had quite the adventure. at least there was a good fight at the end. makes up for having to be involved with wooster.

there is so much to tell that i fear i shall be quite wastefull of my paper. i almost don't care. wooster came in the other day with a whole pile of pocketbooks. said he had been cleaning and found all the books that his family had given him over the years. and if he hadn't used them by now, he probably wasn't going to. i have lots of paper now!

i have come to admire mrs. witnell. when sir cosmo charged me to keep her safe during her charity work, i figured we would be spending our days in meetings. that's how most well to do women think charity happens... i was pleasantly surprised to find that mrs. witnell is willing to go in and get her hands dirty in the parts of london where there are actually people needing help. More specifically, we are finding homeless kids and getting them into safe houses. places where they can learn a trade. and places where there is more safety. it's a wonderful calling. so much more effective than my poor efforts at trying to teach a few girls to defend themselves. especially when the defense doesn't work.

micgregor finally has some information on my missing mary. poor mary was part of my gang before otto pulled me out of the gutter. mary was one of my first students. so bright. so willing to learn some defense and even a bit of reading. it seems mary was also a victem of that horrid baby farm scheme. macgregor's people pulled mrs weederburn's remains out of her well recently. mcgregor thinks that mary may have found her baby dead and killed that awful mrs weederburn. then run into hiding. micgregor asked me to see if i can find any information. he was worried that she might do herself harm.

after class at one of the safe houses/schools, i was talking to sara about mary. sara seemed to remember that mary often talked about checking up on her younger brother, billy. i wrote a note to mcgregor and posted it.

after finishing my note, i heard wooster come in. obviously drunk again. doesn't he have somewhere better stay with the rest of the group not in residence? i thought he had his own flat or something. bother. he's even singing! but i got some back. when i heard him come in singing (ie, drunk), i put a rabbit skin in his bed... it was terribly funny listening to him beat the skin to death... too bad cain finally convinced wooster that he had 'killed' the rabbit. wooster insisted that the sheets be changed. how terribly wasteful. what would it be like to have money and supplies to throw around like that? i know many a person who would be happy to have a mattress and not care how many people or animals they had to share it with...

anyway, there was more excitement the next day. we got a telegram. from samaline and ms witnell. they seem to have eloped and married in scottland. that is 3 members of our group who have married in the last year... there must be something in the water. I shall endevour to drink somewhere else... part of me is very happy for ms witnel mrs samaline. i very much admire samaline. he is very competent in so many things and so good with his fighting. i don't know about the other part of me. betty seemed very excited about the telegram. she thinks that elopement is so romantic. mrs witnell doesn't seem to be taking it so well. she immediatly took to her rooms and was up all night writing.

when she seemed to be still writing the next morning, i went over to ask mrs frazer and ms cuthbert if anything ought to be done. they came over and made sure that mrs witnell was all right. they promised to keep coming over to check on her. i have heard that the household has had to send for more stationary. i think it is more because of all the crumpled starts than because mrs witnell is writing a book...

the next morning, mrs witnell seemed to be still writing. i started to set myself up for another quiet day of doing nothing when i got a note from micgregor. he found the club where billy (mary's brother) had been working in the kitchen. no one would talk to him to say where billy had gone, though. i made sure that someone would be around to watch over mrs witnell (i wouldn't want my pay to be docked for leaving my charge untended) and set out, figuring that the employees might talk to me. i am, after all, much less intimidating than a policeman...

i finally found someone who would talk to me. willie said that mrs. privet had bought billy's apprenticeship about a month ago. gah! mrs. privet runs one of THOSE houses. the kind where poor girls are forced to sell themselves. it seems kind of odd, but i guess the house does have a kitchen. i posted a note to mcgregor and decided to see if i could find billy. coming up to the house, i found billy heading to his other job. i talked to him briefly and asked if he had seen mary. he gave me a look like a frightened animal and said he hadn't. i explained why i wanted mary and asked him to tell her that i was looking for her so i could help. i didn't want to frighten him anymore, so i let him go.

