Walking alone through the Shambles was not for the faint-hearted. Too many dark alleys, unlit streets; too many noises in the shadows between the tightly packed houses. Every now and then there would be a wide space, where struggling trees and flowers had been planted in an attempt to brighten the oppressive grey of this area of the slums. The little communities that had slowly grown here over the years were tight-knit and friendly, but as like to shut up close at the first sign of danger as invite it in.

Bernice Wilson, or Beni, as she preferred, had grown up in the Shambles. For years, she'd been just one of many street urchins, grubbing a living by running errands and messages back and forth between the various little businesses that struggled to get by in the slums. Then she had had the good fortune to become acquainted with an elderly couple who lived in the Dogwood Point housing estate, a slightly better area of the Shambles. They had taken an interest in the redheaded girl-child, between them teaching her literacy and good manners. Gods alone knew how they had managed it, but they had pooled their money to buy Beni into a school, and then somehow finance her through university.

She'd only just begun to repay them for their kindness to her when they had both fallen victim to the pestilences that periodically swept through the Shambles. Too old and infirm to cope with the ravages of the illness upon their bodies, they had died within hours of one another, leaving the young redhead they had taken in and given family to fend for herself once again.

To her suprise, the neighbours of her now-dead benefactors had all but insisted that she take the house. She was the closest thing to family the old pair had had, they said, and they knew her well enough themselves to want to keep her closeby. Beni had been overwhelmed by the show of kindnesses, and had given in almost without even a token protest. Of course, the rent had to be paid or the landlord would throw her out, and that meant a steady job. She latched onto tutoring as a means to support herself, inviting children and often adults into her home to help them get to grips with their literacy. It was a way to pay back what had been given to her, all those years before.

Then she had spotted an advertisement, hidden away in a corner of the noticeboard in the little psuedo-market of the slums. Rose House is looking for staff. positions available - teacher, carer, cook. Hours to work between six am and eight pm. Will require skills necessary to work with orphans from age zero to age sixteen. Contact Rowena Millard for more details.

So she had, and after three interviews and a trial lesson with a rowdy classroom of children between the ages of four and eleven, she had been hired. Beni had a job, and a home, and she could see herself learning to be friends with her colleagues.

That wasn't to say that everything was perfect, of course. After an incident walking home a few nights before, she had found herself accosted and bullied into allowing someone called Edward, whom Ro subsequently backed up, to give her a lift to and from Rose House everyday he could. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of him. He was good-looking, certainly - a tall dark and handsome, as her benefactress would have said - but there was more of the dark in him than Beni was used to seeing. Something had happened to make that handsome man quiet and cautious, and she couldn't help being curious as to what his place at the orphanage was.

Still, it didn't look as though she was going to find out anytime soon. There were a lot of secrets at Rose House, secrets which seemed to be almost dangerous. Ro wouldn't talk about it, but there was something in the way the blonde woman looked at the children under her care that set off suspicions in Beni's mind. These children weren't just orphans off the streets; there was something more to them. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was seeing that they got a good start in life, and helping them to find the families who would love and care for them the way they should be loved and cared for.

So yes, Beni was pretty happy where she was. Now she just had to work on getting a certain pair of blue eyes shadowed with shaggy blonde hair out of her mind, and she'd be perfectly content. Honestly.