Chapter 2 Prodigy?

"Wah is dat?"

At the sound of my voice, the younger nun gave a startled yelp, almost dropping me in the process. I gave her a glare as well as a baby could glare. While the older nun froze and stared at me in shock. Smugly, I waited, and waited, until less than five minutes later, I fell asleep in the young nun's arm again, exhausted. This is really annoying, me being so young, I literally can not stay awake for long.

After my shocking reveal, the nuns kept their eyes close to me. I obliged to their curiosity and behaved as well as I could, managing to speak little phrases mostly just repeating "What is that" and their names like "Maria" or "Elizabeth" sounding more like "marreeah" and "Llizibiff" over and over again, to their astonished delight. The days flew by quickly, and I was relatively thriving under the calculating gaze of the nuns. One day, when I was almost asleep, I overheard two of the older nuns talking…about me.

"Why, Sister Ida, she could be gifted! A genius!"

Sister Ida snorted, "More like a good ticket to better funding, the Lord knows that we need more!"

"Well, true, true. She could be useful, the girl. Looks pretty endearing, too. I suppose she can help draw in more patrons."

"Please, you just like seeing the pretty face of young Mister Beckett!" Sister Ida laughed as they walked out of my range of hearing.

It seemed from their whispers, that they believed that I would be able to help them make a good source of income by being smart in front of patrons and also being able to work early. Oops. That was definitely not a part of my plan. Although…I may as well try to take advantage of the patrons.

1882

It took a while, but the first visit from rich potential adopters came about during my first November in this world. I was dolled up by the nuns, afterall, no matter how gifted, one child less to take care of is going to be a boon on their resources. By then, I have managed to say complete sentences, and walk without stumbling, and kind of gracefully too. I thank god above for my natural grace, which seemed to be hard coded into this body. But I am still very proud of myself for that. Anyhow, I was unceremoniously lined up with the other children my age in the 'viewing' hall. Slowly, the footsteps of a man echoed down towards me. I stood up straighter, if I get adopted now, I can probably get a better chance at life afterall.

"I must say, this place is very well kept! Well done, Sisters." A man commented in a deep voice.

"Thank you! So, Sir Cunningham, what brings you here today?"

"It's my sister, you see. She had recently had a miscarriage, and I am looking for a child who can help her with her sense of loss. She prefers a child with blond hair, you see."

Welp, there goes my plans.

"Certainly, allow me to show you the few toddlers we have here that are below the age of two."

I can try to get him interested in me though, I think. The man in question was middle aged, dressed in an expensive looking formal suit. His eyes swept over the lot of us, only focusing on our hair. I defiantly lifted my head, openly inspecting him with wide, curious eyes.

He didn't even notice.

"Well, is there anyone you like?" Sister Maria asked.

"No, unfortunately. I will discuss the matter with my brother-in-law once more." He nodded, then turned towards the exit.

I need to do something, fast. Something that will attract his attention without ousting me as a freak of nature. My eyes fell on his pocket. Peaking out of it, was a small leather book. On it was a single golden word. Bible.

"Bible?" I asked aloud as Sister Anisette turned to herd us back to our rooms.

Patron POV

Just as I turned to leave the depressing orphanage, I heard a childish voice.

"Bible?" It questioned.

I paused, turning around, I found myself staring at a little girl, around a year old. She was quite adorable, her head covered in silky black hair, a frown marring her face. Yet, that was not what captured my attention. Her intensely focused eyes were staring intensely at my pocket. I followed her gaze, sure enough, she was staring at the pocket bible that was peaking out of my coat pocket, as if she was reading the word.

"Yes." I casually replied, about to turn again once more when I froze.

That can't be right. A child of one year old cannot read. Slowly, I took the Bible out of my pocket, and approached the child.

"Did you read this word?" I asked.

The child looked up, I had to stop myself from gasping. She was truly angelic. Her soft black hair seemed to glow blue in the light, as it gently frames her delicate face. Her eyes were large and slightly upturned, like a Serbian cat's, and tiny blood red lips. Shyly, she nodded.

I could simply not believe my eyes. I opened the bible on a random page, then angled it so that both of us could read the contents.

"Can you please read this sentence to me?" I asked.

The girl furrowed her eyebrows. "In th…the be…beg…begn"

"Beginning."

"Beginning, l…let th…theyr be li..lig…ligt?" She read, after testing out each syllable.

I was astounded. Quickly, I turned to the nuns.

"Did you teach her this?"

They shook their heads.

"We've always known that she was smart and quiet, since she started talking at 10 days old. So we didn't bother removing her from the playroom when we were teaching the older children basic alphabet pronunciations, you know, typical procedure so they can sign their names and find work easier. We didn't expect her to be learning so quickly by herself at all." One of the younger nuns replied.

I must be standing in front of a prodigy or a genius. If my dear sister is not so against any child of our family having dark hair, I would have adopted her without a second thought.

I left the orphanage in a daze, the odd yet angelic prodigy stuck in my mind. For the following weeks, when I met up with my friends, I told everyone about the oddity in the orphanage. They were all as intrigued as I was, afterall, not that many true geniuses exist. Yet, no one was willing to claim such an odd girl without any knowledge of her background. Especially since her mother's records cannot be found at all other than an unmarked grave, we don't even know who her father is. It is uncanny, almost as if they did not exist in this world at all…

Nonetheless, after a lengthy discussion with my friends, I decided to send some simple old books to the orphanage as a sign of good will. It will boost my social standing and reputation after all. If the child is even more talented, she might become a tutor or an entertainer as well. Even if she does not amount to anything, there is still no harm done…

Seraphina POV

After my surprising reveal of being able to read, whispers and stares seemed to follow me whenever I walked past the nuns. A few weeks passed this way, with nothing but a surprising influx of visitors, who almost always happened to come when I was in the class with the older students. They always left without a word.

On the first day of December, I woke up as usual. The previous two days saw the nuns oddly excited about something. I suppose I will find out soon enough, nuns tend to have a loose lip around us orphans after all. However, after Sister Elise dressed me, (I am still physically one year old,) instead of just taking me to the breakfast hall, she took me to an office.

"Seraphina, today is your birthday. You will need to know it in the future. Here is a book that the orphanage has more than one copy of because of the generosity of Sir Cunningham. Return it to me in perfect condition as soon as you finish it. Do I make myself clear?" Sister Elise asked sternly.

"Yes, Sister Elise." I affirmed. Wow, this is a good opportunity. Now that I am officially allowed to 'learn' how to read, I will soon be able to just blatantly show off without weirding people out too much. In my hands was a very worn copy of A beginner's guide to ABC with black and white illustrations. Not sure how successful this guide is to teaching true beginners, but it is a good enough cover for me! And now, I finally know my birthday, yay!

It took me two weeks of reading before I am satisfied that if I read aloud perfectly, the nuns will not be suspicious. I returned the book, and got a chance to read another children's book. It took me another week to 'finish' reading, okay, it took me a day, but I spent the rest of the time memorising the entire book. Securing my title as the prodigy of the orphanage. The mere sight of a child reading a children's book almost bigger than herself is enough to secure the attention of patrons. It certainly helps that the current Lord Mayor of London, one Sir Henry Knight, is the brother to the head nun of this orphanage. I got really lucky, since this orphanage is one of the best ones in terms of upkeep, and political advantage. No wonder the nuns had enough spare money to buy alcohol. It's weird, the more time I spend here, the more I actually feel like a toddler, try as I might, I can't remember the faces of my professors anymore, my original parents' faces are also getting blurry, despite the fact that I think of them every single day.

Why do I have a feeling that this is just the beginning? I hope it doesn't get much crazier.