Mechanical Heart

Chapter 7

Tessa's POV
"Theresa, Wake up." Says an unfamiliar voice.

 I open my eyes to see a man with some sort of necklace around his throat. The man had dark locks of hair in his face as he looked down at me. He had the eyes of a cat and the smile of a kind friend, or a nice memory she was recalling of when she was a little girl. The two ends of the weird looking necklace are in his ears and has the other end, he has in his hand. "What is that and wh-who are you?" I say. He looks at me and then says, "I am Dr. Bane and this is a stethoscope." He says. "Magnus, cut the bloody act! I just want you to check and make sure  she's okay. She hasn't been eating and I'm worried." says Will.  "Well, here's some medicine. Take it twice a day, then you should be fine." says Magnus. "Thank you Magnus. I am grateful." says Will. "Now," he said turning to me "Would you like me to escort you to dinner, Tessa?" I looked at him with bewilderment. Only when his smile faltered just a bit, I stood up and took his extended hand in my own and said in a small voice, "Of coarse Sir." A flood of sadness washed over his face. Though it was gone as soon as it begun. "Please, Tessa, Please call me Will. I beg of you." He pleads. "Yes sir--I mean Will." I quickly cover up. "Thank you so much Tessa." says Will and takes my hand and kisses it lightly. I can feel the heat spread across my face like a wildfire. "Now lets get you to dinner, Huh?" He says sweetly, as we walk down the hallway to the dinning room.

~~~~Time Lapse till after dinner~~~~

I didn't eat a bite of food at dinner. Will begged and pleaded for me to eat something but I just wasn't hungry. So he just let me take my so called "medicine" and showed me back to a room. The room had a light blue wallpaper which looked very pretty, actually. The bed was a decent size, With a cushiony quilt and a pillow that looked like a cloud, compared to what I had been given to by my old master. The fireplace was lit and there was a gas lamp lit on the night stand. There was a bathtub in one corner of the room, which was hidden behind a Chinese screen. There was a wardrobe, which I had only read about in books, in the other corner of the room. Sophie had helped me change into a night gown and had shown me where my night dress was hung, if I needed to go out of my room at night. Now I was sitting at the vanity table, staring at what a scarecrow I was. I was thin. Far to thin to be healthy. In fact, I could see my ribs through my corset and dress. My face is sunk in, and a deathly pale color, almost white. I am tall and that only adds to the scarecrow effect. "I shan't stay up any longer pondering about my looks. What does it matter anyway? Nobody loves me and if anybody did, then I would have scared them off anyway." I said to my self. I turned my back to the mirror, disgusted with myself, only glancing behind me to get one last glance at myself. I flinched at who I saw. After I turned back around for good, I brushed my hair. Sophie had already helped me with that but I felt like I still needed to do something on my own. I put down the silver backed hairbrush and walked over to the  bed. I pulled back the quilt and slipped down underneath. I fell asleep dreaming a dream.

I walked down the hallway in a building I did not recognize. It seemed to go on forever and ever, like the endless hallways in a fun house at the fair on Coney Island when I was a little girl. I kept walking and walking, a lovely, lilting, violin played in the back round as I continued walking down the mysterious hallway...

I shot awake as the dream slowly ebbed away from me, but the music stayed. It sounded as if the music was across the corridor. I slipped on my dressing gown and padded softly over to the door. I opened the door and slid through into the hallway. The music is definitely from the room to my right. I open the door and the music hits me like a wave. The boy standing with a violin on his shoulder was in his night attire and has  silk dressing gown over it. His hair was silver and looked so soft that I had to physically keep my hands at my sides just to keep from touching it. "Will? Will is that you?" he asked. "No, Sir its me. " I say and he whirls around. His eyes were a startling silver and so were his eyelashes, which were long and beautiful. "Oh Hello..." he said forgetting my name. For some odd reason, it hurt my feelings to think that he had forgot my name. "Tessa, Sir" I said. I didn't say my last name because he as a superior and probably didn't want to know my last name. "Don't you have a last name? Most people do, You know?" He said with the slightest hint of humor. "Sorry Sir. If you wanted to know, then why didn't you say so in the first place?" I said. "Oh God. I am so sorry Sir please don't hit me." I said and ran out of the room. I rushed into my room and shut the door. I hurried into the bed and covered up my head and body. What was I thinking? For one I had spoken out of turn, then I had turned my back on him, then I had fled from him. I was certainly going to be punished for doing those things. I jumped and whimpered a bit when I heard a pounding at the door. The silver boy slipped through the door and came over to me and sat on the bed. I was still whimpering a bit when he reached to stoke the bit of my cheek that was still protruding from my blanket. "What's wrong, Tessa? Why are you whimpering?" he asked kindly. "Permission to speak Sir?" I ask quietly as I slip from under the covers. "Of coarse, Tessa. You can talk to me about anything." He says. I finally have the courage to speak when I said, "I have a question first Sir. What might your name be?" I ask, my voice only slightly quivering. "James Carstairs. But everybody calls me Jem. Now I have a question for you." He says. "What might that be Sir?" I ask still feeling that I was still treading on thin ice. "First of all Tessa, Please, Call me Jem. And of course, Second of all, What is your last name?" He asks kindly. "Gray, Tessa Gray, Jem" I say with my voice still quivering. He reaches his hand toward me probably to brush a stray hair behind my ear. I cringe away still in fear that he would hit me. "Why are you afraid of me?" he asks desperately. I then, slowly, tread into the story of when I was still a servant, working for Axel Mortmain. I told him every bit of it. The rape, the abuse, the horror of thinking you did something wrong, and then fearing what the punishment would be. I then went into the sleeping and housing conditions. How all of the maids slept in one, tiny, room that reeked of body odor. How the blankets scratched at your skin like a thousand tiny razors. how the pillow felt like rocks under your head. Somewhere in the middle of the story, I had begun to cry. Like I was in a dream, I leaned into Jem's shoulder and jumped back when I realized that I would get punished for it. I immediately started sobbing And screaming, "Oh God. Please don't hurt me Jem. Please don't hurt me. I made a mistake. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" I was sobbing uncontrollably at this point. Jem pulled me into an embrace and kissed the top of my head while we rocked back and forth. He kept telling me it was okay, and I believed him. I believed the Silver haired boy who now had a name, who now, knew my entire story, who was now rocking me back and forth and kissing my head and who was telling me it was okay. And I believed the boy whom I think I just might be in love with. My Silver Haired Boy, Who went by the name of Carstairs, Jem Carstairs.