Their incantation worked. Arthur’s throat closed up. The muscles tightening, until everything became locked inside.
“These men came to hear a message, but the actor can’t deliver. Tell them about the wife, Bex. That’ll calm things down.”
The taunts, the threats to Ester worked. Arthur pivoted to step down, but he saw Ester with her hand to her mouth. A few paces behind Phineas, she looked so nervous, so scared for him.
Arthur had put her in this position. He should have known she’d be rash and her fear for him would lead her here. The cause, his fight, had put her at risk. But still she was here, pulling for him.
He couldn’t let her down. He must speak to this angry crowd about what was right.
“Gentlemen.” He coughed and filled his lungs. “Gentlemen, I’ll tell you about a relationship of black and white, about love and hate. They’re the most important relationships. Right and wrong have a marriage. They need each other. They aren’t the same without the other, for how can we judge what is true without knowing the consequence of falsehoods? Neither partner is the same. Neither can replace the other. They both have a place.”
He took the flyer and waved. “If this was your brother, your father, your uncle, would you stand for the injustice? Are you not your brother’s keeper because you don’t see him in chains in London? Do you love your brother any less because you are here, and he’s in Jamaica or South Africa?”
Pointing at the flyer, he let his voice boom. “This man on the flyer asks a simple question. One that is as clear as black and white. Is he a man? Yes.”
Arthur’s voice grew in power, and he glanced at Ester as if she were the only one in the audience at Covent Garden. “Yes, he is a man. For he loves like you and me, he’ll bleed for what he believes in, like you and me. This man will lay down his life for the lover of his soul—just like you or me. I’ll lay down my life for what is true, for the lover of my soul.”
Ester began to clap but her friend grabbed her hands.
His wife heard him. Maybe she understood.
Arthur shook the poster again. “He’s your brother. Enslavement is our problem, even if we don’t own slaves. It’s the scandal of our lifetime, the stain on our humanity. You must press. You must push. You must do what you can to right the wrongs. For at the end of your life, you will give an account. Let abolition or indifference not be your haunting shame.”
He felt the hiss of the bullet even before it struck the paper. Where it came from he didn’t know but he knew the crowd would descend into chaos. He leaped down as another shot was fired.
He lunged past Phineas to Ester and her friend and surrounded them in his arms. He pushed them back until they were behind a tree.
Out the corner of his eye he saw a gun leveled in their direction. The bullet would hit Phineas. He stood to warn him, but Ester held his coat.
“No, Bex.”
“Not when I can help.”
Arthur started running. The hate he had for Phineas fled to the back of his mind. He was a brother to be saved. In a running leap, he jumped as the gun fired, and knocked Phineas to the ground. The bullet whizzed past.
The crowd swarmed the fellow shooting. Chaos engulfed the Serpentine.
Phineas jumped up and offered a hand to Arthur. “Bex. You saved my life.”
Breathing hard, Arthur stood on his own, brushing sand from his coat. Then he headed back to Ester.
Phineas caught his arm, the one that still smarted. “Bex, I said thank you.”
“I heard. Use your power for good, Phineas. That’s how you can thank me.” He trudged away toward the women.
He lifted them from huddling behind the tree. “Miss Burghley, where’s your carriage? I am going to make sure you are safely on your way before I take my wife home.
Miss Burghley nodded. “This way.” Her eyes were big as saucers, bigger than Ester’s.
He put his wife’s palm on his arm, but she pulled away. “No. I’ll go with Miss Burghley.”
This was the first time she’d ever done that. Her jaw was tight, her posture stiff. She was furious. “You’re safe. That’s all I wanted, Bex.”
“No, Ester, you’re coming with me. There is much to say.”
He kept both women close until they found Miss Burghley’s carriage. Helping her inside, he sent her away.
Now just his wife remained. He wasn’t letting her go, not until they talked.
