Gigi awakens slowly, her hands automatically reaching out for the sleeping body beside her. Feeling nothing but bed clothes, she sighs soft and lays back against the pillow. Forcing her eyes open, she looks around the dingy room, as the events of the past few months come flooding back to her. She stifles a sob as she realizes there is no more waking up in Geoffrey's arms, no more Mariette, no more Hartman House in general. As she sits there and thinks, it becomes harder for her to stifle her sobs, and in just a few moments, the sobs are wracking her body. Allowing herself a good cry, she hasn't done this in ages, she waits until her breath comes out in pants before wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her dress. Taking a deep breath, she leans over and pulls her diary out of her valise and opens to a blank page. Slowly she begins to write, letting all her emotion pour out onto the
page in front of her. The entry is riddled with mistakes and mispellings, Gigi not being the most literate person in the world, but it matters naught, as she is the only one who reads it, as far as she knows. Finishing the entry, she closes the book with another sigh and puts it back among her things. Forcing herself out of bed, she catches
a glimpse of herself in the looking glass. Shuddering, she starts at the top, her brown eyes drinking in the details; her hair looks like a tangled mess, almost as if a rat could make his home in it, large black circles under her once sparkling eyes, her eyes now red and puffy from crying, her dress, tight right around her chest, gaping
slighly in the middle of her breasts, hugging her hips just a little too tightly, covered in dirt and dust, stained in places, she thinks "nobody is going to hire me in this condition..." Starting with her hair, she pulls it back into tight bun. She pours water from the rusty pitcher upon the dresser and splashes water on her face, and scrubs it
the best she can with her hands. Disgarding the old dress, she stands in her underclothes, noting the changes in her breasts and hips, wondering what could be wrong with her, she reaches for her other dress. She slips the soft gray fabric over her head, and buttons the faux pearl buttons up over her breasts, noticing that this one too is tight across her breasts and hips also. sighing soft at her reflection, she turns and gathers her meager belongings and leaves the room. Going downstairs, she settles at the same table she occupied the night before and orders breakfast. Eating mechanically she wonders where to go from here. Knowing she needs a job, she moves over to the bar and askes the barkeep where she can find postings for jobs, as she uses her last shilling to pay for the food, that she left half eaten. He tells her to check the Registry Office and points her to the
building a couple of blocks away. Gathering her valise, she thanks him and starts out toward the building he indicated. She enters the Registry office and starts scanning the posted jobs there. She chews on her lower lip after dismissing the few postings that are there, after all she won't make a good stable hand, she feels a sense of
panic rising in her. What is she going to do? There is one piece of tattered torn paper that catches her eye, she grabs it off the wall to read it more carefully. McCody, that name jumps out at her. She remembers a Lady called McCody from a visit at Hartman House, is it the same person?? Jotting down the details of where she needs to go, Ventrue Mansion, Cotswold. Pinning it back to the wall, she hurries back down the blocks to the tavern, intent on asking the barkeep on where this Ventrue Mansion is. Some of her excitement is drained out
of her when she sees his face as she mentions she wants to go out there. He warns her against it, saying she would be better off being able hand then going out to that place. Said its haunted and all kinds of wierd things happen out there. Well Gigi is no stranger to weird goings on, is insistant that he tell her how to get there. She
emphasises that she knows Lady McCody and really needs a job. Reluctantly, he points the way to the mansion, his dire warnings ringing in her ears as she makes her way in the direction he pointed.
