Jessica sighed. "I should have done this through the bank to begin with."

Sexism still existed. Shock! Surprise! How could it be!?

Half a day wasted trying to get a place and being asked where her father or husband or boyfriend was could have all been handled by just having the bank step in and wiggle those fairly impressive beards.

One frustrated trip back to the bank? Problems solved!

Although at least a portion of the issue was due to being both a foreigner AND not well known in high society. With the amount of wealth she had access to, and without those two stigmas, MOST places would have waived away almost all prejudices in the hunt for profit.

Whatever. A good chunk of time might have been squandered but heading back to the bank got everything wrapped up SUPER quick, so now she owned property. A good amount of property, with prepaid scheduled maintenance and future improvements planned and all that.

Well, technically she had been a bit sneaky and ensured that the Doe's would only own the place while they were here. After all, this was only a stop on the journey for them… It would be a waste to have the 'owners' vanish and cause the place to go abandoned.

So a bit of paperwork later and now she'd have the entire mass of property bestowed to the Banks family for governance when John had them leave. Did they need it? No. Did they want it? Who knew! But most of the excess funds were in accounts to pay off future taxes and any needed repair work, so it wouldn't be a burden on the people later on. Probably.

Meh, it wasn't like she had a lot of attachment to her new sudden wealth anyway. All that jewelry was a side project, a negligible effect of having access to a small portion of her younger brother's power… And it wasn't like they could take it with them when they left.

…Maybe.

She blinked at the furnished home and considered John stuffing the entire place in his Pocket.

…Yeah, best not even suggest it. Otherwise the rest of their journey onwards would be marked by massive craters from all the hotels and stuff he would collect along the way… 'Spike the Pinecone' was one thing, 'Party the Apartment Block' was a totally different kettle of fish.

Meanwhile, the biggest concern was how to keep occupied until John was ready to move onwards. Getting a job was right out, careers here were a lifelong dedication that you could end up literally marrying into or inheriting, not a short stint between occupations or locations.

Not to mention, again, that anything she was capable of quickly acquiring job wise was vastly below her capabilities. Physical labor, certain sexual options, peddling small goods or busking as entertainment, yadda yadda yadda.

Something about menial jobs made her mind flicker… Staff.

This 'home' was enough for over thirty people, and she needed to hire people to take care of it. Not because she and her brother NEEDED that sort of thing, but because it was expected, it helped to blend in, and it would allow the place to be maintained when they both moved on.

Shit.

No, wait! Mrs. Banks had to know this stuff, AND they were basically already friends! Right, let's go bother the OTHER half of the Banks family and get some stuff done. She'd need a housekeeper to manage the staff, a cook to feed them all, maids for cleaning, a repairman for maintenance, a chimney sweep (Were they kept on retainer or hired as needed?), a seamstress to maintain and repair clothing, possibly a porter or two who could go out and negotiate for home supplies from the various markets and bring back the daily food and goods for the staff, lawn care specialists…

After all, she had the money to cover it all and most of them would end up supporting each other when the Doe family moved on. Even without the siblings these people would need food and clothing and housing and all that, might as well make the entire place mostly self sufficient.

That still left… An AWFUL lot of space. And massive amounts of additional funds. Hmm.

There had to be something she could do with all this space. Not to mention the properties she technically now owned to the sides and back, even if they were mostly just empty massive buildings right now.

She glanced at her wrist and… Wasn't wearing a watch. And phones didn't exist yet. What time was it? Mid afternoon, thereabouts?

Right, just needed to track down John and let him know… Oh. Wait, could that work?

She grabbed some paper and a pen from her memory Pocket Inventory and scribbled a note.

There we go, and…

"[[Pocket.]]"

