The vexed question of woman’s suffrage has ever been the cause of discord. But when put to the test, the electorate have found no enthusiasm.
From Revolution
Unlike the housemistress, Mrs Raike showed no signs of hurried dressing. Her immaculate plaits were wound and held up under a cream house cap. Her dress and shawl were the same bombazine that I had seen in every photograph. I would have called them widow’s weeds – though if she was in mourning the period must have been indecently long.
I followed her through the opening into a smaller chamber, insufficiently lit. A single oil lamp rested on a table carved in the Chinese style. I could make out comfortable chairs and lace antimacassars. The fire in the grate crackled reluctantly, suggesting a fresh shovel of coal on the embers of the previous evening.
Mrs Raike pulled the bookcase door closed and we were alone. From this side it was wood panelled.
“They told me you weren’t here,” I said.
“You are excessively determined, Miss Barnabus. Persistence is a virtue only in moderation.”
At the rally in the park, there had been noise and distance between us. But I was now close enough to hear every subtle layer of her voice. There was nothing false about it. And though the neck of her dress was high, it would not have concealed the Adam’s apple of a man. My theory had been dashed.
“May I sit?” I asked, trying to process the flood of new information.
She nodded. I chose the chair nearest the fire and watched as she lowered herself into the other one, moving as if her limbs were dry sticks.
“I overheard some of your conversation with the housemistress,” she said.
“Overheard?”I glanced at the wood panelling, unable to see a spy hole but certain it would be there – behind one of the hanging pictures perhaps. A secret room is not built without the means to look out unobserved.
“You spoke loudly,” she said. “I found myself listening. Forgive me, but you seemed to be saying that I don’t exist.”
Her tone of voice mocked me. For a moment I forgot the opening of the speech I had prepared.
“Well?” she prompted.
“I... was brought up in a travelling show.”
“How singular.”
“My father made me disappear. On stage.”
Her eyes were boring into me. “A charming story. Though perhaps less than ideal as an upbringing. We run orphanages, did you know that?”
“No.”
“Yes. And we feed the destitute, for which we’re criticised. We rescue women who have fallen. Girls younger even than you were when you came to the Republic.”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one to have rehearsed a speech. And her words were having an effect.
“Do you know how I disappeared on stage?” I asked, trying to get back on track but no longer comfortable with the place I was driving towards.
“Would you have those girls sent back to their bawdy houses?” she asked.
“No. Of course. But–”
“Can you imagine what they suffer?”
“But–”
“Then why are you attacking me?”
I took in a deep breath and asked again, with more force: “Do you know how I disappeared on stage?”
No answer.
“I didn’t. I was still there. In full view. But disguised. That was my art – appearing to be someone else. I recognise the same art in you.”
Her hands gripped the arms of the chair. “Stop!”
But I pressed on. “You are in disguise. There is no Mrs Raike.”
Seconds ticked past. Then her rigid shoulders dropped and I knew a barrier had been crossed.
She stood. As she stepped across to the table, her movements were already changing from a brittle shuffling to the smooth-limbed gait of a woman in her prime. I watched her adjust the lamp, letting out more wick. The flame grew and the room brightened.
“I don’t want to harm you,” I said.
“Then why have you done this?”
“We can help each other.”
“Indeed?”
Her voice was smoother than before. It still had an edge, though its nature seemed different, more dangerous perhaps. It came to me that the only people to have seen me enter the building were some poor insane creatures on the street and the two women from within the organisation who conducted me to this secret room.
She sat back in the chair. “Tell me – who do you think I am?”
“The first time I saw you, I figured you for a man in disguise,” I said.
“Ridiculous!”
“I’m sorry. It was from a distance. You were speaking in Abbey Park.”
Recollection flickered across her face. “You asked a question.”
“Yes.”
She nodded. “And now what do you think?”
“Your work divides opinion. You’ve enemies. Your disguise is to protect a reputation from scandal. I’d thought you were Wallace Jones, Minister of Patents. But now I know you’re a woman... I believe you’re his wife.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Then his sister.”
She acknowledged the truth with an almost imperceptible nod.
“So much makeup can’t be comfortable.”
