๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ข๐
Reassurance: the action of removing someone's doubts or fears.
๐๐. ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ง๐๐ (๐งช)
"What are you drawing, Ollie?" I asked Oliver, in genuine curiosity. I have recently given him the gift of some crayons as a way for him to pass the time more easily and not get bored. I do admit that the Victorian era was quite boring, even if I was stuck in the world of Jekyll and Hyde. No interesting thing happened during this week, either for the better or for the worse. Even so, I still had Oliver to keep me company, though I do wonder a lot about where he's from. He was never really comfortable with talking about his past, and to not trigger any trauma he might have, I keep my lips sealed.
I got up from my seat to look at the boy who was drawing on the floor of the parlour. As I stepped closer to him, my smile became wider: He made a picture of me and him in a field of flowers from what I could observe. Of course, the drawing was kind of hard to understand as it was after all a child's drawing, but the soft pastel colours brought life to the piece.
"I do know who those pretty fellas are." I giggled and began ruffling the kid's hair more. The boy of course began laughing lightheartedly, and I smiled. My smile suddenly faltered slightly in confusion as I saw some scribbled notes next to the taller figure next to the blond figure, who I assume is Oliver. As I squinted my eyes to see better, the squiggles turned into letters, writing "(Mr/Mx) papa/(Miss/Mx) mum". My eyes widened and my heart melted right at that moment. Did Oliver see me as a parental figure?
"Ollie, mind telling me what you wrote there?" I asked him, pointing at the scribbles next to the doodle. His eyes widened as he gazed downward in embarrassment, and put his hands over the scribbles written there. I began chuckling softly at his attempt to hide what he had already written, and crouched down to his height, to reassure him that I was not mad.
I put my hand on his hand and began caressing it gently, as a mother would to her child. "You don't have to hide from me, Ollie. I won't bite you!" I joked so that I could maybe make him less worried.
The young blond sighed and slowly revealed what he had written. He seemed ashamed of himself, as if he wrote a curse word or something along those lines. The only thing that came to my mind was to hug him, and the sudden urge to protect him as if he were my son became unbearable.
"I just...I never met my mama or my papa. I was always alone, and now you're here taking care of me without asking for something from me...I don't know how to say enough thanks to you, Mr/miss/mx...all I can say is Thank you, dad/mum." The boy began crying into my embrace, feeling the tears staining my jacket.
"Oliver..." I began, feeling moved by his words, "You know something, I'll try forging adoption papers for you. From now on, you are no longer a guest, but a son to me."
"I am?... Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The boy began crying even more into my arms, at this point staining my coat full of tears and snot, but I didn't mind.
Our wholesome moment was ruined by a butler, informing me that somebody was waiting at the gates. I sighed a bit, letting go of the ten-year-old boy and wiping the snot from my coat with a handkerchief. "I'll come back in just a second."
With that said, I got up and walked towards the front gate, fully expecting it to be Enfield, but to my surprise, it was just a post boy, holding a letter which I assume is for me. I bowed/curtsied down to him as a thank you when he gave me the letter, and I offered him some coins as an extra tip. Everybody needs a way to get their bread at the end of the day.
I opened the letter and read its epistles, which to put it short, was something along the lines of:
"To my dearest friend, (Y/N) Utterson,
I'll be hosting a banquet tonight, would you like to come?
Signed, Dr Henry Jekyll"
It wasn't some highly detailed letter as I usually saw in my attorney's office or inside the safe full of my clients' letters. It was nothing but a humble letter that you'd get from a close friend.
As I walked inside my home, I was immediately bombarded with questions from young Oliver. "What happened?"; "Where did you go?"; "What is that you're holding?" and many more examples of questions. I began chuckling as I sat down on the settee and looked at Oliver.
"Ollie, would you like to join me at a banquet tonight? You could eat the sweetest tarts and dress in the fanciest suit you'd like!" I smiled at the boy as he gave me a stunned look, as if I told him something shocking.
"But sir/ma'am/mx! I am not that well-mannered, and I might make you look like a pauper with my mannerisms!" He looked bashfully towards the ground.
"Oliver, you're a very polite boy. Please don't put yourself down because of your past!"
Oliver looked as if he wanted to say something, but he kept silent and just nodded.
"Let's go find you a nice suit for the banquet!" I smiled at him, as I took the lead upstairs.
We have finally arrived at Jekyll's house. It was a grandiose mansion in northern Westminster, built out of very expensive materials from what I could notice. Unlike Mr Utterson's house, which had a bland yet warmer vibe to it, Jekyll's house had a very glum and cold atmosphere around it. Even from the front of the mansion, you can sense something was wrong about it, even if it was such a pretty building. It was like wisteria flowers, it had a beautiful exterior, but it could be poisonous. It was kind of fitting now that I think about it.
I knocked on the front door three times, waiting for somebody to answer the door. Just as expected, the door was opened by one of Jekyll's butlers.
"Ah, Mr/miss/mx Utterson! You have arrived just in time, and with another guest as well! Master has been waiting for you inside for a while. he even worried you wouldn't come. You may enter." The butler smiled warmly. I bowed/curtsied, and signalled to Oliver to bow down too.
As we both entered inside, I saw the beautifully decorated walls with floral patterned wallpaper and oil paintings of an older man, around his late 40s to early 50s, dressed in the finest clothing that you'd usually see from a gentleman during this time, with light brown hair that had a few white strands in it, and warm hazel eyes behind a pair of glasses. This must be Dr Jekyll in the paintings.