Now hopefully he will notice the new item, since she could sort of flag it as 'Critical Item: Time Sensitive' in the non-existent menu…

~~~Pocket System~~~

John blinked, hanging upside down. "Huh." Then a piece of paper was held in his hands. "Let's see… Oh, that is very convenient!"

Allowing himself to drop some dozen or so feet he Pocketed himself and then exited without velocity and oriented to land gently on the ground, ignoring Jane's sudden shriek of fright seeing him fall. "Miss Poppins!"

The woman was watching Michael wrangle his way up some branches but somehow managed to give him a good amount of focus. "Yes, John?"

He grinned as Jane began to calm down in the background. "Can we go visit my new home next? My sister just bought a new place and it would be awesome to go explore it!"

Mary Poppins hummed as the tree holding Michael subtly shifted branches to better support his leg that was about to miss his footing. "After a bit of afternoon tea, perhaps. A bit of a break to the day is good for one's mental health, after all."

Jane meanwhile was now standing behind him and seemed frustrated for some reason. "You can't DO that John!"

Huh? "What do you mean? It's my house too, of course I can explore it!"

She glared at him! "NO! You can't just FALL like that, I was scared to death! What if you had gotten hurt!?"

OH. "I mean, it was only like twenty feet or…" Wait, this was England. "I mean, a bit over 6 meters?"

She blanked on him. "Six what?"

…Hang on, what?

[[In London England, in 1910, the public still utilized Imperial units, also called the British Imperial System. These were the standard units of measurement of the British Imperial System, the system of weights and measures used officially in Great Britain from 1824 until the adoption of the metric system beginning in 1965.]]

Metrics didn't EXIST yet!? "Never mind! I meant… Uh…" Help! Oh, thank you System! "I only fell 1.21 rods or 0.03 furlongs or 0.3 chains or 6.67 yards or 240 inches or 0.000459 acres or…"

She waved her hands. "Stop that!" She gripped his shoulders. "Do! Not! Fall! Please! It was scary and I was scared and I thought you were going to get hurt!"

Oh. Ah. "I'm… I'm sorry." He felt right awful now. "It's just, I can easily fix myself if anything gets hurt or damaged, so sometimes I don't really… Like, understand or grasp how big a deal some things are?"

He waved at the rooftops visible from the park. "I mean, people up there are literally dancing from chimney to chimney several floors up over massive gaps, and everything is slippery and covered in soot and stuff… So compared to that, a small drop didn't really seem like a big deal to me."

Mary Poppins hummed in the background. "To some degree, after years in a profession, one gains a certain amount of self confidence that can allow them to achieve miraculous things… Though it is true that a portion of said astounding abilities are due to a lack of fear and understanding of consequences rather than any level of actual safety."

Another branch shifted, preventing Michael from losing his grip and falling a fairly significant distance himself, as John blinked. "You mean like when collecting sand crabs?"

Jane blinked, her hands still gripping his shoulders. "I'm sorry?"

John nodded! "Yeah, sand crabs and blue crabs and stuff all have these tiny pinchers and claws. If you move fast and with confidence, they are likely to be confused and unable to stop you from just picking them up and tossing them in your bucket! But uh… If you are afraid of them or move too slowly, they can give you QUITE a pinch and it hurts and… yeah."

Seeing her expression he cleared his throat. "So I guess in this case the ground would be the crab, or maybe gravity, and jumping would be my plucking confidence while landing is thanks to my powerful bucket manipulation skills combined with pure talent and gumption and…"

She looked him straight in the eye, throwing all that out of her mind. "Please don't fall from big heights like that again, please?"

He shifted. "Alright."

Mary Poppins smiled. "There, see how a little talking can clear things right up? Now, a bit of afternoon tea and then a small journey to visit John's new home seems in order. Michael! It's time for us to continue!"

A distant 'Aww' came from the tree, but the limbs were already shifting to more safely allow him to… Nope, he missed one. And that… Ouch, no, he caught himself.

Man, children were sturdy things.

John ignored the groaning from the slightly bruised younger Banks sibling. "So what sort of tea are we going to drink? Sweet Tea?"

He faltered at the look of confused horror in Jane's eyes and the exasperated one from the woman. "Ah… Not Sweet Tea then?"

It turned out: No. Tea time in England is not that simple.

At least there were tiny sandwiches! Tiny sandwiches were AWESOME!

~~~Pocket System~~~

Jessica sighed as Mrs. Banks hid a smile behind her tea cup. "It never ends."

