Adele and Jaime (Prelude)

The date was April 11th, 1915, when I arrived atProfessor Vaude's large, yet charming home in Abbeville, Franceby automobile. By nature, I am rather feeble and shy, and the jouncing ride did not agree with me at all. Nevertheless, I thanked the reckless young driver that the good doctor had sent to pick me up from the train station, and gave him a franc. I gathered my luggage, one suitcase and one briefcase, a rather small amount of belongings considering my lengthy stay, and headed towards the door of the three-story, gray stone mini-mansion while the youngster drove the car to the carriage house. Before I could even reach my hand to the great iron knocker, the heavy oak door opened, revealing a stiff-looking, aged butler, rather withered in appearance but still sturdy, and a good five inches taller than myself.

"Excusez-moi, monseuir," I said nervously, though trying my best to sound confident, "um, I am here to seeProfessor Vaude? He is expecting me, John Bremmer? Perhaps he mentioned me?" I shifted my feet anxiously, squirming under the butler's piercing glower. We stood in silence for a few moments, until theprofessor himself appeared behind the butler, very small and stout compared to the tall, lanky butler.

"What now, Gilles! Surely you would show hospitality to our prestigious guest!" The jovialprofessor turned towards me, beaming.

"John, it's good to see you! I haven't laid eyes on you since you were a young lad, how old, sixteen? My God, it's been ten years! I was so sorry to hear about your parents. Terrible, terrible, but what's done is done, I suppose. At least you received the education they would have wished for you to have. You are quite the scholar now, aren't you?" the professor rambled on, leading me through the dark wood hallway and up the solid, yet creaky, staircase to what I assumed would be the guest room. As he talked, I nodded, just as it had been when I was sixteen and he had come to visit my parents and I at our humble home in Cotswald. He had been a good friend of my parents', my father, a once-highly esteemed British lawyer, and my mother, the beautiful French countryside girl that he had left London and all its promise for to marry. It was Professor Vaude who had encouraged my parents to send me to some of the finest schools London when I was very young. He had even aided them in paying for my tuitions, since my father had been cut off from his family after marrying my mother, and did not receive their forgiveness, and funds, until I was about fourteen.

In fact, I was in Abbeville for the same grim reason of money. After my parents' sudden deaths when I was twenty,my father had failed to set up his last will and testament. My father's family took advantage of that, and ended up with most of their belongings, money, and property, leaving me just enough to finish college and rent an appartment now and then. However, it was just recently discovered that my mother had left her possessions and money and inheritance in order, instructing her family to take care of them if she died and then give me everything that she owned to do the best I could with it. Her elder cousin, Adrian, who lives not far from Professor Vaude's home, was finally able to contact me, asking me to come to Abbeville as soon as possible to receive what had been set aside for me by my dear, sweet mother. So, I used my meager savings to take a boat, then train, then car to Abbeville. God alone knew when I'd be back in London, so I prepared to settle down for a few months and sort out my mother's will, and perhaps spend time reveling in the good professor's vast library.