Pandora's Case

Summer of 1887

It was the summer of 1887, the city of London was growing rapidly both in its status as the capital of the British Empire which covered almost one fourth of the lands in the world, but its dwellers within the city was also over populated. The city attracts many from outside its borders and most are from the main continent of Europe; displaced by the end of great empires like France and before that the Spanish, and even the Mughal Empires. Among the displaced was one young lady who at that time was in her late teens; a budding beauty with a charming personality. Her life was soon to entwined into mine and spiraled into a lengthy tale of lust and mayhem including murder. She was my friend but before that she was my father's mistress.

Lily Gorda was her name; sweet sixteen when I first met her her at the corner of the street to my house in the arms of my father, Micheal Parks. She was dressed in a simple dress buttoned to the neck, her shoulders was covered with a shawl and was carrying a flowery parasol on her left arm. Her right arm was held by my father's elbow and they were talking when I bumped into them.

"I am sorry, Father. I did not see you coming." I apologized to my father who was a successful trader in the products needed in Europe due to the collapse of the economy there after the wars. I stole a glance at the lady who was in his arms.

"Haste you may be, girl but the path you are to trod need careful sight as there are potholes to tripped you." My father was a taller man than myself, built narrow frame with his tweed suit and bowler hat, with the long wooden cane he proudly carries. That cane was a gift from the King for his generous works he had done for the poor in the city. My father was a reputable man then in the city, but his daughter paled to his reputation, as I was only a painter of the arts living in his home. I am not a tradesman nor a business woman as I valued the fine details of the reproduction of image that I paint on the canvas. My father tolerated my antics as he named it but he told me that come one day I would have to decide or be excluded from his will. He claimed he had others who are equally fitted to inherit his business. I remembered cynically, he may had sow male bastards out there but I am still his only legitimate child.

Then I cared not for all the gold in his chest but the love he should had shown me. He never did and from my birth to now, I was devoid of it. Even my late mother who died in loneliness five years ago, once told me that my father does not love her as their marriage was arranged for convenience. He was to fathered a child that would carry on his lineage and works but it turned out that I was born shot of his expectations. After that, he had tried to get her produce him one that he can stand proud with, but sadly she was barren since then. He then had her placed in the guest room with me, and was hardly seen.

I would reply to his caution with some words of caution myself, but the girl then in his hand asked who I may be.

"Is she someone you know?" The girl in his arm asked of him with her eyes looking at me. It was my first real sight of Lily then; deep green eyes with her straight nose to those sweet lips, her hair encased by the netting she had on above.

"She is my daughter." Father spoke out with his face dragged into a frown onto me. "She's on her way to the Park. Be off then, girl."

I took my leave of my father and his companion; not the first I have seen but never one so young like my age. My curiosity got the better of me as after my fifth step, I turned to looked at my father and his companion. Perhaps it was coincidence or was it fated, Lily also turned to look back at me. She smiled at me, and I cordially returned her smile.

Soon my mind away from Lily as I chanced on my beau; Peter Finch, University scholar and my first love then, but that was to cease with immediate effect. The two timing jerk was with another having their picnic on my favorite spot by the lake. Of all the nerves of the man whom I had shared some kisses and tolerated his roving hands, was then propped on his right elbow whispering sweet tidings to the girl next to him on the picnic cloth. My name ain't Jennifer Fowler Parks if I do not stamped that vermin into the soil that grew those grass. I approached him from the back of his head and casually announced my presence with the tip of my shoes. I may be dressed in a dress buttoned to my neck with the bodice that could suffocated me at times, but my dainty feet are covered by the dark leather boots I wore over it. It may not be appropriate for a lady of my age, but it hurt more perverts who thinks their foul breath entitled them to lay their lips on me. Just as Peter turned to looked at who was tapping him on the back of his head, I gave my leg the momentum of a kick that broke his nose and ruined his left cheek.

"Peter Finch, don't you ever dare come near me again. Or......" I hesitated with the words to come, as there were now some onlookers who got more interested in the incident. "It won't be your nose the next time."

Somehow I drew applaud from the onlookers but discretion prevailed as I retraced my steps back to my house. I could hear Peter calling me with his bloodied nose, but I am past the point of listening to his whining of why he was there. No one betrayed my love feelings. He ain't the first; Micheal Beck learned that too when he asked me for my love when I was twelve, but his amorous antics earned him a short stay at the Infirmary. His father came calling on mine with the words that described my actions as appalling for a young girl, but I am sure it was tit for tat when he tried to grabbed me between the legs. My father was aloof to my actions and dismissed the man for slandering me. Mr Beck left and my father barred me from leaving the house for two months.

