The back of the bodice looked like the back of the skirt, with a ribbon hiding hooks and an extra fold of material coming from the sides. An added feature was a yoke of material that partially covered Mara’s back, looking like a ruffle but not as elaborate. It, too, covered hooks and extra material.
When Mara discarded the waist ribbon and lifted the back ribbons, she could unhook all the hooks, flip the material around to the front, hook them back up and place down a new set of ribbons to hide the hooks. She could remove the sleeves, leaving only a wisp of white satin shaped in leaves at the top. In essence, she could quickly and easily transform the wedding gown into a plain ice-blue satin dress. Only the yoke and the sleeve tops would remain the same. If someone saw a glimpse of the ice blue material under the gown, it blended well enough into the white that people would think it was a mere shadow or play of light.
Her hair would go into a bonnet and scarf, which would completely cover its unique color. Cecilia would have the bonnet tied to her lower leg under her skirt. The ability to transform the dress was the real reason Mara had wanted to use a seamstress completely unknown to her mother.
As Cecilia dressed Mara, she checked and rechecked the hooks, making sure nothing was improperly exposed.
Just before eleven-fifteen, Cecilia tied the bonnet securely to her leg, and opened the door of Mara’s room to watch her beloved charge walk regally down the hall to her destiny.
All the servants, as well as the ladies, were waiting in the great hallway for Mara’s entrance. And what an entrance it was. As she turned the corner and stood at the top of the stairs, she heard several people gasp and Portia exclaim, “She’s an angel from heaven!”
Mara held her head high as she gracefully descended the staircase, focused on the people below watching her. The dress shimmered in the light streaming through the windows, the bouquet of calla lilies she held seemed alive in her hands, and her veil billowed lightly around her face as she moved. She appeared calm and serene, a Mona Lisa smile on her lips.
Lady April came up and grabbed both of Mara’s hands. “You are the most beautiful woman in London! No wonder Father picked you!”
Termins bowed deeply. “My dearest Lady Mara. I am honored to have served you for so many years. On behalf of the staff, may I extend to you my heartiest congratulations on this, your wedding day.”
“Thank you, Termins. Thank you for caring for me for the past seventeen years. I will never forget you or any of the staff.” She looked at each of them to commit their faces to memory, knowing this was her final goodbye to them. She fought back tears as Termins took her arm and escorted her to the carriage.
Calvin and Jake stood at the carriage, which had been decorated with white satin ribbons and calla lilies. They were both dressed to the nines. Lord Markham had outfitted them in new liveries of emerald green linen, resplendent with gold braid and heavy brass buttons. Calvin looked quite uncomfortable. He would much rather have been wearing his normal trousers, and not these “namby-pamby” pants and the jacket with all the “dangly things” on it, but Jake didn’t mind at all. The new clothes fit him like a glove, accentuating his handsome face and strong physique. And they would be perfect for the kidnapping.
Calvin’s jaw dropped when he saw Mara, and Jake almost collapsed as his knees turned to jelly. Before him was a vision of exquisiteness that any man would kill to possess. And this vision belonged to him! He stopped breathing, and he thought maybe his heart stopped, too. If he hadn’t been holding onto the carriage door, he might have fallen flat on his face.
Mara and the old butler finally reached the coach, and Mara turned to give Termins a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. Jake held out his hand to help her into the coach and then, in turn, helped her mother, the viscountess, Lady April, Lady May, and finally Cecilia, who squeezed his hand in encouragement. “God, she’s spectacular,” he croaked softly. Cecilia nodded her assent as she, too, climbed into the carriage.
Jake and Calvin climbed onto the carriage to take their respective positions. Jake took a deep breath and thought, let the games begin.
Fifteen minutes later, they passed by the corner of Gopsall Street, where the warehouse was located. Jake’s stomach was a mass of butterflies, and he had a hard time breathing. He just hoped he didn’t hyperventilate before they hijacked the carriage and drove it to the warehouse. He felt like a ten-year-old boy on the streets again instead of a twenty-year-old man taking charge of his own destiny. The next couple of hours would be the hardest in his life—in all their lives. If they didn’t pull this off, they would all be hanging from the gallows in the main square by morning, the crows pecking at their dead eyes.
