In the following sentence is it 'grip' or 'grips'. Cannot figure it out.

The tilt and bounce of the carriage would repeatedly have thrown the two women onto one another had it not been for the strength of their ? .

Help.

Pete

They both sound wrong, don't they. I think it should be plural - they're each gripping - but it sounds wrong. And what are they gripping on to? (I know it may be clear from elsewhere) One option would be to re-cast the sentence.

Emma

Thanks Emma

Recasting.

Pete

cheat - add three words at the end

had it not been for their grip on one another.

Colin M

The first thing you'd grip in a carriage are the straps, I'd have thought. But it's interesting how hard it is to re-cast without knowing the context.

Emma

Blimey Emma,

I had handles, but straps are so much better.

Ta very much.

Pete

Colin

Thanks, but I've now 'recast' it.

Pete

straps are so much better

Two ladies (are they ladies, or women? All period females are one or the other) gripping straps and falling on each other sounds wonderfully racy...

Emma

Emma

Hey! Quit handing out good ideas!

Pete

<Added>

Officers are married to ladies
NCO's are married to wives
Enlisted man are married to women.

Is that right?

<Added>

Should the narrator, if his/her perspective is not that of the age being written about, use that kind of distinction in descriptions?

Pete

Should the narrator, if his/her perspective is not that of the age being written about, use that kind of distinction in descriptions?

It's a very nice question - one of voice as much as anything. Probably the narrator needn't, but we'd need to know how the other characters saw them. It's frightening how recently a person's class seemed as integral to their nature as their gender still does, and only slightly more mutable.

Emma