And the staff at Windfell didn’t seem to be as jovial as usual and hardly bothered with her. They didn’t know exactly what to say to her. It was if she had no feelings, and nobody cared. She couldn’t even discuss it with Luke, as now that the new term had started he was back boarding at Giggleswick School, conveniently out of the way, but looked after while her mother and father went about their business. The only refuge was her room, and there Jane lost herself in a good book or reading the latest suffragette news in her Votes for Women, which was delivered weekly to Windfell. Her mother abhorred her reading it, and hated even more the friendships that she had built through it, especially with the bobbin girls at Dewhurst’s. Isabelle especially abhorred Nellie Taylor, whom she thought to be common and mouthy, and she often reprimanded Jane for becoming friends with a mill girl. But Nellie was different: she stood up for women’s rights, often talking about demanding equal pay with the menfolk at the mills, and the need for women to have a vote and a say on how the country was run. And even Jane realized that women were not equal with men, and was not happy to accept her lot in life. After all, she was Charlotte Atkinson’s granddaughter, and her grandmother had always striven to be as good as – or even better than – any businessman in the area. She always had to work that little bit harder than most men, but was unable to have a say in the local elections. Surely that wasn’t right; everyone should be equal, regardless of their gender.

Jane picked up her latest edition of Votes for Women and read the dedication, to remind herself of the cause she believed in:

To the brave women who today are fighting for freedom: to the noble women who all down the ages kept the flag flying and looked forward to this day without seeing it: to all women all over the world of whatever race or creed or calling, whether they be with us or against us in this fight, we dedicate this paper.