Dangerous Times on Dressmakers’ Alley by Rosie Clarke EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Authors: Rosie Clarke
- Language: English
- Genre: 20th Century Historical Romance eBooks
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 3.9 MB
- Price: Free
‘I have a task for you,’ Mary Winston announced to her young friend,
Winnie, that springlike morning in March 1923. ‘It is something that should
suit you because you like making clothes and you’re good at it.’
‘That was one thing Mum taught me,’ Winnie Brown replied, looking at
Mary curiously. ‘She worked as a seamstress for a while and I can at least
sew a straight seam.’ She waited, but though Mary’s eyes sparkled, she said
nothing. ‘Well, go on! Tell me…’ With her thick, rather unruly dark hair
swept back off her face with combs, Winnie was attractive rather than
pretty, but her eyes were bright and alert as she looked at her friend. ‘Don’t
keep me in suspense!’
Mary laughed at her impatience. ‘I – or rather the Movement – want
you to work in a clothing workshop for a while, perhaps only a few weeks –
perhaps longer.’
‘But why?’ Winnie looked at her, puzzled. They were both members of
the Women’s Movement. Winnie lived in a hostel provided by the
Movement and worked a few hours each day in their office just around the
corner from Oxford Street. She received only a small wage and her lodgings
in remuneration, but it suited her and she liked the friendship she’d found
with the other volunteers. ‘Is it important?’
‘Yes, Winnie, it is.’ Mary smiled at her. ‘One of the most important
things we’ve asked of you so far…’
‘You know I would do anything for the cause – and for you.’ Winnie
had marched, protested, and shouted outside the Houses of Parliament and
Buckingham Palace; she’d stood on cold street corners with flags and a
collecting tin and spent ages addressing envelopes to be sent out to
supporters, but this sounded very different.
Mary was Winnie’s true friend. Without her, she might have ended up
struggling for a living and perhaps driven to things beyond the imagining of
a decent girl. She would be happy to do whatever was asked of her.
‘We want you to do some investigating for us, Winnie. We have decided
to highlight the terrible conditions that some women are forced to work in.
It isn’t enough simply to campaign for equality, though we have made some
headway recently. The Matrimonial Causes Bill will be a triumph when it
goes through – if it does. Now, at last, women will be able divorce an
unfaithful husband, whereas before it was only the husband who could
apply to the courts.’
The recent bill, introduced in February by a private member, was a huge
victory for women’s rights and they’d celebrated it, although it had not yet
passed parliament, everyone believed it must.
‘However, we should not rest on our laurels. Girls are being exploited
by their employers. It is time that some of these wicked establishments,
who pay so poorly, were held up to the light – exposed for what they are –
little more than slave drivers!’ Mary looked angry.
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