I did not really go home that hour, as I dreaded the chance of meeting my father with his 'guest' there. He had a few since mother's passing and they can be a sore sight to behold. Its not that I do not fancy him having guests, but to find them parading inside his bedroom whom he once shared with my mother was an insult to me. The first time, I saw him doing that, I confronted him later after supper. His words still rang in my ears.

"Jennifer Parks. I am your father. Who and whom I may invite into his house bears no need on your concern. If they wandered into my bedroom, it still does not concern you at all. So keep your comments to yourself or you may find yourself without a home soon."

I was upset and refused to see him for days, or on those occasions he brings a lady friend back, I would be at the Park or sometimes with my friends at the banks of the river Thames until past nightfall. Normally it would be Mrs Walker, my nanny from young who would come to convinced me that the third room at the house still carried my name. That day, I kicked at Peter Finch; I stopped over at the church to pray for my mother's soul. Then I approached the confession booth to released my sin.

"Father, thank you for listening. I was not sure why I reacted then but I was angry." I had my face cradled on my arms while looking down on the flooring.

"My dear child. You have done a misdeed without asking him for his explanation. Perhaps he was with a friend and there was nothing to impaired on your love for him. Why do you act so rash, my child?"

I heard the words from the priest but I myself at that time could not recalled why I actually kicked him. I knew I did him right, as the spot for the picnic was mine, and mine alone. I found it some years back and had my name staked there. More to it, I loved him and he should not be with another. Not even a common friend.

"My child, you are bound by the sin of jealousy. You acted on those acts without realizing it. If I had not known you well, I would had asked you to pray for forgiveness. But I knew of your past; your next action would be to pardoned what had transpired before. Your father action on your mother does not warrant you holding that mistrust on others. Pray to released your past and learned to live for the better side of you."

Father Basil knew my past and many of my confessions were heard by him. He knew that my pent up anger was due to my father's lack of love and care. I took myself out of the booth and made my way home with the mind thinking of ways I can make myself better. I shall not let my father dictate my life. I walked into my house to find Mrs Walker, my nanny carrying her bags to leave. I stopped her at the doorway.

"Stop not me, child. I am leaving for good.": Mrs Walker have served the family for sixteen years since I was born. She was more than a nanny to me; she was like my mother ever since my birth mother died. I tried to stopped her but she was adamant on leaving.

"He may bring in his ....ladies but this time he overdone the vile deed." Mrs Walker eyes rolled up and then looked back at me. "The ...tart no older than you. Have the man no shame? He had a daughter like you and he stacking himself to one of your age."

"My God! Have that man gone mad? Or his brains gone to his bowels?" Mrs Walker continued on. It was then I heard my father's voice from the above the staircase.

"Off with you, Mrs Walker. Never shall you walked into this house." I looked up at the man who was shouting at my beloved nanny. He stood up there with his chest bared and hair ruffled; spewing more profanities at my nanny. I would had defended my nanny but she was already on the street hailing a hansom. Just as she was to stepped up the hansom, she turned to looked at me.

"My child, be brave. If you ever need me, seek me here." Mrs Walker passed me a note with an address. Then she rode off in the hansom, leaving me in tears there on the pavement in front of my house. I walked back into the house but I did not returned to my room. Instead I went into Mrs Walker's room at the rear of the house and slept on her bedding.

That was the day Lily Gorda came into my life.

Autumn 1887

I was painting at the lake when I heard some one walking up to me from the rear. I had by my side, a wooden cane with a leaded top for such intrusive moves. I reached for it and held firm onto it. I had some practiced on it like pugilistic exponents do in training. If I take the swing at this angle and speed, I might cracked a bone or two if I got it right on the wrist or elbow. If its the thigh of the leg, then it would be pain and no bones to be tended to but it would give me time to draw attention to my plight. An ideal hit would be the side of the scalp; at the ears, where I can plea self defense in the courts of the law. That would really irked my father as he tries the safeguard the family name from being dragged in Court.

"Jenny, can I sit next to you?" That voice was familiar. It was a ladies voice with the scent I have been getting used to. I turned to looked at the figure who spoke to me. She was dressed in green shades with wide pagoda sleeves and high necklines with matching laces.

I offered her a place on my bench as I adjusted the canvas stand. Her skirt was without the bustles allowing her more comfort on being seated.

"Nice piece." Lily commented on my art piece of the swans at the lake. I been at it for over a week, and was still not satisfied with the shades. "Can we talk?"

