A Death for a Cause by Caroline Dunford Page B

is a pervert.’
    The sergeant raised his truncheon menacingly.
    â€˜That is as may be,’ said Mary calmly, ‘but he is right. A murder has been committed and we must do what we can to find the fiend who did this to our poor fallen sister.’
    With varying degrees of awkwardness, and many muttered comments, finally all the women had divested themselves of their stockings and handed them over. The sergeant bundled them all together in one big pile. Then he clanged the door shut and locked.
    â€˜Wait a minute,’ I called out. ‘How will you know whose is whose?’
    â€˜Doesn’t matter, does it?’ he replied with a leer. ‘I reckons how you was all in it together, so you’ll all hang.’ The he stomped off.
    â€˜What does he mean all hang?’ asked Jasmine Pettigrew in a wavering voice.
    â€˜Now, now, dear, don’t let the nasty man upset you,’ answered her sister.
    â€˜I reckon the stupid man is only trying to frighten us,’ said Martha haughtily. ‘As Miss …’ she looked at me.
    â€˜St John,’ I supplied.
    â€˜As Miss St John remarked, the man has no way of telling one stocking from another.’
    â€˜I reckon he was doin’ it for a bet with the lads,’ broke in Abigail. ‘Who can get the underthings off a suffragette! You know the kind of thing.’
    â€˜Well, really,’ said Martha, turning away in disgust.
    â€˜Was she strangled?’ asked Constance, the doctor’s wife. ‘I would have thought …’ she tailed off.
    â€˜It was still dark and the body was removed quickly,’ said Mary. ‘I think all of us were too shocked to take notice of the details.’
    â€˜I mean, if she had been hanged,’ continued Constance, ‘I mean, hanged herself, then it would have been obvious by the colouring, but strangled, I am unsure …’
    Jasmine Pettigrew sat down heavily on the bench all the colour draining from her face. ‘Have some thought for others,’ snapped her sister, Eunice. ‘My poor sister is prone to fainting fits.’
    â€˜Undo her stays, then,’ said Abigail, not too unkindly. ‘They are an unnatural harness for any woman and you too seem to have right pulled yours in.’
    â€˜Eunice,’ moaned Jasmine, ‘is that gal mentioning underthings ?’
    â€˜Too right I am,’ said Abigail. ‘Next thing you know that copper’ll be checking to see all our laces are intact.’
    Jasmine gave a low moan at this and slid onto the floor, her eyes fluttering. Her sister fussed over her. ‘Now see what you have done, you unnatural creature,’ she cried.
    â€˜I have smelling salts in my reticule – oh, blast it. They took that away,’ said Martha. ‘Fan her face.’
    â€˜With what?’ said Abigail as Eunice flapped her hands uselessly around her sister’s face. ‘Undo her stays, you silly besom. There’s no way she should have slept in something that tight. It’s a wonder there’s any blood left in her head.’
    â€˜Allow me,’ said Constance. She turned Jasmine on her side and then quickly and efficiently loosened her stays. Gradually the colour came back to Jasmine’s face. Constance helped her sit up slowly and demanded someone find her a glass of water.
    I found some leftover water in a forgotten mug and passed it to her. ‘Did you learn about this sort of thing from your husband?’ I asked, impressed.
    Constance nodded. ‘I asked him for information on the sort of injuries that one might expect to find after a march.’
    â€˜He does not mind you attending?’ asked Martha.
    â€˜Of course not,’ said Constance. ‘He says that in another time I would have had the brains to be a doctor myself.’
    â€˜What a forward-thinking man,’ said Martha in somewhat shocked tones.
    â€˜There are women who have qualified as doctors, I