Chapter Text
She hadn’t wanted it to happen. Raine cringed as she observed the look of shock in Susan's face just before Mags had clubbed the woman on the back of her head. Her blue eyes rolled into her skull and she fell to the floor with a thud. She looked to her companion, then to the heap of a person which now lay motionless before Mags’ feet.
In the silent woman’s expressive eyes, she knew exactly what she was trying to tell her. That they needed to leave, and quickly. They were about to abduct a man from a brothel house filled with both girls and guests, and had incapacitated it’s madam. As she pondered what to do, Raine felt the warmth of her own blood soaking the fabric of the back of her dress. Ely had been too quick and now there was a very painful and gaping wound on her back.
“I can’t leave her like this, Mags. I need to explain to her why we did this. She needs to know this wasn’t a strike against her or her establishment. We need to take her with us so I can explain,” Raine whispered in a rushed tone.
Though she could tell the taller woman was protesting just by the look in her eyes, she hoisted the smaller woman up at Raine’s request, her small frame was like dead weight. Together they fled back to their Hackney hideaway down on Gilpin Road.
When Susan had awakened, Raine felt relief. She’d watched the woman closely as she rested on her couch, hoping she wasn’t concussed, such was the force behind Mag’s strike. She had sat up, lashing out at Ida who had dipped a cloth into a wash basin filled with warm water, only to clean the woman’s bound hands.
“Wait! Forgive me, Miss Susan,” Ida had exclaimed as she narrowly avoided a blow. “No harm was meant to come your way.”
“She wakes, then. I would have audience with you myself. Raine, my name,” Raine said as she pushed herself from the fireplace mantle and approached the blonde woman who seemed more confused and angry than anything. The desire to be gentle with the woman, to bring her into the fold, was overwhelming. While she knew a bit about Long Susan through the research she had conducted in order to plant Ida into the brothel so Ely could be dealt with, she didn’t know enough to trust her. She needed to be reassured that she wouldn’t turn them over to her husband the first chance she got.
Their eyes met as Raine leaned down and loosened her bonds, then removed them completely. She flashed a slight smile at Susan as she did so, the other woman rubbed her wrists and slowly stood, once she had been freed.
A darkness soon clouded Susan’s eyes and Raine felt as if she had greatly miscalculated the strength of the other woman, finding herself gasping as the smaller woman pushed and shoved her. Her neck whipped backwards, then forward as Susan continued the assault until Mags snaked her arms around her waist and yanked her away from her.
“Oh, I knew I liked the measure of you, first I had eyes on you. Now, all the more,” she said as she recovered from the blows she had been dealt.
Raine hadn’t seen fury like that in so long, if ever, it sparked a certain feeling within her. She smiled at Susan, even as the other woman tried to flee from her. Had Mags not gotten the jump on her, she may have succeeded, but escaping the tight grasp of the behemoth of a woman was a fruitless effort.
“Do not force me to make you prisoner,” she said as Mags pulled Susan back to face her. As Susan stilled, Raine softened her tone. “Friend is much more to my liking.”
It wasn’t unjustified, the venom in Susan’s voice as she spat back at Raine. They had taken her from her establishment, she was concerned about the welfare of her girls, and once word spread of their actions, she was sure to see a decline in business. No, Raine could not fault Susan for her anger towards her.
But her fiery anger only fueled her desire to bring Susan along with them, and anyone else she felt would like to break free from the bonds of man. So she showed her everything. What had happened to Mags, how the others had been left to fend for themselves. There was no justice for this band of women and children who had become like family to her, and certainly no justice for Agnes.
“See? You are not alone in wishing your girls a better measure of living.” Raine had said to her as she guided Susan through their operation, smiling at the children who chased after each other, playing hide and seek under the tables. “Here, they feel part of a family.”
“They are thieves.” Susan replied evenly, her expression giving away the fact that she was unimpressed. "What is this improved life you've promised? One lived behind bars?"
Raine felt the sting of Susan’s words in her chest and her smile faded. She was wrong about them, wrong about her. It mattered little, for she knew Susan could still be swayed with enough reasoning, and Raine was not one to shy away from a challenge. Her hesitation only meant she was just as independent as any woman should be.
“Come with me,” she said as she held back the pained expression which nearly gave her away. She’d needed to remain strong in front of her girls, infallible. But with Susan, she found herself wanting to expose her vulnerability, so she tugged down her dress and showed her just how mortal she was. Susan’s hands were warm against her skin as she aided her, gasping at the sight of her wound and scars.
Her hands were steady and careful as they stitched her wound shut. The bite of the needle through her flesh was slightly smoothed by the warm puffs of breath Susan left behind on her back as she leaned in closely and severed the thread with her teeth. As exposed as she was like this, Raine felt safe with Susan. Despite the fact that she couldn’t see where Susan's eyes fell, she knew it was the scars which had been left behind as a reminder of just how tragic life could be. And just how vicious a man could be as well. So she explained them to her, just as she would ramble on about her life to Mags, so did she with Susan. It felt almost natural to be so open with the other woman.
Until Susan made it clear she knew nothing about the depths of her efforts, how long she had been working on a plan which would adequately compensate those who were denied what was rightfully owed to them. She didn’t understand that she had tried to do it the right way, they had advocated relentlessly, yet it still wasn’t enough.
So the reasoning Susan had set forth was steeped in ignorance. In a fit of blind rage, Raine found her patience all but evaporated as she dragged Susan to the cellar, yanking her along. It was time to enact her plan. One she hadn’t expected Susan to be a part of, but if there was one thing Raine Thornell was, it was an opportunist.
