The Scandalous Suffragette

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‘Samuel Smiles,’ he said.

‘You’ve read Self-Help?’ she asked, astonished.

‘Of course.’ He chuckled, rather grimly. ‘The Beaufort family currently need all the help they can get.’

Violet took a breath. ‘You love your family.’

‘Indeed.’

She did, too.

‘I can see the opportunity in your proposal,’ she said slowly, as her mind ticked. ‘For the good of both our families. But there is a difficulty.’

Adam Beaufort raised an eyebrow.

Violet hesitated. She’d never told anyone about her secret decision. Yet, oddly enough, she trusted him.

‘I have made a pledge not to marry,’ she said at last.

Adam drew back. ‘Never?’

Violet shook her head. ‘It’s not a pledge for life. I don’t intend to join a nunnery. I simply don’t wish to marry yet.’

‘Is there a particular reason you intend to wait?’

She bit her lip.

‘As I assured you at the ball, I can keep a secret,’ he said.

‘It’s for the Cause,’ she replied at last. ‘I wish to devote myself to it, entirely.’

Amazement was etched on his face. ‘The Cause means that much to you?’

‘It does.’

Adam whistled. ‘That’s quite a sacrifice.’

‘It is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.’ With resolve, she lifted her chin. ‘When I first heard about the Cause, I knew it was my calling to become a suffragette. Whatever needs to be done, I will do. I intend to dedicate myself to it until women have the vote.’

‘And when women have suffrage...’

She nodded crisply. ‘Only then will I consider marriage.’

He shook his head. ‘Women getting the vote could take years.’

‘Surely not years,’ Violet protested. ‘We will win our argument soon, I’m sure of it. Parliament will soon see the error of their ways in denying half the population of England the opportunity to contribute to our government. It cannot be more than a few years away.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m not so sure.’

She shrugged. ‘In any case, it is my decision. However many years it takes, for as long as women cannot vote, I will be no man’s wife.’

‘When did you make this decision?’ he asked.

‘When I became a suffragette. Three years ago.’

‘Do your parents know?’

‘No. I don’t mean to deceive them. When the suffragettes win the day, I will marry—I mean, I hope I will—and my parents will be none the wiser.’

He stepped closer. ‘Keeping such a secret must have been difficult.’

She was amazed by his insight. It had been lonely to know that she could not seek a partner in life, or tell the reason why.

‘It has been difficult. And I’ve not spoken of this matter to anyone before.’

He inclined his head. ‘I’m honoured by your trust, Miss Coombes.’

‘I wish to concentrate my energies.’ She was eager now to explain her reasoning. Growing up, she’d watched her mama unquestioningly devote herself to her husband and home. She loved her mother, but she didn’t want the same life. ‘Once women have a home and a family, they are not free to follow their own causes. They are under the rule of their husband.’

He frowned. ‘Not all husbands wish to rule their wives.’

Violet pressed her lips together. ‘A man owns his wife. I am determined that no man shall own me. The law, as it stands, gives a man dominion over a woman.’

The forked lines between his eyebrows deepened. ‘Marriage for women does not have to mean servitude.’

‘It may not,’ Violet agreed. Her parents had a happy marriage, after all. ‘Please do not mistake me. In marriage, there are bonds of love that bind a woman. When she becomes a wife and mother, her family becomes her greatest concern. I have no objection to that, when it comes.’

‘Unless it comes too soon,’ he said.

‘Exactly,’ she answered in relief. He’d grasped her meaning. ‘I’m not opposed to the institution of marriage. But I am certainly not looking for a husband. Not until women have the suffrage we deserve.’

‘Yet here you are in London, for the Season. There is a general view that during the Season a young woman is...’

Violet grimaced. ‘Husband hunting?’

He smiled, deepening the dent in his cheek. ‘Something like that.’

‘It’s my parents’ wish to move higher in society. There is the Royal Warrant my papa hopes for. It takes connections that we can only get in London. I’m here for my parents, not for myself. I am older than most debutantes, but this is the first year our family have had the right invitations.’

And now she had risked it all, she thought with remorse. A whiff of scandal and it would all disappear, and along with it her parents’ hopes and dreams.

‘You must have had suitors,’ he commented.

‘Only a few.’ Her lack of serious suitors was no cause for alarm to her, in the circumstances. In Manchester, the boys she’d grown up with were now too shy to approach her, thinking themselves no longer cut of her cloth. More moneyed London society hadn’t offered any alternatives.

Except for Adam Beaufort.

From the corner of her eye she studied him. She felt entirely at ease with him. He lacked the snobbery that she’d encountered so keenly at the ball. The way those Dowagers had laughed at her mama. It still made her fume.

‘Thus far I have managed to avert any serious interest,’ she said.

‘I’m surprised.’

‘Because of my fortune?’ she asked candidly. ‘My devotion to the Cause tends to be off-putting. Most gentlemen prefer women weak and helpless.’

He raised a brow. ‘Do they indeed?’

For a moment their eyes met.

Violet dropped her gaze first. ‘In any case, my situation has now changed. As you know, my father has forbidden me to continue as a suffragette and I can’t risk agitating him.’

‘Of course,’ Adam said swiftly. ‘I understand.’

‘You saw the problems with his health. My opportunity to support the Cause, limited as it was, has diminished considerably.’

Votes for women! So boldly her handmade banner had declared it. All that would be gone now, she thought, with another of those painful pangs. If she and her parents went back to Manchester, she would certainly be constrained from her deeds as a suffragette. She couldn’t risk her papa’s health worsening. What was it he had said? ‘No more of this suffragette nonsense!’ Those words hurt Violet as much as him wanting a son rather than a daughter. Being a suffragette wasn’t nonsense. It was about honour and justice.