well, do they, Mrs. Stevens?”
She smiled grimly. “No, they do not. They thought locking up Miss Alice Paul would dampen our spirits, but since news of her hunger strike at the district jail has gotten out, new members are arriving every day to join the pickets at the White House. We have not missed a single day since we started our protests last January.”
Someone tapped on the door, and Gideon turned as a well-dressed man came in. He looked harried and very angry.
Mrs. Stevens jumped to her feet. “Mr. O’Brien, what is the news?”
“Nothing good, I’m afraid. The warden wouldn’t see me, and they laughed when I asked to see the prisoners.” He gave Gideon a questioning glance.
“Mr. O’Brien, may I present Gideon Bates,” Mrs. Stevens said. “His mother is one of the prisoners. Like you, he’s an attorney, and he has come down from New York to help.”
“I don’t know how you can help,” O’Brien said.
“I have friends here.”
“Unless your friends work at the White House, I doubt they can do us much good.”
Gideon didn’t like O’Brien’s tone. He sounded defeated already. “You think it will take a presidential pardon, then?”
“That’s one solution, but it’s starting to look like we were right about President Wilson wanting to leave the women in jail for a while this time, since he’s tried everything else to scare them away from his front door.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand why they were taken to Virginia,” Gideon said. “If they were arrested and charged in the district, shouldn’t they be imprisoned there?”
O’Brien rubbed his chin. “That’s very astute of you, Mr. Bates. It is, in fact, illegal to incarcerate someone in a different jurisdiction, but the district routinely sends prisoners to the workhouse in Virginia because they don’t have room to accommodate them here.”
“If they are being held illegally, we have grounds for getting them released, at least,” Gideon said.
“Not if the president doesn’t want them released, and it seems that he doesn’t,” O’Brien said. “They may be there for a time, I’m afraid.”
Mrs. Stevens said, “Oh dear,” with such feeling that both men turned to her in alarm. “There’s something I haven’t told you yet, Mr. O’Brien. We had a visitor earlier today, a young marine. He’s stationed in Virginia, near the workhouse, you see. Last night the warden there asked for help handling some unruly prisoners, so the commanding officer sent over some of the marines. This young man was horrified to learn that the prisoners were all female.”
Gideon frowned in confusion. “The marines were called in to handle the demonstrators?”
“Not only the marines. The warden had also recruited a band of ruffians from the nearby town and aroused them to a state of fury, so that when he told them to put the demonstrators in cells, they treated them very cruelly and even injured some.”
“Injured? How badly?” Gideon demanded. If they’d harmed his mother or Anna . . .
“We have no way of knowing, except that this young man did describe one of the women in particular, who could only have been Miss Burns. They handcuffed her to the bars of her cell with her hands over her head and left her hanging there. Another woman was knocked unconscious, but that’s all he could tell me for certain.”
Gideon could hardly breathe for the rage boiling inside of him. How dare this warden treat respectable women in such a way? “This is outrageous! When the public hears—”
“The public won’t hear a thing if we can’t verify this by seeing the prisoners ourselves,” Mrs. Stevens said.
O’Brien nodded. “I’ll go back to Virginia tomorrow.”
“What if they still won’t let you in?” Gideon asked.
“Then I’ll have to try a legal maneuver.”
“Could you get a writ?”
“You mean a writ of habeas corpus?” Mrs. Stevens asked.
“Yes, that’s about the only thing that would work,” O’Brien said. “At least it would force the warden to produce the prisoners so we can judge their condition and determine the legalities of their imprisonment.”
“You’ll need to find a friendly judge,” Gideon said.
Mrs. Stevens smiled. “I’m guessing any Republican judge would be glad to help if it will embarrass the president.”
“I hope you’re right, Mrs. Stevens,” O’Brien said. “In any case, it is our best hope at the moment.”
“If you’re going back to Virginia, Mr. O’Brien, I know of two ladies who would like to go with you,” Mrs. Stevens said. “Mrs. Young is concerned about her daughter, and Miss Morey wants to see her mother.”
“Is that wise? I don’t know what I’ll be facing when I get down there.”
“It’s not a bad idea to take them along,” Gideon said. “They might let the women in for a visit where they’d refuse you.”
“He’s right, they may,” Mrs. Stevens said.
“But if I have to find a judge, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving them on their own down there,” O’Brien said.
“I’d be happy to go along,” Gideon said. “Then you wouldn’t have to worry about leaving them alone.”
“That’s very generous of you, Mr. Bates,” Mrs. Stevens said.
“Not at all. My own mother is in that place, and a young friend is with her.”
O’Brien nodded. “It’s settled, then. Tell the ladies to meet us at Union Station at eight tomorrow morning. And wish us luck.”