Snippet #1252458

She stared at him for some time after he turned his eyes from her. It was fascinating he hadn't left her sitting here to fend for herself yet. Isabella had asked him ridiculous questions, at least she would have found them ridiculous had he come up to her, and he had answered them honestly. She told him where she was from, that she wasn't from this year two thousand and... whatever it was and he said he believed her. Of course, no sane being would believe what could have been happening to her was real, but he believed she was sincere and that meant very much to her.

Isabella knew her eyes were drilling holes into his face and so she looked before her, watching a horseless carriage whiz by. Was she trapped here in this world? Would she forever be surrounded by falling stars, strange carriages, and scantily clad women? There was a very high possibility. The man she'd last seen before her departure into this place had explained nothing to her. Had he needed to? Perhaps his purpose had been to simply direct her onto the right path. That path must not have been to continue on in 1816, or in London. Her parents would assume her dead. A sad thought, but would they really be so upset over her leaving, or dying? They had both been so harsh to her. But was it not their faults for raising a child who only knew happiness and only wanted that for all time? Who had the right to tell her when and who to marry?

Rubbing her face once more, Isabella suddenly, and probably irrationally, made the decision to remain in this foreign time and country. There was a reason for most happenings in the universe, and she would take this particular instance with that in mind. For now, she would turn the emotions threatening to overcome her toward the inside and release them in the privacy of some other place. It would be rude to subject the young escort beside her to her babblings and goings-on. It was hard, but Isabella was stronger than she sometimes gave herself credit for. Turning her black-blue eyes back to Mister Jackson she sucked in her lips and then released a long breath. It would be very hard, she realized as her glossy eyes gave away much of her hidden feelings.

"I suppose I will need lodgings for the night," she spoke plainly. "But I have no money to pay. It would pain me to start off in this new place in debt, but I suppose I must." She would have to get a job and pay for her way. It was like nothing she was used to. How would she ever survive? Isabella was taught that a woman lived off her husband and society. No respectable woman needed a place of business to pay for her ribbons and silks, let alone food to eat. But Isabella was somewhere new and she would have to adapt as best as she could.

"Is there a place that would be willing to hold off payment until I can assess a job? From there I may figure things out." By the end of her statement she was standing and carefully removing Jackson's jacket from her slender shoulders. Stopping for a moment, she rethought her sentence.

"It must be a place I can afford with no money on hand right now." Quieting and letting her shoulders droop a little, Isabella looked at Jackson with pleading eyes. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me out of that place. I do not mean to sound despotic, for I can see how I must. I am very confused and you are the only person kind enough to help me." With a small smile and a slow blink of her lashes, Isabella continued. "Granted, you could be a thief in the night, preying on the confusion of young women, but I will trust you nonetheless. I have no one else." Her last statement held a sadness in it that almost physically betrayed itself with a flood of tears. But by trying not to appear so hopeless, Isabella maintained her composure and handed the jacket to him. "Again, I thank you."