Chapter 18: Victoria is abducted at knifepoint
The creation of the girl’s room was soon begun, orders were placed with artists, specialist upholsterers and furniture makers were summoned. The walls were stripped and redecorated, beds were ordered. The worries of Jacqueline and the horrific murders were pushed to the back of their minds. Peace and happiness began to rise again in the days that followed, albeit with caution.
The Inveigle with its glorious gold sign stood bold and proud before the world.
Mr. Trentham and Victoria having gone on that first trip to see the Belgradys were now on one of their regular visits to the circus zoo. Their common interest in animals was something they loved to share. Victoria had grown very fond of the elephants and stood looking at them, whilst Malcolm was inside talking about an upcoming shoot with The Belgrady Girls.
She put her hand in a brown paper bag. “Oh come here you big handsome brute, let me give you one of your favourite buns.”
A cold voice spoke from behind her. “I have my own favourite buns, two of them, and they belong to you Victoria. Keep very quiet and close to me. It’s time for you to come home.” The girl saw an expensive tan leather glove holding a glistening knife, which hovered very close to her throat. She turned slowly to see Jacqueline. They were alone. The lady in Green had picked her moment well.
It was tea time at The Inveigle when the news broke. The peace and happiness of the morning shattered like a crystal chandelier landing on a marble floor.
Mr Trentham ran into the Inveigle. “Help, help! Victoria has been taken, I’m sure of it. I found her bag on the ground near her beloved elephants. Oh God, do you think it ‘s him? The Ripper? Oh God, she was in my charge. I was talking to Esmerelda about some pictures and left her to wander alone. Oh God please forgive me.” He slumped to the floor in tears.
Abigail and some of the girls ran to comfort him.
Jacqueline and Victoria were at the station at that very moment boarding a train. Two large brutish men in tight fitting suits stood close by Victoria all the time. She was terrified. Once the train left, the men left. The journey with Jacqueline was a horrifying experience. They were in a single carriage. Jacqueline had tied Victoria’s hands together and sat with the knife opposite her.
Once back at the Mill House, Victoria was stripped by Jacqueline. The slave girl from the Inveigle was nowhere to be seen. She had probably served her usefulness and had been disposed of. She put a collar around Victoria’s neck and attached a leash to it.
“Come with me Victoria. Let me remind you of how things used to be.”
Victoria vomitted.
The Inveigle burst into action, girls were sent to the Three Bells to get some big Irish lackys to guard the building, and the Police were called, just in case Mr Trentham’s fears were correct. Fear spread into The Inveigle like a black evil mist. The front doors and foyer were violated by it, and it began to creep into every room.
Mummy Bear summoned a meeting of the starlets. They sat in the parlour.
“It’s her isn’t it, Jacqueline, oh that foolish, foolish Lucy! If we wait here whilst the police investigate, Victoria could be dead by the time they have done. We need to act now. We need to satisfy our minds, we need to know, we need to act!”
The girls knew it was the Lady Jacqueline who was behind Victoria’s disappearance. Everyone was sure that it was her.
“We are going to get her back. We’re going to get that heartless bitch and we’re going to bring her back here. That woman is going to feel the full force of ‘The Inveigle’. Never again will she strike fear into your hearts my lovelies,” exhorted Abigail, exuding an air of command and authority like a General leading her troops into battle!
Lucy could be heard sobbing in the foyer. The dreadful news had now reached her. Abigail opened the door and told her to come to her.
“Look Lucy, you behaved badly, but your punishment is over and done with. Nobody deserves sorrow like this. What’s done is done, come back to Mummy Bear, let’s start again”.
The girls clapped and gathered around the pair. It was as if this simple action heralded a new dawn.
“Don’t worry Lucy we are going to sort that bastard of a woman out once and for all!’ announced Fae, pulling Bessie out from her garter and firing it into the air. The excitement was getting the better of her, and the opium made it seem quite an acceptable thing to do. Her brass goggles were around her neck, and she swayed slightly from side to side.
The girls stood in silence and looked at a smiling wavering Fae. Smoke drifted up from the barrel. A hole in the foyer roof was full of smoke and small nails and bits of wood were gently falling to the floor.
Mummy Bear spoke sternly to Fae. “Tell me how watching you swing like a mad woman grinning on the gallows would help the situation? You are not going to kill her. I have other plans for her. I’m not wasting any more time, Charlotte and Samantha know where that evil woman lives. We are going to get a train if we have to…right now if needs must, but first we are going to her husband’s place. They might be there!”
Fae looked down and said one word. “Sorry.”
The chorus girls were told to look after the sad old Inveigle until they returned. The Irish boys would protect them from harm. Like the train that Victoria had sat on plans moved at a pace. The chase was afoot!
