Strait Lace
By Rosemary Hayward
By Rosemary Hayward
It is 1905. Edwardian England. Harriet Loxley, the daughter of a vicar and niece to a prominent Nottingham lace manufacturer, spends her days playing cricket with her brother, scouring the countryside for botanical specimens, and never missing an opportunity to argue the case for political power for women. Given the chance to visit the House of Commons, Harriet witnesses the failure of a historic bill for women’s voting rights. She also meets the formidable Pankhurst women.
When Harriet gets the chance to study biology at Bedford College, London, she finds her opportunity to be at the heart of the fight. From marching in the street, to speaking to hostile crowds, to hurling stones through windows, just how far will Harriet go?
Book Title: Strait Lace
Series: Loxley Hall Books
Author: Rosemary Hayward
Publication Date: March 8th, 2025
Publisher: Rosemary Hayward
Pages: 400
Genre: Historical Fiction
Excerpt
Harriet focussed on the window on the opposite side of the wide road. To her left she heard the roar of the crowd. To her right someone yelled, “Now!”
Her stones flew hard, one smashing through the glass. Then one of Inga’s stones arced in a perfect trajectory and destroyed another pane.
“Votes for Women!” someone called out. Mary-from-college yelled, “Run, before they come for us.”
Harriet stayed by the window. Two women were clinging to a chimney stack on the roof opposite. If this was part of the original plan they’d not been told. Perhaps their stones were also part of a diversion and this was the major event of the day. The women had axes. What were they planning?
Inga had not gone with the others. She was holding onto the edge of the window frame, as if to stop it flying upwards and shutting them away from the events unfolding in front of them.
Harriet lent out of the window. The fireman who had grinned at them earlier was arguing with a police officer. He shrugged his shoulders and strode away from the canvas fire-hose lying limply along the edge of the street. A group of policemen surged forward. Some lifted the nozzle of the hose. Two struggled to open the water valve.
“They’ve seen them. Inga. They’re going to turn the hose on them.”
They watched as the young fireman refused to come forward. His men stood unmoving behind him but the policemen must have succeeded with the valve because the flat hose swelled and bucked and a stream of water shot up into the air. The policemen hauled at it and trained it on the women on the roof, who were soaked in an instant. The smaller of the two prised up a slate with an axe and hurled it into the street.
Inga grabbed Harriet’s arm. “They will fall. The slates are very steep. They must fall.”
“That’s Mary Leigh,” Harriet said. “You know her, the Union’s drum-major. She’s a firebrand. The tall, fair woman is Charlotte Marsh. They’ve taken their shoes off, look.”
The firemen propped a ladder against the wall and policemen swarmed up it. They were met with flying slates and shouts of Votes for Women! Charlotte Marsh staggered and slid feet first to the edge of the roof, a policeman catching her by the arm as she fetched up against the coping. The street was thirty feet below.
Harriet breathed, “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
Inga screamed, “They will die! They must die. Mein Gott. The other one is coming down now.”
Mary Leigh had turned onto her stomach and was letting herself down the treacherous slates feet first. Inga’s screams were echoed by dozens from the street below. All eyes were on the roof. The firemen pushed a wheeled fire escape against the wall. Two officers started dragging Charlotte Marsh along on her back.
“You ladies need to come with us.”
Harriet turned. Three policemen were inside the small bedroom, another was blocking the doorway. One had the bag that had held her stones in his hand.
Stay calm, be polite.
She raised a hand to cover her mouth. “This is it. Good luck.”
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Rosemary Hayward
Rosemary Hayward is the author of Margaret Leaving, a historical mystery uncovering little known events that occurred in the immediate aftermath to World War II. She is also the creator of Your Next Book, a deeply nerdy monthly newsletter describing a book picked from her bookshelf, or Kindle.
She is British by birth but now lives part of the year in California and part in southern Spain.
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