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at this hour when Dody was certain to be alone.
    ‘I wouldn’t go in there, miss,’ Annie warned, too late. Dody pushed the door open, effectively plunging the room into silence. Pike stood with his back towards the cracking fire, arms folded. Florence was at the bay window, examining the folds of the green velvet curtains.
    Florence turned. ‘Ah, Dody you’re home,’ she said with false gaiety. ‘I’ll leave you to entertain the chief inspector then. I’m going to bed.’
    She attempted to pass, but Dody stopped her with a hand on her arm. ‘Florence, what’s going on?’ Dark shadows circled her sister’s violet eyes. Her skin appeared almost translucent, heightening rather than detracting from her sculpted beauty. Why couldn’t she look like that after a bad day? Dody felt quite the haggard old woman in comparison.
    ‘Are you ill, Florence?’ she asked with concern when her younger sister didn’t answer.
    ‘I’m tired, that’s all. He’ll explain; I’m sure I can count on that. Goodnight, Dody, sleep well. Why is it,’ she said through gritted teeth as she passed, ‘that policemen always make an innocent person feel guilty?’ She was too well brought up to slam the door, but her rapid departure had the same effect.
    ‘Matthew, what on earth is going on?’ Dody asked as he strode over to the drinks tray.
    He poured two stiff whiskies and handed one to Dody. ‘Here, you’re going to need this.’ He beckoned her over to the sofa where they sat side by side. ‘Your sister’s in trouble — we suspect her of involvement in the Necropolis Station bombing. I came over personally to request her attendance at an identification parade tomorrow. I could have sent a constable, but felt I should break the news myself. I have also confiscated her bicycle.’
    Dody tipped some whisky down her throat. The painful burn reminded her that this was not the first time she had heard such news regarding Florence, and it would probably not be the last. The suffragettes went out of their way to court trouble in order to draw attention to their cause. This was the first time, though, that Pike had been part of an investigation directly involving her sister. Even when he had been in the Suffragette Division he had managed to avoid such a confrontation. That one should occur was inevitable, she supposed, but still, she felt ill-prepared.
    ‘What is she supposed to have done?’ Dody asked shakily.
    ‘I am almost certain that she and one other were responsible for planting the bomb at the station. My witness couldn’t identify the second woman on account of the wide brimmed hat she was apparently wearing. Your sister’s head covering was modest, her face more exposed.’
    Dody almost choked on her whisky. Her sister was rash, she was irresponsible, but this was beyond the pale. ‘I don’t believe you.’
    ‘Good. I do not wish to believe it myself. I am praying that my eyewitness was mistaken.’
    ‘And if he is not …?’
    ‘She. Then I must do my duty and you must do yours. You have helped us investigate the suffragettes before,’ he reminded her. A log, precariously balanced above the flames, crashed into the fireplace.
    ‘But never my sister!’ Dody sprang from the sofa and began to pace the carpet. ‘I might not agree with how the militants go about airing their grievances, but I am as adamant as they are about the need for change. I am for female emancipation and equality as much as any of them.’
    Pike stood up and drew her towards him. ‘And you and women like you, the quiet achievers, do more for the cause than any amount of the screaming and caterwauling and wanton destruction that the militants get up to. I have a daughter; I want her to grow up in a world that gives her a fair chance. But I tell you this — the suffragettes’ tactics will not achieve equality. They are turning the people against them.’
    ‘I hope you are not expecting me to take sides, Matthew.’
    ‘Of course