Prologue- June 1896

It was the screams that woke her up.

Kate Jameson, a thirteen year-old girl and heir to the Jameson fortune, was rudely awakened by screams that were only muffled by her floor-to ceiling glass windows with white borders. She didn't quite know what to think at first. No one ever screamed on her street at this time of night.

She could make out some words too, and they weren't nice ones, but the thing that propelled her to look out the window was a high pitched shriek. 'If someone's in trouble, I should call the police,' she thought.

She leapt nimbly out of bed and quietly parted the thin white curtains that protected her from the rest of the world. What she saw shocked her.

The street lamps turned the two older boys into silhouettes, but Kate would have recognized the DeLanceys' distinctive hats anywhere. The two boorish boys were both beating on a third boy, who Kate didn't recognize. The boy was whimpering on the ground while one DeLancey brother tauntingly waved a stick at him, and suddenly Kate realized that even if she phoned the police, it might be too late for the boy, so she did something that no good society lady should ever do; she ran outside in her nightgown and tried to stop it herself.

At first, Crutchy thought that the girl must be an angel.

He'd been having a pretty rough day to begin with. The morning edition's headlines weren't very good, and the evening edition wasn't much better. He'd never been very good at "improving the truth" like his friend Jack, so it'd taken him a long time to finish. He knew that the sidestreets weren't a good place to be at night; he'd tried to take a well-lit route home to be safe, but it hadn't protected him from the DeLanceys.

As soon as they'd seen him, they'd jumped him, and Crutchy knew he was dead. Oscar knocked him to the ground, and the jab was so sudden that he let go of his crutch. Morris had grabbed it in the confusion and waved it tauntingly above Crutchy's head until a girl's voice cried, "Oscar? Morris? What do you think you're doing?!"

Morris dropped the crutch immediately, and Crutchy scrambled for it before either of those two goons could pick it up again.

"We're terribly sorry, Miss Jameson," Oscar simpered, almost like he was trying to kiss up to her, Crutchy thought, though he didn't know why.

"We were just trying to keep this hooligan away from the good homes of this neighborhood," Morris added, in the same tone, snatching Crutchy's crutch before he could grab it.

"You call this boy a hooligan?" the girl, Miss Jameson, asked. "He doesn't look like a threat at all. Why were you beating him?"

The DeLanceys decided to run instead of answering the question, probably to save any pride they had left, Crutchy imagined. He saw white in his peripheral vision as the girl came closer.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'se is fine, miss," Crutchy responded with a small smile, even though it hurt to smile at this moment.

"You don't look fine. Would you like to stay with me for the night?" She then turned red, realizing the less pure way her words could have been taken, "I mean, you can stay on the couch in my room. I have a bathtub, too, if you'd like to wash off all of that dirt, and…"

Normally, Crutchy had too much pride, and street smarts, to accept help from strangers. He preferred to do things on his own, and not be a bother to other people. But a pretty girl, a hot bath and a soft bed! How could he refuse?

"All right," he caved, "I'll come witcha. But only for tahnight, undahstand?"

"Of course," she replied. "Come on. We'll have to be quiet, but the maids sleep like rocks, so I think we'll be all right."

Kate was nervous, and she had every right to be. She was bringing a boy into her house! He didn't look like he was of high social standing either. He just looked like he needed help, and Kate was willing to give him that.

"Can you walk?" she asked him.

"Not witout my crutch. Da DeLanceys still got it," he grumbled. He hated being without his crutch. It made him feel helpless, and he didn't like to feel helpless in front of anyone, especially a girl.

"Well then, I'll have to help you up," she said confidently, holding out her arm. Inside, she was terrified. Ever since she was little, Kate had had an irrational fear of germs and dirt, and it appeared to her that that particular fear wasn't going away anytime soon. However, if Kate knew how to do anything, it was to put on a confident façade for the rest of the world, so she refused to let the boy see her slight shivers at the thought of putting a dirty sleeve on top of her snow white nightgown. She also thought that any rude comments on dirt might offend him.

Crutchy hesitantly grabbed Kate's hand, and she helped him to his feet while he slung his left arm over her shoulders. Kate tried not to think about the fact that she would have to answer to the maids when they found the streaks of dirt that were sure to be on her nightgown the next morning, and instead focused on helping the strange, but kind, newsboy into her house. It took her longer than she would have liked to open her front door using her right hand, but the duo managed to pull themselves inside with a bit of effort.

