If she had stopped to consider, Sophy had to admit afterwards she probably would have thought twice about getting involved in what followed, when quite a few windows in government buildings were deliberately smashed and scuffles with police ensued. A number of actresses in the League had recently resigned due to this kind of thing happening, but although Sophy sympathised with their decision, she had to agree with Mrs Pankhurst that decades of the softly-softly approach with regard to women’s liberation had got the cause precisely nowhere.
When several suffragettes were arrested, to the indignation of marchers and the crowd who had gathered, the situation turned ugly. The mounted police arrived to help their comrades, and as Sophy was jostled so she lost her bonnet and almost fell under the hooves of one of the horses, a hand jerked her out of the way of the big beast.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Kane glared at her, hauling her unceremoniously into a doorway. ‘I know you don’t care about your safety, but spare a thought for your friends. This is madness, woman. To attack government property won’t win the vote.’
Sophy stared at him, her cheeks flushed and her hair tousled. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Looking for you.’ His glare intensified. ‘I knew if there was trouble you’d be in the thick of it.’
He made her sound like a common delinquent. Stiffly, she said, ‘There were precautions taken to avoid any injury to the people inside the buildings. We wrapped the stones in paper and tied them with string, and we tapped them against the glass and then dropped them through the holes. We didn’t throw them as such.’
If he hadn’t been so furious Kane could have smiled, but the sight of Sophy teetering on the edge of falling under the stamping hooves had taken any amusement out of the situation. ‘How ladylike,’ he said with scathing sarcasm. ‘And do you think it will be reported like that in the papers tomorrow?’
Sophy matched him glare for glare. ‘How do I know? They print what they want to print. You know that as well as I.’
‘And how would it have helped further the cause of women’s liberation if you had got yourself trampled to death by a horse?’
‘Oh, for goodness sake!’ He had no right to speak to her like this. He was as bad as the magistrates who refused to treat suffragettes as political prisoners when they were arrested, and instead labelled them common criminals. There was talk of hunger strikes in protest from those currently in detention. ‘I’m standing up for what I believe in, that’s all. If I was a man, you’d think that was perfectly all right.’
‘I hate to point out the obvious, Sophy, but you aren’t a man.’ He’d deftly steered her into a side road as they had been speaking. ‘And while you may not think so, I agree absolutely with women having the same rights and privileges as men regarding the political system, but breaking windows and acting like children is not the way to get sympathy for the cause. You’ve been a part of taking the establishment theatre by storm with some of the taboo subjects you’ve tackled, and I admire you for that. But this, this is foolishness.’
Sophy drew herself up, visibly bristling. ‘I don’t have to listen to this.’
‘Oh yes, you do. I’m speaking as your agent rather than your friend. You’re a working woman, not a high society debutante. If you get arrested, even if it’s just one night in a cell, it will be sufficient to damage your chances of future employment once the reason for the missed performance is known. By all means support the cause, but not by being directly involved in the sort of fool-hardiness that happened today. Most of the militants are able to do what they do because they have a husband or a father who supports them. You do not.’
Kane watched her considering his words. He wondered what she would say if he told her he didn’t give a damn about her damaging her career compared to her safety. There were going to be casualties soon, everyone was saying so. He hadn’t known a moment’s peace since she had thrown herself into this suffragette business. Her golden-red hair was hanging in tendrils around her face, and the scene she’d been involved in as he’d arrived had put rosy colour in her cheeks. She looked as though she’d been thoroughly kissed rather than breaking windows, and his body was as hard as a rock in response to the thought.
Determined not to give Kane the satisfaction of acknowledging he had a point, Sophy tossed her head. ‘I shall do what I think best,’ she declared icily.
‘Which means?’
‘Exactly what I said.’
And with that he had to be content.