PREAMBLE OVERTURE 1892 DEVIL'S BLUFF
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Grass and soil seamless remained unspoiled; eroded greensward remained since feudal reign of norse crusade 100 A.D.-1014. Beneath Highland sky, silhouetted stovepipe hat mortician trek'd misty ledge 'till Isaac came upon granite namesake hence Ghost of Runnymeade. Nearby, small cultivated patch of outlying woods remained hidden a rusted shovel. Gaunt, lean, hasidic reverend turned and ambled into enveloping mist, resonant DADGAD bagpipes in C dorian requiem. Side by side, one plot remained filled, one plot remained shallow; The Seamstress and the Governor. The Governor cum Street Lighter (Governor by day and Street Lighter by night). Unlikely, their dath dates a mere fortnite apart: the Seamstress' date precedent. Erstwhile, a pair of cricket bats remained hidden leaning alongside tinder and plaster wall of an abandoned one-room schoolhouse.
Sixteen damsel corpses; barbiturate dolls; luminous and delicately preerved; an immaculate bevy of calendar models and a quartet of patrons remained laden at Cavendish Square boutique: collateral damage of Governor's mad, hidden obsession for Johanna the Cavendish Square Seamstress; an unwitting muse for the Governor's macabre Doctrine Of The Affections, florid baroque pianola player-piano sonata in C sharp wole tone emanated from Victrola.
A gallery of the Seamstress' Victorian garment sketches; an array of felt hats, gloves, petticoats, stockings, shawls, bodices, bustles and feathered bonnets; reple with blueprints for precise measurements for each unwitting disciple remained scattered inside southward riverside warehouse.
Erstwhile, at balfour street lighter bunker, the Governor's large cresset cattycornered to a row of smaller cressets; handmade for three children.
Meantime, sporting bob-cut hairdo, doe-eyed, timid, tight-lipped bookkeper, Penny The Mod from Surrey, remained busy-bee at Inverness Public Record Office.
Meantime, Scotland Yard Chief Inspector, Barnaby, evasive escort at Devil's Bluff remained renfrewshire sentry at Glasgow Embassy hence wayward 'sightseer' tour guide.
Meantime, Timothy, myopic remained afflicted, polio henceforth a street urchin. One wintry evening ten-year old red-headed Timothy took a nastyspill on wooded stilts. Erstwhile, the Seamstress' governess, Esmeralda the Gadfly, bundled feeble Timothy, "... what with malice toward none, with charity for all."
"High hopes," ebullient charcoal smudged cheeks, Timothy carols, muffles into Aunt Izzy's dowdy layers of peasant woolen scarf, "we've got high hopes!"
"Yuletide greetings, humbug," as Aunt Izzy suddenly absconds with the Governor's heirloom faberge egg as they stawaway aboard vast Liverpool steamship; exclusive ticket to opulent Grand Saloon; ballroom; dining. Langourous fantaisie-impromptu composition in C melodic minor, exemplary performance by ship's enticing accomplished music room pianist; the Seamstress' twin sister, mellifulent hybrid songbird, Aliyah, raised on Londontown's burgeoning cobblestone Denmark Street. Transatlantic voyage dock arrived at Hudson pier; New Amsterdam; event horizon: a face in the crowd; alas, the world is her oyster; embark the Empire City; the New World awaits.
Decolletage; Allliyah's exquisite heartbeat pulsate from within an enamel shell of an embezzled imperial trinket, behold a precious commodity consumed by relentless passion; entr'acte.