Storm and Silence (Storm and Silence #1) - Robert Thier Page 0,21

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‘Hey! Lilly!’

Quickly, I turned towards the voice I had been hoping for.

That deep bellow was unmistakable! Unlike you would suspect on first hearing it, it didn’t belong to a big, beefy bulldog, but to my best friend Patsy. She and the others already awaited me on the wrought iron park bench under the big oak, the usual meeting place of our little band of wrongdoers.

‘Hello! Here we are!’

Passing gentlemen looked askance at Patsy, clearly indicating by their looks that ladies weren’t supposed to bellow. They forbore however from making any disapproving remarks, probably because Patsy, with a figure like that of a boxing champion and a face like a horse, cut a pretty impressive figure, even for a girl in a hoop skirt. I certainly wouldn’t have liked to come to blows with her.

She picked up her parasol and waved it like a victory flag. ‘Where have you been, Lilly? Get your behind over here!’

The other two turned around and spotted me, too. Flora smiled shyly, and Eve raised her tiny pink parasol, waving it so energetically one could have mistaken it for a fluttering hummingbird’s wing.

‘Patsy is holding a speech,’ she yelled across the remaining distance. I quickened my step, already feeling better. This would take my mind off other things. ‘She’s telling us how she will convince all the stinking rich people of London to give up their money for her latest charity.’

‘You could threaten to impale them on your parasol,’ I suggested, settling down on the only free place on the bench and grinning from ear to ear. It was good to see my friends.

Patsy snorted. ‘That might be the only way to actually get it done. You wouldn’t believe how tightly some people hold on to their money. Oh wait, I forgot about your uncle. You would believe.’

‘I would,’ I concurred. ‘So, what is this charity event you’re organizing?’

Patsy rolled her eyes. ‘Ask rather how many dozen I’m organizing. One in favour of the workhouses, one in favour of St. Vincent’s Orphanage, one in favour of everything you can think of, and I’ll be lucky if I get more than a few pennies for any of them. But it’s the event in favour of women’s suffrage that has me really worried.’

‘Why?’ I wanted to know. ‘Aren’t any of the guests likely to give money?’

A scowl appeared on Patsy’s face, and for a moment she really did look like a Rottweiler. ‘Hardly. The problem is that there likely won’t be any guests. So far, nobody has accepted my invitation.’

‘Nobody? Honestly?’

‘Honestly. I even got a note back from Lady Metcalf, saying that… how did she put it again? Ah yes, saying “how scandalous” it is that I am “trying to erode the pillars of civilization by destroying woman’s natural role in life”.’

I patted her hand.

‘That’s horrible! And after you gave yourself so much trouble in organizing everything. I’m so sorry for you.’

‘Don’t be.’ The scowl on Patsy’s face was replaced by a look of grim satisfaction. ‘Be sorry for Lady Metcalf. You don't know what I said in my answering note.’

I couldn’t prevent a grin from spreading over my face. No, I didn’t know. But I knew Patsy, and could imagine.

‘By the way,’ I asked, ‘how did the election go? I didn’t catch the results.’

‘How could you not catch them?’ Patsy gave me a strange, sideways look. ‘It was in all the papers.’

Well, I was sitting in prison all day, you know. We don't get papers there.

That’s what I would like to have said, just to see the look on her face. But I didn’t. My friends didn’t know anything about my little adventure on Friday, and if I could, I wanted to keep it that way. They didn’t need to know what a fool I had made of myself. It had been a crazy idea from the beginning, this whole dressing-up-as-a-man thing, and I just wanted to forget it as quickly as possible. So instead, I said:

‘I… was busy. Very busy.’

‘Well, you didn’t miss anything worth hearing.’ Patsy stabbed at the air with her parasol, as if it were a conservative politician. ‘You want the result? A landslide victory for the Tories, of course! The Whigs were flattened. So no reforms on women’s suffrage, nor on any other sensible subject by the way!’

A depressive silence fell over our little group for a while, and the morning, which had seemed cheerful right up until then, suddenly wasn’t quite as enjoyable any more.

Without warning, Eve clapped her hands together