Mara: A Georgian Romance

by Barbara T. Cerny

  Mara sobbed loudly. “Oh my God, please let me go, please! The duke will pay you handsomely.”

  “We are already being paid handsomely, love. Them jewels will set us up for the rest of our lives.”

  “To bad we canna have you first, but we are to bring you all virginal and everything, so hands off!”

  “Blimey. She looks like a mighty fine piece of meat, boss.”

  “Yeah, she sure do, but his lordship would have our heads if we touched her.”

  Mara pitched in again. “But how is he going to keep me a secret? There is no way he can keep me a secret in England.”

  “Lady, that is his problem, not mine!”

  “In fact, we have a letter to give your mum. It explains everything.”

  Luke walked over to the ladies and dropped a letter on Lady Maureen’s lap.

  “Hey boss, I think there is something wrong with the lady you kicked over.”

  “What now?”

  “I think her neck is broke. Come look at her.”

  First Jake, and now Cecilia? The thought of her being dead too sent the other four ladies into sobbing fits. They were truly petrified now.

  “Bloody hell. Another dead body. Put her in the carriage with him.”

  Mara sobbed again, too.

  Pete and Luke dragged Cecilia and her chair across the floor, trying to make realistic noises, then untied her, and let her climb into the carriage. Mara screamed when she saw the “dead” body. “Oh, my God, Cecilia. What have they done to you? How could you kill Cecilia, you brutes!”

  Ignoring Mara’s ranting and raving, Cecilia promptly started to help with the jewelry.

  “Let’s clean up and move on out of here.”

  Luke went back to the ladies, pulling down their gags one by one, stalling again, and giving each of them a passionate kiss, and stroking their chins and jaw lines. Even Mara’s mother received a fond farewell kiss. “Goodbye, my loves. I’d love to take you all along, but his lordship said no.” He smiled as Lady May began gurgling again. He wasn’t sure if she was going to be sick or have a passionate release!

  While Luke distracted the ladies, Jake gathered up the last of the painting items, the floppy hats and handkerchiefs, the sheet of metal, the rod, the bloody jacket, and the bottle of pig’s blood, and put them all into the coach, pulling himself in after them. Earlier, Mara had taken the curtains off and turned them around so the white linings would be facing outside instead of the blue velvet. She now made sure the curtains were closed, hiding the occupants.

  Pete climbed into the driver’s seat as Luke opened the large warehouse doors. Pete pulled the carriage out into the street, now jet black with white curtains and pulled by darker horses that didn’t look a thing like Angelo and Python. Luke closed the doors again and stepped onto the footman’s pedestal, and they drove unhurriedly down toward the pier.

  Chapter 40

  At the cathedral, everyone knew something was terribly wrong. Lord Markham had sent Edwin on Zeus to look for the carriage. It was 12:30, and the bridal party was nowhere in sight.

  “An accident?” whispered the waiting guests. “A runaway bride?”

  Both the duke and Markham were pacing back and forth, each worried for their own reasons. Markham was frantic that his deal was falling through, and the duke was angry that the prize wasn’t his yet. He was bound and determined to possess the Butterfly, and at the last minute something had gone intolerably wrong.

  At 1:00, the Duke of Cleveland sent out the general alarm, calling in the London constabulary to find his bride-to-be. He sent all the guests to Stafford House to consume the food on which he’d spent a fortune.

  By 1:30, as Pete and Luke pulled the newly-painted carriage out of the warehouse, the duke and Lord Markham sat in the phaeton searching the streets of London between the cathedral and the Markham house, desperate to find the carriage and the missing women. This was no runaway bride situation; six women were missing, as well as two able-bodied coachmen.

  At 4:15, a little boy ran into a tavern, dropped off a note on the bar, and ran back out. It took the tavern master a few minutes to find someone who could read. The man who read the note gathered a group of men from the bar and walked the few blocks to a warehouse on Gopsall Street to find a bloody mess—flowers, ribbons, and a wedding veil scattered all around, and four completely traumatized women tied to chairs.

