Mara: A Georgian Romance

by Barbara T. Cerny

  Chapter 9

  With Pete and Luke now safe from Snellings, the boys did not hold back in describing to the other servants how horrid the orphanage was. They had nothing left to protect.

  Jesse finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Termins,” she said to the butler one day, “isn’t there something we can do about that orphanage? I can’t stand the idea of all them poor babies being beat and starved like that, and that horrid Percy Snellings making a mint off our queen’s generosity.”

  “I don’t like it either, Jesse, but what do you think we servants can do about it?”

  “Call in the constabulary?”

  “And what will they do? Snellings already seems capable of passing inspection. I’m sure he knows how to deal with the constabulary.”

  “Maybe we just need to do something ourselves.”

  Termins became irritated with Jesse. “Like what? We have no power in this situation. There is nothing we can do!”

  Jesse refused to be thwarted. She decided to approach Jake. At fifteen, he was now big enough and old enough to do something about it. And, as a product of the orphanage, Jake would think of something.

  “Wow, Jesse,” he exclaimed when she talked to him. “You think we’re gonna invade it or something? We’re just a bunch of boys.”

  “Oh, sure. you whine and complain about it and tell us all these nasty stories, but you won’t do anything about it. Well, Jacob Abbot, I believed you had a backbone, but you are just as spineless as a baby jellyfish, you are! So just shut your yap about the whole bloody subject, ’cause I ain’t listenin’ no more!” With that, she turned her back, and left a steaming Jake in her wake.

  That did it. No one would ever get away with calling him spineless!

  He ran after Jesse and grabbed her by the arm. “All right, we’ll do something, but you’ll have to convince the entire staff to support this, and you have to pay attention to me. You want me do something? Well, then, I am in charge of it!”

  Jesse smiled. Men are so easily manipulated, she thought.

  *****

  Jake arranged for the children to all meet the next night. He rode out that afternoon to the cobbler shop and the smithy to fetch the boys.

  Luke and Pete had to sneak in the main gate, as only Luke could still fit through the old north gate. The five of them sat in the copse, the chilly late September evening air enveloping them. Lilac sat across Luke’s lap and let him scratch her belly.

  “We gotta come up with a plan to shut down Snellings and find a better director for that place. We need to have proof of all he is doing, and use it against him.”

  “I asked Miss Perkins what it was called when a witness wrote a report for the constabulary,” piped up Mara. “It is called an affidavit.”

  “Half a David? That’s a weird name for a report!”

  “Not half a David, you nitwit, affidavit.”

  Luke still didn’t understand. Sounded like half a David to him. He stuck his tongue out at Mara, who stuck hers out at him.

  “Anyway,” interrupted Jake, “we all need to write an affidavit of our experiences at the orphanage—what we saw, who Snellings sold and where, who he beat, the food situation, all that stuff. We need to have enough evidence to prove our point.”

  “You want me to write? That’ll take me forever!” moaned Luke.

  “You can dictate to me and I will write for you,” Mara replied. “You’ll just need to sign the papers.”

  “What’s Dick take, and where’s he taking it?”

  “You are so ignorant!” There went the tongues again. Jake rolled his eyes. This was like planning to take over a coconut tree with a bunch of monkeys.

  *****

  The crew enlisted the help of all the orphans still under Snellings’ watch. Since Jake couldn’t risk being seen by Snellings, Luke had to go back and recruit the work force. He whispered to one of the older boys to have as many of the orphans as possible meet them in a park a few blocks away just after dinner on Friday, and they’d explain everything.

  Jake, Luke, Pete, and Alvin waited on a park bench as the orphans trickled in a few at a time. About twenty showed up altogether. Many of them remembered Jake, and had been in the meal hall when he slugged Snellings last year. He was a bit of a folk hero to them.

  “Wow, mate. You be alive! We’ve been wonderin’ about you for months!”

  “What’s this all about?”

  “Where have you all been? You all just disappeared!”

  “We thought ye’d be dead by now!”

  “You look good, mates. What you been doin’ all this time?”

  The questions came in rapid succession, with a dozen conversations going on at once.

  Jake finally held up his hand to silence everyone. “We are here to lead an invasion of the orphanage, and rid the place of Snellings once and for all.”

  The orphans stood in stunned silence, and then started yelling and clapping.

  Jake held his hand up again to quiet them down. “And we need your help.” The children looked around at each other, nodding their heads in assent and smiling. “As you know, Luke, Pete, Al, and I can’t show our faces in the orphanage anymore, so you all have to be our eyes and ears.”

  He had their attention now.

  *****

  Each evening, Mara and Jake waited in the copse for the orphans to come with their reports. The boys had shown them the secret entrance under the bushes, so they could come and go without detection. The orphans had arranged to follow Snellings, the cook, the delivery man, and other adults around to gather evidence of their activities. They changed places often so the adults wouldn’t become suspicious. Plus, by their very circumstances, the orphans were already good at sneaking around and hiding in small places.