The atmosphere was quite pleasant, with people chit-chatting together, even the maids looked to enjoy the scene.
"My friend, Utterson! I haven't seen you in so long! A pleasure to see you again!" I saw a man walk towards me, smiling warmly. It was the same man from the paintings, so this must surely be Dr Jekyll.
"Jekyll! Mon ami! I haven't seen you in such a long time, I almost forgot your appearance." I joked, trying to seem as if I hadn't just seen him in his other form a week ago. "How have you been lately?"
"Oh, life has been quite swell. Now if I may ask, what happened to you since we last talked?" He smiled at me.
"Good to see you do well. Well, Recently I've taken a little orphan boy as my guest, and finally decided to adopt him soon as my son!" I smiled as I looked behind me, where Oliver was hiding shyly. I smiled embarrassedly at Jekyll, which I think he found amusing as he began chuckling.
"You were always an empathetic person, so I'm honestly not surprised!" The man smiled once more. I smiled back, relieved at how the conversation was going. Talking to Jekyll was such a breath of fresh air, as he wasn't cocky like Hyde. Deep inside, I knew this was just an act towards me, but it still made me feel less...awkward to put it nicely. "Well, what are you waiting for, let's celebrate! You can go take a glass of wine if it'd be to your delight!"
I nodded my head and smiled, as I began walking towards the buffet table, with Oliver behind me. "Look, there are some eclairs and tarts if you'd like!" I told Oliver, to which he smiled.
As I was reaching to get the wine, the same butler who opened the door for me and Oliver, walked towards me, a worried expression on his face. "Hello, Mr/miss/mx Utterson. Master hasn't been doing well lately; It's worrying us a lot. We don't think that he's sick, but he quarantined himself in his laboratory for so long..." The butler vented to me. "We're honestly quite happy to see him socialize with you!"
I smiled melancholically, looking at the butler who looked relieved because of my presence at this banquet. "Well, I'm happy to know that I brought solace to your souls."
The rest of the night, I talked to every guest, maid, and butler. I tried my best to keep the warm atmosphere at the banquet, but people kept telling me about Jekyll not even socializing with anyone, unless it was for something important.
"Hello, Utterson! I would like to talk to you briefly, maybe catch up some more!" Jekyll walked up to me and signalled me to talk to him in private. I was honestly a little confused but went on with him to go a bit farther from the guests, even leaving Oliver alone.
"I'm so glad you came to this banquet! If only Lanyon would've come too..." The man sighed.
"Now that you mention that, I did meet Lanyon a fortnight ago. He seemed kind of upset with you. What happened?"
Jekyll seemed kind of hesitant to answer my question, as he kept silent for a minute. "He's an excellent friend, don't worry! It's just that he called me a pseudo-scientist for my beliefs...and that disappointed me extremely, so our friendship kind of fell apart."
It was honestly sad to see a friendship as close as Jekyll's and Lanyon's crumble for such a reason. Wait..."pseudo-scientist"? "beliefs"? This awfully reminded me a lot of Hyde for some reason. Maybe I should ask Jekyll about his will.
"Jekyll, you know that I haven't approved your will yet, don't you?" I asked him, which seemed to have ticked something inside him.
"My will? Of course I do. I still don't understand why you'd disagree..." Jekyll seemed a little pissed at the mention of his will.
"Don't get angry now, doctor! I recently found out something about the man you've included in your will, Edward Hyde." I said, looking worryingly in his eyes. His angered face seemed to become a little shameful, as if I already caught him.
"Please...can we not talk about the will..."
"But Jekyll, have you heard what the man that's under your care has done..." I was suddenly cut off by Jekyll's angered expression returning, this time with a whisper yell.
"You wouldn't understand anything that's happening, (Y/N)," His expression suddenly softened. "It's very complicated, and I wouldn't want you to get involved. I can cut ties whenever I want with him. Please don't worry your head over my problems." He seemed very remorseful.
"But Jekyll..."
"I made that man my heir out of pity. Please promise on our friendship to support Edward's claim as my heir. If I were to disappear, please help him become better..." Jekyll began to beg me.
"I don't know, Jekyll... I'll try my best, don't worry about it." I smiled at him melancholically.
"I can't thank you enough. You truly are an amazing friend to have." Jekyll smiled at me and put his hand on my shoulder in a friendly manner. "Well, you may go now. The banquet is ending very soon."
I nodded my head, as Jekyll announced that the banquet had come to an end. I took Oliver by the hand, as he was sitting on a couch, observing the people who kept chatting and dancing, and even talking a bit to the younger people who came to the banquet.
As we were waiting for a carriage, I couldn't help but feel that I was being watched... but I knew for the better that nobody was watching me, and that I was just paranoid.
"Mr/miss/mx (Y/N). What did you talk about with that Mr?" Oliver asked me worriedly. I smiled at him reassuringly.
"Oh, nothing important. Please don't worry too much Oliver!" and with that said, a carriage had finally arrived for us to enter.
(A/N): Hello everybody! Happy New Year to everyone who is reading this book! Sorry for the time it took me to update, I spent most of my time during this holiday not in front of my computer, and that's a reason this draft was left marinating for almost three weeks. Please make sure to have a great day!~Luce
