Page 1 of Enslaved to the Seduction of a Lady
Prologue
London, 1800
“Please, Sir, could you spare a little bread?”
“Get away with ya, you rotten scoundrel.”
The twins turned and walked away, heads hung in disappointment. They were dressed in rags, their ruddy cheeks covered in a thick layer of dirt. They both had thick hair, black—although from birth or grime, no one could be sure.
“I’m hungry,” Jenny whined as they weaved their way through the throngs of people.
“I know,” Luke said, irritable with his own hunger but sad for her all the same. Although they were twins, he saw Jenny as his responsibility and together, they fought to survive. “We’ll find something soon enough,” he said. “We’re bound to.”
“Maybe Mama will have something we can eat.”
“She’s busy, Jenny. She needs to earn a crust before we can eat it. And besides, she shooed us away, remember?”
Jenny huffed but plodded, her feet slapping against the dirt floor, and Luke’s heart sank. At eight years old, he wanted to look after his sister, but he couldn’t. Begging would only get them so far. There were already quite enough beggars on the streets of London, and their little voices seemed not to make a lot of difference. Luke knew they had to find a better way of doing it.
“Please, Sir,” Luke said eagerly as a well-dressed man strolled past. But the man did little more than glare at them, and then moved on once again. Luke shrugged.
“You know, the fancy ones don’t like to give anything,” Jenny said. “They all think they’re too good for us.”
“Some of them have been nice to us, Jenny,” Luke said.
“Not many,” she said.
“No, you’re right. Not many.” It was rare anyone from the upper classes stopped to help them.Stick to our own, his mother had told him often, and as time went on, he found himself more inclined to agree.
The streets, though cobbled in odd places, were mostly mud-filled, damp and dirty. Luke was pleased that at least it wasn’t raining, or they’d be soaked to the knees in muck from the road. All around them, people were equally unclean, and they shouted over one another in greed and desire.
Luke found it overwhelming, all those people, but he didn’t know what he could do about it or how he could make himself heard over the noise. There were those who tried their hand at trade, selling whatever wares they could. Others sold their bodies, unwashed but welcoming, for a fee. Most snarled at begging children.
Jenny scratched at her mucky bonnet, once white but now gray with age and dirt. There was a rip at the back and a chunk of hair tumbled out of the gap.
“Everything itches,” she moaned, squirming.
“Don’t scratch,” he said. “It’ll make it worse.”
Lice, again. Luke knew the lice had returned, for that morning they had fallen from his eyelashes when he woke. He shuddered at the memory.Rotten things.
“You try, Jenny,” he said. “They might be more inclined to give to a girl.”
“All right,” she said, but she looked nervous.
“There.” Luke pointed to a couple who walked the opposite side of the road. Their clothes were neither fancy nor torn and filthy. “Try them over there. I’ll wait here.”
Jenny looked at him anxiously, but he pushed at her back.
“Go, go on.”
She stumbled then righted herself and trotted over to the couple. She put on her biggest smile, her brown eyes twinkling, and she looked up at them.
“Please, can you help me?” she asked, her voice soft and innocent. “I ain’t eaten for days, and—”
She stopped as the gentleman pulled a shiny ha’penny from his pocket. Her eyes widened with delight and even from across the road, Luke could hear her gasp. The lady smiled down at Jenny and she beamed back, then grasped at the coin and pulled until the man let go.
“Thank you,” she whispered, before slipping it between the folds of her smock and running back to Luke. “We got a whole magg,” she said.