  Mara wrote it all down hurriedly in strange shorthand only she could decipher. After her morning lessons, she transcribed it all neatly onto nice writing paper. She was aghast at the cruel and barbaric activities going on in the place. It was worse than the boys had let on.

  Mara and the boys always took food with them to the copse, using newly-sewn bags made from napkins. They gave food as payment for the information, and the orphans were very grateful.

  Within three weeks, they had compiled a vast amount of evidence, with names, dates, and places. With the affidavits from the four older boys, they felt they were ready to move. Mara put the evidence neatly together in a package.

  They first let Termins read the document. They then briefed all the staff late one night as they gathered in the dining room, the Markhams having left for a dinner party. Only Calvin and Jake were missing, as they had to take the lord and lady to the event.

  Mara slowly read each report and each day’s activities to the staff, who responded with gasps, moans, and cries.

  Each morning, the delivery cart arrived at the orphanage with the day’s allotment of food. The food came from Buckingham Palace, straight from the royal kitchens. The cook pulled about one-quarter of the vegetables and flour from the wagon for the orphans; sometimes the staff took a single carton of meat. The wagon crew delivered the rest to various taverns in neighborhoods several blocks away. The orphans had no problem asking people on the street the names of the taverns and the tavern owners receiving the rations.

  Once a week, the orphans followed Percy Snellings as he rode from tavern to tavern and collected money from the owners as payment for the food deliveries.

  One bold orphan actually asked a tavern owner who that man was and was told, “Mr. Cannon, the food merchant. He’s a good man to deal with. Always on time. Always good quality food. Always a good price.”

  A shipment of clothing came in from the ladies’ guild while they were on the case. The head mistress picked through it for a few items, but most of them ended up at a clothing store several blocks away. A few days later, the boys followed Snellings back to the store where he received money from the proprietor.

  *****

  The worst stories were about the children
being beaten and sold.

  Jake and Mara interviewed the orphans as they came to the copse, and recorded all the eyewitness accounts from as far back as the children could remember.

  Snellings sold boys all around the city. He spent a good part of each week riding around to merchants, extolling the virtues of the boys in his orphanage. He didn’t receive much for them, as there were always neighborhood boys available to take many of the available jobs.

  Girls were always sold to the brothels. They brought the best prices, as young girls were always a commodity for which gentlemen would pay a premium. The horrified women on the Markham staff put their hands over their mouths when they heard this, tears streaming down their cheeks. Mara read the list of girls’ names, their ages, and the places they went. Most were gone from the orphanage by the age of twelve or thirteen.

  What no one knew, however, was what happened to the money.

  Snellings’ apartment was on the third floor of the building that housed the orphanage, and any orphan found near it would receive a severe beating. Therefore, none took the risk.

  But they all realized someone would have to sneak inside to see what was going on. Jake had told Mara that he and Alvin would probably have to break into the apartment to get the evidence they needed. They weren’t sure how the servants would feel about committing the crime of breaking and entering, so they decided to ask them.

  The staff agreed the break-in was necessary. They talked for a while about how best to break into Snellings’ apartment. They finally concluded that Jake and Alvin had to do it while Snellings was on his tavern run, and the other orphans would need to distract the cook and head mistress. A plan began to form. Mara sat back, thrilled that the adults were taking a major role in the rescue mission. This just might work, she thought.

  The first thing the boys would have to do was pick a lock. Since no one knew how to do that, Basil dismantled a door knob from one of the guest rooms and took it to the stables. He, Jake, and Alvin worked on it for several days, figuring out how the locking mechanism worked. They then reassembled it and spent a couple more days trying to pick it using their newfound knowledge. They tried every manner of tool on the estate. Pete and Luke brought in tools from the smithy and the cobbler shop as well. Alvin finally succeeded in picking the lock with one of the cobbler tools used to pull laces through small holes.

  After that, nothing could him. Within the week, Alvin could pick every lock in the house in under a minute. Jake could also pick them, but it took him three times longer. Basil didn’t even try. Alvin became a lock-picking expert.

  Lord Markham noticed a difference in his staff that week. They were everywhere at once, and very distracted. He saw them hanging out in hallways, and they seemed to be watching him and Lady Maureen more closely than usual. When he questioned Termins, he just mumbled something about cabin fever and the staff needing fresh air.

  They waited until Thursday, all the while continuing to gather information from the orphans who were still trailing the adults at the orphanage. Mara’s package now had a full month’s worth of information, places, and dates.

  *****

  Jake and Alvin positioned themselves on the corner two buildings away from the Queen’s Children’s Home, both wearing dark clothes and hats with wide brims to hide their faces. At nine o’clock sharp, Snellings left the attached stable on horseback, and rode past the boys on the way to his rounds. About five minutes later, a small girl walked up to them and told them to come with her.

  As they followed her to the back door, they heard a commotion inside the building.

  “They be havin’ a big fight,” the little girl whispered as she let them in. “We are all going to pretend to be in it.” And off she ran to join in the melee.

