The Strange Affair Of Spring Heeled Jack Part 42

As she walked back toward her employer's house along Cut Throat Lane, Mary remembered her brother's expression of pure joy as the gifts had been presented. How proudly he'd marched back and forth! And how eagerly, at her father's barked command, had he stood to attention with his chest out and his shoulders back.

"Now then, Private Stevens," her father had said in his sternest voice. "I see your uniform is unb.u.t.toned. Her Majesty Queen Victoria may be new to the throne but that doesn't mean she doesn't have established rules and regulations for her brave boys in the Army! Let me tell you, young man, that bright s.h.i.+ny b.u.t.tons are a requirement for every soldier! What say you?"

Her brother had glanced uncertainly at his mother.

"I-I-I-" he'd stammered.

At which point Mary had stepped forward and said: "I think I might be able to help. Happy birthday, Private Stevens!"

Her present to him had been six gleaming bra.s.s b.u.t.tons.

She laughed to herself as she strode along, holding in her mind the image of her brother's delighted expression. Far better to dwell on that than on the week to come.

"Mary Stevens!"

The hoa.r.s.e voice sounded from behind the fence at her side.

She stopped. "Yes?"

"Are you Mary Stevens?"

"I am, sir. And who are you?"

Something flew up over the fence, over her head, and into the lane.

She cried out in shock, spun around, and was grabbed by the throat.

A hideous face glared into hers and Mary's legs gave way. She dropped to the cobbles. The thing holding her followed her down, its grip not loosening, bending over her.

"Your chest, girl! Is there a mark on it?"

She tried to scream but only a croak came out.

"Stop struggling, you fool! Answer me!"

"Wha-what?" she gulped.

Suddenly the fear flooding through her galvanised her into action. She started to thrash about, her arms and legs flailing, her mouth opening wide to emit a scream.

Before any sound could emerge, the thing transferred its grip to the collar of her coat and yanked her upright by it. The garment tore open.

Finally, the scream came out.

"Shut up! Shut up!" shouted her attacker.

But she couldn't stop.

"f.u.c.k this!" snarled the tall, uncanny figure, and, s.n.a.t.c.hing at her dress, it violently jerked the material, ripping it and the underclothes beneath down from her neck to her waist.

She fought wildly, twisting this way and that, hitting and kicking, shrieking at the top of her voice.

The thing, struggling to hold her, lost its grip and she fell backward into the fence with such force that it bent with a splintering crack and collapsed with her on top of it.

"Oy!" came a distant shout. "What's going on? Leave her alone!"

The thing turned its black globular head to look along the lane.

Mary heard running footsteps drawing closer.

It looked back down at her, its eyes on her chest.

She grabbed the material of her dress and drew it over herself.

"It's not you, Mary Stevens," said the thing, and suddenly it bounded high into the air.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!" exclaimed a man's voice.

"What is it?" came another's.

She saw the thing jumping away, taking prodigious leaps, and then it was gone and gentle hands were helping her up.

"Are you hurt, love?"

"Steady now."

"Pull your coat together, la.s.s. Cover yourself."

"Here, take my arm. Can you walk?"

"Why, it's Mary Stevens! I know her old man!"

"What was it, Mary? What was that thing?"

"Did you see the way it jumped? Blimey, it must have springs in its heels!"

"Was it a man, Mary?"

The young girl looked around at the concerned faces. "I don't know," she whispered.

January to May 1838 Edward Oxford waited in the shade of an ugly monument in the grounds of St. David's Church on Silverthorne Road. He knew that Deborah Goodkind attended the Sunday service regularly throughout this year, yet he had been here on three consecutive Sundays in January, two in February, and this was his second in March, and hadn't seen anyone fitting her description.

"If the information the Original gave to the marquess was wrong, I'll never find the little b.i.t.c.h," he muttered to himself. He laughed. He didn't know why.

There was snow on the ground. He was cold. The thermal controls in his time suit had stopped working.