  At 4:35, Termins received a message from the hospital that someone named Calvin Beech had been admitted, and demanded to see Lord Evelyn Markham. He seemingly ranted and raved about a bridal party being hijacked. Termins immediately left for the hospital.

  By 6:00, all the men except Termins and Calvin gathered in the dining room at the Markham house, reading the note left behind by the kidnappers. The ladies were upstairs with their maids, being coddled, and given baths and sleeping draughts. Lady Maureen had spent the last half hour telling the men the horrific details of their abduction.

  “We could hear Calvin and Jacob shouting at someone, but we weren’t sure what had happened at first. There were a lot of bumps and noises, and Jake’s voice became more and more distant, as if we had left him behind. Then we saw Calvin fall off the coach—later I realized he’d been thrown, because someone drove the carriage.”

  She paused and took a sip of brandy.

  “They drove us a few blocks, it didn’t take long. We didn’t know what we should do. We were all just petrified.” Markham patted her hand. “They pulled into a building, large enough for the horses and carriage to fit into. Then they roughly pulled us out of the cab and tied us up. We couldn’t see, we couldn’t speak, we couldn’t move. We could only hear what they were doing.”

  “What did they look like? How many were there?” asked the new chief constable, Abner Perrin.

  “They were wearing floppy hats, and had kerchiefs around their faces. We could only see their eyes. I think there were two men. I could only make out two voices.”

  Perrin nodded his head. These guys were definitely pros. “Go on, m’lady.”

  “Just seconds after they tied us up, we heard a crash and Jacob’s voice again. I was so relieved, as I just knew Jacob would rescue us. Mara called out his name, so I knew she was fine also, and at that time I realized she wasn’t tied up with us. But…but…” Lady Maureen started to cry, trying to hold back the sobs. Markham put his arms around his wife to console her. He handed her his handkerchief, which she accepted gratefully.

  She drew in a breath. “Jacob told them to let us go and they… they shot him and killed him!”

  “What!” The men recoiled in shock.

  “They shot him. The gun was so loud.” She breathed heavily. “Mara screamed, you killed him! or something like that, and then they argued over what to do with the body. They finally decided to throw it in the Thames.” She sniffled, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

  “That explains the blood,” said the chief. “There was a lot of it in the warehouse. Looked as if something had been dragged through it, too.”

  Lady Maureen nodded. “That’s when they tied up Mara, but I think they put her in the carriage. She screamed and carried on terribly. It was so hard to listen to one of our staff die like that.”

  The Duke of Cleveland sat down next to her, and took her hand in his. “I am sure it was, m’lady. No one should be put through what you went through today, especially ladies of breeding.”

  Markham stood there stunned. He’d been trying to rid himself of that boy for years, but now that Abbot was dead, he actually felt remorse. Then he felt anger. No one was allowed to shoot his servant and get away with it. No one!

  Chief Perrin gently prodded Lady Maureen. “What happened next, m’lady?”

  “They also stole all our jewelry. They said it was payment for the work they were doing. They said his lordship several times, and that they were taking Mara to his lordship to be his mistress.”

  The duke stood up like a shot at this statement. His mouth fell open, and his breathing q
uickened. Someone else would have his prize! The men in the room all started talking at once.

  “Please, gentlemen, please!” Perrin raised his arms to silence the room. “Let the lady continue. The more time we spend here, the more time this lordship has to move Mara away from London.” All talking stopped. Perrin nodded at Lady Maureen to continue.

  “As he stole our jewelry, I could hear him, I could hear him,” she swallowed hard, trying to describe what he had said to Lady Bernice, May, and April. “I could hear him touching them.”

  Lady May’s husband snapped. “Touching them!”

  She nodded. “He talked about their soft skin and their pretty hair, and I could hear him kissing them. It was horrible. Simply horrible.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “And he kissed me, too.” She shuddered at the recollection.

  Both Lady May and Lady April’s husbands dashed from the room to go see their wives. The other men were rooted to the spot.

