Subj: Angels of Our Nature -- Chapter One
Date: 11/19/00 6:34:40 PM Central Standard Time
From: Melissa

To Kallie

Jessamine Brentford gazed out the window, her chin resting in her hands, she rested against the wall of the window seat. She watched the waves splash against the cliff that was practically beneath her window.

Though she had one of the smallest bedrooms in the house, she had one of the best views of the ocean.

Jessamine was a pretty twenty-year old with soft blue eyes, almost the color of the ocean. Her long silky brown hair was down, but tied back with a silk ribbon. Her lips were full and a soft pink, they were always smiling, though she felt that she had very little to smile about.

She thought of her parents, they had left her here with her aunt. They went to America. They were always looking for something more in life. Perhaps the restlessness she had gotten from them, was what her grandfather despised the most about her.

"Jessamine come down here," her Aunt Hetty said.

"Yes Aunt," Jessamine said.

This was her life, is seemed to drag on forever and nothing changed. She felt trapped, trapped in a house of people who didn't really care whether she lived or died.

Her aunt just took her in so she could control her sister, but she did care for Jessamine, she was her only niece after all. It was her grandfather, who hated her.

He could never love Rose's daughter, not after Rose's betrayal. Rose was the youngest of his three daughters. The only one who he felt really cared about him. She was the light of his life, but when she ran away to marry Roderick Brentford, the son of Archibald Brentford, a long time adversary. He disowned Rose without a penny, never allowing her to return to his house again.

But she did return, only this time it wasn't his house. He had grown ill, giving the house to his eldest daughter, Hetty. Rose had come and begged her sister to take in the Jessamine, who was ten at the time. Hetty had relented. Her father was adamant that Jessamine would not stay, but he had no control any longer. Jessamine wished her grandfather would forgive her mother, but she knew how stubborn he was.

Jessamine followed her aunt into the drawing room, and was surprised to see a stranger sitting beside her grandfather, who was laughing, something that she had never seen before.

"Ah, there you are Jessamine," he said extending his hand to her. "Philip this is Rose's daughter Jessamine Brentford."

"I thought she looked familiar," the stranger said gazing deep into her blue eyes.

Jessamine couldn't brake the stranger's gaze. She felt that he was reading her deepest thoughts.

"Jessamine this is Philip Brontė," her grandfather said then ignored her presence once again.

"Jessamine would you tell Maurice that there will need to be an extra place at the table tonight," Hetty said.

Jessamine left the room with out a word, as she walked out she felt the stranger's eyes following her out.

"Your grand-daughter is quite lovely," Philip mused.

"Yes, she is the image of her mother," the old man said. "She'll throw her life away, just as her mother did."

To be continued....

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