Title: The Last Straw

Author: Sherry Thornburg

Author's Email: Thornburgs77 a gmail

Feedback: Yes, please

Permission to Archive: Privately only, with notice and location.

Category: Suspense

Rating/Warning: K+

Main Characters: Phileas and Rebecca Fogg and introducing Matthew and Mark Ridgemont.

Disclaimer: SAJV and original characters copywrite Tailsman/Promark/etc., no infringement is intended.

Summary: After Count Gregory's disappearance, (See Count Gregory's Time Machine), The League has been reorganizing, causing trouble for England's relations with America's government, and a pair of Americans coming to England for an education. They become crucial pawns dragging Verne and the Foggs into a deadly international intervention. This is the first of two stories. The Death of the League will be coming soon.

Chapter 1

Voices in the cold dark of the late night discussed their plight in a jail cell near the docks of London. It was not the first time the two brothers found themselves in this circumstance, but it was their first look inside an English prison. Not too bad, really. The floors were clean, not strewn with hay. A slop bucket sat in the corner should they need it. They had been given their own cell, more because of the threats of rowdy fishermen than kindness, but they took it gratefully. The cell block looked like a kennel. Bars separated by sections of the huge space, which were getting near empty. Only one or two people were left besides them, making contemplating their situation easier.

The two young men speaking were a matched set, twins with dark brown hair, warm brown eyes and tanned skin that announced their recent arrival in England from a warmer climate. They spoke with a slow drawl, further identifying themselves as from the southern part of America.

"Dumb bad luck. Why didn't we find lodging before going to the saloon?" Mark said.

Matthew said nothing, refusing to claim responsibility for the momentary drink that lasted three hours. Getting involved in a card game to unwind kept us there for so long.

Mark didn't expect him to say anything.

I, as usual, watched him play from a few tables away, silently cheering his winning streak. It was becoming a good haul. He would have finished the game, winning back the price of our passage had the fight not started. I, for once, didn't start it; but might have finished it had the law waited a few more minutes. The only good thing about the whole evening is that Matt will have won enough to pay our fines.

"Did you have to get into it on our first day here?" Matt gave Mark a sideways, sullen look. "I could have had us a good stake if I had been allowed a few more hours."

"I did not start it and you know it," Mark said. "That girl needed help."

"That girl?" Mark laughed. "That was a grown woman and a good ten years our senior," Matt said. "Gorgeous grown woman…but in case you didn't notice, she was fighting them off just fine without you. All you did was give her a chance to run before the law showed up. Too bad for us–if she had been hauled off too, we would have had someone to back up our part. The judge is going to take one look at a couple of Texas boys and decide we started the whole thing."

"Well, it likely looked that way by the time the law showed up," Mark said, grinning. "We were clearing the floors pretty good by then." He saw Matt smile at the bait, but he didn't gloat. "I don't cause fights–but I don't run from them either."

Matt looked at his brother, forcing a straight face. "If there is a good fight to be had within ten miles, Mark, you will find it. Causing it is irrelevant."

Mark couldn't hold a straight face at that, but. Matt preferred chasing girls and playing cards, whichever was available in the same ten-mile area. The woman I was aiding was not what he would have stepped up to. Too old for me, but gorgeous. Red hair, blue eyes… Statuesque. I saw you looking at her, brother. From the moment she walked into the room, you couldn't keep up with your game. I wasn't immune to the attraction either but was more interested in what she was doing there. Too well dressed and her voice was too cultured to be in a place like that.

Closing his eyes, Mark saw her again. The lady had walked in with a tall older-looking fella, dressed like he had been headed for church. He had gone upstairs with a shady-looking guy, leaving her downstairs to sit on a bench by the door. Five minutes later, a couple of seamen came into the tavern, smelling to heaven of week-old fish. They took one look at the lady and mistook her for a high-class strumpet. She could have been one, but even a prostitute has the right to choose her company. She wanted nothing to do with those fishermen.

When one of them touched the merchandise, she twisted the offending wrist. He howled and cursed at her. I stood, told them to back off. They told me to mind my own business. I told them to make me. They turned away from the lady, looking at me like my offer would be more fun. Matt was letting me handle it myself until the fight multiplied from two against one to a free for all.

"Sorry about having to fold your three queens, Matt. That was a good hand."

"Wish I could have at least introduced myself to her," Matt said.

Mark smirked and laughed. "Looking for a girl already, brother? She'd have had nothing to do with us."

Matt gave Mark a wicked grin. "Maybe not you, oh he who can't hold a girl for more than a week. But I could have had some company for the next three weeks before heading to Cambridge."

Mark sent his brother a go to hell look, saying, "Maybe I just don't want to end up with a ring in my nose as quick as you. Since we were twelve, you have had some bit of calico leading you around. Didn't that runt Irish girl you took up with on the ship satisfy you?"

Matt gave Mark a sharp frown. "Hey! Peggy was a lad. I did not get more than a few kisses the whole trip. She was so cute. Especially when she was backing you across the deck, tongue lashing you in Irish for getting her riled. That big fella the woman came in with couldn't have cared much for her if he left her to fend for herself. She might have appreciated somebody that treated her better."

Mark snorted and shook his head. "For all we know, Matt, that guy could have been her husband or her–business manager. Just drop it and concentrate on what we are going to tell the judge when our turn comes."