They were about to commit the crime of the century.
Then it happened. As Hyde Road turned into Hoxton Hill, they heard a whooping as four masked men ran out from the buildings on both sides of the carriage and attacked. Two immediately jumped up on either side of Calvin, and struggled with him for control of the vehicle. The other two jumped Jake, and roughly pulled him off the carriage, tossing him to the ground.
Jake rolled and stood up, checking to make sure he wasn’t hurt, and began badly limping after the carriage, screaming at the top of his lungs. The carriage turned down Cingars Street, Jake in slow pursuit. Then came the part of the plan that was hardest for all of them: taking out Calvin. Jake grimaced as one of the men pitched Calvin from the driver’s seat. He hit the ground with a horrible thud. The carriage continued up Newton Street as Jake stopped to help Calvin. Thank God he still breathed.
A few people had come around to see what was going on, since they had just witnessed two men being thrown from a carriage. Jake told them in a pained voice, doing his best to act hurt himself, to please help Calvin, as their coach had just been hijacked and he was going after it. He didn’t tell them to whom the carriage belonged, and no one asked. They were all concerned with Calvin, which is exactly what Jake had hoped for. As he turned up Grange Road and out of sight of the crowd, he stopped limping and ran like the wind the remaining few blocks to the side door of the warehouse. He looked around carefully to make sure no one had followed him.
Inside the warehouse, pandemonium had broken loose. The four men had pulled the carriage into the rented warehouse and shut the big doors. They were yelling instructions to the women inside the carriage over the din of the women crying and screaming and pleading. Finally, the big one yanked open the door of the carriage and simply took hold of the first woman and dragged her to a set of chairs facing the wall in the back of the large bay. He sat her down hard and tied her tightly to the chair, then gagged and blindfolded her. The other kidnappers followed suit, dragging out and tying up all the women except Mara.
Jake waited silently for his cue to enter the bay. As soon as he heard someone shout, “They be tied up, boss!” he banged through the door, making as much noise as possible.
“Jake!” he heard Mara scream. “Oh God, Jake.” She stood there smiling at him doing a little wave with her fingers. From now on, it was all an act for the benefit of the women tied up in the back of the warehouse. Pete, Luke and two older boys from the orphanage had taken off their broad hats and the handkerchiefs that had covered their faces. The two younger boys knew this was their cue to leave, and quietly went out through the door Jake had just entered. He gave them a thumbs up on their way out.
“Let her go!” He turned his attention back to the playacting.
“Hey, man. She’s ours now, so you best leave or else.”
“I said, let her go!”
“Or what, man? Looks like you be a bit outnumbered here. Come, try to take me if you can. I’ll show you who’s in charge!”
Pete picked up a piece of metal he had forged just for this occasion. He pinged it hard with a metal rod; it sounded exactly like the retort of a pistol. The four kidnappers watched as the five bound women jumped at the sound, unmistakable in its meaning. Aunt Bernice screamed through her gag, and Lady May started sobbing uncontrol
lably.
“Oh my God, you shot him! You shot him! Jake, Jake, oh Jake, please don’t die.”
“Get away from him. You’ll get blood all over that perty gown of yours.”
“Take your hands off me!”
“Tie her up and put her in the carriage.”
Mara started sobbing, too, screaming Jake’s name over and over and how they’d killed him, as she went about changing her dress around and transforming. Mara tossed her veil on the ground and then tore apart her bouquet of calla lilies, scattering them around the floor. Jake helped her unhook the back of her dress before moving back toward the side door. He first poured most of a bottle of pig’s blood on the floor. He then took off his jacket, and used the metal rod to put a hole in it about where his heart would be. He wrapped it around a log and dragged it through the pig’s blood, across the floor to the carriage, leaving behind a bloody trail. He then unwrapped the log and tossed it in the corner. The now-bloody jacket he dropped on the ground near the carriage. All this created the illusion that he had been shot, dropped to the ground, bled a lot, and then been dragged to the carriage. Not bad, Jake thought as he looked at his handiwork.