A sight that Whitechapel had never seen and was unlikely ever to see again brought people to a standstill.
Abigail kicked the foyer doors open and strode into the street, on each side of her were Samantha and Charlotte. Behind here were Sapphire, Eleanor, Fae and Amber. So too was Malcolm Trentham, with murder in his eyes.
Back at the Mill House, Victoria was firmly held in a set of stocks, her beautiful bottom bleeding from a sound whipping. Jacqueline was sat with a flute of Champagne, wearing her bottle green corset, admiring her handiwork.
“My husband will be back soon. He will be bringing an army of Orientals. I should forget any thought of returning to that cesspit. You will be joined over the coming weeks by your pathetic old mill girl friends. I have plans for all of you….beautiful ones, at least from my point of view anyway.”
All the girls had their working outfits on. Walking determinedly down the street, came the oddest looking posse the World had seen. They were dressed in an array of items, top hats and bowler hats, burlesque attire, abring mistress’ coat, feathers and sparkling jewels. They strutted down the street in an angry mood. Tough-looking men moved out of the way, The Inveigle’s heart had beat its way out of its body and was walking down the street to find a missing girl. Nobody messed with The Inveigle girls… Nobody!
And at that moment in time, Mr Trentham was proud to be called one!
To gasps of shock, horror and admiration they got on a tram and headed for the London House of the doctor. An elderly woman shook her head and tutted through her tight lips.
“If you want to keep that last wobbly tooth I suggest you never do anything like that in our direction again,” snarled the formidable Fae in her direction.
The whole tram looked away and kept silent until they reached their stop. They walked down the road to the house like a line of gunslingers in a cowboy town.
They didn’t just knock at the door, they almost battered it down. A butler answered and was pushed aside like a blade of grass. They could hear voices and stormed into a sitting room.
“Where the fuck is she?” Asked Abigail.
The doctor stood to protest, but Fae silenced him as she got a firm grip of his testicles. She asked again on behalf of Abigail. “I know you will have something very sharp in that bag. I am looking for a new tobacco pouch and the makings of it are in my grip right now. Think carefully if you value your deep voice. Where is that wife of yours? Where is Jacqueline?”
He stammered a reply. “She’s gone home on the train with the woman I think you are looking for.”
He would have said anything under present circumstances. Betrayal seemed a fair exchange for his manhood. He would be out again tonight, and he was already considering a trip to America. It looked like it was going to be alone.
As the Inveigle ‘mob’ noisily left the house heading towards the station, he muttered to himself, “Fuck the Orientals!” He then counted some gold coins into a small bag, a sizeable sum. Having the Orientals after him would be insufferable. Those Triads had ways of making you take days to die. He left the money on his desk, wrote a note of thanks, saying there was a handsome bonus for their wasted time. He picked up his doctor’s bag and slid off into the narrow streets. Such was his concern for Jacqueline.
On reaching the train station, they all crammed into one carriage, and the train lurched into life. Steam hissed and wheels skidded, as it chuffed into motion.
There was little conversation during the journey, other than just the necessary discussion about the next stage of their rescue operation. The small station where they changed saw something they would talk about for years, as the unusual group walked over the footbridge to catch their connection.
It was evening when they arrived at the Mill House town. The two girls and Fae knew the way. Speed was needed. Abigail summoned a carriage in the station rank and stuffed a handful of gold coins into the driver’s hand.
“Don’t ask one bloomin’ question, just let us get on board and take us to the Mill House, now!” she said in a ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ sort of way.
He asked nothing and drove the carriage away, Mr Trentham sitting by him up top.
The girls shook and swayed together, each with their own vision of what was to happen.
Jacqueline looked at the clock, he would be here soon, the train was always on time. She would have fresh tenderised meat for him to carve. She tied the rope around Victoria to a hook on a chain, and winched her screaming body up. She then walked slowly around the hanging, almost unconscious, naked Victoria, and started to whip her again, despite the obvious bloody welts evident across her back and bottom.
Crack!… Crack!… Crack!
Victoria cried out, albeit now almost beyond the pain. Then Jacqueline wiped the wounds with a vinegar-soaked sponge, causing the open wounds to sting almost as badly as the whip’s lash.
“Stay awake my dear, the Doctor will be here soon for you.”
That should have been a message of hope in any circumstance, but for Victoria it almost caused her heart to stop beating. She had heard rumours that he had skinned a girl alive once.
The carriage galloped into the circular courtyard. The girls looked up to their old bedroom window and the roof that heybhad used for their escape. They all lept out of the carriage and rushed to the door, ringing the bell that hung beside it loudly.
Down in the cellar, Jacqueline continued her sadistic whipping. On hearing the bell ringing she paused momentarily and said, “Ahhhh, here comes the doctor, right on time!” She then laid on another whiplash right across the summit of Victoria’s now very raw looking buttocks.