a few moments later, i felt a chill on my neck and millie (one of my hair stick knives) was pulled from my bun. it fell on the street and rolled just out of reach. i chased it down the street. i felt foolish chasing my own hairstick down a flat street. finally it stopped. i grabbed and jammed it back in my bun. i also held it in place so that it couldn't come out again. just then i noticed a woman's voice coming from an open second story window. "billy is in a perfect position to watch wooster. don't worry. i have a good hold on billy. you'll have your information soon"

i hopped the first omnibus i could find that headed toward mcgregor's office. someone wanting information about wooster seemed more important...

a few blocks from mcgregor's office, i saw wooster walk into his club. i hopped off the omnibus and tried to decide what to do. finally i found my way to the back ally and listened in at the kitchen window. i was pretty sure that one of the voices was billy's. figured that the best way to keep billy from getting himself into trouble was to get wooster out of the building. besides, if they wanted information about wooster, it would be hard to get it if wooster wasn't there...

i was very brave. i went to the front door, bold as you please, and said that i had a message for wooster. presently, wooster himself appeared at the door. bundled in 2 coats, a feather stole, and all sorts of odd gear. he seemed to be under an odd impression that cosmo had sent word that we were all going to canada or some other odd place... he reluctantly put all his gear away (what was he going to do with a teapot?) and came with me. I fabricated a small falshood and said mcgregor had sent me to fetch him... of course, i couldn't keep up the falshood, so i told them about the whole adventure with the hairstick earlier. wooster seemed to take it all in stride. it's really hard to know what the man really thinks about things. he hears something and starts dithering. you have to give him something else to think about and then make him think it was his idea to go and do something...

anyway, on the way to macgregor's office, one of the gas lights suddenly flared and then the whole street went dark. it was a bit frightening. worse was seeing mary. glowing. silly wooster thought she was on fire. at least he tried to help. even if his version of helping was to try and smother the flames with is coat. he went right through her. it was the oddest feeling. then she slowly faded. if it hadn't been for wooster's antics (he thought he had squashed the poor lass), i might have been truly frightened. as it was, i looked around because the last time something odd had happened, i had found some information. i thought i saw something moving in an alley, so i got wooster moving again.

bother it all, but micgregor wasn't in. cain said he was investigating another crime scene. we left a message saying we were going back to the townhouse. i told wooster about mrs samaline's elopment and wedding, and wouldn't it be a good idea to congratulate mrs witnell? on the way there, we ran into an odd bunch of looneys. ok. wooster's cronies from the club. same thing... they were carying someone they called barmy (see i said they were looney!) fips home. wooster was making noises about asking if they needed help. they looked at him. they looked at me. they said that they didn't want to interrupt our date. wooster said it wasn't what they thought. not that he'd mind. since i'm not too tall. what? anyway. after we left i reminded him not to get any ideas.

when we got in, mrs. witnel was finally sleeping. since i had a feeling that poor mary was no longer among the living, i decided it was time to visit mrs cuthbert. we had a sayonce. mary is dead. there i said it. maybe it will make it more real for me. or not. it's been a very surreal sort of day. anyway we found out that mary is terribly worried about billy. she knows he's in trouble, but not what. just that he's frightened. So we decided to head back to the club and extract billy from the kitchen. i know that i can get him a place at one of the safe houses. i owe it to mary.

so, we made it back to the club. cain and i went around to the back alley to see who came out of the kitchen. wooster went into the club. shortly after, wooster comes running out the kitchen and says that loony fips has been kidnapped! wooster remembered the boys taking him home had said that finishing wooster's drink had been the last straw. we now realized that the drink must have been spiked. i knew where looney was. at mrs privet's. i mentioned where he was and wooster made a choice comment about 'that's a nice place' or something. i'm afraid i slapped him right then and there. i felt a little bad, but not too much...

