Chapter 1

„Rosie, you cannot go and take the blue dress with you. What should I wear then to church?", my sister Cathy screamed.

I was packing my trunks. It were only two more days, that I would jump in the carriage and make my way two Derbyshire. I was absolutely thrilled!

But now, I was tired, tired and angry. Angry about Cathy, about Fiona, who couldn´t find my good bonnet, which she had hidden somewhere. Really, could this child didn´t find something other than my bonnet, her own, for example?

And I was angry about Dad, who had said, that he couldn´t give me money to buy a new dress or two.

„It isn´t like you would see someone worthy in church. It is just our church, our church in Lincoln Street. Nobody of consequence would come there.", I grabbed the dress and stuffed it in the trunk.

„Oh, are we Miss High and Mighty now? It is not so, that you are going to get married in Derbyshire. You will be just a poor relation.", Cathy laughed and I shooed her out of the room and closed the door.

I sank against the cool wood and tried to concentrate. But it was really hard for me, because Cathy had said something, that was torubling me for some time now.

A poor relation. That was not something, somebody wanted to be. I sounded ugly and desperate, both thinks I certainly was not. Okay, I was maybe a bit desperate.

But who wouldnt? I was sixteen and had absolutely nothing. My two older sisters had married man who were of little wealth and absolutely no consequence.

They were happy, in there way. But they lived a life, I couldn´t picture myself to life.

Dorothys man was a minister and really dull. They live in a little village near Newcastle in a tiny house with five really noisy kids. Four years married and five kids, that is horrible, don´t you think?

I like children, I really do. But not five at one time and espeacially not the twins, who were two and abolutely devil creatures. I said this at some time too Dorothy and her sorry excuse of a husband. They looked at me as if I was some crazy girl or something even deeper.

So, I think I should not have said this. Not so drastic, cause he is a preast and all and she is my sister. But God cannot endorse them getting one child aftet the other, or can he?

Isn´t lust one of the seven sins? Or were there eight, or six?

I must confess, I never hear the thinks, they say in church. It is not like that they are interesting. And you can see so many people there, I don´t know a better place for flirting.

That hits me on an idea. Why did I need so much time to come up with these? I quickly looked in the mirror and flashed myself a smile. I looked pretty and absolutely saucy enough for my plans.

So I skipped out the window. I wouldn´t say, that I was doing this frequently, but for some time.

It was not so, that I don´t wanted to say where I was going, but it would be so complicated when I was returning with a new dress or two

and Mommy would be asking, where there were from and Cathy would be mean and tell her about Owen, because she was mad at me for stealing her the blue dress.

I made my way through the streets and I stopped infront of a really pretty bulding.

It was the shop of Misses Turner and i wasn´t even permitted to come in and look. Misses Turner was absolutely evil (even more evil than Dorothys twins) and her shop was only for women who had enough money to waste it by throwing it out of a window or spending it in her shop.

I wasn´t so rich, but then I know her nephew, Owen.

So i slipped through the back entrance and made my way to his office, a little room with many papers and Owen.

I didn´t knock as I was stepping in, but I had a smile on my lips: „Hey Sir. How are you today?"

He flashed me a devil grin and rised: „Polite today? What are you here for, Rosie?"

„Oh, I thought you had maybe a dress or two for me. Favourable two."

„And for the payment?", he asked and knew exactly, what I had in mind.

„Oh, maybe I close the door before I come to that."

Two hours later I was again in my room, two dresses richer.

Are you going to call me a whore? Besides, you really don´t know, what has happened with Owen and me. The door was shut, already forgotten?