Saints and Sinners

Chapter Thirteen

The White House

(and then in transit)

Washington DC

Grace Stoddart was very familiar with the residence at the White House. She had spent most of her time living there in the President's private suite on the second floor, but there were actually one hundred and thirty-five rooms with thirty-five bathrooms for up to one hundred and forty guests, across six different levels. So, putting up six extra Daughters of Eve and their keepers at such short notice was never a problem, although putting them to bed took quite some time, because there was only one cleaning frame. Miss Sinclair did not have a sleeping gown for Grace either, so she was put to bed in her punishment corset, and left to wait for her husband to join her. For once, she was not switched off, for some reason. The keepers were all a little bit flustered, she thought, so maybe Miss Sinclair just forgot.

Lying there in the darkness, she listened to the sounds of a broken city. Sirens blared and she was sure that she could hear shouting, or maybe chanting at times. No one had really told the ladies what was going on, other than the simple fact that it was not safe to leave the White House, but she was a clever girl and she had worked it out for herself. She had no way of telling the time, and she was not sure if she had dosed off at all, but sometime later, she heard the door opening behind her. She could not turn her head, because of the neck corset, but she was sure it was Brett, ready to tell her what was going on, and give her a few moments of normal life, normal chatter between man and wife, and then maybe a cuddle.

"We have to get you up and dressed again, Grace." Miss Sinclair said, looming over her and staring down, whilst stroking her cheek with her fingertips.

"Are we going home, Miss Sinclair...in the middle of the night?"

"Well...technically, this is the very early morning...and we are not going home...but your husband is waiting for you and we have to hurry, dear...no time to queue for the frame...so I will have to put you on the potty...aren't you a lucky girl, Grace?"

"Yes, Miss Sinclair...thank you, Miss Sinclair," Grace said uncertainly as she was helped to sit and then stand up. Her collar was then fitted and she was led to a bathroom and allowed to use a toilet for the first time in months. Sinclair then washed her with a flannel, cleaned and flossed her teeth and fitted her catheter. Fifteen minutes later, no wiser about where they were going or why they were leaving before dawn, Grace was back in the dark blue velvet gown she had worn the day before, as well as the matching cloak, bonnet and mantle, and being led through the residence towards the exit, with her voice switched off. Outside the main door, which was also near to the external entrance to the oval office, where cars could sweep by and either deliver important guests or take them away, she was tethered to a rail next to her cousin Catherine, if she was also wearing her dark green velvet gown from the day before again. Next to her were her daughters and beyond them, Mrs Symonds and Mrs Bateman.

"Where is the transport?" One of the keepers asked, as Miss Sinclair stepped back, leaving Grace staring at the wall in front of her.

"The gentlemen are all leaving first...the President's car will take him, Mr Symonds, Mr Balcombe and Mr Stoddart...then our bus will be here?" Someone replied and Grace frowned because she was not sure where they could all possibly be going with the President and the British Ambassador. She heard a car, a very big car, arriving behind her. The famous beast she assumed, a limousine shielded with bullet-proof glass and thick steel sides, to protect the President from attack. She had travelled in it with her uncle, many times, and she remembered the low growl of its powerful engine. To her left, the door from the oval office opened and the four men hurried past, Brett included, but he did not even glance in her direction. And then she was fully switched off.