  Jake and Alvin wasted no time finding the back stairs, and climbed silently to the top floor. Alvin knelt in front of the door, while Jake looked down the staircase.

  In seconds, Alvin had picked the lock, and they were in, closing the door behind them. “El,” said Jake, “I hope you remain a gardener and don’t take up a new profession.”

  “Blimey, man. I don’t think I wanna do this for a living. My heart couldn’t take it.”

  They looked around the apartment. It was very well appointed. In fact, it was full of expensive furniture, paintings, and accessories. It was more richly decorated than the Markham home. Jake and Alvin were astonished. The orphans lived like rats, while the orphan master lived like a king.

  After shaking off their initial shock, the two boys made their way to the study, and searched through all the drawers, looking for something that would lead them to the money.

  Alvin opened a cabinet, and found an entire stack of ledgers on the bottom shelf.

  “Look at these!”

  “Oh, my God. These go back for years.”

  “The arse’s wrote every penny.”

  “Jackpot!”

  “This ain’t the most current one.”

  “Let’s just grab one of the recent ones, and get out of here!”

  “This one is from January through April of this year.”

  “Perfect, hand it to me.”

  Jake tucked the thin book into the back of his pants, and pulled his shirt over it.

  Alvin opened the door slowly, peeking out to make sure no one wandered the hallway. Seeing nothing but open space, the two boys crept down the stairs and out the back door, and then ran like the devil was on their tail.

  Chapter 10

  Now it was up to Mara.

  “Mother?”

  “Yes, my dear?” Lady Maureen sat in the parlor, working on some needlepoint.

  “I need to speak with you about the Queen’s Children’s Home. Do you know about it?”

  “Of course, child. It is one of the charities our ladies’ guild sponsors. How did you hear about it?”

  “Jake and Alvin came from there.”

  “Who?” Lady Maureen didn’t even look up from her task.

  Mara blew out air in frustration. She sometimes wondered if her mother even lived here. “Jacob Abbot, our stable hand, and Alvin Bitters, our gardener apprentice.”

  “Oh, yes! I didn’t know they had come from there. We did a lovely thing then, hiring them.”

  “Yes, we did a lovely thing,” mocked Mara, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, Mother, I have a tale to tell, and I need your undivided attention, so please put down your needlepoint for a while.”

  Lady Maureen complied, looking at her daughter and wondering for the umpteenth time how she was ever going to find a husband for this poor, fat child.

  “Mother, I want to read you an affidavit. Please bear with me, as it is rather long, but you need to hear it all.”

  Just as she had with the staff, Mara read the entire report to her mother.

  When she read the part about the brothels, her mother stood up, dropping her needlepoint to the floor. “NO! NO!”

  Mara smiled inwardly. She had her mother now. She finished reading the report, as her mother paced around the room. “Mother, I want to do something. I want to put Mr. Snellings in jail. I want a real director put in charge who will take care of the children. I need your help, though.”

  “Did all this come from Jacob and Alvin?”

  “No, the other orphans have been gathering the information for us. We sent them out to follow Mr. Snellings and the other adults in order to compile this report.”

  “I haven’t seen any children in here. On our grounds? Where have you been meeting them?”

  “They crawled through a hole in the wall next to the old north gate, and met me in my little copse. I then took notes and wrote the final report.”

  Lady Maureen stared at her daughter amazed that the girl wanted to help the orphans, and that she had come up with a plan to collect all the information. Miss Perkins always told her Mara was the smartest of her three children, and Lady Maureen began to believe it.

  “Of course. What do you want me to do? I assume you have a plan worked out
”

  “Yes. We need you to arrange for Jacob to meet with the queen’s inspector. We want him to have all the evidence so he can do something about Mr. Snellings.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Chapter 11

  Not only did Lady Maureen stick to her word, she did even more than promised.

  Several days later, a letter arrived for her from the palace.

  They were not just going to meet with the inspector; they had an audience with the queen herself! The head of the ladies’ guild, Lady Patricia, the Countess of Bute, was a first cousin to the queen. She arranged for the audience with Queen Charlotte.

  Lady Maureen immediately launched into action. She had until ten o’clock the following morning to prepare young Jacob to appear before royalty.

  As soon as she read the letter, she told Termins to ready Peaches and a horse for Jake, as they had some shopping to do. In fifteen minutes, they were out the gate and on their way to a clothing shop. The tailor fitted Jake for a completely new outfit: pants, shirt, jacket, and even stockings. Lady Maureen paid a premium to have them tailored and at the house by eight that night.

  As the tailor measured Jake, Mara’s mother looked at the boy closely for the first time. He was a handsome young man. He had a strong, square jaw and a well-formed Roman nose. There was a slight cleft in his chin that made her want to touch it. His lips were full, and his cheeks had the images of dimples. She was sure his smile must be deadly. He had a full head of wavy, dark-blond hair, tied back. She noted long eyelashes surrounding intense and intelligent hazel eyes. And he was tall. Lady Maureen imagined this boy could hold his own in the aristocracy if only he had been born to the right parents.