Cecilia sat there listening to the commotion, making sure the scene played out as it should. Everyone was executing his or her part to perfection. That really did sound like a gunshot. No way the ladies would believe otherwise. Too bad her only role was to sit there and act scared.
As the men kept up their banter (Jake as silent as the grave, of course), they began to transform the coach and horses. They had black paint to cover the royal blue of the coach and charcoal to rub into the coats of the horses to change their looks. Jake first tore off the ribbons and flowers decorating the coach, and then handled the horses while Pete and Luke started painting. They had to be careful not to spill any, leaving evidence of what they had done. The ladies might smell the paint, but some things could not be avoided. They just hoped the chaos of the moment would keep them from remembering that detail.
“I canna believe you shot ‘him, you idiot. His lordship is gonna kill us.”
“What else was I to do?”
“We could have taken him down and tied him up with the ladies.”
“Stupid, he saw our faces.”
“What you think we should do with him?”
“I guess we’ll take his body with us and dump it in the Thames along the way.”
Cecilia sat listening to Pete and Luke, as well as the sobbing ladies beside her. She was anxious to do her part and leave the place. She also thought about hanging from a rope in the square if anything went wrong, and that thought wasn’t sitting well with her right now. She was definitely too old for this. Definitely too old.
Luke had stopped painting to assume a different role in the play’s next act. “Well, ladies, I am gonna have to snitch a few things from your perty necks, as our payment from his lordship is whatever you have to give us.”
The gang chose Luke for this part because of his skills with the ladies. He wasn’t going to just take their jewelry; he was also going to use his charms to take their minds off what the others were doing, and give them all more time to finish their assigned tasks. A clever stalling technique, to be sure.
He stood in front of Lady May first, and ran his hand across her jaw line and then down her neck, moving slowly. Lady May’s jaw quivered. “Ah, m’lady, you have the softest skin I’ve ever felt. Do you mind if I touch you here?”
Lady May made a gurgling sound, fear rippling through her. Cecilia rolled her eyes under her binding. Luke made the most of his part!
Luke put both hands around the back of Lady May’s neck and massaged her sensuously before unclasping her necklace. Since all the women were blindfolded, he felt extremely bold. As he pulled off her earrings, he kissed each ear, then trailed his mouth down to the back of her neck. Lady May made that strangled gurgling sound again, and Luke had to bite his lips to keep from laughing. He really enjoyed this part of the plan. He should have gone into professional kidnapping instead of shoemaking! So much more satisfying.
Luke pulled out the diamond pins from Lady May’s hair, letting it cascade gently around her shoulders. He pulled the brown tresses to his nose and smelled deeply of their fragrance. “Hmmm. Lavender.”
He went around to the back of the chair where her hands were tied. He removed each ring, kissing every finger afterward. He kissed the inside of each wrist as he took her bracelets. Finally, he walked around to the front of Lady May again and pulled down her gag, giving her a deep kiss he hoped she’d never forget. He put the gag back over her mouth and whispered in her ear, “Ye, m’lady, make me feel like a real man. Oh, the things I would like to do to ye” He smiled broadly, and she gurgled again.
The viscountess sat beside Lady May. She tried to be brave and regal, sitting perfectly still and straight. She would not let this common criminal see fear in her. Her bearing impressed Luke. He took it as a personal challenge to break through that imperial manner and bring her down. He walked behind her chair and put his hands on her shoulders, giving her a light massage. He then ran his fingers along her neck and up to her ears, along her jaw line, and finally down her chest into the top of her bodice.
“You deserve the best, m’lady, so the best is what you will get.” Lady Bernice shuddered and swallowed hard, but didn’t bend. She felt his lips begin to follow his hands as he kissed the back of her neck and her shoulders.
