The Secret Life of Anna Blanc Read Online Free Page B

Bunker Hill.
    The crowd's noise was distilling into a singsong of female voices. “A ballot for the Lady! For the Home and for the Baby!” Anna turned to look. Hundreds of women came marching around the corner from the boardwalk carrying banners that demanded, “Votes for Women.” They wore dull, dark skirts and a variety of hats, none of them nice. It put Anna's own clothing crisis in perspective. Her countenance brightened. “Jupiter!”
    Bells tinkled as people emerged from shops to gawk. A woman in a tricorn hat and knee britches handed out pamphlets as she marched. “No taxation without representation!” Anna took one. The tract featured Paul Revere riding his steed. He had bosoms.
    â€œI think the suffragettes are wonderful, even if they are poorly dressed,” Anna said.
    Miss Cooper blew her nose on the handkerchief before mopping her head with it.
    Anna continued. “I don't know why I've never supported them. No one I know goes to meetings, but why shouldn't I? Besides that father wouldn't allow it. I should be able to vote. Don't you think so?”
    Miss Cooper scrunched up her face, trying to think and failing. “I'm…not sure.”
    Anna assessed the scene with wide, interested eyes. Under the shade of a candy-striped awning, swirled iron chairs clustered around little tables. Anna gestured toward them. “Dear Miss Cooper, it's so very hot. Why don't you rest here and have a Coca Cola while I follow the march? I'll meet you back here as soon as…”
    Miss Cooper scowled. “Do you think I'm a fool?”
    Anna did, but thought it impolite to say so.
    She wanted to join the parade. “Goodness me! Look over there!” Anna pointed past Miss Cooper's shoulder. The chaperone turned. Anna lifted her skirts and bolted, flying down the sidewalk, quickly putting distance between herself and Miss Cooper. She disappeared among the sweating bodies of pedestrians. Miss Cooper blundered after her. “Miss Blanc!”
    Unfortunately, Anna's progress was hindered by her good breeding. The sidewalk buzzed with pedestrians that she couldn't very well shove aside. She greeted each one before darting around them. “Hello. Good day. Excuse me.” Miss Cooper, faced with the possibility of losing Anna and thus her position, had no compunction about shoving people out of her way like a fullback at the Rose Bowl. At a furious waddle, the dumpling was actually gaining on Anna, which was humiliating and disheartening in the extreme.
    Anna had all but lost hope when, having reached a particularly impassible clump of old ladies, someone yanked her against a store front and hid her with a sign that declared, “We Demand Amendment!” Miss Cooper barreled past, through the babbling biddies and on down the street toward the beach.
    â€œIs that your mother?” asked her savior, a girl with a smile that washalf sympathy and half smirk. She was young, one of the masses, but pretty in a practical way. Twin boys hung off her skirts and, like most children, were whining and making gaseous smells. One pinched his sibling, who in turn, clobbered him with a lunch pail.
    Anna extricated herself from behind the splintery wooden sign. “I'd rather not talk about it, thank you.”
    She turned to go back the way she came, when the woman asked, “Are you marching? Because I could use a hand here.”
    Anna looked at the girl with the ungainly sign and grimaced at the urchins. It was a shocking request, given the social distance between them, and Anna aspired to be so impudent. She smiled uncertainly and lifted one end of the sign. “All right.”
    â€œYou might want to take that hat off. It shouts your name. And by the way, I'm Mrs. Eve McBride.”
    â€œOh, yes. You're right. I'm Miss Anna Blanc.” Anna inclined her head and nodded. She removed her hat, praying she would not freckle, and pinned it against the sign with one hand. They