People started filing out of the church. He hadn't seen her go in but he may have missed her in the crowd. He was getting a clearer view of people's faces now.

He drew back a little, concerned that the sparks from his control unit might attract attention. He pulled his cloak around it.

Half an hour later, the last straggler left the church.

"Where the h.e.l.l are you?" he muttered.

He crouched, jumped up, and landed one month later and ninety minutes earlier.

It was raining heavily.

He banged his fist against the side of the monument.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. Come on! Come on!"

The congregation started to arrive. Their faces were obscured by hats and umbrellas.

Oxford swore and leaped to May 25.

After waiting for just over an hour, he saw her at last, coming out of the church.

She was a small, mousy little thing; her hair colourless, her skin white, her limbs thin and k.n.o.bbly. She said a few words to the vicar, then to an elderly woman, then to a young couple, then walked down the path, out of the churchyard, and turned left.

A strangely warm mist clung to the city but it wasn't thick enough for concealment and Oxford knew that he stood a good chance of being spotted.

He'd have to risk it.

He vaulted over the graveyard wall into someone's back garden and went from there to the next one, bounding along behind the houses that lined Silverthorne Road until he reached an alleyway. Striding to the corner, he peered around it back in the direction from whence he'd come.

Moments later, the girl walked into view.

Luck was with him; the road was quiet.

Oxford leaned against the wall and listed.

Her light footsteps grew closer.

He reached out as she pa.s.sed and jerked her into the mouth of the alley, twisted her around, and pushed her against a wall, clapping a hand over her mouth.

He pressed his face close to hers and asked the question.

"Is there a birthmark on your chest?"

She shook her head.

"None? Nothing shaped like a rainbow?"

Again, a shake of the head.

Oxford let go of her and, with a last look at her strangely calm face, strode away and sprang to a different time and place.

Deborah Goodkind stood motionless, her shoulders against the bricks.

She shook her head once more and smiled.

She raised her right hand and banged the heel of it against her ear.

She did it again.

And again.

And again.

And she started to giggle.

And she didn't stop.

Not until the year 1849, when she died in Bedlam.

October 10 and November 28, 1837 Lizzie Fraser, like Deborah Goodkind, was not where-or when-she was supposed to be.

Edward Oxford was close to where he'd accosted Mary Stevens the previous day. He was crouching behind a wall on Cedars Mews, a narrow lane leading off from Cedars Road, which crossed Lavender Hill not far to the north.

This lane was part of the route that Lizzie Fraser walked to reach her home on Taybridge Road after she finished at the haberdashery shop where she worked every day.

In theory, she pa.s.sed this way at around eight o'clock each evening, but it was now Tuesday and Oxford had been here seven times so far without seeing her.

His suit was sending small shocks through him at regular intervals.

From behind the wall, he could see people pa.s.sing the end of the lane. Their tightly laced clothing and restrained mannerisms were not real. Their horses and carriages were illusions. The noises of the city were an incoherent mumble scratching unceasingly at his consciousness. He vaguely remem bered how, when he first arrived in the past, London had seemed weirdly silent. How wrong! How wrong! The cacophony never stopped! Nightmare. Nightmare. Nightmare.

He beat his fists against his helmeted head, burning his knuckles in the blue flames but feeling nothing.

"Every day at eight o'clock, d.a.m.n you!" he groaned.

No.

He couldn't do this any more.

"Find her!" he said. Then he looked up at the clouded sky and bellowed: "Find her!"

He hurdled over the wall and ran out of the mews into the main street.

Women screamed. Men uttered exclamations.

Oxford sprang onto the side of a pa.s.sing brougham. It lurched and veered under his impact. The coachman gave a shout of fright. The horses whinnied and bolted, nearly jerking the stilt-man loose.

"Where is Lizzie?" he screamed.

"Jesus, Joseph, and Mary!" cried the driver.

"Tell me, you d.a.m.ned clown! Where is Lizzie?"