Luke released her necklace and earrings and removed the tiara from her hair during his kissing session; she didn’t even feel them go. As he removed each item, he slipped it into a satchel hanging from his belt. His lips followed the viscountess’ bare arm down to her fingers, kissing the inside of her elbow and wrist. Lady Bernice curled her fingers and toes, trying to keep her body from reacting to this stranger’s tender ministrations. Luke kissed her palms and licked each finger as he pulled off her rings, sucking lightly on her fingertips. He then lightly massaged her bare fingers and wrists.
Finally, he walked around to face the viscountess, sat on her lap, removed her gag, and pulled her face to his for a long, deep, passionate kiss. That was her undoing. Luke got up from her lap, leaving her breathless, her lips still parted, quivering slightly. No one had ever kissed her like that, and she wasn’t sure how to react.
Luke replaced her gag, smiling broadly as he moved next to Lady Maureen. He didn’t feel quite as randy with Mara’s mother, so he simply removed all her jewelry, the tiara on her head, and the pins in her hair, placing the booty in his satchel.
Lady April had listened to the stranger’s encounters with her sister and the viscountess, and sobbed through her gag. “Ah, m’lady, do not be afraid,” Luke said soothingly. “I am not here to hurt you, I am just gonna show you a couple of things your husband should learn.” He started by running his fingers all over her exposed neck and upper chest, and slightly down into her bodice. His touch completely traumatized Lady April. She began shaking her head back and forth, moaning unintelligibly through her gag. Luke stepped back a bit, not wanting to terrorize her. Letting her calm down some, he reached over and took off her necklace, earrings, and bracelets, playfully kissing her fingers and wrists. Just as he had done with Lady May and Lady Bernice, Luke pulled down Lady April’s gag and gave her a deep, passionate kiss. “See,” he whispered, “that ain’t so bad.” Lady April continued to sob.
Luke came next to Cecilia. “What, no jewels?”
Cecilia started screaming at him through the gag, rocking her chair and kicking in his general direction. “Hey, woman! Is that any way for you to act?” That was Pete’s cue to come back. He put down his brush and walked to the line of women.
“What’s going on? What’s taking you so long?”
“This one is givin’ me a bit o’ trouble.”
Cecilia strained against her binds, making as much noise as possible while gagged and tied to a chair.
“Shut up, woman!” yelled Pete. Luke moved quietly back to the painting job,
tossing the satchel into Mara’s hands. It was her job to take apart the jewelry, separating the stones from the settings and putting them in the little pockets of her petticoat. She sat in the carriage with some small tools bought just for the occasion. Having almost finished dismantling her own jewels, she sighed heavily as the new deposit came to her. She opened the satchel. There appeared to be a hundred thousand pounds worth of jewels inside. If they were caught, they would be facing a firing squad.
In the back, Cecilia continued to struggle and Pete continued to rail at her, slapping his hand to make it sound as if he were slapping her face. He finally made a huge amount of noise, and then laid Cecilia on her back, the chair tipped over. Cecilia silenced immediately. Pete dripped the final drops of pig’s blood on the floor around her head.
“What was that?”
“She won’t be givin’ us any more trouble.”
“Good. Let’s finish fast.” The painting was coming along nicely—it just took time to cover an entire carriage. Jake finished the four horses, and picked up a brush. He was quite happy to keep quiet and just work.
Mara began reciting her lines, asking in a loud, whining voice, “What are you going to do with me?”
“Ah, the little lady finally speaks.”
“Answer my question, please.”
“Well, his lordship decided he wanted Madame Butterfly more than the Duke of Cleveland wanted her!”
“His lordship?”
“Yeah, his lordship but you ain’t gonna get his name out o’ me!”
“You are a right perty woman, and he wants you all to himself. We are takin’ you to his house in the country.”
“He is gonna make you his mistress, and from the looks of you, a fine mistress you will make, too!”
Mara: A Georgian Romance Page 21