A Spring Times Kiss: An Imperial Love Prequel

Chapter Six

Jamie could understand why he sent Isla away from him. It was mainly because he didn't want to see her get hurt. Perhaps it was all because he didn't want her to figure out what kind of man he used to be, and for her to be scared off. He wanted her in his life but she was too pure for this world and if she stayed by his side, or continued to spend time with him. But Jamie wasn't someone that any girl like Isla should be around. Because girls like Isla were the kind of girls that trusted too easily and fell in love too quickly and if Isla spent too much time with him, he was worried that she was going to fall in love with him immediately.

Jamie had spent that night just thinking about Isla. How he had just let her go. Perhaps it was the best thing for her. But he felt bad for having her walk off on her own and it was for the best to keep her far away from him. Mabel had watched as he was sitting outside that evening, having his mind entirely blank. Perhaps it was the thought of that he couldn't handle seeing Isla get destroyed because of him.

As Jamie found himself walking in the city with Mabel, they took time to explore everything. They looked at the city, the boats that were coming towards Ellis Island, and the carriages that were coming by next to the both of them. Jamie looked around and saw the way everything was different than things used to be. He didn't remember much from New York, other than being in that same alley. It felt strange being in the city walking down the roads with Mabel. But he needed to change for himself if he was ever going to return to the military.

Then he looked around and saw a small area that was filled with a bunch of girls, that were all working, and as he looked over. He noticed that Isla was in the middle of the straight line. He didn't know that was how she was spending her days. He didn't know if it was labor work, or if it was her working for pay. But it definitely didn't look pleasant, with the man in front of them treating the girls so poorly. Mabel looked over and told Jamie to just ignore it because they bring it on themselves. Which was something that annoyed Jamie. Because he had seen horrible things that have happened to girls that were working in a horrible setting and a horrible matter and he didn't want to wish that on anyone else. He felt bad when he saw that Isla was there. But then he wondered how she ended up at the ball in the first place. And that was something he wasn't going to ever figure out because he told her to stay away from him, and he knew that she was going to respect that wish.

Within the course of the few hours, Jamie had found himself looking at the same home he saw Isla standing by. And wondered if Isla was still over there, or if she was inside the large building already. But looking around, she wasn't there.

But then he looked around, and saw that the women were going out of the factory building, all of them looked scuffed up and bruised and bloody. Which was something that caught Jamie's eye. He wondered what was going on in that factory building, and why women were getting hurt. When he saw Isla get out of the factory, that was when he started to pay attention, he saw that her eye was all bruised, and there was a little bit of blood dripping down from her face. Jamie sighed, he didn't want to express his heartbreak, but it was painful for him to see Isla like that. But it wasn't his place to say anything, and he knew that and he was worried that if he said something, there would be a fight. It wasn't like that he wasn't unfamiliar with fights, it's just that he didn't want to go back to the fighting lifestyle. The moment he saw that Isla was staring at him, Jamie found himself running off to make sure that she didn't see him. But he knew that she saw him. Isla looked over and didn't say a word, she just looked over at her friends that were getting hurt, and she chose not to say anything otherwise she would have gotten hurt as well. She just watched when others were in pain. That's just who she was. All she wanted was to break out of that.

Jamie looked over and saw that he ran over to the same factory that he saw that Isla was at and realized he didn't run very far. Wondering how long Isla was suffering the way she was, and how long she was working in those conditions. He didn't know how to feel. He didn't know how to help. He knew there was not much that could have been done. There were so many girls, and young women that were getting treated poorly in these conditions. And Jamie was seeing it all worsened with each day. He didn't know how to help.