Stand and Deliver (closed)

[Remec]

The stillness of the night belied the pounding pulse within John Guthrie's chest. They waited in the dark as they had so many times before, yet he was still nervous as he held the reins of his horse and prepared to confront the coming stage.

"Thousands of dollars, Jack, me boy," Hollings had said. Hollings was one of the greats, but he was too old to ride, so he faded off into the sunset. Sometimes, he'd bring an idea to John or one of the others in their loose confederation. Sometimes, someone would even cut the old dog in for more than dinner and a bottle of Guiness.

This was one of those times.

Or it would be, if Hollings' information was on the mark. Guthrie, known in the penny dreadfuls as Smilin' Jack, was both hoping it was and hoping it was pure crap. He could use the money, naturally, took a lot to run a small band of highwaymen these days. More and more people were using the trains rather than the stage, and he'd seen a write up in the newspaper of even more things supposedly on their way. Things that were faster and safer than using horses.

But that was still to come. Today was still today, and tonight tonight. The road was under his watch, and those who traveled on it did so at risk of a sudden call for payment.

The call of an owl broke his thought and he rose in the saddle to look down upon the path through the light woods. "Right on time," he remarked as he checked his watch,"alright, boys, let's take her."

On his signal, several groaning voices erupted on either side of the road as they put their backs into the levers that caused a rope to rise off the road and go taut across it. It hung in the air at about chest height to a drover on the buckboard of a stage.

The placement was good enough.

The horses slipped beneath the hemp barrier, but the man goading them onward was caught just below his heart and smacked back into the stage as the trees the rope was bound to proved stronger than the weight and speed of the stage. The team floundered with several dismaying neighs and cries of pain and discomfort.

Guthrie quickly rode down to the stage as it stopped. A heavy male voice called out from within,"What is going on?" This was followed by a lighter, younger, female voice.

"Why have we stopped? And so short, too. Are the horses okay?"

Guthrie turned and looked at the other men. Passengers? Was this the right run? He stood in his stirrups to be as ominous and commanding as possible and spoke through his bandana to the driver. "Stand and deliver!"

 

[Destiny]

Lady Maribeth Mac Leon

The stage rambled along the roads bouncing and swaying perhaps to have made the passengers more comfortable but it was like riding a wild horse most of the time. But this coach was heavier then most of the local transport, and was in fact belonging to Count Felix Devious and carrying a most precious cargo to him. It was the Lady Maribeth herself, eighteen and beautiful she was the marriageable age to his lordship and her Dowry was nothing to sneeze at either. She was going to make him an even richer man then he already was.

The marriage had been arranged for six months now and it was now time to deliver the Bride unto his lordship without delay. He was anxious to see what he was being paid to marry. Such a horrible way to look at things and Maribeth was not at all pleased about being sold away to a man she barely knew. HE was of an average age and some might say handsome, but she didn't want to marry and be under the hands of a man that would merely place her in the country and go off to London to whore and gamble her money away. She had heard stories of the count but none of them were confirmed and so her father wanting his daughter to be a countess signed the documents selling his only daughter into marriage.

Her thoughts were suddenly broken into as the coach lurched forward and then back tossing her to the floor and sending a sharp cry from her lips. Crawling onto the floor of the coach she moved to her seat once more and called out..."What is going on?"

"Why have we stopped? And so short, too. Are the horses Okay?"


As she was reaching for the door her heart fell to her stomach and fear filled her heart as she heard the words sing out through the night air....

Stand and Deliver!


She was frozen in place in fear and trepidation and she began to look around for something to protect herself with. There on the bench beside her and she wasn't as scared now a one shot pistol loaded and ready. She aimed it toward the door hoping she choose the right one for her attacker to come through. She was an excellent shot, her father had made sure of that.

 

[Remec]

Passengers fumed John Guthrie. The man known by most as Smilin' Jack was not doing anything of the kind at the moment. The stage that should have had nothing but money and goods and the lone driver...perhaps with someone riding as guard...seemed to have at least one person within its traveling compartment.

