But the urgency now was to stop her before she made it any worse.
“Really, my dear, that is a very extreme thing to say!” the woman in gold warned with a frown.
Rose’s fair eyebrows shot up. “If the battle to win a place in the government of our country is not extreme, then what prize is it we are waiting for before we really say what we mean?”
Emily’s mind raced for something, anything to rescue the situation. Nothing came to her. “Rose! What a marvelous gown!” It sounded inane, forced, even to her own ears. How idiotic it must sound to the others.
“Good evening, Emily,” Rose replied coolly.
Emily had not forgotten a word of their previous clash. All the warmth of friendship was gone. And perhaps she was already realizing that Jack was not going to defend Aubrey if it looked like doing so would jeopardize his own seat. And even if it did not cost that price, it might well mean any offer of position that Gladstone was considering making him would be reconsidered in the light of his unwise friendship. Aubrey would be marked as an unreliable man, like a cannon loose on the deck of a pitching ship. If she could not save his seat for this election, at least she could save his honor and reputation for the next, which by all accounts would not be too far away.
Emily forced a smile to her face which she feared might look as ghastly as it felt. “How discreet of you not to say what it was he did!” She heard her voice high and a trifle shrill, but certainly drawing the complete attention of the others in the circle. “But I fear that in so doing you have created the misimpression that it was a donation of money, rather than a service of great worth to equal such an amount . . . conservatively.” She tried to scrape together in her mind the pieces of information Charlotte, or Gracie, had let slip of the Whitechapel affair and Voisey’s part in it. They had, for once, been remarkably discreet. Damnation! She widened her smile and stared around at the other women, all startled and fascinated to know what else she was going to say.
Rose breathed in sharply.
Emily must be quick before Rose spoke and ruined it. “Of course, I don’t know it all myself,” she hurried on. “I know something, but please don’t ask me! It was most certainly an act of great physical courage, and violence . . . I cannot say what, I should not like to misrepresent anyone, perhaps malign them . . .” She left that suggestion lingering in the air. “But it was of great worth to Her Majesty, and to the Tory government. It is very natural that he should be rewarded for it . . . and quite right.” She shot a jaggedly warning glance at Rose. “I am sure that is what you meant!”
“He is an opportunist,” Rose snapped back. “A man seeking office for himself, not to pass laws that will bring social justice for more people, for the poor and ignorant and dispossessed, who should be our greatest charge. I would have thought a little time listening to what he says, with thought rather than simply emotion, would have made that abundantly clear.” It was an accusation, and directed at all of them.
Emily began to panic. Rose seemed bent on self-destruction, and of course that meant taking Aubrey with her, which would cause endless guilt and pain afterwards. Could she not see what she was doing?
“All politicians are tempted to say whatever they think will get them elected,” Emily answered a little too loudly. “And it is so easy to respond to a crowd and to try to please them.”
Rose’s eyes were wild and hard, as if she felt Emily were deliberately attacking her and it was yet another betrayal of friendship. “It is not only politicians who have succumbed to the temptation to play to the gallery, like a cheap actress!” she retaliated.
Emily lost her temper. “Indeed? Your simile escapes me. But then apparently you know more about cheap actresses than I do!”
One woman gave a nervous giggle, then another. Several looked acutely uncomfortable. The quarrel had reached the pitch where they were no longer happy to be witnessing it and were desperate to find any excuse to withdraw and join some other group. One by one they left, murmuring unintelligible excuses.
Emily took Rose by the arm, feeling her resist with rigid body. “What on earth is the matter with you?” she hissed. “Are you mad?”
Rose’s face lost the shred of color it had had, as if every drop of blood had drained out of her.
Emily clasped Rose’s arm, afraid she was going to fall. “Come and sit down!” she ordered. “Quickly! This chair, before you faint.” She dragged her the few yards to the nearest seat and forced her onto it, against her will, pushing her until her head was forward, almost to her knees, and shielding her from the rest of the room with her own body. She would have liked to fetch her something to drink, but she dared not leave her.
Rose remained motionless.
Emily waited.
No one approached them.
“You can’t sit like that forever,” Emily said at last, quite gently. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what is wrong. This calls for sense, not tantrums. Why is Aubrey behaving like such a fool? Is it something to do with you?”
Rose jerked up, two spots of furious color in her cheeks, her eyes brilliant like blue glass. “Aubrey is not a fool!” she said very quietly but with an intensity of feeling that was almost shocking.
“I know he isn’t,” Emily said more gently. “But he is behaving like one, and you are even more so. Haven’t you any idea how ugly it looks to attack Voisey as you are doing? Even if everything you say is true, and you could prove it, which you can’t, it would still not gain you any votes. People don’t like having their heroes torn down or their dreams burst. They hate the people who deluded them, but they hate the ones who made them realize it just as much. If they want to believe he’s a hero then they will. All you look is desperate and spiteful. The fact that you may be right has nothing to do with anything.”
“That’s monstrous!” Rose protested.
“Of course it is,” Emily agreed. “But it is idiotic to play the game by the rules you would like there to be. You will lose every time. You must play within the rules there are . . . better if you like, but never worse.”
Rose said nothing.
Emily went back to her first question in the whole miserable affair, which she still thought might be at the heart of it. “Why did you go to the spirit medium? And don’t tell me it was simply to contact your mother for a comforting talk. You would never do that at election time, or deceive Aubrey about it. You’re tormented with guilt over it, and yet you kept on going. Why, Rose? What do you need to resolve from the past at that price?”
“It has nothing to do with you!” Rose said miserably.
“Of course it has,” Emily contradicted her. “It’s going to affect Aubrey—in fact, it already has, and that will affect Jack, if you expect him to try and help, to support Aubrey at the election. And you do, don’t you? His backing away now would be pretty obvious.”
Rose looked for a moment as if she were going to argue, her eyes hot and angry, then she said nothing after all, as if the words were useless even as she thought of them.
Emily pulled another chair closer, opposite Rose, and sat down, leaning forward a little, her skirts around her. “Was the medium blackmailing you because you went to her?” She saw Rose wince. “Or over whatever it was you found out from your mother?” she pressed.
“No, she wasn’t!” It was not a lie, but Emily knew it was not entirely the truth, either.
“Rose! Stop running away!” she begged. “The woman was murdered! Somebody hated her enough to kill her. It wasn’t a chance lunatic who wandered in off the street. It was someone who was there at the séance that night, and you know that!” She hesitated, then plunged on. “Was it you? Did she threaten you with something so terrible that you stayed behind and rammed that stuff down her throat? Was it to protect Aubrey?”