we took off to mrs privet's. about the same place where i had heard the conversation, we heard looney's voice mumbling something like, 'but i don't know anything about rockets...' we found our way into the house via the coal shute. there goes another dress. coal stains are so hard to get out! we made it most of the way up to the second floor without meeting anyone when one of the doors open. i was left standing in the hallway as a rather drunk man looked out and said, "they didn't tell me they had anyone as pretty as you working here!" that was just too much. i punched him. good and hard. it was a sweet hit! i wish i knew that move all those years ago. but i'm afraid i started a bit of a ruckess as the girl in the room started screaming after he fell back in. i thought for sure that we were all goners. i about screamed as a hand grabbed me and pulled me into a little closet. luckily, i realized it was wooster before the knife came free. i reminded him not to get any ideas as i shoved the knife back into it's sheath... we heard doors opening, and people muttering. suddenly, someone called out, "what do you mean a police raid?" at which point, people started exiting. things suddenly got very quiet. we were thinking about slipping out when there was a tapping at our door. no sensible knocking for whoever it was. but suddenly wooster got very quiet. "s... i... r... inflective? I bet it's cain!" right he was. with looney over his shoulder. cain thanked us for the nice distraction and we all headed for the roof. too bad mrs. privet showed up with her gun. wooster says he can take care of her. i was thinking about staying to help smack the demon woman around until i heard a familiar voice on the roof. speaking dutch. the last time i had heard that voice was just after i whooped him back at that horrid castle where they captured us after that fall down the stairs. i knew they should have let me kill the six fingered idjit! i knew it, i knew it, i knew it! i raced up the stairs to see that he had traded his beautiful sword for a big gun. which was being pointed at cain. so i grabbed a throwing kife and tossed it at the count. it got his right hand and made him drop the gun. at which point he returned to his sword and we had a jolly fight. he's a good opponent, i'll grant him, but i'm still better. i disarmed him. i so badly wanted to kill him. but i kept hearing mrs samaline's voice in my head telling me not to kill unarmed people. but he would have killed me in the same place. so i forced him back to the wall. but before i could decide, he jumped. it's too much to wish him dead, though. somehow, he had caught a rope going up to a balloon of some sort and was getting away. cain shot the baloon, but not enough to make it explode. so. he got away again. hopefully, if i ever get the chance, i won't hesitate to kill him the next time. at least i got to keep his sword. i'll add it to the shrine i'm building in my room. my ball gown. matilda (when i'm not wearing her, of course). my peace offering to my friends who have not survived the hard life of london's slums. this sword is very nice quality. too bad it is balanced for a 6 fingered hand. it just doesn't feel right when i try to use it...

we got looney back to the club. wooster dragged me right in, even though i was protesting that i certainly couldn't go in there. then the doorman protested that i couldn't come in. then cain pipes up with, "i think rule 57 applies here, sir." wooster went into dither mode again and asked what ketchup had to do with the matter. by this time, the gentlemen had heard the commotion and were gathering around. "you don't really mean rule 57, do you, cain? she didn't really help rescue a fellow member did she?" wooster pops up with, "of course she did! she was instrumental in rescuing good old barmy!" at which point there was a cheer and all the men started trying to remember the ceremony for honorary club membership. i believe cain noted that i was about loose my composure. he took me into a private room normally reserved for visiting family. there i was able to calm down away from all the attention and noise. how do they stand it? they must really be looneys! and i suppose now i'm an honorary looney. i suppose it will make it easier if i want to plant rabbits... but will i have to pay the dues? there is no way i can afford that. bah. i have much more important things to worry about. like what it means that wooster has given me a gift. 2 really. he came in and, almost gently, gave me the most beautiful oriental carved frog. after he handed it to me, he said i was an honorary member. then he sent cain out to replace my dress that had been ruined by the trip down the coal shute. i didn't even know that there were places to buy a dress this late in the evening. it's a very nice dress. much higher quality than my old one. what must it be like to have money to throw around like that? does he throw it around simply because he can, or because he cares? oh bother. now he has me dithering!

oh i almost forgot. we got billy out of the club kitchen as well (better) as the other job. he now works in one of the safe houses. and he's much better than some of the help they had there. he's already feeling better about things. we found out that mary is haunting billy. she didin't mean harm, but he thought he was going mad. mrs privet (that filthy hag) found out and was blackmailing him. she said that if he didn't spy for her, she'd lock him up as a madman. at least he knows he's in a place where people won't think he's crazy. and i'm going to have a word with mrs cuthbert and see if we can convince mary that billy is safe. i promise my dear mary that i'll keep her billy safe. as safe as anyone can be in this crazy world...

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