Top 5 Things to Do When Captured By Enemy Spies

From Lady Jane’s diary:

It is my great good fortune that Miss Stranje, our headmistress, prepares her young ladies for every contingency. We know what to do even when ruthless members of the Iron Crown, Napoleon’s secret spy ring, capture us.

I must admit, when I first awoke and found myself bound and gagged, I behaved rather foolishly. I thrashed about like a caught fish, and tried in vain to scream for help. When that backfired, Miss Stranje’s reassuring voice seeped into my panic, and our training took over.

Five important things to do when captured by enemy spies:

1. A lady must keep her wits about her at all times. Remain calm and assess the situation.

2. Decipher the direction they’re taking you. Even blindfolded, several senses will serve you. Listen for other carriages and wagons on the road. The amount of traffic may be a clue. Are you traveling over bumpy cobblestones or a dirt road? Uphill or down? Count the number of turns. Your nose will tell you if you are nearing the river or not. Sadly, London’s sewers drain into the Thames and the stench is quite noxious. I’m surprised that in 1814, a year of so many modern marvels, our city fathers have not yet done anything about the river. In summer, the warm breeze from the river causes one’s eyes to sting and water.

3. Determine the best way to free yourself. If you are trussed up and tossed in the back of a dray or a wagon, perhaps you will might try kicking out the wooden sideboards.

4. If that fails, be sure to position yourself correctly when they tie you into a chair. Press your feet stiffly to the floor, heels squarely in front of the chair legs. Hold your hands in place at cross-angles, thumbs together, wrist bone to wrist bone. If you distract the henchman while he’s tying you up, he may not notice, and both of these techniques will provide a tidy gap for you to use later when escaping.

Author’s note:

To write Lady Jane’s escape scene, I felt compelled to find a method of escape that actually works, so I asked my son to tie me to a chair.

He was reluctant to tie up his mother – good son. But I assured him it was all in the interest of scientific discovery. He rolled his eyes, but complied, doing such a splendid job that I couldn’t get loose. We tried it again, and again, until finally I figured out a technique that worked. Lucky thing, or I might still be tied to that chair.

5. If your interrogator happens to be an arrogant well-trained traitorous ex-student who hates you, try baiting her with insults coupled with backhanded emotional flattery. She can’t resist that. When she gets angry and presses her knife into your face, allow a strategic snippet of misinformation to slip out. It’s vital that your enemy thinks she tricked it out of you. The plan is for this ‘slip-up’ to make her feel she must rush off and protect her interests, thus leaving you alone in the dark to make your escape.

If you can.

Meet Kathleen Baldwin!

Kathleen Baldwin loves adventure in books and in real life. She taught rock climbing in the Rockies, survival camped in the desert, was stalked by a mountain lion, lost an argument with a rattlesnake, spent way too long in college, and married her very own hero. A SCHOOL FOR UNUSUAL GIRLS is the first book in her alternate history series for teens. It was awarded Spirit of Texas in 2016, is a Junior Library Guild selection, and Kansas NEA Reading Circle gave it a starred review in their 2016 “Best of the Best” for High Schools. Ian Bryce, producer of Spiderman, Saving Private Ryan, and other notable films optioned the series for film.

 REFUGE FOR MASTERMINDS, Book 3 in the Stranje House series, releases May 23rd.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot calls this romantic Regency adventure, "completely original and totally engrossing."

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Refuge For Masterminds

By: Kathleen Baldwin

Release Date: May 23rd, 2017 

Publisher: Tor Teen

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