"Okay," she said, glancing at the wide staircase to her left that led to her bedroom, "we're going to have to get up those stairs, so we'll go up slowly and carefully, okay?"

"All right," the boy responded bravely, and Kate was actually impressed that he was still able to put on a brave face after all that he'd been through in the past hour. She also hoped that she'd be brave enough to answer for the dirt stains on the beige, carpeted stairway as she held onto the rail for balance.

It took them what felt like an eternity, but the kids soon made it up the stairs. Kate released her death grip on the metal bannister and walked the still unknown boy to her room.

"All right," she said as she opened the door, letting them both inside before closing it, "you need a bath. My father told me that a hot bath helps relax muscles, so that's what you're going to do."

"Ya don't have ta help me any moah," he said proudly, left hand on the wall, "I can walk from heah ta the bath by meself."

"Are you sure?" she asked. She didn't want him falling after all of this.

"Yes'm, Ise is sure," he responded.

"All right, as long as you're careful…" Normally, this was where she would say someone's name, but since the boy had never given her one, Kate didn't know what to do.

"Crutchy," the boy responded, "Dat's my newsie name. My real name is Andrew, but don't you dare tell nobody."

"My name is Katherine Marie Antoinette Jameson. Call me Kate. It's nice to meet you Andrew, or do you prefer Crutchy?"

"Crutchy's what my pals call me, so you're definitely welcome ta use it, Miss Kate."

"The Miss is unnecessary, and why am I talking with you about this when you need to get in the bath? Go on, shoo!" she shooed jokingly, as he muttered, "awright, awrighty," and hobbled into the bathroom.

Not even a minute later, he whisper-shouted, "Hey Kate? How do ya turn dis thing on?" as he gestured to the bathtub.

"And you said you didn't need my help," she smugly replied in the same volume as she turned the knob for hot water.

"Dat was befoah I saw ten of da same lookin' knobs in front of me, and I didn't know which one was the 'on' switch."

"They're all different, see? You just have to look at the controls. This one," she gestured, "adjusts temperature, and this one," she pointed to one on the far right, "makes the water bubble, but it makes a lot of noise, so we shouldn't use it."

"Okay," Crutchy replied sadly.

"This one in the middle turns the drain on, and the one right next to it turns the drain off. Those are the only knobs you need to know. Turn off the knob that I just turned when you want to stop the hot water, and I don't know why you would do this, but turn the one right next to the hot water if you want cold water. The bath soaps are in the drawer on the bottom left. Can you handle the rest?"

"Yeah, Ise think I can," Crutchy said hesitantly.

"Okay, I'll leave you to it. Have a nice bath! You deserve it for all the trouble that the DeLanceys put you through." With that, Kate left Crutchy to his own devices, and went to sleep.

The next morning, the sunlight woke Kate up, and the first thing she did after checking the time (9:00 AM) was check on her temporary roommate's condition. She hoped nothing had happened to him while she was asleep. If something had, she wouldn't have taken it well. Nothing bad had happened, but the boy was gone. She checked the bathroom, and all the water had been drained out of the tub, leaving a heap of grime, which, with the help of a few buckets of cold water from the sink, Kate was able to drain out herself. In the back of her mind, she wondered what the boy had used as a crutch in order to get outside. He'd proven that he could use the wall, and there was a stair rail from her room to the main foyer, but he'd had to walk outside somehow.

She quietly slipped down the stairs to where her father kept his walking sticks. It was then that she noticed that there was a half- used roll of tape on the table, and that two of her father's walking sticks were missing. There was a knife just to the left of the tape, and she could now see wood shavings on the floor. After quickly running to get the dust pan and brushing the shavings off of the floor, Kate raced back up to her room, and there was a note waiting on the desk that she hadn't noticed as she'd run about the house.

Miss Kate,

Thank you so much for all of your help last night. You didn't have to do it, but you did anyway, and I honestly don't know how to repay you. The only way I can think of is if you ever need help with anything, go to 212 Duane Street. That's where I live. It's a newsboy lodging house, but I don't think you'll care. If you ever need me, for anything, come to the lodging house and I will try to help you any way that I can.

-Crutchy

Kate smiled as she tucked the note away in a secret drawer, only accessible with a hidden key which she wore around her neck. She didn't think she'd ever need to use this pass that she'd just been given, but she'd treasure it all the same. After all, in an emergency, it never hurts to be prepared.

She refocused her attention on the bathroom. The bath soaps were all over the place, and she sighed. She had a lot of work in front of her.