Page 22 of The Temptation of Roan Island

“Lucy and I met years ago when I went to New Caldon to take a class at the college there.”

Memories of a time I’ve left behind rush into the immediate moment. My breath catches, but I release the tension on a slow exhale. New Caldon is just a place. “Tell me about your friend.”

Ruby smiles, her features softening. She’s a very pretty woman, and becoming Mavarri has only made her beauty more pronounced.

“We ran into each other at a bookshop, both looking for the same title.” She sniffs with amusement. “You know how difficult it can be to get copies of books in the colonies.”

I didn’t, but I could imagine.

“That book cemented our friendship. Lucy and I would post it back and forth to one another with a letter.”

“That’s… quite a story.”

“It is.” Ruby’s smile reaches her lovely eyes. “We made it a point to meet at least twice a year. We were both busy. Me with my eventual professorship, and Lucy with her investigations.”

“Investigations?”

“Yes. She wanted to be an investigative constable in New Caldon. And of course she was having difficulty, because she’s a woman. She had to work twice as hard as any man.”

It’s an unfortunate reality of our world, and I’m grateful for women like Ruby who try to improve it.

“You mentioned another member of The Women’s Conspiracy Society?”

“Yes. Emelia.”

“Is she an investigator too?”

“No.” Ruby smooths the skirt of her dress as she adjusts in the seat. “She’s a librarian. Lucy and I met her on a visit for another of those books we needed that we’d traced to the New Ambershire Colony. We took the railcar and made a trip to visit. While Lucy and I were there, we helped Emelia who was in a bit of trouble, and the rest is history. That is how the Women’s Conspiracy Society began.”

“They sound like amazing friends,” I say, hoping my envy is disguised. I’ve never had good female friends. It makes me wonder how different my life might have turned out if I had.

There’s a knock on the door, and Ruby gets up to answer it without missing a beat in her tale. “Lucy and I—” The door opens. “Lucy!”

“Ruby!” In a whirl of swishing skirts, Ruby lunges at a woman standing in the doorway. She’s stunning! A tall, curvy woman, with dark hair coiffed perfectly, not a strand out of place. She’s wearing a charcoal gray dress in a serviceable style that showcases her hourglass shape. Both women speak at once.

“Were you promoted?”

“Your letter said⁠—”

“We were just talking about⁠—”

“Lucy!” A thin-lipped man behind them reprimands. “We’re not here for tea and women’s gossip.”

The woman—who I assume is Lucy—steps out of Ruby’s arms and straightens her smart, gray peplum jacket, the buttons closed all the way to her throat. She blinks as if trying to keep from rolling her eyes, and her nicely shaped lips thin with impatience. “Yes, sir.”

“Do you know the suspect?” the man asks Lucy.

Reaching into her satchel, she pulls out a small notebook and pen. “She’s not a suspect, Inspector Ricin.”

The inspector, a short, stout man dressed in an ill-fitting brown suit with a bowler hat, gives Lucy a once-over, fat mustache flicking, his condescension clear on his wide features. He clicks his tongue behind his teeth disapprovingly. “What have I told you?”

“Everyone’s a suspect until proven otherwise,” Lucy answers.

The moment he turns his back to her, adjusting his spectacles as he tilts his head to look up at Ruby, Lucy’s eyes roll, and I have to stifle a laugh behind my hand.

“Now, Madame,” Ricin says, glancing nervously at me. He pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and holds it over his nose. “Is she contagious? We were told to speak with the two of you first, but if⁠—”

“I have Vastatio. It’s not contagious.” I sit up a little more in bed, the effort making my head spin. “Come in.”