The Blood Upon the Rose Read Free

filling your head with such drivel? This is my country, just as much as it is yours and your father's. Surely you've been brought up to know that?’
    ‘I was brought up to know it, yes. But I've taught myself better. We've been stealing from the people for hundreds of years. That's why there's so much poverty everywhere - why so many had to go overseas in the Famine! That's why people like you and father are rich and have big houses and estates here - because we stole the land from the people!’
    ‘Catherine!’ Her father put his hand on her arm. 'Please - stop now! At once!’
    ‘No! I'm sorry, Father. You know how I feel - why shouldn't I say it? I don't want to live the rest of my life like a rich thief, stealing the land from the poor! I'm going to be a doctor, work for the people, serve them! And just because I was born into the same . . . class . . . as this man, it doesn't mean I support the terror he's waging against the people of Ireland. Arresting them, shooting and torturing them - just because they have voted for freedom!’
    French had risen to his feet. His face was bright red and his hands were clasped behind him. He would have stood ramrod stiff, but the train was going over a bumpy patch of line, so he stood with his legs a little apart, rocking slightly to keep his balance. His voice was sharp, hard. It was clear he felt his hospitality had been grievously insulted.
    ‘I do not shoot men and there is no torture that I am aware of. My job is to ensure that the law of this country is upheld - no more and no less. Give me one example of unprovoked shooting or torture, young woman, if you please. One, go on -  just one!’
    Tears of frustration came into Catherine's eyes. ‘You arrest men all the time, and they are beaten and starved in prison. How do I know what happens in all the prisons? I have not been ...’
    ‘You have not been there and you do not know. Men are not tortured. I asked for an example of one man who has been shot without cause.’
    ‘Thomas Clarke, Padraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, James Connolly - you had to tie him to a chair, didn't you, because he was so ill he couldn't stand!’
    ‘Those men were traitors. Tried by court martial in 1916 and found guilty of leading armed rebellion in time of war, with guns obtained from the enemy. They were given every benefit of law. You have a strange idea of justice, young woman, if  …’
    ‘Thomas Ashe, then! Was that justice - to arrest a man for nothing, and then kill him because he would not eat? Thrusting a tube down his throat until he was throttled, like the poor suffragettes!’
    French's face twitched. ‘Clumsy fool of a doctor. It should never have happened; we don't do it now. Anyway, that was two years ago, young lady, before I had this office. I asked you for one example - one - of a man or woman that has been shot without reason since I was Viceroy.’
    ‘Oh, without reason! Well …’
    ‘Unjustly, then. You imply that soldiers - or policemen, is it? Which? - go around this country, with my blessing, shooting men on sight. Tell me one instance, then, and I shall have it investigated.’
    The atmosphere in the carriage was electric. No one in it could pretend not to be listening to the extraordinary, shouted argument between His Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and this insolent slip of a girl. The men all stood around, watching, while she unconsciously exercised her woman's privilege to remain seated. Catherine gloried in it. Whatever happened, she was striking her blow! Only . . . she could not quite remember an actual instance . . .
    ‘Oh, there have been dozens of cases!’
    ‘So I hear. Tell me one.’
    The men waited. Unexpectedly, the train rattled into a tunnel. In the sudden darkness, Catherine was again seized by her wild fantasy of snatching a pistol. But - where? Then the train came out into the light again, and the men were still in their places, swaying slightly with the movement of the train,