Beyond All Dreams by Elizabeth Camden Read Free Book Online

she stammered.
    â€œWell, you did.” The steel in Mr. Spofford’s voice took her aback. “They were in here yesterday, complaining you’ve overstepped your bounds. I don’t like being threatened by rude navy officers, so I’m not going to reconsider the probationary status of women, but I also won’t overlook my librarians’ poking into the navy’s business. Is that understood?”
    â€œYes, sir,” she whispered. Her fingers trembled as she picked up the pages of research requests.
    She was still upset later that evening while she waited for the streetcar to take her home. Boarding the electric streetcars was always a struggle when thousands of people left work at the same time each day. She’d already failed to squeeze aboard the first two streetcars, but another was heading this way, trundling along on the electric conduits sunk into the pavement.
    Surely Washington was the prettiest city in the entire nation, for while other cities were building trolleys with ugly overhead wires to power their streetcars, Washington had taken the extra time and expense to submerge their conduits in the roads, which made the horseless trolleys seem to move along the streets like magic. Already dozens of people surged forward in anticipation of the streetcar’s arrival.
    â€œStick close to me,” Gertrude Pomeroy said to Anna. “I’ll see that you get aboard.”
    Anna smiled gratefully and lined up behind the older woman. Gertrude was a music librarian, and they lived at the same boardinghouse. More important, she was built like a plow horse and could help Anna get aboard the crowded streetcars. With herhand braced on Gertrude’s mighty shoulder, Anna was swept along in her wake as they moved onto the streetcar. They even managed to snatch the last two seats.
    â€œNow,” Gertrude said as soon as they were seated, “tell me what’s got you so upset, and don’t bother denying it because I’ve known you too long not to recognize the anxiety radiating off you.”
    â€œI may have done something really foolish,” Anna admitted, shame flooding her. After all, it wasn’t only her job she’d put in jeopardy by locking horns with the navy. Gertrude looked at her curiously, but Anna was hesitant to share the details about Lieutenant Rowland’s threat to the women’s employment. They lived in a boardinghouse full of women, all of whom worked at various government agencies, and if word of the threat leaked out, it could fly through the entire city of Washington by the end of the week. The less said to Gertrude or anyone else about it, the better. Besides, at least half of her frustration was with that obnoxious congressman from Maine.
    â€œMr. Spofford reprimanded me because a congressman complained about my service,” she hedged.
    Gertrude pursed her lips and nodded. Everyone who worked for Congress knew what it was like to kowtow for the royal princes, each of whom was secretly convinced he was destined to be the next president and expected to be treated accordingly.
    â€œThose men can be a challenge,” Gertrude said. “Just hold your breath, brace yourself, and do it. I once held a two-hundred-pound hog during a delousing. It’s not pleasant, but it has to be done.”
    They arrived home just before the kitchen closed for the evening. Dinner was included in her rent at O’Grady’s Boardinghouse, and Anna couldn’t afford to miss meals for which she’d already paid.
    She almost bumped into Mary-Margaret as they hurried inside. “Best hurry before Mrs. O’Grady closes the kitchen,” Mary-Margaret said with a fleeting smile. “I hear it’s beef stew tonight.”
    The scent of beef with simmered vegetables filled the narrow, dimly lit hallway to the dining room. All the rooms upstairs were leased by women who worked for government agencies. The government had a tradition of