  “When he moved on to Cecilia, she started to really struggle. I could hear her trying to lash out. The other one came over then, and I heard a struggle and a crash, and then silence.” She stopped again, as tears ran down her cheeks and she sobbed uncontrollably.

  “What happened then, my dear?” encouraged Markham, his arm still around her.

  “One of them said her neck looked funny. I think they broke her neck, as they then talked about having to dispose of another body. I heard them drag her away. I think they killed Cecilia, too!” She put her face into her hands and cried.

  Lord Markham looked up at Perrin. His daughter had been kidnapped, and two of his servants killed today! He had a hard time wrapping his mind around his wife’s words. He looked back at Lady Maureen. “She’s done for now.”

  Perrin nodded.

  Markham called for Termins, but Mr. Fout showed up instead. “Please take Lady Maureen upstairs now, Mr. Fout.”

  “Yes, m’lord.”

  And so the men gathered to look at the note the kidnappers had left on Lady Maureen’s lap. “The handwriting is a little sloppy,” said Perrin. “Almost as if the author was trying to hide his true handwriting.”

  Dear Lord Markham,

  I want to thank you for letting me have your daughter. I have loved her from the moment I first laid eyes on her, and decided that I must have Madame Butterfly for my own. Of course, I couldn’t compete in the title and financial arena with the Duke of Cleveland, so I had to devise my own way of securing the lovely Butterfly for myself.

  I will take extremely good care of your daughter. I wish her no harm, and in time I hope she will come to love me as I love her.

  I am sorry that I had to hire hooligans to do the dirty work, but I am sure you realize I couldn’t have done it myself. They demanded payment, and the ladies, I assume, provided ample payment in the form of their jewelry. Mara was allowed to keep hers, of course.

  I will allow your daughter to write to you as soon as I think she is ready.

  I hope I didn’t inconvenience you in any way.

  Sincerely,

  Lord Phantom

  Markham looked up at Perrin. “Find him,” he growled. “Find him, whip him to the edge of life, and then hang him from the towers of Westminster Abbey.”

  Chapter 41

  Pete pulled the coach up to the little church a couple of blocks from the pier. He could see the ship’s mast in the distance, and could taste freedom. Just a few more hours. Just a few more hours.

  The carriage door flew open, and out popped Jake, Mara, and Cecilia. Jake held the blood-stained jacket with all the other items wrapped inside. He and Luke took the items, plus Cecilia’s shawl, and disappeared behind the church. The yard butted up against the Thames—a perfect spot from which to toss the items into the river. They were hoping the jacket or the shawl would be found, and the other things would simply sink to the bottom of the river. After the two friends threw the objects into the river, they returned to the women standing outside the church.

  “Ready?”

  “I’ve been ready for years.”

  They all started laughing at Jake’s response, mostly to release the tension of the last few hours, and of the last few months. So far, so good, but they weren’t out of the woods yet.

  The four entered the church, leaving Pete to watch the carriage. The jewel-laden petticoat weighed Mara down, and she had problems adjusting to the heaviness and awkward feeling. It would take time to learn to move naturally in it. The way she moved now, people would think she had a crippled leg or hip!

  “Vicar! Vicar Darrell?” Jake called out in the quiet nave.

  “Here I am, come in, come in! It is 3:10, and you are right on time, between 3:00 and 3:30 just like you promised.” The elderly vicar came to greet Mr. Abbot and his bride. He looked at the young woman in the ice-blue satin gown, and nodded appreciatively. “She’s a beauty, all right. Did mighty fine for yourself, lad. Mighty fine.”

  “Thank you, sir. Can we move on with the ceremony?”

  The vicar laughed. “You young ‘uns are always in a hurry. Come along, everything is ready for you.”

  He led them to the altar stairs, struggling to climb up the two steps. “You have only two witnesses?”

  “That is all you said we needed, Vicar Darrell.”

  “You are right, my boy, you are right. Just making sure.”

