Chapter 12: Abigail reveals her plan
Abigail took them to the front door and handed them a shiny large key each. “There you are. It looks like you are stopping a while so you may as well have a key to the door. Come and go as you please, but if you return after nine at night make sure you lock the door. If you don’t I’ll spank you! You have been warned!”
“Yes Mummy Bear,” they both replied in unison.
“Now then, I’m going to take you on a little trip to see the sights of London,” said Abigail. “What do you say to that?”
“Oh yes please. Thank you Mummy Bear, thank you!” they both said excitedly.
They all giggled and set off for the horse-drawn tram stop just at the end of the road. The atmosphere was lighter than the night before. Newsboys shouted the graphic headlines and people stood reading newspapers. The keys, the first they had ever owned, were gently put in their bags, treasures beyond compare!
It was their first trip on a tram. Everywhere seemed so busy. As they waited for the tram to arrive, horses and cabs of every size passed by. No wonder the horse market that they passed by on the way in at Camden was so huge. Everybody in London seemed urgent, knowing exactly where to go and what to do. They climbed excitedly aboard a ‘double-decker’ and the girls went straight to the stairs.
“Oh alright then, if you must, let’s climb upstairs! Don’t think about my poor old veins!”
They looked sad and guilty but Mummy Bear assured them that it was only a joke, as they went upstairs and sat at the front,
Even the stairs of a tram reminded them of spanking.
Abigail had picked a route which would take them by the Thames and pass by many famous sights of London. She announced that she was taking them to lunch at ‘Brown’s’, which was London’s first ever Hotel. It was beautiful, and afterwards they would go for a stroll through a park.
Charlotte sat to the outside, Mummy Bear in the middle and Samantha to the inside. It was open top, but as it was a fine day, the breeze was refreshing to their faces.
The day drifted by as easily as a leaf on a mill stream, and conversation flowed like water over a mill wheel. Their friendship grew.
After the walk in the park, they returned to the Hotel for afternoon tea. According to Abigail this was the best afternoon tea in London, and she had tried a few.
It was whilst sitting down to afternoon tea when Mummy Bear made a surprise announcement. “We are meeting two rather famous circus ladies soon. They are members of the Cooke family. Oh, they are ever so well known. I would like you to train to become aerielists.” She smiled at their wide eyes, and had soon learnt to look to Charlotte for a comment or some amusing response.
She did not let her down. “Ooooh, what are they Mummy Bear? I’d like to be one of them!”
Samantha and Abigail laughed, she didn’t even know what one was, yet she wanted to be one! Charlotte blushed again. She blushed quite often nowadays, at both ends!
Abigail told them that there was no pressure at all, but she had been looking at the theatre and felt it needed something up high for the customers in the upper tiers to feel privileged to see at close quarters. It would make the new increased prices seem more worthwhile.
“How are you with heights?”
They looked at each other and told Abigail about their rooftop escape from the big house. They said how they had to scramble up high in the mill sometimes to free cloth that had got stuck, but what impressed Mummy Bear most was the way they said that they would try their best for her.
The two ladies from the circus swept in, as if on cue, and sat at the table in an artistic manner. Abigail told them how she envisaged a trapeze act, with sexual content or, to be more precise, with sexual spanking content.
The girls looked embarrassed but soon found out that the two ladies were regular visitors to ‘The Inveigle’ with their lady friends. They tried hard to keep their conversation low, but the diagrams that Abigail had drawn left little to the imagination, and soon they all had a fit of the giggles and people began to stare.
They finished off their afternoon tea with more decorum. They said goodbye to the ladies and went back on the tram to ‘The Inveigle’, where they finished their discussions with tea and toast. They ate a lot that day!
It was decided that on Monday morning the girls would go to the circus, to learn how to fly! If it was successful, Abigail would have the best apparatus and a safety net fitted.
It was time for an early bed, the girls walked slowly up the stairs and turned corners which now began to seem familiar. Once more as they passed an open door, two ‘Tease Maids’ we’re getting a birching. They stood to watch.
Tired, they climbed the stairs, and went to their own room, in a house and theatre where they had their own key. They could hardly believe it.
Mr.Trentham often too a photo through an open door, here is one.
They opened their door, and both quickly undressed and jumped into the same bed. Once more they talked of ideas for their room, and also much about their act.
Slowly they drifted to sleep, to dream of fantastic leaps, wonderful acrobatics, their wonderful costumes, and a very resplendent room.
Downstairs Abigail saw the boy at her window after he knocked.
“Hello Albert, got any news?”
“Yes Missus Abigail, they live in Kensington, a right posh house.” He passed an address.
“Did you see many come and go?”
“Only one Missus, a man in a top hat, with one of them leather bags like a doctor has.”
“No other person?”
“No Ma’am, en I was there ages lookin at em!”
“Good lad. Have you got much free time over the next week or so?”
“Yes Missus Abigail, I have, especially for you!” He blushed.
“Well, I’ll pay you a florin a day for two weeks if you don’t get spotted. Here is the other florin I promised you. Most of the time you’ll just keep watch and report what happens, and who visits. Now keep this quiet.”
“Bloody hell missus, yes Missus.” He was quite amazed by the amount of money that she was offering him.
Abigail smiled at him. Good information needed good money, she knew that