She hugged me as if I were her favourite kitten and pressed a kiss on my forehead.
‘Yes,’ I told her. ‘I can see how terribly angry you are.’
‘Shut up! You’re a genius! A bloody genius! Did you know that? Well, you probably did, but just in case you didn’t, I’m going to tell you: you’re a genius!’
She hugged me again. Over her shoulder, I could see the figure of our ancient butler, Leadfield, as he hobbled down the landing and respectfully stopped at the open door, not daring to enter a lady’s room.
‘Forgive me, Miss, but these… females simply forced their way into the house and insisted on seeing you. Should I…’
‘It’s no problem, Leadfield,’ I assured him, while attempting to duck out of the way of another of Eve’s hugs. They were more than my head could take right now. ‘They’re my friends. You remember Patsy, don't you? She came by last month to tea.’
The old butler opened his mouth to give a reply, but you had to be quicker than that to be part of the conversation while Eve was in the room.
‘You’re a genius!’ She burst out again. ‘An absolute genius. You know, at first we were so angry with you after you left us standing in Green Park - Patsy was foaming at the mouth!’
‘She was?’
‘Yes, and I didn’t know what to do, take her to be checked for rabies or go after you and try to bring you to your senses or something else; there were a million ideas flying around in my head at the same time, you know how it is.’
‘I can guess.’
‘But we had already made the signs, and we couldn’t just not go through with it because you had the jitters.’
‘Very admirable. But Eve…’
I should have known any attempt to stop her was in vain.
‘And then we showed up there, and you appeared up on the stage, all dressed in men’s clothes, and gave a speech! A speech! And everybody listened! And cheered! Long live suffragism! Oh Lilly!’
She hugged me again, but this time, I wasn’t trying to fight her off. My attention was focused on Leadfield, who was still standing at the door. There were two red patches on his normally pallid face, and his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.
‘Dressed in men’s clothes?’ He gasped. ‘Miss Lilly! What in the Lord’s name…!’
‘Not in public,’ I groaned, hurriedly planting a hand over Eve’s over-eager mouth to shut her up. ‘It was charades! We were playing charades.’
‘Oh! I see, Miss.’ The old chap’s eyes retreated into their sockets, his frame visibly relaxing. He shook his head with all the bewilderment a sensible servant could muster at the upper classes' strange habit of dressing up in all sorts of insane clothing for fun. ‘Well, far be it from me, Miss, to begrudge you and your young friends your amusement.’
‘Thank you, Leadfield.’
‘Do you require anything? Master’s old hats and coats? His Indian turban? The old cook’s apron?’
‘No, thank you, we’re not planning on playing charades right now, Leadfield.’
‘I see, Miss. Well, I’ll leave you to it, then.’
‘That would be nice.’
The old servant turned with geological velocity. When he was almost facing the door, he tried to look back over his shoulder and almost toppled over in the process.
‘By the way, Miss, breakfast is almost ready. I shall begin serving in a few minutes, so you won’t have long.’
‘I’ll be down directly,’ I assured him.
When Leadfield was outside and the door was closed, Eve couldn’t hold it in any longer.
‘Vlt? Rrrrmt? Yrntnng dwnn tbrkfst tst dt ths gstl tmts…’
I removed my hand from her mouth, and she grabbed me by the collar of my nightshirt.
‘Lilly! Are you mad? You’re not going down to breakfast to sit and eat those ghastly tomatoes your uncle puts on the table! You’re staying here with us to celebrate, do you hear me? If you try to leave, I’ll personally tie you up and gag you!’
‘Which would rather get in the way of my celebrating,’ I pointed out, squeezing my eyes shut and massaging my skull for a second. Ah! That felt good. My headache was much better already. Apparently, I had the right stomach for this sort of thing. I felt a tinge of pride. ‘You needn't worry, by the way. When Leadfield says he’ll serve immediately, that means he needs ten minutes down the stairs, another fifteen to reach the kitchen, and another twenty to get to the dining room table with all the plates, bowls and platters. We have plenty of time.’
‘So… we can celebrate now?’