Lily had been in my household for some months now, but we had never spoken except for the courtesy greetings. During her stay, I was hardly at home but when I do, I was either in my room or Mrs Walker. I tend to be a heavy sleeper and hardly noticed any uneasy noises as claimed by the servants. I did however caught her once on the corridors late one night. She had on one of his shirt and was bare footed when she stepped out of his room. I was then on my way up from Mrs Walker room to mine. Lily saw me and smiled before she went back into the bedroom. I do not know why she came out for and was not keen to find out anyway.

"Yes, we could. I am not in any hurry, and there are some tea left in the pot if you want." I offered to Lily but she declined. Lily started off with her chat on the lake and then everything that she could laid her eyes on but nothing on her or myself. Soon she ran out of topics and looked over to me.

"I been talking and forgot to introduce myself." Lily Gorda held out her hand. "I am Lily Gorda. I was from Dover before I met your dad."

That caught me off guard, as what she just mentioned was true. She had stayed in the house, but we hardly met as mentioned before. I never really spoken to her beyond the greetings but I heard her name was Lily as told by the other servants.

"Jennifer Parks; I meant Jenny. You ought to know the family name." I laughed at my silliness. She too in turn laughed with me.

"Yes, I do. I knew your name is Jenny. Your father told me so." That broke the ice between us as soon she was telling me of her past. Or the past that I was told. Lily Gorda was not from here but she came from the main continent after she was separated from her family. Her origin was from a North Caucasian ethnic group who were displaced in the course of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. Her people were called the Adyghe, but then her country was overrun by Russians. She sailed to Dover on a merchant ship and from there she met my Father. He took her into his care and she took care of him too. She calls him Mikhail as his nickname.

Then she laid the reason for the talk.

"Your father is getting married soon."

"I take it then, a congratulation would be in place for you now." I replied coldly to her statement.

"It may be suited but I am not the bride. Your father weds another. I am still his .....mistress." That took the shock out of me as my paint brush streaked across the canvas.

"I am so sorry." Lily reached for a cloth or anything to helped me restore my painting. "I did not mean to shock you...I am so sorry."

I stood up and kicked out at the stand to toppled the canvas. I looked at the lady siting there.

"How dare you tell me this? My father ...." I could not find the words to describe it, and stormed off leaving Lily sitting there. I reached home and walked straight into my father's library. I did not knocked but barged in. There he was with his good friend, the Barrister Leonard Stein. The later was also a tall man like my father but his clean slate on the head made him looked taller. He was also my father partner in some of his ventures.

"How dare you intrude in without knocking? Have you no manners, girl?" Father may be infuriated by the intrusion but nothing was to matched my anger of him marrying another.

"Father, who are you choosing to marry now? Another slut from the street or one even younger than me." I raised my voice to him. He was shocked by my outburst and approached me to disciplined me. He would had if not for the intervention of his partner, Leonard.

"Hold on, old man." Leonard held onto his friend and then turned to me. "Be off, girl. I would tend to you father now."

"Go to your room and stayed there!' My father loud voice was heard and I left in tears to my room. It was not till nightfall, when I heard the knock on my room door. I did not answered it but the person came in bearing some food and drinks.

"Even in misery, we still need to be fed." It was Lily and she set the food down. I did not what or why, but I ran into her arms and cried my tears out that night. She soon had me soothed down and fed me my food before she tucked me to bed. She soon told me that my new step mother was a lady from the other continent. My father had met her before he did with Lily, and he had promised to marry her when she returns from her trips.

"But what about you, Lily?" I asked of her during one of our chats after the incident. Both of us was dressed in our nightgowns and my father was out in the city with his friends. We were sitting on my bed and looking outside the window in front of us. In the last few days, I had began to know Lily as a friend and there was more to her life than just as a mistress.

"Jenny, I am your father's.....mistress but he loves me deeply. We are better off than the harlots...." Her words was stopped by my finger on her lips. Lily kissed my finger and moved it away with her hand.

"Its a better life with your father than on the streets. There we had no choices; it was a rush of events and more than one a night means less to worry about tomorrow. We fare better in the looks to get the farthings or shillings if offered for extras. It was better than to be soiled by the drunken who demands their rights as husbands while they rut when your milk still weaned."

"Yes, Jenny. I was a prostitute, but not by force or by choice but by circumstances. I had nothing to offer but my youth, no passage of freedom was without a price. But my days were less when I was given to your father. He took me off the streets and made me his own. First it was in Dover and then here in London."

I was taken aback as I thought she was only his when I met her in London.

