‘I’ll come with you,’ said Arabella.
They put on their hats and left the house. It was a fine June day, cool but sunny, and the town wore its fresh morning coat, bright with dew. They found Amos and family still at breakfast. Elsie’s children were growing up fast. Stephen was away at Oxford, Billy and Richie looked like young men, and Martha had the beginnings of a woman’s figure. Only Georgie was still a child.
Extra places were laid for the grandparents, and coffee was poured. Spade waited until the youngsters had finished and left, then said: ‘Did you read that Parliament has been dissolved?’
Amos said: ‘Yes. We need someone to run against the useless Frogmore.’
Spade smiled. ‘We do indeed. And I think it should be you.’
‘I was afraid of that.’
‘You’re a popular mayor. You can beat Frogmore.’
‘I hate to disappoint you.’ Amos looked at Elsie for support.
Elsie said: ‘We’re not going to London. I’m not willing to leave my Sunday school.’
‘You don’t have to,’ Spade said. ‘Amos could go to London on his own when he needed to be there.’ But he felt he was losing theargument. Amos was just too comfortable as he was. He even looked contented. He had put on some weight.
Amos shook his head. ‘I wasted half my life not being married to Elsie,’ he said. ‘Now that we’re together, I’m not going to spend months up in London without her.’
‘But surely—’
Arabella interrupted Spade. ‘Drop it, my love,’ she said. ‘They mean it.’
Spade dropped it. Arabella was usually right about such things.
Amos said: ‘But we need a candidate. And I think the best prospect is the other man at this table.’ He looked at Spade.
‘I’m not educated,’ Spade said.
‘You can read and write, and you’re smarter than most.’
‘But I can’t make speeches with quotations in Latin and Greek.’
‘Nor can I. That kind of thing is unnecessary. The Oxford men love to show off in debates, of course, but most of them are quite ignorant about the industries that make our country prosperous. You’d be a very effective advocate for repeal of the Combination Act.’
Spade became thoughtful. The act had been a determined attempt by the ruling elite to crush all efforts by working people to better their lot. He was being offered the chance to help abolish that wicked law. How could he refuse?
Arabella said: ‘Would they really repeal the act? Don’t they all just want to keep the workers under their thumbs?’
‘Some do, but members of Parliament aren’t all the same,’ Amos said. ‘Joseph Hume is the leader of the Radicals, and he’s against the act. The editor ofThe Scotsmannewspaper agrees with Hume. And there’s a retired tailor called Francis Place who briefs Hume and all the more enlightened members about the bad effects of the act. Place also supports a political newspaper calledThe Gorgon.’
Spade turned to Arabella. ‘How would you feel about going to London?’
‘I’d miss Elsie and the grandchildren, of course,’ she said. ‘But we could still spend much of the year here. And living in London could be quite lively.’
Spade could see by the gleam in her eye that she meant it. She was sixty-three, but she had more fizz then most women half her age.
‘Let me think about it,’ he said.
The next day he agreed to stand.
And he won.
*
The Irish who had come to Kingsbridge twenty years ago, brought by Hornbeam to break the strike, had melted into the town’s population and were no longer called scabs. They still had charming Irish accents, but their children did not. They went to the town’s small Catholic church, but otherwise made no show of their religion. In most respects they were mill hands like the rest. Colin Hennessy, their leader, came into Sal’s shop often.
