She smiled warmly at the bell hop as he handed her the key off the back wall. It was a small key, not unlike the many keys she had seen in her experience of the past. It had a small wooden chip on it with the number 12 written clearly in golden lettering. He had asked her if she had wanted the paper that evening and she thought of the two pennies she had left in her pocket, certainly not much by way of a tip. Vincent had said he would be leaving money in the room but that was to be used to by specific clothing. She turned an politely smiled at the Bell Hop, “not this evening, but thank you”

She headed in the direction of the rooms, knowing it wasn’t really a smart idea to ask which way the room was. It didn’t take her long to reach room number 12. When she entered the room she immediately felt that despite what may have looked like simplicity to some it looked to her like miles above anything she had stayed in, even before running away from home. The bed was big and comfortable looking. A dresser table stood against the wall and her eyes where drawn to it. Making her way across the room she picked up the two envelopes off the dresser and crossed the room to sit on the edge of the bed.

The first envelope contained money, around twenty five dollars which made her mouth open a bit in shock, it was a lot of money, more then she had ever seen in one place at one time. Vincent was a very trusting man to leave someone he hardly knew with that much money. How did he know she wouldn’t take the money and run? It was a thought, but not one that ran seriously through her mind, she wasn’t the type of person to live a life of crime, too….messy? Yes messy was the word for it. A life of crime would be far too messy.

The envelope also contained an a list of clothing items that she would need to buy the next day. Looking over the list she knew it would take her a few hours of shopping to get all the items listed. She would need to keep to a tight schedule the next day. Thinking on this she opened the second envelope which told her the details of when she was supposed to meet the landlord of the building and where. Noting in the instructions that she didn’t have to meet him until the next afternoon she made the decision to spend the morning hours doing her shopping.

She found the bath shortly afterwards and couldn’t resist the temptation to completely sink herself into a bath, a luxury that was foreign to her, but it felt nice. After the bath she went to bed for a nice night of dreamless sleep.

****

The sun was in her eyes, but only just when she woke the next morning. She wasted no time in getting up, dressing quickly and then hitting the streets on her shopping excursion. She spent the morning trying on many things, and buying a good deal many more things. It was well after noon time that she finally thought that she had everything that was on her list. She headed back to the hotel room to change her clothing before heading in the direction of her appointment.

It was a tall building with three floors that she stood looking up at before taking a deep breath and heading in. At the front desk she said to the woman behind the counter, who had to be the secretary of sorts. “I’ve an appointment with Mr. Clestorn”