Chapter 7 #2
“The Cable Street riots taught me that the world is coming apart as we know it, not just the American Revolution,” he said. “My God, if we had not been able to hold the government, imagine what would’ve happened.”
She shuddered. “Yes,” she said. “How true. I was but a girl, but I remember it.”
“Were you in London?” he asked, stunned.
She nodded. “Yes. I saw people ripped out of their coaches. Because my father wasn’t afraid, he went out amongst the rioters. He was a giant of a man, and he thought that his presence might calm the crowds, and he calmed some of them. Most he could not.”
“But you can’t calm the masses when they get like that, and he brought you with him,” he exclaimed.
She raised her chin. “Am I not his heir?”
“You were a child,” he countered, furious at the man who was supposed to protect her. Yes, her father might have taught her to stand up for herself, but he had also put her at terrible risk. “Have your parents any sense?”
She laughed. “Only the sense to raise me strong,” she said.
“You’re lucky you’re alive,” he replied.
She sighed, but there was a look of fondness on her face, as if she wouldn’t give her upbringing up for anyone, no matter how odd or dangerous it had been. “I don’t disagree with you. But those riots taught me something,” she said.
“And what’s that?” he queried.
“I can still see their faces,” she said softly.
“The mob? The individuals in the crowd? It was as if they had lost their collective minds and could be made to do anything. And over that week, when the people ran wild and couldn’t be controlled?
I learned that if we don’t listen to the voices of the people, they will come for us, and they will tear us apart bit by bit, raking the flesh off our bones, and they will bay like mad dogs for our blood.
” She hesitated, then added, “And rightly so. No one should have to watch their baby starve or die from want of medicine.”
“That is a very vivid picture,” he said. “But your sentiment is to be lauded.”
“It’s an accurate picture,” she returned.
The small room was thick with the dire promise of the future, for he feared that the leaders of England would not learn in time.
It had taken the army coming in to stop the riots on Cable Street. Hundreds had been shot. And eventually the crowds had been controlled. He hoped to God London never saw the like again.
But he knew only good, compassionate leadership could see that. And frankly, he did not know many compassionate leaders.
“Well, my Lady Ruby, you are a surprise. When you said scandalous, I had no idea we would be talking about the end of nations,” he teased, desperate to lighten the moment since they could fix nothing in this small room of a grand house this late at night.
Her serious look diminished. She blinked, and the dark look in her eyes changed to one of amusement. “What did you think we were going to do?” she asked, folding her arms just under her beautiful breasts, causing them to plump into twin swells that made him hunger to cup them, to taste them.
“Well, I had an idea when you said that life could be exciting.”
“Don’t you think revolution is exciting?” she teased.
“I think revolution is terrifying,” he returned on half a groan, “because usually it doesn’t work out.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can agree with that.”
“There are many instances, even in our own country, where civil wars and revolutions led to terrible things,” he said.
She sighed. “Must you downplay my hopes for the future?”
“No,” he said, “but I won’t pander to them either. And I don’t think you want me to.”
“You say that because you don’t want things to change,” she insisted. “Because you are a man of power.”
“No,” he said frankly, stunned by their discourse. Stunned by her intelligence but also her naiveté. Bloody hell, he wished he was still that naive. “That’s not why I’m saying it.”
“All right. Then explain it to me.”
“I’m sure people are having this conversation all over Europe.
It’s being discussed over and over by people like you and myself.
Though you might think that it is just you and me, it is not,” he said as he closed the small distance between them.
“But while you are so young and you have hope and ardor in your breast, I have seen the darker side of politics. I have no desire to see the streets run red with the blood of people who will be the casualties of such a war, just as they always have been. Do you see? The people always pay. No one gets in power that you think will get in power, and those who are in power will be merciless with those who are not. Will that be so much better? Perhaps the Americans will succeed. I fear others who make the attempt will not. And the blood will be beyond imagining.”
She gazed up at him. “You really have thought about this,” she said, surprised.
“I was little more than a boy when the American Revolution happened. I’ll be a man when the French one happens, and I’m sure it will.
The king and the queen are not quick-witted enough to bend fast or far enough to accommodate what’s happening over there, and it is spreading like a fire throughout the land.
I do not want to witness it,” he said. “I don’t want to witness the hell that’s coming, but I will, and you will.
Our children will. And I will do what I can to remain strong through it and to protect as many people as I can, but I will not be sunshine, joy, and sugar about it either. ”
She sucked in a long breath. “You care about people?”
He ground his teeth.
“You really do,” she said, her eyes searching his face.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Is it so surprising?”
“Yes,” she said. “Because you always seem to be moving so fast. One might think you don’t care about anything.”
“One might say the same thing about you,” he said.
“Well, perhaps that’s our curse then. We both care too much, and that’s why we move so fast. Because the pain cuts too deep.”