Wiping her tears with her sleeves, her gaze swept the streets briefly in an attempt at finding an employer desperate enough to hire a woman off the streets. She didn’t think there was such a thing as silly as that, and even if there was, she imagined she would inevitably be putting herself in the hands of perverted strangers if she indeed accepted such an offer, but she was desperate and it was her desperation that saw her clinging to an absurd hope.

Exhausted, her bones protested the weight of her travel bag and her stomach growled for food. Placing her bag on the sidewalk, she frowned as she mentally calculated the money that was left in her purse. She had spent quite a few pounds paying for the coach ride to the dress shop and she imagined it was most likely going to take a few more days of paying for boarding as well as feeding, before she found another job...if she found another job.

Perhaps she could skip lunch today —she mused, quickly dismissing the thought as her stomach growled once more in response.

She scanned the streets once more —this time, in search of some pastries, and sighting a shop across the street, she leaned down to retrieve her bag, when a gust of warm air and a flash of black knocked her off of her feet.

Falling hard on the sidewalk, pain exploded in her skull, knocking the air out of her lungs momentarily.

She moaned, willing her limbs to functions as she attempted to rise to her feet. But rather than obey her command, her limbs remained stubbornly glued to the hard pavement, pain paralyzing her.

She tried to move again, yanking her hand off of the ground this time with blinding pain that caused a loud cry to tear from her lungs, her hand falling limply to her side as darkness clouded her vision. Clenching her teeth, tears filled her eyes as realization began to sink in; she wasn’t just stuck in London, she was stuck to its streets, helpless.

And as the ^darkness began to close in on her, Gretchen thought dying alone was the worst way to die.

Chapter Three

Ethan peered down at the strange woman who laid unconscious on the seat across from his in his carriage and once again, he scolded himself for interfering. He should not have picked her off of the streets after that scoundrel robbed her and left her for dead, but unfortunately for Ethan who had witnessed the whole thing, he wasn’t the type to walk away from a woman in distress —even if that woman was keeping him from finding a suitable nanny for Elizabeth.

He swore, running his trembling hands through his hair. It would seem that finding a willing nanny was his biggest concern as opposed to finding a suitable one; Elizabeth did manage to send them all running for the woods once they had had the misfortune of spending a few days with her. The best of them had only managed to endure an entire week before scurrying out the front door.