  Mara held Jake’s hand tightly. This was her real wedding. She was about to marry the man who held her heart, her mind, her body, and her soul. This was the reason for the elaborate charade of the past several hours—so they could legally be united as one.

  “Please kneel.” The vicar stood over them, pulled out his prayer book, and read from it.

  Cecilia and Luke stood silently behind the bride and groom, both beaming with joy, as the vicar read the marriage passages. He droned on for a while before coming to the vows.

  “Jacob James Abbot, do you take Mara to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

  Jake looked into Mara’s eyes, holding both of her hands in his, and said with all his heart those two simple words. “I do.”

  “Mara Elizabeth Markham, do you take Jacob to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

  “I do.” The words were a mere whisper, as the emotion in her heart made it difficult for her to speak.

  “The ring, please.”

  Jake had no ring of his own to give his bride, so they had decided the ring the duke had given her would do. He had removed it from her finger earlier, and put it in his pocket. Now he retrieved it and, before putting it on her, kissed her finger tenderly. “I seal this spot with my love, binding you to me forever, this circle representing our never-ending love and commitment.” Then he put the beautiful diamond on her left ring finger. Tears slid down Mara’s cheeks.

  “You may kiss the bride.”

  Jake stood up and helped Mara to stand before pulling her gently to him and slowly, tenderly, giving her their marriage kiss. Cecilia burst into tears of happiness and started clapping. Luke joined her in clapping, and laughed. “You did it, man! you did it!” He slapped Jake on the back, effectively stopping the sweet kiss.

  “Yes, I did. Yes, we did.” Jake turned to the vicar. “The paperwork, please.”

  “Of course, have it right here.” He turned and pulled the marriage certificate off the altar, and handed it to Jake, who carefully folded it and put it in his back pocket. “I just need for all of you to sign the official register over here, and then you may be on your way.”

  He slowly walked with them to the register, where all four signed their real names, quite illegibly. Anyone looking at the register wouldn’t be able to make out even one of the names, they were all written so poorly. This was intentional, to cover their tracks.

  *****

  Mara could hardly contain herself. She was finally Mrs. Abbot! She had just married Jake. It all seemed so surreal, like a dream. This day had been the strangest but also the best of her life! She sat next to Jake in the carriage and hung onto his arm, afraid she
’d wake up to find that it had all been just a dream. Jake looked down at her and smiled that crooked smile that made her heart spin.

  “I love you,” she said.

  “I love you more!” he responded, and bent to continue the kiss they had shared in the church. Cecilia looked up at the ceiling. She couldn’t look out of the carriage, as the curtains were still closed.

  They left the church, stopping just one block away, at a tavern. Luke and Pete went in, paid for a room, and spent half an hour shaving. Cecilia cut their hair.

  Jake and Mara stayed in the coach.

  Jake stopped kissing Mara when the coach came to a halt again a few blocks later. He peered out from behind the curtain. The ship loomed over them.

  “Our passage to freedom,” he said. “We are at the ship.”

  The Fleetwood sailed under an American flag. She had been used by the Americans as a cargo ship during their war with Britain. Her proud captain had converted her to a passenger ship after the war to bring new citizens to the brave new world.

  They dismounted the carriage, and started the long process of having it loaded onto the ship. The horses had to be unharnessed, and the carriage partially dismantled and prepped for the long journey. A stevedore came to oversee the process, allowing Jake, Mara, and Cecilia to climb the gangplank to the ship. Luke and Pete would eventually go take care of Python and Angelo.

  The captain saw them arrive, and went to the top of the gangplank to greet them.

  “Mr. Abrams. How delightful to see you again! And this must be your lovely wife.” Captain Carrington bowed deep before Mara. “She is a rare beauty. Best never leave her side on this trip, for even I might be tempted by her loveliness.”

  Jake, now going by the name James Abrams, bowed to the Captain, and then turned to introduce his wife. “This is Elizabeth Abrams, my wife, and her ladies’ maid, Ellen Fullington. My dear, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Captain Robert Carrington, the master of this fine ship.”