I watched as she took off the cap. Then she picked at her cheek and started peeling away the wrinkled skin, revealing a rosy glow beneath. She must have painted herself with some kind of rubber solution. In moments the false mole was removed. A woman of perhaps thirty-five years sat before me.
“There was no perspiration,” I said. “The other women on stage looked set to faint but you weren’t even glowing. And the haste with which you left the stage. The mayor was still speaking. I think perhaps it could not have lasted longer.”
I wondered what the price of this revelation would be. My gun had been taken. But there was a horn of black powder in the travelling case. I resisted the temptation to glance at it.
“You are not only persistent, Miss Barnabus. Astute also. I wonder if your brother has these qualities in such measure.”
“Perhaps,” I said. “But what of your brother?”
“If my work is loved by some it’s loathed by many. As a Councillor he may frame our laws, but he has voters to thank for his position. My supporters are overwhelmingly women. Thus they have no say in the elections.”
“You mean he’d be voted out if the truth were known?”
“It’s certain. And without the protection that his office allows, this whole enterprise would crumble. Thus I hide.”
The more plainly she laid out her situation, the clearer it became that I wouldn’t be allowed to leave. The risk I posed to her was greater than anything I had to offer in exchange.
“You hide in full view of the public eye,” I said.
“And you hide doubly. The newspapers covered your recent adventure. None of it made sense until I imagined the story turned around with you as the private intelligence gatherer and your brother perhaps helping from the background.”
I had made the mistake of projecting my own deception onto her – thinking she was a man in disguise. Now she pictured me with a brother less able.
“We’re victims of our sex,” I said. “Both of us. We have minds to think but aren’t supposed to use them.”
“And that means I should help you?”
Her question had a mocking tone. I wondered if she would have the stomach to kill me, or if she intended to lock me away. There would be many secure rooms in a warehouse such as this.
She stiffened as I got to my feet. “Help will come running if I shout,” she said.
“I simply want to show you something.”
Keeping eye contact, I reached down and unclipped the case. With my right hand, I flourished Julia’s letters, a distraction from the work of my left hand. One smooth movement and I was back in the chair, feeling the sharp angles of the powder horn hidden beneath my thigh.
“Letters?” she asked.
“From Julia Swain.”
I needed enough smoke and confusion to make my escape. But even if I plunged the horn into the heart of the fire, it might take several seconds to detonate.
“What have Miss Swain’s letters to do with me?” she asked.
“They speak of the ice farmers.”
The explosion would not kill. I would shout a warning. We could shield ourselves behind the chairs.
“What of the ice farmers?”
“I could still help you solve their case.”
I inched my hand from my lap towards my side, ready to grab.
“And in return, you wish me to hide you from the authorities?”
My hand stopped. I had not expected her to take my feeble bargaining position seriously.
“I don’t need help in hiding. But your brother is on the Council of Guardians. The treaty isn’t signed. He could–”
“He’s one minister among many. The treaty can’t be stopped.”
“It could be... amended,” I said. “An amnesty for those who crossed the border before it came into force.”
The fire popped and crackled as new flames broke through. We both jumped.
“It wouldn’t be easy,” she said. “The law change is popular. Forgive me, but Kingdom exiles aren’t looked on kindly.”
“But you’d try?”
“In return you’d investigate the ice farmers?”
The conversation had taken such an unexpected turn and so quickly that I was certain I had missed something important. “I... that is, yes. The investigation would take me further from the border. That would be a blessing.”
“If you’ll do that – and no mention of your connection to me – I will ask my brother to try.”
My hand inched away from the powder horn.
That night we made the most insubstantial of bargains. I promised to not reveal her identity. She promised to ask her brother to attempt an amendment of the treaty. And all the while, I tried to understand why the little I had to offer was of value to her.
Money was the only solid thing that passed between us – expenses for my journey. As she took it from the housemistress and signed for its receipt in a ledger, I slipped the powder horn from under my thigh and back into the travelling case. She placed the purse in my hand, reminding me of the promises we had undertaken to honour. Later, I would check them for forgeries.
“There’s one more thing,” I said, before leaving. Someone’s been watching me for the last two weeks – ever since Julia made contact with you. I’ve caught glimpses of him. Will you now call him off?”
She shook her head. “I know of no such man. If you’re being followed, it is nothing to do with me.”