God's Crusade

Part Thirty

Imogen found herself sitting next to Elizabeth Munroe. It was a fairly typical party social occasion, with the wives all getting together in a reasonably informal atmosphere with no particular agenda, but it helped Rob if she was on good terms with the right people. He was a junior minister, so about halfway up the food chain, if that, whilst Mrs Munroe represented the elite. But she was also really nice. Imogen did not find it hard to talk to her, and she was having a reasonably pleasant time. She was in full regalia, of course. It was almost impossible not to be when socialising with the new aristocracy as the likes of the Munroe's were called in the papers, but she just accepted the restrictions and discomfort as the price she had to pay for their hidden life. In twenty years of the modern renaissance, people like her had learned to compromise. She had been twenty two and madly in love with her new husband when he was forced to switch his allegiances from the Conservatives to the Christian Democrats, and right from the start he made it clear that he had to fight the extremists from within, because it was the only way. It was a difficult time. Being an MP was his dream, and he truly wanted to make a difference, so he had to stay on the inside. But the insiders, the infamous Westminster elite, were the first to adopt the full doctrine.

Rob agreed with some of the policies, as did most of the electorate of course, but he was forced to vote for others, and pay lip service to them himself, simply in order to stay in the game. They never really planned it that way, it just happened somehow and it built up into a gigantic performance. Imogen started attending Reformist services with her husband, because he more or less had to and she came along as part of the package. Then Dee, her oldest and dearest friend, needed their help, and it all rather snowballed from there. Her boys did not pose any additional problems, but Charlotte was literally a growing cause for concern as she got older and older, and they had a younger daughter too. Like many of their friends, their real friends, they were living a lie. Not only for the sake of their careers but because the new laws kept forcing them into corners it was impossible to ignore.

"Charlotte really must come over and spend some time with Emily and Caitlin, I'll ask our guardian to arrange it, Imogen...and you and Robin must come to dinner?" Elizabeth said sweetly, resting her hand lightly on Imogen's, confirming that Mrs Sullivan had made the right impressions. She was playing a role. Not quite the one she expected to play when she met Rob at Cambridge, but she was hardly the only woman who had seen her horizons shrink over the last twenty years. It was not the life she wanted but she realised that it was the safe and sensible thing to do. She just had to get that through to Charlotte.

۩

Charlotte Sullivan opened her mouth to accept her muzzle with obvious reluctance. She was already dressed to welcome her guests and Dee had already laced to her into her mittens but she hated the muzzle. She hated the idea of even pretending to be a maiden, but since her long delayed maidenhood began it was becoming a regular experience. Her parents were socially active, as it was part of her father's boring job, and they could not hide her away forever. She realised that, and even appreciated the huge efforts everyone made to protect her as much as possible, but she still resented it, of course. They were rich, and they could have moved abroad like lots of other people. Her uncle had, her mother's brother, and her cousins had never worn a muzzle in their lives, and it was all so unfair.

"Charlie, don't look at me like that...I should have put you in a diaper too...you really do have to behave." Dee sighed as she stepped back to admire the finished article. Charlotte had a naturally tiny waist, and the corset only enhanced it, whilst the skirts billowing out from her hips made it an admirable feature. "Some of the girls coming today live like this all the time and their guardians would spank them for that expression, let alone some of the cheek you give me."

Charlotte made a face and curtseyed as a joke. But she did behave. Her guests came with their guardians and she suffered a liquid lunch and then a painful afternoon chattering about nothing in particular, in God's love. She knew Dee was right of course. She knew she was luckier than most, but that did not make the time go any quicker. She did not see why her father had to be the one to stem the tide of Reformism, although she knew he was passionate about doing so, because it trapped her in a living nightmare. In her room, she read novels of different times, when girls were free to do what they wanted to do, and she longed to be like them and not have to play her parent's stupid games anymore. But she could not hide away in her room all the time, no matter how much she wanted too.