Silently, Guthrie signalled the men on the rope to move forward and retrieve the driver before he could get his bearings after being slammed into a stout, taut hemp line, and then backwards hard into the seat of the stage itself. He stepped his horse about to the side of the coach and addressed the door.

"I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but listen and listen closely. When we shout 'Stand and deliver' at you, you come out and give us what we want. Usually it's nothing of yours, just something on the stage...or even the stage itself. Now, come out slowly, and tell us who you are."

More silent hand gestures, and two of his men dropped lightly from their horses and crept up to the door he faced. They flanked it, waiting for someone to emerge or Guthrie to tell them to take the small wheeled box by force.

 

[Destiny]

Lady Maribeth

Her hands shook as the time waited seemed to take forever. No one came to the door, no one said anything. Her mind was screaming with the things she should do to save herself.

"I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but listen and listen closely. When we shout 'Stand and deliver' at you, you come out and give us what we want. Usually it's nothing of yours, just something on the stage...or even the stage itself. Now, come out slowly, and tell us who you are."

His voice made her jump and that sent a her hand to jerk which in turn made her fire off the gun. It shattered through the door and she heard the grunt of a person being hit by it. The gun clattered to the floor of the stage as she cried in horror at what she had done. She had never shot anyone in her life, yes she knew how they worked but shooting a stack of hay was completely different from a human being. Her lower lip was drawn between her teeth as she looked about the stage for something else to use and she flinched when she heard someone shouting out again....

 

[Remec]

The sudden discharge of a gun from within the small box that was the stagecoach's passenger compartment made the horses jump. Guthrie and those still mounted reined their animals in easily enough, but the mounts were still uneasy. The highwayman didn't blame them.

When the shot exited the coach, it blasted a hole in the door. It did the same to Smythe as he was reaching across to fling it wide open for Andrews to surprise the compartment's occupant.

Instead, Smythe was writhing and swearing on the ground, clutching at his arm and getting blood all over himself and the leafstrewn roadway. Andrews, who was on the verge of springing into action, had recoiled to the back wheel of the entire stage and looking alternately at Guthrie and Smythe.

"You'll pay for that!", Guthrie snapped as he wheeled his horse about, drawing his own weapon and advancing slowly to the now open coach. He pulled alongside and carefully took a look, just as a uncocked gun gently rolled to the edge and dropped off on the ground.

They didn't mean to fire that. This is good, probably not someone hired to guard the money.

Springing from his saddle, Guthrie dashed to the swaying door and flung it wide, putting himself in the opening. "Stay where you are. We have you...now."

He stared down at the crouching female figure before him and pushed his hat back on his head a bit. This is new.

 

[Destiny]

Masked from sight....

"Stay where you are. We have you...now."

She paused in her looking around for a way from the coach her breathing elevated and her hair slightly mussed. Maribeth for all her bravado was terrified. She lifted a hand to her hair that was falling in disarray around her face the blond curls framing her face as green eyes stared back at the man that stood in the doorway. "How dare you stop Count Felix Devois' personal coach." She put on her best 'lady' voice and looked at the man standing there.

She was wearing a forest green velvet gown to keep out the cold it was the height of fashion in Paris and went well with her form. the torso of the gown fits snuggly along her waist stomach and breasts presenting them in a delicious fashion. The upper jacket of the gown cut away to still leave the cleavage revealed by the tight gown in view. The sleeves are long and the skirt of the gown belled away from her hips in voluminous mass of velvet green and looking as expensive as the package within. She was bred of wealthy and privilege and now faced with a highwayman looking for his next amount of money.

They continued to stare into each others eyes as time slipped along and a neighing horse broke the spell as she slid her hands along her dress," pray step back and let us through. We have nothing of value for you save some cash in my reticule and if that is your desire I can give you that. She had to keep him from searching the coach at all costs. She didn't know the man hired to customize the coach had been bribed to reveal the location of the gold within the coach. Her voice shook as she continued to look into the eyes of the man who now held her future in his very hands. If he found the gold and took it she would be cast back to her family penniless and broke and without a husband. If he let them pass she would be going into the unknown still scared and frightened.

