Maude thinks Mama will never agree, but she always says yes to me.
Gertrude Waterhouse
I felt very silly doing it, but I couldn’t see any other way to stop her. When Livy and Ivy May came home from school my ankle was wrapped in a bandage and propped on a footstool. “I tripped over the threshold,” I said when Livy exclaimed over it. “It’s only a sprain, thankfully, no broken bones.”
“Oh, Mama, you are so clumsy,” she said.
“Yes, I know.”
“How long did the doctor say you must stay off it?”
“A week at least.”
“But that means you can’t take us to the march Sunday!”
“Yes, I know. I’m sorry, dear-I know how much you were looking forward to it.” I myself had been dreading it.
Livy cried out. “But we must go! We can’t miss it, can we, Ivy May?”
Ivy May was inspecting the bandage. I should have wound it more tightly.
“Perhaps Papa can take us,” Livy suggested.
“No,” I said quickly. I would not have Albert involved. “You will be at church with him in the morning, and he is playing cricket in the afternoon. No, I think it best if you stay home.”
“Well, then, we could go with Maude and her mother.”
“No,” I said again, even more quickly.
“We’ll be perfectly safe.”
“No.”
Livy glared at me so hard I almost couldn’t bear it. “Really, Livy, dear,” I said as lightly as I could, “I don’t understand why you want to go so badly anyway. It’s not something that is of interest to you; nor should it be. I’m sure whoever you marry will be quite capable of deciding for you whom to vote for.”
“On the contrary,” Livy announced, “I do support woman’s suffrage.”
Ivy May tittered. “Livy doesn’t want to be left out,” she said.
“Shush, Ivy May, I’m sure you want to go to Hyde Park too,” Livy said.
“Do you really support woman’s suffrage?” I asked, surprised at my daughter.
“I do! I think the colors are splendid-the scarves and jewelry in violet, green, and white. And the women whizzing about in motorcars, so lively and passionate-” Livy stopped when she saw my face.
“I do not approve of the suffragettes, nor of the march,” I said sternly, hoping that would be the end of the matter.
Of course it was not. Livy cried for two days and would not speak to me, until at last, the night before the march, I gave in. Nothing stops her getting what she wants, not even her silly mother’s schemes. I did not want Livy to discover I had tried to deceive her, so in the end I could not even go with them, but had to hand them over to Kitty Coleman.
Ivy May caught me walking on my “sprained” ankle. Bless her, she said not a word.
Maude Coleman
We got off the omnibus at Euston Station and began to wade through the crowds of people already gathered on the pavement. Women were pouring out of the station, having ridden down on special trains from the north. Lavinia and I each grabbed one of Ivy May’s hands and held tight as we were pushed and shoved among a sea of accents from Birmingham and Manchester and Lancashire.
Mummy moved quickly through the crowds-the crush did not seem to bother her, which surprised me given how much she hates being confined. When we got to the road in front of St. Pancras Station, she began scanning the faces of women in white dresses who had gathered in the road with their banners. “Ah, there they are!” she cried, and pushed through the crowd on the pavement to get onto the road itself.
There I breathed more freely, for there was more room. It was strange to stand in the middle of such a big road and have no coaches or carts or cabs to dodge-just a long line of women in white dresses stretched ahead and behind, with men and women on the pavement watching us.
Mummy led us over to a group of women, many of whom I recognized from her At Homes. “Here they are, Eunice,” Mummy said, laying her hand on the arm of a tall woman with a face full of freckles who wore a sash that read BANNER CAPTAIN. “And there’s Caroline!” Mummy cried, waving. “Caroline!”
Caroline Black hurried over, flushed, her hair coming down from under her hat. Over her shoulder she carried a large bundle tied to a pole. Mummy kissed her. “Have you got everything?”
“Yes, I think so,” panted Caroline Black, “though thank heavens I gave the boy the armor yesterday to bring down. I’d never have made it otherwise.”
I did not know what they were talking about, but before I could ask, Mummy turned to me. “Now, Maude, I’m going to leave you with Eunice, who will look after you.”
“But you’re marching, too, aren’t you?” I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “You’re marching with us.”
“I will be in the procession, yes, but I’ve got something to do in another part of it. You’ll be fine here-you know most of these women.”
“Where are you going? What are you doing?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“But… we thought we were going to be with you. We told Mrs. Waterhouse you were looking after us.”
Mummy shook her head impatiently. “What I have to do is far more important than looking after you. And frankly, Eunice is probably better at sorting you out than I would be. She’s banner captain for this section of the procession and is very capable. You’re in good hands with her. I’ll meet you at the end of the day, after the Great Shout at five o‘clock. Come to Platform Five, where Mrs. Pankhurst is speaking. I’ll see you there. Now, we really must be off. Have fun, girls! Remember, Maude, Platform Five after the Great Shout.” She took Caroline Black’s arm and rushed away into the crowd. I tried to keep my eyes on them but couldn’t-it was like following the progress of a twig through a fast-flowing stream.
Lavinia had turned pale. “What shall we do without her?” she moaned, which was rather hypocritical given how much she dislikes Mummy.
“Well, girls, we’ll have a grand day, eh?” Eunice cried as she helped two women next to us secure their banner that read HOPE IS STRONG. “I’ve got to check the other banners along my section. You stay here by this banner until I return.” She strode away before we could say anything.
“Bloody hell,” I said quietly. We had been abandoned.
Lavinia looked at me, shocked as much by my swearing as by our predicament, I expect. “Perhaps Mama was right,” she said. “Perhaps I should have stayed home. I’m feeling rather faint.”
“Stop it,” I said sharply. “We’ll manage.” It was going to be a grim afternoon, and worse if she fainted as well. I looked around for something to distract her. “Look at the band-the Hackney Borough Brass Band,” I read from their banner. “Aren’t their uniforms lovely?” I knew Lavinia preferred men in uniforms. She was already saying she planned to marry a soldier. The musicians were smirking at the surrounding women. A euphonium player winked at me before I could look away.
Lavinia was staring up at the banner we were meant to stay with. “Rope is thong,” she announced suddenly, and giggled.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
After a bit we began to feel better. The women around us were all talking and laughing, clearly excited to be there. The overall effect was of a great buzz of female sound, at times high pitched, loud, but not frightening as it might be if it were all men. It was hard not to be infected by the high spirits. And they did not all appear to be suffragettes. Many of them were just like us, there for the afternoon out of curiosity, not necessarily waving a banner and shouting. There were lots of women with their daughters, some of them quite young. There were even three little girls, all dressed in white with green and purple ribbons in their hair, sitting in a pony cart near us.
Lavinia squeezed my arm and said, “It is terribly exciting, isn’t it? Everyone is here!”
Except Mummy, I thought. I wondered what she and Caroline Black were doing.