Read Online Suffragette Girl by Margaret Dickinson - Free Book Online

the air. ‘I have it here. She asks us to step up our militant activities if, as we fear, we are
unsuccessful in adding an amendment on women’s suffrage to the Reform Bill. We should know the outcome by the end of January – but we need to be ready. We need to be prepared and we
need to be willing to take action.’
    Cries of ‘We are, we will’ resounded through the room and even Florrie found herself raising her fist and joining in.
    Lady Leonora glanced around the room and smiled.
    ‘So, what did you think to it?’
    They were in the street once more, walking the short distance to the Richards’ town house. Lucy, readily resuming her role as maid, walked a deferential few paces behind them. Although it
was late by country standards – at home Florrie would have been in bed by this time – the streets seemed as if they never slept. Horses’ hooves rang through the night air and even
the chug of a motor car sounded in the distance. Hearing it, Isobel murmured, ‘Tim plans to get a motor car.’
    ‘Really! Oh, I do hope he’ll take me for a ride in it. Father won’t entertain the idea of such a noisy mode of transport. He says it’ll never replace the horse.’
She forbore to add that her father believed the motor car was merely a plaything for the idle rich.
    Isobel linked her arm through Florrie’s. ‘I think he’s wrong. Tim says the motor car is the future.’
    They walked a few more paces until Isobel prompted, ‘So . . . ?’
    ‘It was wonderful,’ Florrie breathed. ‘I’ve never felt so – so
alive
!’
    ‘And you’re willing to take part in the demonstrations and acts of violence Lady Leonora spoke about?’
    ‘Yes, oh yes. I can’t wait to
do
something. Instead of just reading about it, I’m really here and part of it all.’
    In the darkness, Isobel smiled, but her joy in the girl’s enthusiasm was tinged with anxiety. She wondered if Florrie really understood what it meant to be a suffragette.
    No doubt she’d find out soon enough.
    Over the next few weeks the two young women attended rallies, marched down Whitehall waving banners, joined a deputation to the Treasury and waited outside the gates of
Holloway to greet the release of one of their number.
    It was Florrie’s first sight of a young woman who’d been imprisoned, had gone on hunger strike and been force-fed. The sight appalled her, yet perversely she found it exhilarating
too. These women were so determined to achieve their goal that they’d stop at nothing. They’d suffer the cruellest humiliations to gain their right to vote and she was more determined
than ever to be one of them.
    Lady Leonora came in a hansom and, as the huge doors opened, the gathering of five or six women – Isobel and Florrie amongst them – hurried towards the young woman emerging into the
bright winter’s day. They helped her into Lady Leonora’s cab and then stepped back as she was borne away to the Smythes’ residence to recuperate.
    ‘Will she be all right?’ Florrie asked. ‘She looked dreadful.’
    ‘I hope so,’ Isobel replied grimly. ‘But she’ll be back as soon as she’s fit enough. In the meantime,’ her eyes sparkled with excitement, ‘we must carry
on where she left off.’
    Florrie felt a thrill run through her. ‘What? What are we going to do?’
    ‘You’ll see,’ Isobel said mysteriously.
    When the debate on the Reform Bill began towards the end of January, there was much heated legal wrangling. The Speaker of the House announced that no amendment on
women’s suffrage could be added and, only a few days later, the Bill was withdrawn – just as Lady Lee had feared.
    ‘Everything we’ve worked for,’ Lady Lee raged, pacing up and down her drawing room. ‘Well, they’ve asked for it now.’
    Florrie and Isobel glanced at each other. Until this moment, they’d only joined in relatively peaceful demonstrations and marches. Now, they must do more. Florrie felt a shiver of fear,
and yet excitement