The Duke's Daughter (Editing)

Chapter One

JANUARY 1915               

I suppose at the tender age of eleven, I had already decided that I would never get married. Maybe it was because I'd watch my mother and her failed attempts at finding a husband or maybe it was because all the girls in my school said I was ugly. Whatever the case, I knew I'd rather be single for the rest of my life than go out in the world and find my "soul mate."

The year was 1915 in New York City. It was a cold winter day, perfect to be reading Shakespeare's Hamlet. I opened my window to let the cold air in and soon enough, the sounds of the bustling city swept inside my room. I propped myself in my comfy chair and started to read without a care in the world. No worries of what the girls said about me today, such a usual custom of theirs to ridicule those who weren't above them.

 "Lenny, I need you downstairs, now!" Bellowed my drunken mother from our old smelly kitchen.

 I quickly closed my book and ran down the stairs to find her limping on a chair with a sparkly red dress on, "What do you need Megan?" I asked. My mother hated being called anything else but by her name. It was almost an insult to her, I suppose after my father left the picture when she gave birth to me, she realized the only reason she would get pregnant was because she wanted to give my father a reason to stay.

 "Lenny," Megan took a giant gulp of whiskey, "I need you to make some food for your brother when he gets home because I'll be out tonight." I took a deep sigh and rolled my eyes. Again? "Don't start with the sighing and the moaning! I think he might be the one this time."

 "You said that last time," I grumbled. Megan looked at me for a couple of seconds then stood up and started wobbling out of the kitchen and said, "You just wait, Lenny, you just wait."

 I heard the front door slam and stood there numbly. Every night it seemed my mother would go out with different men getting drunk until daybreak. Sometimes young, sometimes old. Sometimes rich, mostly poor. Megan always told me that she did this for us, looking for the right man to take care of the family.  Yet, I knew in my heart that she was only trying to fill the void inside her. The only person, who really did anything for us was my brother, Jerry.

 Jerry was the smartest student in his school and even got a scholarship to any college in New York. Yet Jerry was afraid to leave me alone with Megan, probably afraid she'd kick me out of school and make me work somewhere. So he stayed home and started working for the local bakery.

 I started for the pantry scavenging, there was rarely anything to eat but I found some bread and some leftover broth in the icebox. I went outside to my little garden and find some vegetables that would go well with the soup. As the broth started looking descent, I heard Jerry opening the door. "Well, something smells amazing." I heard his low voice.

 "You're only saying that because you know that I'll kick you for saying otherwise," I smirked. Jerry, holding a bowl in his hands, said, "You're probably right, but we'll just have to see." We both take a serving and started to eat on the kitchen table.

           "Where is she?" He asked, almost nonchalantly.

            "Where she normally goes Tuesday nights."

            "Does she thinking she's helping anyone?"

 "She probably thinks that getting drunk is the best she can do for anyone." I mumbled. Jerry sighed and asked me how school was. "It was okay, I guess."

 "What happened this time?" Jerry"s green eyes struck in me deep.

 "Nothing really." Yet he was dead set on knowing what happened, so I said, "The girls called me an ugly wrench. Said I'll turn out just like Megan."