The Mad Girls of New York: a Nellie Bly Novel by Maya Rodale

Author:Maya Rodale [Rodale, Maya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Colton

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

Colton had hardly stepped off the train when he confirmed that Pittsburgh had lived up to its reputation as the grimiest city in the country. Everything was sooty. He made his way from the station, straight toward the offices of the Dispatch, on the fourth floor of a building downtown. He didn’t have time to stop and linger; he had a deadline. He didn’t know how long Nellie planned to be in the asylum or how long she would take to write her story once she got out, so he was on a mad dash to gather as much as he could about Nellie and her story before she did.

The train journey to Pittsburgh had not been quick.

Colton thought of how stupid he’d feel if this trip yielded nothing. What a waste of time and effort persuading his editor that he should track the past life of a nobody reporter . . . even if she seemed destined to be a big-shot reporter. He’d mentioned the whole business of Nellie and the asylum to Minnie, and the way her eyes lit up and she begged for details made him reconsider everything he thought about journalism, the ladies’ pages and what was considered newsworthy.

If Nellie pulled this off, it would be a huge story. If that happened, Colton intended to be so far ahead of it, no other papers could keep up. But that was a lot of big ifs to justify a long trip to Pittsburgh.

The Dispatch had its office on the main street in town, so it was easy to find and easy to talk his way into. The newsroom was full of men at work, typing up copy and rushing around drafts. He spied one woman at work at a desk. She was older, matronly, and was writing swiftly and efficiently.

“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m hoping I could ask you a few questions.”

She paused from her writing to peer up at him from behind small spectacles. Her hair was styled elegantly and she had the softness and stoutness of body, and firmness of mouth, that spoke of motherhood.

“I’m curious about a woman who used to work here . . . Nellie Bly?”

If he was tentative, it was because Colton wouldn’t put it past Nellie to lie, given the way she’d stormed into his interview and claimed it as her own. Her ease with adopting the persona of Nellie Brown or Nellie Moreno was remarkable. But then again, he believed her enough to take the train to Pittsburgh, of all places.

The woman before him narrowed her gaze and pursed her lips before she spoke sharply.

“Do you think that just because she’s a woman and I’m a woman, both working at the same newspaper, that we must have been bosom friends? Or do you think that my deadlines are not as important as anyone else’s?”

Colton backed away slowly. “I’m sorry for bothering you, ma’am.”

“You’ll want to talk to Erasmus,” she said before turning back to her work.

Colton asked around

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