Finally (A Storm and Silence Fanfiction) ✔️

2. A Very Memorable Demonstration

That morning, I woke up at dawn to prepare for the demonstration. Only my handy stash of solid chocolate kept me awake as I debated whether to wear men's clothes or women's. I finally decided to sneak out to the shed to don Uncle Buford's baggy striped trousers and tailcoat. After all, if our mysterious, illustrious, and very wealthy benefactor happened to show up, he couldn't possibly deny that he knew me. Rikkard Ambrose would have no reason for associating with the impoverished, chocolate-loving, unfashionable Lilly Linton, but everyone would remember his secretary Mr. Victor Linton.

After tripping over several aggressively pruned hedges and one adventure novel (courtesy of myself, left there from Ella and Edmund's late night, poetic declarations of love) in the dim morning light, I finally made it to the garden shed where I stored my clothes. I entered it as Lillian, and exited it as Victor. I knew my friends would recognize it as the disguise I had worn when giving a speech at our last suffragist demonstration. That one had been almost as memorable as this one would be.

Green Park was nearly deserted at this time a day, save for the occasional squirrel and chirping bird, and, of course, my three closest friends. Eve, Patsy, Flora, and I were all armed with plenty of signs and pamphlets on feminism and the oppression of women in Britain. We took a coach hired by Eve, the richest of us, and made it there with plenty of time to spare. When we arrived at Speaker's Corner, I almost felt... well, sentimental and nostalgic. Which I wasn't. Those were senseless, overtly... overtly feminine emotions that I wanted nothing to do with! But I did - or rather my traitorous body did - let out a small sigh. The last time I had been here, I had been humiliated, yes. But I had also managed to publicly embarrass, anger, and shock a man who bore alarming similarities to a miserly block of granite. Well, except when he was kissing me, but that was something I tried not to think about.

I clutched my BETTER PAY FOR WOMEN IN WORKHOUSES sign and scanned the area for a man wearing a ten-year-old-waistcoat-in-mint-condition before I could stop myself. Surely Rikkard Ambrose would never make an appearance in a place like this - even if he was pretending to be Richard Thompson. Unless he was involved in some elaborate scheme to accuse us of stealing £300 from him. But that wouldn't make sense - I thought he was finished with trying to rid himself of the best secretary he'd ever had! Hadn't I proven myself invaluable to his operation? An excellent secretary "despite being of the female persuasion"? In spite of my skepticism, it still seemed a likelier prospect than Rikkard Ambrose himself being our financial supporter.

I had just formed that thought when I caught sight of him: my wealthy, stingy employer.

The richest - or was it second-richest, now that Dalgliesh had established a foothold in Australia before Mr. Ambrose had? - financier in the British Empire and quite possibly the world, to his credit, did not gape open mouthed at me as I did to him. Nor did he drop everything he was holding like I also did. In fact, the only sign that he was not an incredibly lifelike granite statue was his littlest finger, which was twitching like mad as he strode purposefully towards me.

I was still too dumbfounded to resist as he took me by my now empty hand and dragged me behind a building. Now I am between a rock and a hard place, I thought distantly. But which is the rock, and which is the hard place?

"You!" He hissed.

"Usually, sir, you might address me more politely. Something along the lines of Mr. Linton? Or even Miss Linton, if you feel like being truth - mmrg!"

I was cut off by his strong, surprisingly warm hand clamping over my mouth. The motion knocked my head against the stone wall; unlike my employer, I did not possess a stone head, so I'm quite sure it would have cracked my skull open were it not for my top hat full of hair. That top hat had saved my life; another advantage to being male.