“You have no wish to be our friend? I shall use you for another purpose.” Raine boomed before calling to Mags to hold Susan in place while she made her way to one of the men. She chuckled darkly as his expression turned to fright, the light glinted off the cleaver she held in her hand.
“Your purpose will be to deliver a message. Bring this back to the authorities you are so fond of,” she said as she shoved a bag full of severed fingers and their demand into her hands. “Mags, blindfold her then drop her off somewhere far from here. I’m going to get cleaned up.”
She had expected to see the last of Miss Susan Hart, then. In fact, Raine was even surprised when the woman really had brought the bag with the promised money. And when talking to her in one of the back alleys of London, the thought had occurred that perhaps she’d been wrong to judge Susan so quickly. Raine had taken a gamble and repaid the woman in kind when she’d bared a part of her soul to her. Somewhat literally, since Susan’s words ‘no other soul have I shared this with’ did not miss their impact.
This gamble had paid off. Raine felt light in the head, ecstatic as she tugged Susan along to their hideout and called out to her girls. Standing at a high point on the stairwell, smiling and laughing as they huddled at the foot of it. The excitement was palpable, even more so when she collected fistfulls of money in her hands and threw it into the air, watching as it fluttered to the floor. “Gather it up girls, this is our compensation! We have won at last. We move out in the morning. Susan, you’re one with us now!”
Raine’s heart filled with an unusual amount of warmth as she reached out for Susan, and as she climbed the stairs with blue eyes shining brightly as their gaze met, then slipped her hand into her own, something else bloomed in her chest.
She had spent hours lamenting to Mags on her couch about the regret she felt over handling Susan so roughly. This beautiful, strong and independent woman whom she had already felt a strong connection to, she had sent away with a bloody nose and bruised face.
“Am I too quick to anger?” She had asked Mags, just hours after she had sent Susan away.
It seemed to matter little, however, as Susan eagerly aided her as she collected her clothing and the few items she would need in order to travel to Fort William. They exchanged smiles and laughter as the feeling of freedom filled the air.
“We shouldn’t wait so long to leave,” Susan remarked. “While my husband never kept any of the promises he made to me personally, he always kept his promises to his profession. Doing whatever he could, using whatever resources were necessary, to track down whomever it was he was searching for. He’s probably using the full force of the law right now just to find me.”
“Well, I won’t let them find you, Miss Susan.” She brushed a few strands of stray blonde hair from Susan’s eyes, smiling as a blush crept up into the smaller woman’s cheeks. “I’ve a few loose ends to tie up before we leave. I might suggest you to leave behind your feather hat, lest it draw the attention of those we wish to avoid.”
The house was bustling as Raine made her way down to the cellar, the excitement had yet to die down as the other women scurried around the hideout, readying themselves for the journey. The mood in the lower level of the residence, was anything but, however.
The atmosphere was ominous as the three men they had worked so hard to abduct in order to collect the ransom money, shivered in their chains. There was a stench which lingered in the air, the one which usually accompanied fear. And how she relished that fear as she slowly approached them, one intimidating footstep over another. She watched them shrink back as she stopped before them, the hatred she felt for these men and what they had done began to burn at her. Every time she looked at them, smelled them, or heard them whimpering pathetically, she felt the fires of her anger rising again.
“You won’t get away with it.” Ely uttered as she towered over him, having spit his gag out.
“Do not speak to me about what I will and won’t get away with!” Raine snapped back. Her eyes flitted to the small canister of gasolene which sat on the table. Without thinking, she grabbed the canister, taking great delight as she doused them with the fluid. They had taken so much from her, from the women who were denied an adequate life, it felt as if it were her duty to ensure that they would take no more.
“Raine? Raine? Your girls wait on you.” Susan’s cheerful voice cut through the dark fog which grew in the cellar. She paused at the sight of her, can and matchbox in hand.
“This I do for my sister,” Raine said. She could tell by the look Susan wore on her face that she did not understand. That she would not find this act of rage acceptable. But her fury had been ignited just as the matchstick she held in her hand would be. Susan’s pleas for her to stop were met with deaf ears as the anger consumed her once again. She found her hands on the woman, shoving her until her back met the wall, her teeth clenched just as tightly as her fist was in the fabric of her dress.
She struck the match and felt the warmth of it’s glow against her cheeks, it illuminated the blue in Susan’s eyes, and the fear as well. Her fingers found their way to Susan’s cheeks and she lightly brushed her thumb against it, trying to persuade her. “I know you understand me. When these men burn you will, I hope, join us.”
Raine’s eyes snapped to the ceiling at the sound of a knock at the door. A distraction which Susan used to extinguish the flame in her hand. “No! You would betray me?” she seethed.
“You betray yourself,” Susan’s voice was no more than a whisper. It gathered volume as she begged Raine. “This is not freedom. Not for your girls. Not for you. This is blind violence, the preserve of all those that have left their scars on your back. You have become man, Raine.”
“No! Don’t tell me I am that!” Of all the insults which had ever come her way, Raine felt that one more than any. Above her, she could hear the shuffling of footsteps and a muffled male voice demanding to know where Susan was. “Tell me that I am not that, tell me I am not that! ” She pushed Susan against the wall again, a mixture of heartbreak and anger swirling about in her chest.
“Cut them loose. Cut them loose. If you kill them, all here will hang.” Susan begged. “Cut them loose.”
(Art by Greypaws! Raine (above) and Susan (below))