Free When Nights Were Cold by Susanna Jones

listening to his friends talk about their offices in the city. When he woke – or thought he woke, for in fact he was in a strange dream – he found himself in a new world, a hundred years in the future, where people travelled in fast motor cars and families had their own hot-air balloons. And, although Charles was still a city banker, he was now a woman named Caroline. His friends were women too and they were doing the same work as before. A farcical series of events followed – I did not quite understand these – involving hot-air balloons, people in strange androgynous clothes and lions roaming through the parks of London. At the end, Charles woke up, back in 1909. He was delighted to be in a familiar world, but was no longer a complacent fool. He spent his evenings wandering between gentlemen’s clubs on the Mall giving out copies of Votes for Women.
    â€˜Very interesting,’ I said. ‘And inventive.’
    â€˜It’s not entirely my idea. I borrowed it from a play my father’s friend produced. It’s called When Knights Were Bold by Charles Marlowe – who is in fact a woman – but in that play the character wakes up and finds himself in the chivalrous past. I don’t think it has a political message like mine, though.’
    â€˜Hot-air balloons?’ Morgan looked uncertain. ‘Do you think everyone will have one in a hundred years?’
    â€˜I’m not H.G.Wells. I’m not trying to tell the future. I’m just playing. I think a hot-air balloon would be the perfect stage device for taking Charles into the future. That’s all.’
    â€˜Does your play have a title?’
    â€˜ Turn Back the Clocks!’
    â€˜Marvellous,’ said I.
    â€˜Preposterous,’ said Parr. ‘Women will not be voting in parliamentary elections a hundred years from now and neither will they be turning into men. Nor men into women.’ She took her knife and fork and played bully-off with a garden pea.
    â€˜Do you have to have to be rude about everything, Parr? I told you that my play is just for fun. You need to have an imagination. Well, I suppose that you don’t.’ For the first time since I had known her, Locke appeared upset. ‘And besides, we shall have the vote a hundred years from now, otherwise there’s not much point in any of us being here at all.’
    â€˜Your play could be a great campaigning tool,’ said Morgan. ‘All students would want to see it. If the political message is softened with the humour of a farce, you might even convert Celia Horsfield and her friends.’
    Celia Horsfield had opposed the motion at a recent debate on votes for women. It was carried by a clear majority and Horsfield had threatened to invite well-known anti-suffrage campaigners to college to convert us. Horsfield was a vain, not very clever woman, so we found it easy to mock her.
    â€˜She wouldn’t understand the point, even in a light comedy.’
    â€˜You’re wrong,’ said Parr, ‘to assume that we’re unanimous in supporting votes for women and that you’re superior in your position to Celia Horsfield. I myself am absolutely opposed to women’s suffrage. Every time I hear about it, my teeth are set on edge.’
    â€˜But why?’ I took a small mouthful of pork and chewed it slowly. I had not eaten all day, but did not want to appear hungry when I was supposed to be unwell.
    â€˜Because women don’t need the vote. It is not because I’m foolish or silly or haven’t bothered listening to the arguments that I believe this. I’m not a goose like Celia Horsfield. It’s very simple. Almost all women live and work in the domestic sphere and are not concerned with politics.’
    â€˜That’s nonsense—’
    â€˜Women aren’t in public life in the way that men are and don’t need political influence. It’s dreary and depressing to see all this conflict