Actually, I hadn’t planned a single little thing in the last week the way it had turned out, but I couldn’t tell her that. I could see in her fiery eyes that she had gotten it into her head that all had been part of my master plan. And to be honest, it would have been an ingenious plan - definitely worthy of me!
‘It was risky,’ I said, with an apologetic shrug. ‘I… well, if I’d told you, you all would have felt obliged to take part, and there was a much greater chance of success if only one of us tried to get up there on the podium. In any case, as soon as one of us started her speech, all would be discovered and the others forced to leave along with her. So, a solo operation just made more sense.’
‘Eve’s right.’ Patsy hugged me again, softer this time, but with undeniable warmth. ‘You are a genius.’
I looked up into her broad face with wide, searching eyes. ‘So, I’m forgiven?’ I asked, and wasn’t able to keep the quiver totally out of my voice. This very question had been torturing my mind ever since my quarrel with my biggest, bestest friend. Not to have Patsy watching my back would be like not having a hat on my head - a cold and unprotected life.
‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ she told me. ‘You’re my best friend, and always will be. Nothing will ever change that.’
‘Hey! And what about me?’ Eve protested from floor level.
‘You,’ Patsy told her, ‘are my most annoying friend, and will always be. Nothing will ever change that, not even an excellent governess hired to educate and restrain you.’
Eve beamed at the compliment and clambered to her feet. Then she suddenly slapped her hand with her forehead. ‘Oh, where did I leave my head this morning? We brought you something!’
‘A present?’ My face lit up, and it only hurt a little bit. The day was getting better already. ‘I love presents! What is it?’
Maybe a piece of solid chocolate…
‘No, not a present as such…’ Patsy waved at Flora, who retrieved something from behind her back, where she had stashed it along with her hands for the last few minutes. ‘More a memento of sorts. A trophy of a victorious battle.’
Taking the object from Flora, she handed it to me. I stared down at the blank piece of cardboard in my hand, and confusion must have been evident on my face. Patsy smirked.
‘Turn it over.’
I did. And there, in large, bold letters were the words:
VOTES FOR WOMEN, FELLOWS… OR ELSE!
I didn’t know what to say.
But I didn’t need to, really, because Eve did all the talking that was humanly possible.
‘You didn’t answer me before,’ she accused me, tapping on my cardboard. ‘Where were you? We waited ages and ages and ages for you to return, and you never did? Where did you go? What did you do? We wanted to celebrate with you so badly, and to knock you on the head for doing something like that without telling us, but we couldn’t! Where did you go? Were you abducted? Held prisoner?’
My mind flashed back to the events to the previous night. A shiver shot down my spine, and I had to restrain myself from touching my lips again.
‘Um… no. Neither of those.’
‘Well, what happened, then?’
Rikkard Ambrose. That’s what happened.
‘Nothing, really. It just took me a frightfully long time to get away from those men. They had a lot of questions, none of which I answered. Then I went away.’
I shrugged.
Eve gave me a disapproving look. ‘Is that all? I expected, at least, that you were held captive in some dark dungeon miles under the city, where a group of conspirators determined to prevent the suffragist movement from rising up against the corrupt world of men tortured you into swearing off all unladylike behaviour forevermore!’
‘Err… no. Sorry to disappoint.’
Not that I thought she would be disappointed if she knew the truth. I had something a lot better in store than an anti-suffragist conspiracy: a mystery surrounding stolen documents, drunken revels, a street fight in the East End and a mind-blowing, toe-curling encounter with Rikk-
No! Don’t think about it! That part was a hallucination. It was all completely imaginary. And even if it wasn’t, under no circumstances are you ever going to reveal that to Eve!
‘Thank you. Thank you so very much for this.’ Holding up the sign, I gave them all my most sincere smile, already edging towards the door. It was time to get away. ‘Now, if that’s all… I think it’s about time for me to go down to breakfast.’ I started towards the stairs in earnest, but Eve was quicker. She blocked my way before I could make my escape.
‘Oh no, it most certainly isn’t all. You aren’t getting away as easily as that. Do you know how many unanswered questions we still have?’
She indicated the other two, who surrounded me like a pack of jackals.
‘One? Or maybe two?’ I suggested hopefully. Crap! I had to get out of here before I started stumbling over my own lies.
‘At least a thousand! For starters, who was that man?’
‘What man?’ I asked, hoping to hell they wouldn’t notice my guilty ears burning.
‘That man.’ Using both her hands, Eve grabbed her face and pulled a threateningly stony grimace. If there had been any doubt in my mind as to whom she meant before, it was gone now. ‘The one everybody treated as if he were the emperor of China, France and India put together. The one who gave that monstrous speech. He had a face like this!’ With her fingers, she pulled her mouth even farther, until it was almost nothing but a straight line. ‘And he stared at you like he had icebergs for eyes, and would headbutt you if you didn’t agree to every single little thing he said!’
‘Oh. Him.’ I coughed. ‘Um… yes, now that you mention it, I seem to remember a man like that.’
‘I don't think he looked like that, though,’ Flora dared to point out, doubtfully regarding Eve’s facial contortions. ‘I think he looked much more handsome. In fact,’ she added with a slight blush, ‘I found him quite ravishing.’
A second later, she quailed under the punishing glare Patsy gave her.
‘Shame on you, Flora Milton,’ she proclaimed sternly. ‘That man is an enemy of the cause! No true suffragist would think him anything but an ugly monster!’
Flora’s cheeks reddened - though not half as much as mine did. Blast! Why was I blushing? I had nothing to be guilty about, did I? Well, did I? He was misogynistic, and arrogant, and cold…