‘We showed them! We showed them! We showed them!’
Apparently, she wasn’t quite ready for sensible conversation yet.
Scrambling to my feet, I turned to the other two. Flora gave me a shy smile, and Patsy… Patsy just stood there, leaning against the wall beside the window, in the background, where she was normally least likely to be found. The smile on her face was small, but unmistakably there.
Our eyes met.
She came forward. I came forward. The rest of the room didn’t exist anymore. We met in the middle, and she caught me up in hug so fierce it could have squashed an elephant into mincemeat.
‘Lilly!’ She said.
‘Pfft!’ I said.
‘I never should have doubted you.’
‘Plss let ggg!’
‘Oh. Sorry.’ Relaxing her grip, she stepped back, but I held on to her arms.
‘Don’t be,’ I gasped. ‘I needed that.’
‘Oh Lilly, Lilly.’ If I hadn’t known better, I would have said there were tears twinkling in the corners of Patsy’s eyes. But I did know better. She was much too tough to cry, right? ‘Lilly! You mad, ingenious, wonderful girl! Why didn’t you tell us what you were planning to do?’
Planned? Planned what? Why were they all so pleased with me? And then it struck me. She was convinced I had deliberately called off my participation in the demonstration, to go up on that stage and hold that speech for women’s suffrage.
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 lo
ve 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.