"No, Jenny. He made his when I was in Dover last summer." It was then I cried out in shame before I embraced her in my arms. I laid my head on her shoulder and cried my shame there. She smoothed my hair like a mother would be to her child. She hushed me down and rocked me on her shoulders. Then she pushed me up and looked into my eyes. She leaned over and kissed my teary eyes. She kissed at the trails of my tears to my lips and then onto my lips. I don't know why but I kissed her back like never before. She trailed her lips from mine to the china and then onto my neck.

"No, Lily." I pushed her away. She let go of me and then looked away from me.

"I am sorry. I forgot myself there." Lily' eyes were in tears then. "We all needed love sometimes and forget our .....boundaries."

I wanted to hold her back but then we heard the sound of my father's heavy steps.

"He's back. I must go now." Lily sprang up from the bed and rushed out of the room. I sat there and then crawled myself back into covers of my own bed. It felt so cold there even though I had the cover over me. I rubbed my body on the sheets to warmed my body up but I only found more coldness on the sheet. I placed my hands between my raised knees to warmed them up. It was in that foetal position I cuddled myself to sleep.

But sleep was not easy as soon I was awakened by the cries from the other room. I got up and grabbed my robe to cover over my gown before I stepped out into the corridor. The muffled cries came from my father's bedroom and since my mother's death, I have never stepped in there. I hesitated but the muffled cries still rang in my ears. I walked to the door and noticed it was ajar. I peeked in and was to be shown by the sight of act that would leaved an imprint in my mind forever. I walked back to my room and locked the door upon closing it. I soon sat at the corner at my room and tried to ignore the images that going through my mind.

From that day, both Lily and myself soon became close friends, and even to the point we can be considered as sisters by relationship. She would be at my side when my father was not around, and we would all talked like sisters do; everything and something. I actually began to like her then.

Then the wedding date came and I was asked to attend my father's wedding to a Madame Francine Moreau from Bordeaux. The surprising part was both me and Lily was to be the bridemaids. It was not rehearsed but an impromptu one during the day. As we were lining up to lead the bride out, I could not find my partner. Both Leonard and myself searched for her, and we were told that she was upstairs with my father. We rushed up as the time of the ceremony was coming to due and not only her was to be there but also him. We did not knocked on the door but walked in. We were greeted by the sight of Lily with my father on top of her on the bed. They were dressed but she had her bodice opened and her skirt raised up.

"Micheal!" Leonard shouted out. "What on earth are you doing?"

It was then my would step mother also stepped in; rushing after us worried for her new husband.

"Mon die! Is there not shame in you, Micheal?" Madame Moreau rushed off back downstairs while I closed the door to confront my father.

"Leonard, I can't got through the marriage. Not with her. I loved ...Lily here." My father; the bastard now declared his love for the lady he had been humping for months. Just as I was to speak, my father pulled his partner with him to leave the room. I stared at Lily who now buttoned up her bodice and smoothe her skirt. She looked up to me and smiled.

"It does not take much to do what I just did. They all needed some persuasion to find the right loving."

Lily Gorda married my father that day instead of Madame Moreau. When they were taking their vows, I was on the hansom to seek Mrs Walker. I have never felt that feeling before and only my nanny may understand.

Spring 1888

I was having my tea before leaving for my place of painting, when Mrs Walker walked into the kitchen of her modest home in East End of London. She had since her departure from my home, started off a bakery in this new place; feeding the poor was her excuse to be here.

"Jenny, my child. Please read this." She passed the morning edition to me. I was not amused to pass on the news of another dead or dying on the streets but this one article caught my attention.

"Trader murdered in home by wife." It was the picture of my father and his current wife, Lily Gorda Parks. The papers said she shot him dead when he discovered her with her lover, Leonard Stein. I threw aside the papers and told Mrs Walker, I have no interest into my father's death nor of whom could had murdered him. It was something I wished to dismissed from but the legal representation soon caught up with as the only surviving heir. As I am the rightful heir, I was questioned as to whereabouts on the night of the murder.

"Its a standard procedure, Missy." The officer in the tweed suit told me. Preposterous was my reply but soon I was dragged into the hearing of my father's alleged murderer.

"Your Honor, Lily Gorda was like Greek Goddess Pandora an expert at flattery who opened the box given to her by the Gods and let evil loose upon the world. She led to his demise that night." It was a frightening opening remark but it stuck on in the editions as they now referred the case as the Pandora Murder. The prosecution laid bare the evidence that Lily Gorda while married to Micheal Parks, seduced the partner Leonard Stein for the same reason she did with Micheal; money. She used her charms of lust to entice both men. That night of the murder, she was found out by the husband and had shot him in the chest. It was Leonard who subdued her and reported to the Police.

