The boy in the streets

"What's he doing? Why isn't he moving?"

"Olive, will you come with me on my walk? I don't want to go alone anymore, it's getting dark." The petite girl ran up beside her. "Miss Alyssa, don't forget your coat, it's very cold." Alyssa took the heavy coat from her and put it on over her dress. "Liv, don't worry. I'm just going for a small walk. No, I don't need my shawl, I need company. Come on!" Olivia stopped frutting at her clothes and put the warm leather gloves back in the drawer, then put on her own coat. She opened the door for Alyssa, and a gust of cold wind welcomed them outside.

Only a few people were outside, and all of them were hurrying to their warm homes. Alyssa and Olivia walked arm in arm, a weird contrast to their regular behaviour. Alyssa was the daughter of Lord and Lady Charlet, and Olivia her first maid. Lord Harrison Charlet was a stern business man who had gained his fortune himself. And it was a huge fortune. Lady Patricia Charlet came from an old family of merchants, but she herself preferred spending her day either abed or in her own quarters, complaining about all sorts of pains and summoning Doctor Elliott to come to her every time some new sort of headache sprang up. She wasn't very loved among the maids, as she was often blunt, and she spoke in a sharp way. Alyssa on the contrary, was friendly with all the servants, maids and cook and kitchen women the same.

They'd walked for about ten minutes in silence, both in awe about the amount of snow covering the streets, when they saw a dark shape in the white snow. "Olive, look, what's that?" They approached cautiously, until they saw that it was a boy. He couldn't have been much older than Alyssa herself, but he was even thinner than Olivia, and as pale as the snow surrounding him. "What's he doing? Why isn't he moving?" Alyssa felt his hand. It was cold as ice. "Olivia, is he dead?" The girl felt his wrist. "No miss, there's a pulse. But I don't think it'll hold much longer if he stays here like this." Alyssa tried to awaken the boy, who seemed unconscious of everything happening. "Help me, Olive, he needs to get home right now." Together they dragged him up, and, both with an arm around their necks, they began pulling him home. About twenty minutes later, they were almost there, but Olivia couldn't go any farther. "It's only two hundred meters Olive, come on!" But the girl just couldn't go on.

Alyssa took off her coat and wrapped it around the boy as well as she could, grabbed Olivia's shawl and laid it on the snow. They carefully laid the boy down, his head on the shawl. Alyssa rushed towards the house. Inside, she grabbed another coat - her mother's - and another shawl for Olive - her own - and she called for two other maids to come help her. Jennifer and Maddy came rushing towards her and put on their own winter coats as fast as they could. When they got back to Olivia, they lifted him again and carried him towards the house. Inside, Alyssa didn't lose any time. "Jenny, prepare a room, warm a bed. Maddy, prepare a bath. Olive, tell Melissa to prepare some broth with vegetables, and bring it up to his room on a tea light to keep it warm. Oh, and fetch Jonas, he needs to carry him upstairs, I can't do it myself. Jonas first, then the rest."

Ten minutes later the boy lay in a bath, and Maddy was scrubbing the filth off him and washing his hair. He hadn't woken up yet, but a flush coloured his cheeks and he didn't feel as cold anymore. After the bath, he was laid in a huge bed in a guest room, that had been warmed by Jennifer, and a bowl of broth stood beside the bed for when he'd wake up. Alyssa sat beside him, on the bed. The boy had dark blond hair that stood up at every side, and that was dripping with water. He had pale skin and was thin and not very tall. He looked very underfed. "Not to offend you, miss, but I think this is a homeless boy. If we keep him here, they might go looking for him." She looked at Maddy and frowned. "But, Maddy, if we do not keep him here, he will die. He needs to eat, get stronger, have proper clothing and then we'll set him out. I will not be responsible for his death." Maddy mumbled that if she'd have left him there he would have died anyways, so she wasn't responsible for his death whatever happened.