Leo gathered himself up and answered the door and there in walked a sumptuous young woman with dirty blond wavy hair that stopped just below her bust. She had the same gray eyes as Leo and a dominant nose that was a little bit to large for her face but in an exquisitely sophisticated way. Her pale lips were full and she looked gaunt, tired, s if she'd been through a war and was here to tell her story. She kissed Leòn on each cheek, European style, and then full on the mouth. She pulled back as though she was embarrassed to have done such a thing in from of Nicolas and I but yet, she seemed rather shocked when she saw us. I wondered who she was as her eyes darted up and down my body. It was almost erotic to see her, almost feel, her eyes scanning me. It was as if she were some wood nymph, standing there dressed in a pair of forest green breeches with khaki pinstripes, a white, flowing shirt with long lace cuffs, apparently one of Leo's, and a pair of knee high brown suede riding boots that nearly covered her white stockings. To top it all off, she carried off a long brown/ green reversible crushed velvet cloak with the hood down displaying her mane of hair beautifully. It was a bizarre but captivating image; women with such power and dignity to wear pants in that time and to be so┘.dominant. I believed this woman to be as strong as any man or possibly stronger.
Her voice was the one of the deepest I've ever heard a woman's but with a curious blend of softness and roughness. "I'm sorry, I hadn't realized there were others here, Leo. I'll come back later then," she said with a swirl of her brown cloak as she turned to leave.
"That's all right, Jesse," he assured her, grasping her shoulder lovingly as he spun her around, as if in a dance. "This is Tristan, seeing as you already know Nicolas. Tristan, may I introduce Jesse Mina James Roseland. Known as James or Jesse."
"Jesse here, James on the streets," she agreed, quietly.
"May I say that that is a most interesting name, Jessica."
"Sorry, you are mistaken. It's just Jesse. Not Jessica," she corrected. "Mina was my mother's name, and James, my father's." There was a hint of an English accent but, most of it had dissipated and there was almost none of it lingering in her husky voice. Leo whispered something in her ear and she laughed beautifully. And there they were, the two fanged teeth. She must have had natural skin that was like porcelain in life because her skin was like bleached bone and it looked so smooth as she shook her deep golden mane of waves as she laughed.
"Please, sit anywhere you choose. I am just going to finish telling Tristan my tale. Finish sing my song."