 

[Remec]

Seeing the young girl in the fancy dress of a lady of privilege took Guthrie by surprise. Of all the people who he might have met or expected to have met in the middle of nowhere on a coach bound for who knows, for it to have been the bethrothed of one of the land barons who had brought Guthrie and his men to this line of work in the first place was unexpected to say the least.

He stared for several minutes. His dark, grey-blue eyes peered out of the space between his well-used hat and the upper edge of the folded hankerchief covering the lower half of his face. The girl met his gaze and silence hung between them until Guthrie's horse prompted the girl to ask them to leave her and the coach in peace.

She spoke quietly, but earnestly; and with an air to her pronounciation that smacked Guthrie as someone speaking the way they think rich people should speak. She's not entirely what she seems. And neither is this coach, I would wager.

He caught her by an arm and turned her more squared to him after they had shifted following the earlier battle of looks. Not like Hollings to be this far off the mark. There's money here...there has to be...has to... "Where's the dowry? What are you taking to the Count, jewelry? deeds? bonds and bank certificates? What?"

Guthrie held her close and let his eyes bore into her with a harsher intensity than he had before. Being right up against her, he felt the slight tremble that coursed through her torso. His own body began to react to the way her cleavage seemed to gently ripple with each breath she took. Her fancy perfume toyed with more than just his nose.

"Or perhaps there is no dowry, just one thing of treasure to the Count." Guthrie shifted his grip to twist one arm behind the girl's back and brought his free hand up to brush some of those charming ringlets away from where they obscured her face.

"You."

 

[Destiny]

Trembling....

Her whole body was trembling from the magnetism of the man holding her. Her breathing was causing her chest to rise and fall as she looked into the face of the man before her now. She swallowed nervously as he brought her closer and demanded...


"Where's the dowry? What are you taking to the Count, jewelry? deeds? bonds and bank certificates? What?"

"Or perhaps there is no dowry, just one thing of treasure to the Count."

Maribeth shook her head as his hand caressed her skin and pressed the curls from her face her breathing almost stopping as he spoke again.

"You."

"Th...there is nothing in the coach, please just let me go..." She struggled slightly against the man holding her. Her breathing was erratic and she was feeling light headed as the man continued to hold her. One of the men shifted and called out," Whatcha got Smilin' Jack? We ain't got all night...Hollins said the floor board, check it."

The man's words made Maribeth pale as she heard the secret place revealed and she swallowed,"please there isn't' anything there. Just let me go and I will assure your not followed." Making promises she knew she couldn't keep. She placed her hands to the chest of the man holding her closer to him as she pushed him slightly away he was making it difficult for her to think and she shook her head slowly her voice soft,"plleasse..."

 

[Remec]

"Whatcha got Smilin' Jack? We ain't got all night...Hollings said the floor board, check it."

Guthrie cocked his head, but left his gaze on the woman within his grasp. That old fool. Leave it to Hollings to tell the whole gang and not just me. He saw the reaction in the woman's eyes.

"Please there isn't anything there. Just let me go and I will assure you're not followed." He could hear both the fear and the sincerity in her voice. He thought how to answer Andrews, the man was always in a rush, and she pleaded with him once more while he did so.

"Plleasse...", she said as she placed her hands upon Guthrie's chest and pushed gently to allow her arms to extend and put just a bit more distance between them.

Guthrie shortened the distance back up by letting his left arm slide the woman's back to her waist and dropping his stance enough to sweep his right behind her knees and lift her into his arms. "We'll see what happens. Just be still and quiet and let me talk to the men," he whispered into her ear.

He then backed slowly out of the coach, and turned to greet the other bandits with his usual broad, beaming smile. "Well, I ain't got the gold, yet. But my hands are a little full. Andrews, you're in a hurry, get in and check that floor space."

