Suffragette in the City Read Online Free PDF

look considerate of her fine feelings.
    “Naturally, we respect and appreciate that. But I worry that there may come a time when you will be absorbed, if you will, by the danger, and not be able to escape it.”
    “That is what I have been telling her, Aunt. I have pleaded with her to take heed of my warnings, but you see before you a man whose every word is discounted and ignored.” Freddy slipped from the chair to his knees before me, taking my hand in his. “Beloved one, you know how I feel about you—”
    “Oh Freddy, for heaven’s sake, not again!”  I struggled to pull my hand from his. Caroline watched in surprise as Freddy, strengthening his hold on my hand, attempted to pull me down into his embrace.
    Emma laughed outright as we had a regrettable little struggle which I won just as Hargreaves, Caroline’s butler, opened the sitting room door to announce visitors. Freddy rose quickly from where he had tumbled when I yanked my hand away.
    “They’re here early,” I murmured to Emma as Caroline went forward to greet her guests.
    “Who’s expected today, do you know?” Emma asked in a whisper, looking vaguely worried.
    I patted her hand. She was a naturally shy person, quite timid around men she didn’t know. “A very tame group, just a countess whose husband had become an important political acquaintance of Uncle Henry’s, and an opera singer who will make her debut next week in Covent Garden.”
    “Ah. That is tame.”
    Freddy said from his chair, “I expected at least an Arctic explorer or the reigning pugilistic champion.”
    Emma stood beside me a short while later as we greeted the opera singer. The pleasantries over, I was in the process of taking a cup of tea to Senora Monteneros, who I was delighted to see took immediately to Emma despite the obvious barriers of language and background, when Hargreaves announced the entrance of the countess, Lady Sherringham.
    “Do you take cream, Senora Monteneros?” I inquired as I glanced over to the door. “Oh, good god!”
    Despite unjust and inaccurate claims to the contrary, I am not by nature a clumsy person. However, upon viewing the newest arrivals, I will admit to a slight lack of adroitness when I spilled an entire jug of cream down the front of the Senora’s ruby-colored velvet and lace tea gown.
    The countess was none other than the thin-faced woman in bilious green from the past evening, and she had brought with her the pale, shy looking girl that I had last seen on the infuriatingly smug, equally infuriatingly attractive Griffin’s arm…who was three paces behind her, his amber eyes immediately seeking mine, his gaze just as disconcerting as I remembered it.
    “Bloody hell,” I whispered to myself. This was not going to be a pleasant afternoon.

Chapter Four
     
    “Senora, I am so sorry, I can’t think how—I’ve never spilled dairy products on anyone before—I’m sure my aunt’s maid will assist you,” I stammered, trying to mop up the mess as Senora Monteneros expressed her opinion of me loudly and vehemently in Spanish.
    “It’s all right, Cassandra. I’ll help her,” Emma said, taking the opera singer’s arm and deftly guiding her through the maze of incidental tables full of bric-a-brac that cluttered my aunt’s sitting room.
    The newcomers were still across the room, greeting Caroline and Freddy. I looked quickly for an escape, and had just opened the door at the opposite end of the long room when my aunt’s light, piping voice reached me. “Cassandra, dear, I’d like you to meet Lady Sherringham.”
    I stopped in the doorway and looked through it wistfully to freedom, briefly contemplating bolting down the hallway before reminding myself that I was not a coward. I had faced much worse things than three people invited to tea. I turned to smile at my aunt’s guests.
    The three pairs of eyes boring into me drove the smile from my lips.
    “Hargreaves, send Grangly to attend Senora Monteneros and Miss Debenham,”