When James was at the market earlier that day, he saw Ella, the girl he’d loved since they were only children, with her family: her father Edward, her mother Nora, and her younger brother Jordan. Her father did not hold James in very high opinion to say the least. Despite being a noble himself, he felt that the royal families of Babaria were arrogant and stupid, and sat around only worrying about how much money was in their pockets. When they first met, James had hoped to make a good first impression, but due to Edward’s strong prejudice James felt that it would be best to just simply avoid him.
Nora and Jordan were fonder of James than Edward is, and were aware of him and Ella being together despite her father’s “wishes”. Edward always said that he simply wanted what was best for his daughter, but his idea of what was best for her had contradicted her idea of what was best on many occasions. See, Edward was one of those kinds of people who thought that women and children should be seen and not heard unless spoken to, but Ella didn’t like the idea of being a housewife for her whole life; she wanted to feel empowered, and she wanted people to see her as a person with a voice, not a housewife with no freewill whatsoever. James shared her opinion on this matter, which is what drew her eyes to him in the first place. James was a gentleman since he could walk, aside from the fighting and occasional pranks he would pull on people, and he never once treated anyone as if they were less than human, even his enemies.
Although Ella agreed with James that Brian should have been punished for what he’d been doing and what he’d been saying about the Meyer family, she felt that aggressive punishment was not the way to do it. Ella was a pacifist, and didn’t like how people often used violence to make things go their way in the world. She hoped to one day find a way to put an end to man’s violent nature, although she had realized from the beginning that it would have been difficult to accomplish her task given mankind’s history of solving all of the world’s problems with death and violence. Her ultimate goal was to one day find the secret to accomplishing World Peace. Sadly, due to women’s low position in society, Ella’s ideas were very often cast aside simply because she was a woman; and a young woman at that.
When James saw her at the market, he began to make his way around to her, hiding behind shops and merchant stands to avoid being seen by Ella and her father. He made his way to her, and waited behind a merchant’s pottery stand until her father moved away to talk to another merchant selling clothing. Then James made his move, and snuck up behind Ella and said, “Anything I can get you miss?” Startled, Ella turned so quickly her head almost collided with James’. “James, you jerk! Don’t scare me like that!” They both laughed, and then snuck away from Ella’s parents to be able to spend time together without Edward getting mad.
“How is the investigation going about the attack on your uncle?” Ella asked. James ran his hand across his head in frustration and let out a sigh. “We all are certain that Shamus is behind it all, but we just can’t find any proof that it’s him. Sometimes I think the system takes too long to decide on anything, know what I mean?” James asked. Ella nodded, and wrapped her arms around James’. “Don’t worry, Jimmy,” Ella replied, “I’m sure this will all be over soon.”
“Yes, yes,” James said, “I know. But the longer the investigation takes, the longer the people responsible for the attack on my uncle have to plan another attempt to kill him.” Ella leaned her head on James’ shoulder, understanding his worry for his uncle’s safety. They continued walking through the market for another couple minutes until Edward called for Ella. Her eyes widened, and she ran back to where her family was before she could say goodbye. James groaned at having to keep his relationship with Ella a secret from her father, and he’d hoped that Edward would have been willing to accept him by now. But, seeing as how it was starting to get late, James headed back home to find out if his father had learned anything about the murder attempt.