Andrews gave Guthrie and his discovery a good long once over. Several of the others had come down, bags and prybars in hand, to help with gathering the stage's loot. Between them and Andrews, Smythe rolled slowly back and forth on the ground. His left hand clutched the middle of his right arm and his teeth were clenched together to stifle the cries and curses still pouring from his mouth, even as blood seemed to pour out between his fingers and run down his arm.

"Someone do something about him. I have to think about everything 'round here?"

"No, Jack," drawled Andrews with a lazy swipe of his tongue across his lips. "I'd say we're all thinking about something right 'bout now."

 

[Destiny]

He moved in closer making her begin to squirm his voice barely making her calm ... "We'll see what happens. Just be still and quiet and let me talk to the men." His breath was hot against her cold flesh and she closed her eyes as he lifted her up and out of the coach and turning to display her like so much treasure.

Her eyes flashed open and she looked at the man holding her as he ordered another man into the coach and she began struggle as she shook her head,"noo please don't that is all.... " her voice fell silent as she looked into the man's eyes who was holding her and felt his fingers dig into her skin silencing her to quiet.

The man who she assumed to be Andrews looked her over like she was a banquet and he was a man starving causing her to shiver in Guthrie's arms. As the man effortlessly carried her away from the stage coach and ordered his men around she looked around seeing shadows of men moving through and along toward the coach ever so careful to keep to the shadows and out of sight.

She jumped slightly when he spoke again after she had been staring at him for so long,"Someone do something about him. I have to think about everything 'round here?"

"No, Jack," ......... "I'd say we're all thinking about something right 'bout now."

Maribeth's eyes looked toward Andrews and she swallowed as she whispered to Guthrie,"please put me down."

 

[Remec]

The girl wanted set down. Guthrie could tell even before she spoke the words. Andrews' leer was palpable even from where Guthrie stood holding her in his arms.

He ignored her for now.

Stepping the rest of the way through the entrance to the coach, Guthrie lightly leapt down to the ground. Andrews slid to his left side, still licking his lips and eyeing the girl like she alone made the whole escapade worthwhile.

Behind him to the left, from Guthrie's point of view, Jack's horse waited patiently until told to move elsewhere. On the otherside, two men were knocking out Smythe and preparing to bind what remained of his arm. The other two were moving up past the little challenge to authority, tools in their hands to check on the loot.

"I hope your not thinking of laying hands, or anything else, on this young lady," Guthrie began. "I would think even you could see how far above you she is, and what would happen to you for committing a crime I'd not given the go on." He finally dropped his arm and put the girl's feet to the ground.

"Gentlemen," Guthrie announced as he stepped away from, and just in front of, the girl from the coach. "May I have the privilege of telling you that we have had the honor of waylaying the coach of the esteemed Count Felix Devois? And introducing what I have assumed to be the lovely new fiancee you may have heard tell of." He beamed that famous smile of his and brushed back his hair as he doffed his hat and made a halfbow. As several of the men echoed the move, he stood upright again and looked at the girl,"What's your name, girl?"

Andrews' own grin curled deeply into both cheeks and he took a step to the girl's side to check out all of her now that she was standing. "Yeah, what's yer name?"

 

[Destiny]

Maribeth could feel the eyes sliding along her form as if they were hands and felt. She continued to shake in the man's arms that was holding her and she swallowed nervously as she crossed her arms over her chest hiding some of her endowments. Her dark green eyes closed slightly as she blinked back a tear and waited for her tormentors to finish their job.

"I hope your not thinking of laying hands, or anything else, on this young lady," ..... "I would think even you could see how far above you she is, and what would happen to you for committing a crime I'd not given the go on."

She shivered at the thought perhaps of anyone coming near her as her legs were released and she was placed firmly on the ground causing her dress to linger up and along her legs as she dress caught on Guthrie's sword at his hip. grabbing for the heavy material she winced as she heard a slight rip of material from the yank she gave it to get it off of his sword.