"She may be a young lady but her flattery skills are seductive and above all deadly to those who once intoxicated by her charms would do anything for her." Lily Gorda was an overnight icon of the evil seductress. "Her box which was her soul carried many evils ways inside and everyone of them laid a death trail."

The Prosecution then brought witnesses from Dover who attest to her evil ways; men of double her age were reduced to slaves at her biddings. Even the Captain of the steamer who brought her over told that he was overwhelmed by the childlike girl who enticed him with many evil thoughts.

The Editions took on her case with equal sharing to then Whitechapel Murders in London. As the readers shifted their reading from whodunit to where evils trailed. The defenses were berated by no clues on how to defend her until she sighted me in the stands. She called for my defense in her name. I reluctantly did as a friend and once mistress to my father.

"I knew Lily Gorda when she became my father's mistress last summer." The packed Courtroom was awed by opening statement. "Soon we became friends, and she told me of her past. She was a refugee of a misplaced nation and left alone at the tender age of twelve then to fend for herself. She had found works in the factories but the abuse she took was hard; both by men and women. Soon she was besieged into the works that only a woman can performed for the few pennies to feed themselves, if not their family.":

"Yes, Lily Gorda was a prostitute then. And so were many more; younger or older, it matters not. We chose to closed our eyes to that." I was pelted with rubbish then by the attendees of the hearing but I prevailed.

"When my father took her off the streets, he was her guardian and also ....lover." I think there were some ladies in the courtroom that day fainted from my statement. "But her life was not of a lover's lover but a lover's slave. I knew as she had shared with me his vile ways."

"Men do nasty things when they are in their ....lust." I cried out to the silence of the courtroom. "If not for her, I could had been the one inflicted with it."

Lily Gorda was freed of the murder charges and the death of Micheal Parks was considered as accidental. Everyone forgot about Leonard Stein involvement with Lily. I met Lily Gorda the next day after her release at the same spot I used to paint.

"Thank you, Jenny." Lily stood there next to me. "You painted a picture which even I am amazed with."

"A perfect picture which you had to streaked it with your foul evil ways." I replied to her. "You had everything, yet you wanted to have more. You seduced Leonard for his money as I knew from the estate, my father owes Leonard more than his value in the estate. You released the evil on him too so that he would be with you. You did it just when you knew my father would not be around but you were mistaken. He came back early to see you."

"My sister in kind, Jenny Parks. I admired your creativity that you painted." Lily gloated my assumptions. "I did sleep with Leonard as I was paying back for your father' debts. Leonard like all man of his status, sometimes likes the feel of something young. It was unfortunate your father caught us in the action. He could not stand it; another man on his wife even though he consented earlier. He told Leonard to leave."

"Your father confessed he lost his wealth because of me. He became insane with me, leaving many of his business to decayed. All he ever wanted was for me to bear him his son, but despite all the tries; he failed. He was old and lacks the vitality to performed. It was then Leonard came in and offered me as the means to offset the loans with me serving as the payback. Your father reluctantly agreed as he reckons two thing may come to fruit; the returned of his wealth and another; the son he could not produced."

"I am not the evil Goddess Pandora here. I am the innocent one which everyone placed me as the evil one. Just like Pandora, she did not know her action then."

I glanced over at Lily and then told her she was not left anything by my father as his will done with Leonard Stein who was also his barrister only declared me as the only beneficiary. I left Lily Gorda standing there by the lakeside looking at the swans. I walked to the hansom and boarded it.

"Did she tell much?" I turned to looked at the older man sitting next to me.

"Nothing that I already knew, darling." Leonard smiled at me. It had been a long period of concerned for him since the murder. Lily Gorda did shoot my father as he was going to throw her out. His debts being settled by her services and yet she was without a child. Leonard did not leave that day but sneaked in to witnessed the whole action. He then confronted her like what the Police had reported.

"I do seek your apologizes for betraying your love when I slept with her. It was my fault; I could nto helped it. I  promised you that it would never happened again. I did it out of rash thoughts. I am sorry, Mistress." Leonard was in his submissive mode.

I liked that as now the he knows I held the dominant position in our relationship. Its was always easy to subdue man with the younger flesh but how do you keep them at your side later depends on who was more domineering in the relationship. Leonard action may seem small or innocuous, but that turns out to have severe and far-reaching consequences for all. The only 'godly' thing about it was I came out winners on all sides.