SWISHHH, CRAAAACK! Victoria screamed, loud and long.
After a short while the housekeeper opened the door to the Inveigle band of ladies. They immediately pushed in past her, sending her flying onto the floor. A scream pierced the air.
“You are as bad as her you fat arsed bitch! How can you listen to that and do nothing?” shouted Malcolm. “Where is she? Where is Victoria.Tell me or God help me I will….”
Fae cut him short, saying that she knew exactly where she would be. She down some stairs to the black cellar and kicked open the door.
“Help me, for God’s sake help me!” came the cry from Victoria when she heard the voices of her friends..
She was now totally naked in the stocks with bloody lines all over her body, ready for cutting. Jacqueline stood by her, as the whip fell to the floor. She could not believe her eyes….Where was her husband? How did all these women get here?
The room was like something from a medieval torture chamber. Torches burned in sconces and the walls were stained with blood. Evil apparatus, which made the Inveigle’s ‘galloping horses’ look like children’s toys, filled the room. Just how many victims had she abused here? How many girls had met their death?
Sapphire and Amber ran to their friend to release her. Malcolm looked at her and wept. He dare not hold her close as she was clearly in far too much pain.
Abigail ordered the others to strip Jacquelin and bind her hands with the whip. They dragged her outside. Fae walked up behind her and gave her the hardest kick up her arse that she could possibly deliver, saying “Take that you cunt!”
Jacqueline fell to the gravel drive crying and begging for mercy. “Is what I do any different to you?” she screamed.
Abigail looked down at her and in a voice as cold and hard as steel, she spoke in a calm but very firm voice,
“What we do is for sexual pleasure and with everybody’s consent, unless it is a punishment which is in an agreement signed by everyone. What you do is vile, it’s cruel and not just against people’s wishes. It’s torture. You fucking kill people you heartless bitch! We are sexual, you are sadistic. You are nothing like us.”
So saying she spat on the floor just in front of Jacqueline’s face. She then walked around the snivelling woman and told her that she was coming with them first thing tomorrow back to ‘The Inveigle.’ Her face filled with horror, as she could guess what that meant.
Once they had secured Jacqueline in the cellar, they set about bathing Victoria’s wounds. She had had a close escape. It would take a lot to heal her. Mr Trentham stayed with her, to nurse her and care for her. He loved her deeply and within a year they would be man and wife he informed them all. Victoria’s face lit up through the pain and blood. He was a good man and she said she would be very happy to marry him.
If they had not acted so quickly, the death of an Inveigle Girl would have occurred that night, so it was a sombre atmosphere in the Mill House. They were tempted to abuse Jacqueline in her own torture chamber, but resisted. They would make her pay dearly at The Inveigle on Saturday night. Infact, she would pay on many Saturday nights.
Next day the journey back home was a quieter, more dignified affair. People still stared at them at stations and coach houses all the way back to London. Jacqueline was subdued and looked quite resigned to her fate as they pulled her from the station and onto a waiting carriage. The carriage stopped about fifty yards short of The Inveigle.
Jacqueline was once more stripped and made to crawl naked, being pulled along by her own whip, tied to her neck. They stopped at the front of The Inveigle. A huge crowd was gathered.
Eleanor, an expert in the use of the whip, took the handle of it from Abigail. She looked to Jacqueline and then to Abigail who nodded.
CRACK!
The whip snapped at Jacqueline’s feet like a pistol shot, “Stand up and dance you bitch. Dance!!” shouted Eleanor, as she made the whip crack mercilessly close to each foot in turn, she danced as fast as she could.
Laughter and abuse rose from the baying crowd as news spread quickly. An enemy of the Inveigle was an enemy of Whitechapel. Two Police Officers took a look and walked away. They knew better than to interfere with the Inveigle’s justice and a baying Whitechapel mob.
Jacqueline’s eyes were wild as she looked around for help or mercy, but none came.
Abigail held her hand aloft and the performance stopped. She told the crowd what had happened, giving them a brief account of the past few weeks, culminating in what they had found in the lady’s dungeon.
Hisses and boos arose. People spat and threw dirt.
“Let it be known that on Saturday night, and EVERY Saturday night until further notice, that this woman will have her bottom turned bright red by us. This is Inveigle Justice.”
She was dragged inside, news spread fast, tickets sold like never before.
Inside Lucy was summoned and given a birch. “Take this. You are no longer the lowest here Lucy. You now have an assistant. Train her well and don’t show her any mercy,” said Abigail. “But until Saturday, her skin must remain lily white. So take her to the cellars, we’ll keep her down there until then.
Lucy took on an air of importance, and with three other girls she ‘took her down’