Beatrice had never been so angry before in her life. She was so upset with the man in Marcus’ library that Emily was able to pull her through the hallway, up the two flights of stairs, and into her room before she could slow down her thoughts enough to talk. She flounced on her white, French-styled bed with its white satin tufted headboard framed in teal damask curtains. As she sank into the downy mattress with her skirts flaring around her, she flung herself backward next to her teal-colored, satin pillows. Then she released all her pent-up anger in a roar of frustration.
“That man is the most infuriating, ignorant—”
“—Beatrice!” the breath hissed through Emily’s teeth, pulling Beatrice out of her tirade. “Since father died, I have focused my entire life on giving you a chance to achieve your dreams. However, you are doing everything you can to ruin any hope you could have of marrying a suitable husband.”
“I don’t understand what you mean. Marriage is not one of my dreams. My dream is to be a journalist and fight social injustice. Talking to members of Parliament is just a first step along that path.”
“Talking?” Emily’s eyebrow shot upward. “Actually, you were shouting so loudly that I am sure every servant in our house and the next heard you. I interrupted your tirade because I feared you would wake baby Pamela. Oh, Beatrice!” Emily groaned and walked over to collapse on the white satin settee with a teal-fern, embroidered design. “You have no idea how London society works. If you cannot learn to get along in it, you will find yourself sifted to the bottom.”
Beatrice frowned. “Since Parliament is full of old, fusty men and their old, fusty ideas, it should be expected that I will disagree with them occasionally. I don’t care about ‘London society,’ so there is no need for me to attempt to join it. Being at the bottom will only bring me closer to the poor, who are the only people for whom I care.”
“And can any of those poor people address Parliament or a member of it? Could a street urchin walk up to the King and say, ‘Excuse me, Your Highness, but life is a little hard. I have some great ideas to change it.’ No. He could not approach the King or Parliament because of his low status.
“If you allow yourself to become shunned by society, you will never make a difference in this world. The people to whom you must encourage to change things will not give you the opportunity to speak with them. Do you want that?”
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