‘Of course she will.’ Patience wiped her eyes. She was shocked and upset, but through the turmoil she knew this was the right thing to do. ‘I’ll write and tell her in a few weeks and let her assume it happened then. I’ll say that due to special circumstances – I haven’t thought about that yet, but I’ll come up with something – the funeral had to be quick. Sophy may not have wanted to attend anyway, but just in case . . .’
John stood up, and as Patience and William rose he hugged his sister. ‘As you see fit. I made my goodbyes to Sophy yesterday, so would you prefer me to slip away so she doesn’t know I’ve called this morning? Yes, I think that’s best. I can come back this evening with Matthew; there’ll be things to discuss.’
For the next hour Patience was on tenterhooks, but then the cab arrived and all was bustle and activity. She accompanied Sophy and Sadie to the station with William, and once they had settled the two women into a carriage, she hugged her cousin tightly. ‘I’m so glad you came.’
‘So am I.’ As the guard blew his whistle and William stepped down on to the platform, holding out his hand for Patience to descend, Sophy hugged her again. ‘Thank you for everything,’ she whispered. ‘It was good to talk to your father last night. I – I liked him.’
Her throat full, Patience couldn’t reply. Knowing Sophy would put her distress down to their parting, she joined William and he shut the carriage door, putting his arm round her. They stood waving until the train had steamed out of sight, and then as William drew her against his chest, Patience gave free rein to the sobs shaking her body.
Chapter 23
Over the next weeks Sophy felt as though the visit to Sunderland had set a seal on the next phase of her life. Seeing her uncle again, talking about her mother and the life she had led as a little girl in Southwick and why Esther had done the things she had, had settled something inside her. The shame and bitterness which had accompanied thoughts of her mother for so long was gone, and the relief was overwhelming. Even when news came of the accident, her main feeling was one of thankfulness that she had spoken to her uncle before it was too late, although she grieved for Patience and her other cousins that they had lost both parents in one fell swoop, even if they had been estranged from their mother. She didn’t know how she felt about Mary. She would have liked to think that she had forgiven her aunt for the things Mary had done and said, but when she looked into her heart she knew that wasn’t so. And so she pushed it to the back of her mind and refused to think about it.
The company were playing to full houses at the General Theatre and the initial eight-week run had been extended to twenty. Her work, along with her enthusiasm to support the Actresses’ Franchise League and other suffrage societies kept her fully occupied, with little time to think about her feelings for Kane. In the spring of 1909, when a member of the Women’s Freedom League sailed over the House of Commons in a balloon painted with the slogan Votes for Women, Sophy was at the forefront of the crowd cheering her on from the ground. She was one of many actresses selling the suffrage newspaper Votes for Women on a regular basis, and on a rainy day in the middle of April she and several other suffragettes drove round the London streets in a prison van marked EP, in support of Emmeline Pankhurst, before dispatching themselves as human letters to 10 Downing Street. She knew Kane disapproved of such escapades, more by what he didn’t say than what he did, but such is the perversity of the human spirit that this made her more determined, if anything.
When the play at the General was extended again, it was officially pronounced a resounding success, much to everyone’s delight. Sophy was pleased, although she was aware that the newspapers were far more interested in the antics of the more militant suffragettes than in the performance of a play which pointed out the hardships and injustices women suffered under the present laws of the land. Inevitable clashes with the police were beginning to become widespread, and although this worried her and other members of the Actresses’ Franchise League, it was not enough to stop her joining in the marches.
At the end of July, the Women’s Social and Political Union held their own Women’s Parliament at Caxton Hall, which concluded with a deputation to the House of Commons led by Mrs Pankhurst. The day was bright and sunny, and Sophy enjoyed the walk through the dusty London streets in spite of some of the more objectionable hecklers who always surfaced on such occasions.
The meeting had been rousing and Mrs Pankhurst inspiring, but when the women arrived at Parliament Square and Asquith, who had taken over from Campbell Bannerman as Prime Minister the year before, refused to receive them, the mood changed.