Cindy M 19- Thank you. I feel like I can see it as I type it. It is Paulina, the woman who is with Daniel right now. I felt she fit the part too.
In another part of the London town, grander scale then where Daniel was at that point a young, blond male walked, a rather large bag over his shoulder. In his hands
was a book. He stood out in his not so nice clothing. Walking past finely dressed people he looked up and around him. Finding a bench he sat down, making himself comfortable
he put his bag down at his side. Across from him was a large home, more like a mansion. In the window was a beautiful woman, her raven hair falling around her face.
She stared intently at her work before her, the needle working at the stitching in her nimble fingers. She wore a lavender dress that fell over the window seat she
sat at, the sun that glimmered behind clouds making her pale skin glow. Looking up she stared at the chirping bird hopping around its cage just feet from her. She
didn't smile, her lips in an almost permanent glower as she watched the caged bird twitter. Looking back down at stitching with a sign she began to sing.
"Green finch and linnet bird. Nightingale, blackbird. How is it you sing?" Her melodious voice seemed to reach past her walls to the blond male just feet under her window.
He looked around for a moment trying to figure out where the sweet voice was coming from only to find that it was above him. "How can you jubilate sitting in cages, never taking wing?" His eyes grew wide at the sight of the beauty before him. "Outside the sky waits, beckoning, beckoning."
She looked outside, never noticing him as she continued her song. "Just beyond the bars. How can you remain staring at the rain maddened by the stars? How is it you sing anything? How is it you sing?" She looked back at the bird, her eyes gleaming with the sadness of being trapped. She looked back out as the young male stood, his book forgotten
in his hands. She noticed him, her voice falling silent for a moment as she smiled at him."My cage has many rooms, damask and dark. Nothing there sings, not even my lark."
It was as if the world had disappeared, save for the two of them. He felt as if she were singing for him as people walked around him, and a lone woman begged for
money. "Larks never will, you know, when they're captive." She looked away now, her smile falling from her lips. Unbeknownst to her a picture was moved by male fingers.
A small hole revealed as the person on the other side watched her. "Teach me to be more adaptive. Green finch and linnet bird, nightingale, blackbird teach me how to sing." The blond male smiled as she turned toward the window, out
toward the skies that clouded up again. "If I cannot fly, let me sing." On that final note she looked down at him, a smile gracing her lips again. It seemed that just
as she smiled it was gone, worry on her graceful features as she rushed from the window leaving the young male worried. "Alms!" came a soft voice, husky as it cried out again. "Alms for a miserable woman on a miserable chilly morning!" Coming up from his right was a ragged creature,
her clothing worn out with holes. Her head was covered with an ugly hat that hid her face from all those around her. Holding out her hand toward him, the blond male
gave her some money, her gloved hand taking it quickly. "Thank you, sir!" Before she could wander off he called to her, holding her in her place.
"Ma'am? Could you tell me whose house this is?" "That's the great Judge Masters' house, that is." She becomes rather twitchy at that point. She seems to be uncomfortable answering the question, but still waits
as he asks another. "And the young lady who resides there?" "Oh, that's Lily, his pretty little ward. Keeps her snug, he does. All locked up," she replies bitterly. "So don't you go trespassing there, or it's a good whipping for you, or any other young man with mischief on his mind." She rushes off from him crying out, "Alms! Alms for a desperate woman!" He
looks back at the house before walking away from it, his eyes never leaving the window she had just been in. "I feel you, Lily. I feel you," he whispers still moving past other people on the street. "I was half convinced I'd waken, satisfied enough to dream you." He walked to the
bench, his bag still on the ground waiting for him. He never stopped looking at that window, sure she would come back, that he could see her beautiful face again.
"Happily I was mistaken, Lily." He picked up his bag and turned back toward the house, making his way back toward it. "I'll steal you, Lily! I'll steal you." A door to the right of
the window opens and a dark haired male appears. He beckons the blond male. He seems hesitant to leave the spot in the middle of the street. "Come in, lad. Come in." The dark haired male waves him inside and with a gulp he enters the extravagant house. As soon as he is in the older male closes the door before
following his guest into the parlor. "You were looking for Hyde Park, you say?" The older male leads him into the large, elegant room. "Yes. It's very large on the map, but I keep getting lost." He enters the room, his eyes darting around at all the books and art decorating the large room. "Sit down, lad, sit down." At this point a large male steps into the door, his dark hair falling over his face. "It's embarrassing for a sailor to lose his bearings, but there you are." He sits down as the older male looks to the one in the doorway. "A sailor?" "Yes, sir. The Bountiful, out of Plymouth," he responds as he takes the glass of brandy supplied to him, nervous. "A sailor must know the ways of the world, yes? Must be practiced in the ways of the world. Would you say you were practiced, boy?" he asks as he moves toward his books. "Sir?"
"Oh, yes," the older male says as the other taller male walks further into the room. "Such practices," he continues, almost lustfully. "The geishas of Japan. The concubines of Siam. The catamites of Greece. The harlots of India," he states, caressing each book in turn, his fingertips grazing them as if he were with the
women he talked about. He had moved closer to the blond male with each word. The blond male was looking even more puzzled and worried as the older dark haired male looked at him.
"I have them all here. Drawings of them." He looked to him now, his fingers still touching the books on the shelf. "Everything you've ever dreamed of doing with a woman. Would you like to see?"
He pulled out a book, the young male before him looking seriously spooked, but managing to sound unnerved as he spoke. "I think there's been some mistake." "I think not," he said letting the book fall back into place with a thud. "You gandered at my ward, Lily. You gandered at her." His eyes grew wide as the older male moved toward him, his face
not even betraying how he felt about the actions of the blond before him. "Yes, sir, you gandered." His tone was deadly at that point, his eyes growing cold.
"I meant no harm," he stated getting up. "Your meaning is immaterial." He moved so quickly though that the young male fell back into the seat as the older male bore down on him, his eyes like that of a shark
smelling blood in the water. His face was mere inches from the blond's as he stated coldly, "Mark me. If I see your face again on this street, you'll rue the day you were born."
Nodding toward his companion in the doorway he stepped back. Suddenly the blond male was trust out the door, the taller male pointing down the street as the younger male tried to get up. "Hyde Park is that way, young sir! A left and a right and straight on, you see?" As soon as he was on his feet the tall male pulled out a large blunt object, striking him on the back of the head.
As the blond fell to the ground again he was struck several more times before the other man state cooly, "Move on, now! You heard what Judge Masters said, little man!" The young male turned over on his back,
blood leaking from his mouth and down his cheek. "Next time, it'll be your pretty little brains all over the pavement." With that he walked back into the darkness before his bag was thrown on his face. Getting up
he coughed up more blood before heading for the streets again. His beating didn't take away his yearning for the raven haired beauty as he began to sing again. "I'll steal you, Lily. I'll steal you! Do they think that walls can hide you?" He turned around to look at a single window, envisioning her in its bleak depths.
Even now, I'm at your window. I am in the dark beside you, buried sweetly in your raven locks. I feel you, Lily. And one day I'll steal you!" He looked toward her window this time.
"Till I'm with you then, I'm with you there! Sweetly buried in your raven locks!" He walked away now, his back toward the window where his beautiful captive lived.