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I also see the precursors of our coffee shops in the comfortable furnishings and the small groups of people enjoying a leisurely cup of caffeine while chatting. There are even tables set up with chess games.
What’s different is the vibe, which seems to be trying for casual and not quite finding it. The atmosphere is a little stiff. A little austere. Almost as if the place is trying to be more of a fancy pub than a tea shop, which seems strange until I realize that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be—the mocktail of Victorian public houses.
When Isla joins us, she explains that coffee shops like this are a response to two nascent movements: women’s suffrage and temperance. In the New Town, women can’t frequent public houses or hotel bars, and they want some of that casual vibe, very different from a tea shop. This is a place where they can be comfortable, either with or without male escorts. It’s also a place where men can meet to discuss business without alcohol. The temperance movement began in Scotland—and elsewhere—about forty years ago, and taking “the pledge” is an increasing movement within church congregations.
“Yay for suffrage,” I say. “Not so keen on temperance.”
Isla’s brows rise. The two men wisely sip their coffees in silence.
“You do not recognize the evils of drink?” she says.
“Oh, trust me, I saw them on full display today. I knew that suffrage and temperance had some underlying links. Women were tired of men getting drunk on the grocery money and abusing their wives and children. If temperance meanstemperingaccess to alcohol—while understanding and dealing with addiction—then I’m all for it. But whatever it means now, it will come to mean complete prohibition. The United States will try that in about fifty years. It does not go well.”
“What happens?” Gray asks.
“Let me guess,” McCreadie says. “People didn’t stop drinking. Making it a criminal act simply meant that the only ones who profited were the criminals.”
“Bingo. Alcohol continued to be sold, just underground and at exorbitant prices. Also, if it’s being sold underground, with no regulation…”
Isla shudders. “Poison.”
McCreadie frowns. “They poisoned the alcohol?”
“No,” Isla says. “But the distillation of alcohol is a precise science, and it is easy to either do it wrong by accident or to do it wrong intentionally to save money.”
“Actually… the American government did poison alcohol, in a way,” I say. “They ensured that industrial alcohol contained toxins, which was supposed to discourage people from drinking it, but of course, it just ended up making things worse.”
“That is…” Isla says. “I have no words.”
“So many deaths,” I say. “From all sources. Not to mention blindness and other complications. Alcohol might destroy people and families, but turning off that pipeline destroys even more.”
“So what is the answer?” Isla says.
“Hell if I know.”
“I feel that the more I discuss the future with you, the more discouraged I become.”
“On the upside, at least you know not to advocate for complete alcohol prohibition.”
“And not to keep my money in banks,” McCreadie says.
Isla cocks a brow at me.
“I’ll explain later,” I say. “For now, we need to check out Miss Young’s alibi for her stepmother. I’d also like to speak to her.”
“In prison?” McCreadie says.
“I’d rather do it in this coffee shop, but I doubt that’s an option.”
“We will visit her in prison,” Gray says. “Hugh will arrange it. Isla, I’d like you to analyze the contents of that gin bottle. If it’s poisoned, we need to find out where it came from.”
“I’d also like to get some idea where Burns’s newfound wealth came from,” I say.
“Do we see a connection between Lord Leslie, Burns, and Young?” Gray says. “There must be one, if all three died of the same rare poison. Yes, we have not proven that, but their symptoms do suggest it.”
“A connection between an alcoholic gravedigger, a shady salesman, and an earl,” I say. “The only thing they seem to have in common is that they all cheated on their wives. Miss Young says her father did, and Annis says her husband did, and Burns abandoned his family to marry his mistress.”
“It’s a possible link,” McCreadie says carefully.
