No Greater Love Read Online Free PDF

swapped news and drank tea with the other women.
    ‘Maggie was so brave the way she handled that awful man,’ Rose told the assembled, making her friend blush.
    ‘That’s the wonderful thing about having a girl like Maggie in the ranks who can rub along with the common people,’ said Jocelyn Fulford with a benign smile. ‘By the way, how is your mother, Maggie? She hasn’t called for a month or more.’
    Maggie bit back her annoyance at being patronised by this tea merchant’s wife from Jesmond.
    ‘She’s not been that well lately,’ Maggie answered ‘But I’ll tell her you were kind enough to ask after her,’ she forced herself to add, knowing her mother’s second-hand clothes business relied on donations from wealthy women like Mrs Fulford.
    ‘Well, tell her to call, won’t you, dear.’ The older woman patted her hand and added in a loud whisper, ‘I’ve several of last season’s dresses she might like.’
    Maggie thanked her stiffly, hoping that nothing she was wearing came from the Fulford household. At times she was acutely aware of being socially inferior to her fellow suffragists, yet put her in a room with people talking politics and she would hold her own with the Prime Minister if necessary. While they fought the same cause, class difference seemed irrelevant; it was only when they reverted to social chit-chat or returned home to their separate parts of the city that the barriers between them went up again.
    Rose came to her rescue. ‘I’ll get the tram with you, Maggie. You don’t want to be late for Susan’s party, do you?’
    The young women left together and headed towards Central Station, detouring through Grainger Market so Maggie could bargain with the butchers for a joint of brisket and some black pudding to see them through the week. Her purchases made, they headed out of the glass-roofed market with its smell of raw meat and pipe smoke, their long skirts swishing across the sawdust-sprinkled aisles.
    ‘You could join the choir too,’ Rose broke the silence between them, ‘you’ve got a good enough voice.’
    ‘I haven’t the time,’ Maggie said in excuse. ‘You know the trouble I get into at home as it is. Imagine the fireworks from Mam and Susan if I was off singing at Hebron House on Susan’s birthday.’
    ‘That’s not the reason you don’t want to come,’ Rose challenged her with a direct gaze from behind her spectacles. ‘You don’t approve of Miss Alice, do you?’
    ‘You can choose to curry favour with the likes of the Pearson’s, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable,’ Maggie said with resentment, crossing the road quickly to avoid a large dray horse. Rose caught her up.
    ‘Don’t speak to me in that tone of voice,’ she said sharply, grabbing Maggie’s arm.
    ‘And don’t speak to me as if I were one of your pupils,’ Maggie retorted, throwing off her hold.
    Rose glared at her, red-faced, but Maggie stood her ground. Unexpectedly, Maggie began to laugh.
    ‘What’s so funny?’ Rose demanded.
    ‘You are! You look as if you’re about to send me into the corner,’ Maggie grinned, unable to remain cross with her friend. Rose relaxed and snorted in amusement. They linked arms and continued.
    ‘I know it’s difficult for you at home,’ Rose sympathised ‘I’m lucky that my mother supports our work.’
    Maggie nodded ruefully, thinking of Rose’s bird-like mother who had once waved an umbrella at the liberal Winston Churchill, demanding votes for women.
    ‘But listen, Maggie, ’ Rose became brisk, ‘Alice Pearson can hardly be blamed for your father’s death or the shabby way your family were treated by Pearson’s afterwards. Can’t you see that women like Miss Alice are fighting on our side so that we can change things for widows like your mother and my mother once we have the vote?’
    ‘Yes, I can see that,’ Maggie sighed, feeling contrite and remembering that Rose’s comfortable childhood had been shattered too by her father’s