"Gentlemen," ...... "May I have the privilege of telling you that we have had the honor of waylaying the coach of the esteemed Count Felix Devois? And introducing what I have assumed to be the lovely new fiancée you may have heard tell of." ........,"What's your name, girl?"

The arrogant bow wasn't lost on Maribeth and she turned out of Guthrie's reach as he and the others mocked her with their greeting of acknowledgment to her station in life. Smoothing her hands along her skirts she lifted her head at an angle that usually had most maids or servants running to do her bidding.

The unwashed man moving closer to her made her flinch slightly and her bravado was easily shown for what it was, a bluff. She swallowed and brought a handkerchief to her nose as she tried to mask the unwashed man's scent with the perfume of the cloth at her nose. "Yeah, what's yer name?"

She dropped her hands before her and crossed them as she turned from the man they was calling Smilin' Jack to look at the odoriferous Andrews and she wrinkled her nose slightly,"Bathing has been shown to KEEP you healthy, you might try it. Well since you all seem to know so much about me, why don't YOU tell me my name."

 

[Remec]

The playfulness in Jack's words still hung in the air, barely marred by the acid in Andrews' sneering echo of them. The young maiden, now safely back on her own two feet, seemed more disturbed at how he bantered with her and her station than with how Andrews and the other men were looking at her.

They could hardly contain the brazen desire bordering on outright lust that flickered within their eyes and in the way they licked their lips while running hungry gazes from her decollage down to where her dress had torn, and from the cinching at her waist along the pattern and ornamentation to her stockinged feet.

She tried to give them a look. One that Guthrie recognized. HIs mother and sisters were experts in it. His wife had been too, before they'd come to this part of the country and she'd realized how little it meant to any but the richest and most powerful. And those who lived to serve them.

Andrews knew it too, although the last woman to try it on him had found him waiting for her in the dark of her bedroom, drapery cords in hand. He curled his lip at one corner, thinking how much fun this one would be all bound to the four corners beneath her canopy.

,"Bathing has been shown to KEEP you healthy, you might try it. Well since you all seem to know so much about me, why don't YOU tell me my name."

He snarled as Maribeth's remark sunk in. "I'll tell you something, you hoighty-toighty little," he let the words drop off as he pulled his arm back and stepped up to her. The men tending to Smythe opened their eyes wide, but they were too wrapped up in the combination of their fallen colleague and their own private fantasies about the girl from the coach.

"I warned you," Guthrie said as he interposed himself between the girl and the almost lunging Andrews. His right hand flew through air in a fist and connected to the surly bandit's jaw and cheek. Teeth bit down into Guthrie's lip as he grimaced at the pain in his hand, and Andrews swore repeatedly as he suddenly went both backwards and down in a heap.

Guthrie gave him an angry scowl and looked over all the others. "She don't know anything about what we're looking for. She's just on her way to settle things between her family and the Count." He turned and looked over his shoulder at her, his left hand nonchalantly rubbed his right as he flexed and reflexed the knuckles there, and let his smile shine upon her once more.

"Ain't that right, Maribeth?" he said with a wink.

 

[Destiny]

Maribeth stood there looking into the eyes of the man who was ready to do her harm, unable to move as he moved closer. She wasn't going to show fear but it was crawling through her stomach as she waited for the blow that never came.

Guthrie stepped in between her and Andrews as the man moved in closer. She winced slightly at the sound of the bow and then peeked around Guthrie as he moved to stand before her and looked at the man on the ground.

When Guthrie turned to look back around at her and smiled she looked up and into his face and blinked when he called her by her Christian name. She turned and walked away her arms going to her chest and crossing over it as she waited now for the men to begin the searching of the coach. She flinched with each piece of board breaking knowing they were moving closer and closer to her dowry and the end of her marriage career. She laughed derisively to herself as she turned and watched them with cold in her heart and knowing she was going to be sent back to her family now penniless and unwed a disgrace to them now.

"Jack, damn me she is a rich man's daughter... " one of the men called from inside the coach. He stuck his head out and cooed as he talked, "four chest all bolted to the floor with iron bands locked in place with a padlock."