The other woman hummed without commitment.

Jessica glared at nothing. "I've hired over forty people so far. Forty-four. Would have been double that if I hadn't focused on people with difficult issues and troubled backgrounds, but that is a LOT of people that I am now responsible for."

Mrs. Banks didn't interrupt.

She glanced down at her half drained cup. "That still hasn't filled up my new house, by the way."

The older woman held back a giggle. "There is a REASON why my dear George and I haven't gone for a larger home than this one! And why such a cost effective property has remained unpurchased despite the amount of space provided… Aside from maintenance and taxes and some such."

Jessica slumped slightly. "It's only going to get worse after this."

That caught the mother off guard. "Oh? From your original plans I assumed you were nearly done with establishing your staff."

She groaned. "The staff helped cause the problem! Or to be more accurate, got me involved with it." She waved at the paperwork. "One of my new house maids needed additional time off to manage her children, which is how someone so talented and with such a long and gainful employment history has been having issues acquiring a new position."

Mrs. Banks blinked at the seemingly off topic rant. "Oh? But as their duties should be awfully light for such an empty property, that wouldn't be too much of an issue, correct?"

Jessica sipped from her cup. "I thought so as well, but something felt off about the entire situation and so I began asking more and more questions… Her situation is a bit unique."

The older lady, seemingly burdened by life but refusing to bow. A single matriarch in that interview room, so hesitant to ask for assistance despite clearly needing help. "The woman never married, and has been adopting orphans and abandoned little ones instead. Despite her savings and financially powerful background and inheritance, it has apparently been growing to become a significant issue. Especially considering her advancing age."

Eating a small bite, Mrs. Banks clearly was thinking ahead. "You said 'Manage' her children, not 'raise' or…"

Yep. "She is currently supporting over three hundred children. Technically she is running her own workhouse, though for more religious reasons than for profitable ones."

Most of the funds from running the place and even the incoming donations from the children raised there were being funneled right back into keeping all the orphans fed and housed… And unlike many similar institutions, her attempts to provide them the things she lacked in her own childhood meant that money was tight and time was valuable.

Mrs. Aylward just had this… Pure vibe or virtuous aura about her. And an odd feeling that she was out of place somehow? Still, she had found a calling in this city and was attempting to help the orphans of her home become something greater.

Although it should be noted that, in England, being an orphan didn't simply mean you lost your parents… It also referred to children with a single parent or who were abandoned due to costs or other issues. Needless to say, the number of needy were not minute.

Mrs. Banks gasped in shock at anyone supporting so many! "And yet she still works herself? How does she have the time!? Or the energy!?"

No idea, the woman seemed to be running on pure determination by this point. "She considers the children to be her own and told me that she couldn't just sit back and allow them to help her when they were also in need. The woman quoted me something from the Bible… 'Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.'"

So despite having so many responsibilities and duties, she continues to work in an effort to provide even a token amount more for her children.

Sigh. "Needless to say, that complicated my whole plan entirely."

The mother blinked. "I'm sorry? I think you've lost me… Were you unable to assure her of additional time off?"

Jessica grumbled in her chair. "Before I was just hiring a bunch of people to keep my property in order, but now I'm having to move a workhouse and establish a pair of orphanages and apparently a church… Not to mention the construction crews and the demolition teams that will need to clear out the structures that won't work for the new property layout I've been working on…"

Oh. "Right, I'm going to need a full child care staff too, so I guess I need to head back to the bank tomorrow and start this whole paperwork mess all over again… Might need to sell a couple of additional pieces of jewelry just to ensure everything is covered."

Best plan for lots of extra space too, which would complicate everything… Sigh.

The room got a bit too quiet.

Jessica blinked. "What?"

Mrs. Banks seemed stunned. "Isn't this a bit sudden?"

She didn't know. Maybe? "I did mention I had a lot of property available now, right? It would be a waste not to do SOMETHING with it. Besides, it would give me something to do and lots of new children for John to play with! Win win, really."

What ELSE was she going to use all that space for? Jogging?