IntroductIon 13 Piccadilly Terrace London January 15 1816 It was a freezing cold January night when a one month-old baby was being stolen from her father A woman took the baby from the nursery It was the wrong century for electricity and central heating The bedrooms of the five-floor mansion were snug and warm with coal fires but the stairs and hallways hallways were as dark and cold as the night outside The thief crept away with her precious bundle terrified of being discovered In a house this size it was a long way from the nursery to the front door a lot of wooden floors and stairs ready to creak a warning The stairs bent under every step the woman took She held her breath each time she put a foot down feeling the wood flex under her weight But no sound came Silver moonlight splashed across the tiles of the front hall There was one more challenge the big heavy front door bolted shut against the night She drew the bolts back one by one and the metallic clunks echoed around the house One clunk It was like an explosion in her ears She made herself keep going If people woke up they would be pouring down the stairs any minute now 1
Two clunk The woman grasped the door handle and pulled Cre-e-e-a-a-a-k Heart pounding she stepped out into the night The streets were cold dark and misty but the city was already stirring getting ready for the next day It was very unusual for an upper-class lady to be out alone at this hour If she wasn’t careful she would attract attention M-i-i-l-k Muffins all hot Excuse me what’s going on Fresh flowers There was a carriage and a driver waiting for her The woman hurried over and the driver helped her up Once the door closed she felt safer He flicked the reins and the carriage lurched off 2
The woman didn't relax until she reached her destination a hundred miles away from London But at least her plan worked She had successfully stolen her daughter from her own home The servants in the house would have obeyed her husband the baby's father father and prevented her escape A man's word was law after all and she knew they weren't completely safe In 1816 machines still ran on wind steam clockworks clockworks or muscle power Only a few scientists vaguely knew about electricity and a computer was a person paid to do complicated sums or computations on paper Wind power Steam power 14550 Scratch Scritch Psssht Tick Tock A computer Clockwork 3
