Chapter 1: Jessie.
A sudden flash of Lamplight. The lamps lining the busy streets of London were just beginning to be lit for the evening when a long raven haired young woman raised her head, followed by the gaze of her vibrant blue eyes to look towards the light from where she currently sat in the shadows of a nearby alleyway. She then could be seen attempting to shield herself from the harsh winter's wind with an old trash can.
The young woman turned her gaze away from the harsh light of the lamp when its beam began to burn her eyes. She then redirected her attention to watch as the few other beggars on the street desperately pleaded with the people obviously belonging to the upper class of society to possibly give them any food or money they could spare them. She rolled her eyes with a weak flick of her dark hair as she knew and had accepted a long time ago that these people were far too greedy to give them anything ant that their efforts were definitely in vain.
She'd given up on attempting to receive any pity from the Londoners a long time ago and now she was definitely paying the price for it, "Good Lord in Heaven, help me for having ended up in this most unfortunate of situations…"She softly said to herself as she pulled her knees towards her chest in an attempt to conserve any body heat she somehow still possessed, "Not only have I been disowned by my mother, but I have also been cut off from the family fortune I should have inherited when the time came, I'm starving to death and I'm rather certain that I'm most likely going to die any time or day now…" She said bitterly, "Perhaps when I die I'll turn into a mere pile of dust or ash and drift away as if I never existed?" She mused to herself before lowering her head to her knees...
The girl sat there against the red brick wall with her forehead positioned against her knees when she heard the distinctive sound of footsteps stopping at what just seemed a few small feet away. She slowly looked up and took in a small, weak, breath to see a seemingly middle-aged looking gentleman appearing to most definitely be of a higher class and possibly level of society standing in front of her.
The man most definitely was rather tall in comparison to her own height, for if she were standing he'd definitely be towering well over her small height of 5'4". Sitting somewhat delicately on the bridge of his slightly larger than average nose he had a pair of medium sized black and thin rimmed glasses. He wore a top-hat on his head which was covered in dark brown, possibly black hair that was slowly greying, slicked back out of his face, giving him a more sophisticated look. He had a kind face, dark eyes and an air about him that seemed to caused people to be both repelled by him and afraid of him. Yet she felt neither of these things towards the man. If anything she was surprisingly comfortable with him in her presence and she felt no feelings to do with any negativity towards him,
"Are you alright miss?" She heard him ask her softly as he reached down towards her with a gloved hand whose leather looked as though it would have been quite expensive, "Please, come with me, you really must be freezing out here! My name is Max. What is yours?" He said to her politely introducing himself,
She took his hand and allowed him to help her up as she figured that since she most likely was going to die sometime soon, she'd might as well have some decent company, "My n-name is J-Jessica…" She said with a stutter caused by the cold as she started to walk with him off the street, "B-but please… Call me J-Jessie"
"You have a lovely name" Max said.
She smiled softly at the compliment, but it changed quickly so she now frowned slightly as she picked up on the different way he spoke in comparison to everyone she knew in London, "Where is it you come from?" She asked curiously as she looked around the area they were walking through, taking a mental note that he was leading her towards the outskirts of the city. He smiled softly before answering,
"I came here from America. Or what used to be called 'The New World'" He said, his smile not leaving his face.
She simply nodded, "And uh, where is it you are taking me?" She asked as she looked at him, his gaze flickering slightly then shifting to meet hers,
"I'm taking you to my home. A young girl such as yourself shouldn't be out on the streets when Winter's just beginning. Especially in your state" He said and she nodded, deciding not to say anything else, "I came to London with my sons to show them the magnificent things this city has to offer" He continued after a moment of silence. One of her raven colored eyebrows rose at this new piece of information,
"Sons?" She asked, as if attempting to reinforce the fact that this man actually did have a family of his own,
"Yes. I have four of them" He stated proudly as he puffed out his chest out of pride, "Their names are Marko, Paul, David and Dwayne. Dwayne's twenty-one and Marko's the youngest at eighteen" Jessie's eyes widened at this as she mentally tried to work out a believe time gap between the births of all four of his sons, "Paul and Dwayne are un-identical twins. Dwayne's the only one of the boys to have inherited my hair" He said as if it would explain everything. Having given her a reasonable answer after guessing what she was thinking purely based on her facial expression.
She let her head move around in a motion that one would only call a nod as they soon reached the large oak double doors of an absolutely massive manor, complete with stained glass windows on the higher levels, "I think it'd be proper for you to meet them now instead of you only hearing things about them from me" He said as he pushed open one of the large, heavy and worn looking wooden doors with a loud creak.