Maribeth flinched and turned from their cackling and crowing like fat wealthy men over a prized horse. Tears slid along her cheeks now and she reached up and slide her hand along her cheeks as she tried to hide the tears.

She moved closer to a tree to hide in the shadows as Smilin' Jack moved toward the coach and looked into the gaping hole that had been the false floor of the coach. "We will be taking the coach then boys and getting off this road, we have already been here too long."

He looked toward where Maribeth stood and she waited for his smile once more and she steeled herself against it as he moved once more toward her. "Look like you will be experiencing the hospitality of Smilin' Jack and his gang, Maribeth."

Maribeth shook her head as she remarked,"just go away and leave me be, you have what you were looking for." Her voice shook as she spoke and she began to move deeper into the woods away from the gaping men and the man who was going to steal her life away from her in more ways then she would ever imagine.

 

[Remec]

Hollins wasn't just a crazy old coot after all. Guthrie had had a few doubts, but he knew that the retired highwayman was mostly still on his game. Sure he had moments when talking to him was like dipping well water with a sieve, but even that'll fill a glass with time. Question is whether you have the time to get a drink that way.

But the men had found the hidden chests. Now it was just a matter of taking them someplace safe and seeing what was in them. From what he had heard regarding Maribeth's fathers debts to the Count, Guthrie wasn't sure there'd really be all that much there.

Count Felix Devois was usually characterized as a wolf in wolf's clothing. People didn't cross him if they could help it; and if he wanted something, he almost always got it. Saints preserve anyone who had made him wait for something he desired.

Guthrie looked over his shoulder at Maribeth. The young woman had stepped away while he'd been checking on the find in the coach. She leaned gently against the bark of the tree nearest to the roadway. She seemed to have a sense of doom or, at least, heavy dismay on her face and he wondered what she might be thinking.

Probably thinking what will become of her now that we have the treasure we sought, he thought to himself. Well, we're not known for being rough with those in our charge. Perhaps that'll raise her spirits some.

He stepped towards her and released his beaming smile once more. "Look like you will be experiencing the hospitality of Smilin' Jack and his gang, Maribeth." She raised her eyes to him, but looked like he and his men had stolen more than merely money from her.

"Just go away and leave me be, you have what you were looking for." She gave a shake of her head, voice barely remaining calm...a small break in her words and breathing letting a glimpse of the emotions held as tightly within her breast as her actual breasts where bound beneath the tight clutch of velvet and bone that formed the upper half of her fancy dress.

Guthrie stopped where he was for a moment. One of the men behind him spoke up. "We jus' gonna let 'er wander off into the trees then?" Smilin' Jack noticed that Maribeth had turned off from him and was stepping past the tree to slip further away from the bandits and the stolen coach.

"I've got her. Put Smythe in the coach and take Andrews' weapons. We'll be right back." He paused long enough to make sure there wasn't any questioning of his instructions and hurriedly walked after the girl.

Maribeth hadn't really gone far. She was putting trees and distance between her and them, but he knew she was still thinking over the difference in how dangerous it would be to be left by the highwaymen as opposed to not being left by them.

A dozen or so feet into the treeline, Guthrie caught up to her. She was standing with her back to him, and a shaft of light through the canopy glimmered in the golden curls that sat on her shoulders and cascaded down her back to rest on the bustle of her gown. He stepped cautiously to her and rested his right hand on her right hip. She tensed at the touch, but didn't look at him right away.

Leaning in to her left ear, Guthrie started to speak but paused to breathe in the scent of her. Fear and anger had raised Maribeth's temperature just enough to let her body sweat within the velvet she wore and the womanly smell mingled with whatever perfume she had dabbed about her and the remains of a soft, sweet-scented powder on her skin made him think back to the when he had last been this close to a woman. He sighed and his voice was a low whisper of heat and sudden desire.

"We truly must be going," he said in her ear. "And you must come with us. There is no other choice to be made."