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Notes:

Allia is pronounced Il-lah and is a Cornish word that means "most beautiful".
Cordelia is Cornish for 'faithful daughter'.
Melyor is pronounced MEL-yohr and is Cornish for honey.

Chapter One, Meeting Captain Ross Poldark

Ross Poldark took the offered money for the pocket watch that has once belonged to his deceased father before it had been sold. Nodding to the man and gesturing to Jed one of his servants that he had inherited from his father to follow him they continued to make their way through the stalls that made up the market. Making his way towards a man who held a diary cow by a piece of rope, he bartered and quickly brought the animal adding the money over and ordering Jed to take his purchases back to the house. After watching to make sure the man did as ordered Ross continued up the dirt path taking in the wares that were on sale.

Ross smiled as he made his way through the Market, he smiled as he saw children laughing and cheering along to a Punch and Judy puppet show. However, his attention was drawn away from them as he heard dogs angrily barking and men cheering from down the street just passed the tavern, The Red Lion, he paused for a moment to watch as another man carried in a rather scrawny looking thing with light brown scruffy fur only to hear to shouts sound somewhere from his left over the jeering of the many spectators. "Hey, that's our dog!"

Ross caught sight of two young lads as they pushed their way through the crowd in order to get to their dog. "Get away! Get off him!" Ross heard them call as the dog started to whine once again. However, the lads were unable to help as they were pushed in front of the dogs as the spectators pushed them across the circle. "Garrick! Get off him! Garrick!" Was called and the lads nearly stumbled and fell but in the process bumped into another of the spectators. Only to be pushed forward again and hit in the face causing the pair of them to fall to the floor.

Taking note of those gathered and realising that no one else would step forward to stop the two lads being beaten he quickly strode to the man and stepped in front of one of the lads, the smallest one, as he was about to be kicked in the chest. "Enough!" He shouted and took hold of the mans arm before he could get closer to the lads. "Take my advice, you run." He stated whilst keeping a firn grip of the mans shirt before pushing him away. "Or else?" The man asked with a snarl before he went quiet as Ross hit him with his whip.

The man quickly fled to a chorus of gasps and exclamations, however Ross did by pay much attention to them and quickly knelt beside the lads that lay upon the floor. "Have they hurt you, child?" He asked the lad closer to him as he placed his arm upon the lads arms as he lay upon the dirt road. "Don't 'ee "child" me, mister." The lad had the cheek to say as he shrugged off his hand from upon his shoulder before moving on to check on the smaller one who was laying in front of their dog.

"I think we've provided enough sport for one day." Ross called out to the gathered crowd as he tried to help the lad up from the group but was again shrugged off. Rolling his eyes and seeing that his help would not be taken at the moment he went to see to the other lad who had already risen to his knees. He held out his hand to help him the rest of the way up, the young lad looked up at him from under his lashes and smiled slightly before turning and starting to take a few steps to get passed the crowd. Ross frowned when he saw that he was limping rather badly and caught him as he fell, Ross's friends deepened when he saw the young lad flinch that he tried and failed to hide.

"Come, the both of you." Ross ordered to them both and pushed slightly on the bigger lad's shoulder as he looked to be about to make a run for it even as he tried to wipe the dirt and blood from his face from his fall, though Ross noticed that he kept throwing the small lad a concerned look every now and then. With a defeated sigh the pair of them followed behind the man into the Red Lion tavern. Ross ordered the pair of them to sit while he went to the bar to get them some food and drink and to get himself a tankard of ale. While waiting for the food he watched the pair of them.

He wasn't as shocked as one might suspect to be after seeing two late teenage girls dressed up in boys clothes, what shocked him was the smallest one as he recognised her from somewhere but for the life of him he couldn't remember where, just that her bright emerald eyes were very familiar to him. He returned with two bowls of stew and another two pints of ale. "Anyone know these two children?" The man called out to the patrons.
"That's Tom Carne's daughter from Illugan and his niece. They'll get the strap if he catches 'em from 'ome, and in 'er brother's clothes!" A man stated as he walked past. "Easy, girls. No-one will rob you." Ross chided as the girls who he now knew to be Tom Carne's daughter and niece pulled their bowl of stew closer towards them and put their arm around it as though to protect it as he got to close, though the smallest one was more dignified in the way she ate as she took small bites of her food instead of gulping it down like her cousin.

The smallest girl watched him from under her eye lashes and had to hide a smile as he defended them against a man who sneered at them and called them 'Street Rats' she was quite surprised that anyone of his class would pay attention to them as the only ones that did had been her Godfather Sirius Black who had helped her and Demelza clean out the Potter family home and estate as best they could without drawing the attention of the Gossip Mongers. The young girl watched her cousin in slight fascination as she peered into the mug before gulping down the ale in one go.

She shook her head at her cousin for she knew if she did that she'd likely throw it right back up. She looked up as the door of the taverns owned to see a beautiful Lady of higher class look around before noticing the man who had rescued them before making her way over. Not wishing to be caught eves dropping the girl took a quick gulp of her ale before returning to the stew laid before her to get rid of the bitter after taste the ale had left in her mouth, all the while sharing a smirk with her cousin as they listened to the conversation.

"I came to see if the boys were..." The girls heard and had to keep herself from snorting as her cousin, who sat in front of her turned, revealing herself to the man and Lady who evidently realised her mistake. "Oh..." She continued in surprise as she realised that the boys was in fact girls. "You were right to step in." The Lady continued after she had got her bearings causing the girls to grimace as they stopped themselves from asking why exactly the woman didn't do so herself if she though of such.

"I'm glad you think so." The man continued with a slight drilling tone to his voice that caused the smallest girl to smile slightly in amusement, but she shared an eye roll with her cousin who covered up a snort by coughing quite well if she did say so herself. "I'm sure the children are grateful." She continued. " I doubt it." The man replied and the smallest girl was just about to deny the accusation when the door once opened and another man made there was towards them after spotting them.

"Elizabeth?" He called after bowing slightly and the man returned the gesture. The girls watched the interaction between the three of them and noticed that the man was slightly shorter than their rescuer but judging by the way he acted towards their rescuer she had to say that there was some resentment between the two men. They watched as the other man lead Lady Elizabeth out of the tavern only to pause for second to look back at their rescuer. Ross watched them leave for a moment before turning back to the two girls he'd rescued watching as they are as if they'd been starved which they no doubt had.

"They did hurt you." He stated as he walked around the table noticing the marks on both of the girls backs causing the pair of them to tense up and pull the shirts they were wearing closer to themselves. "Not they." The oldest girl replied whilst looking towards her cousin who shook her head at her. "Then who?" The man asked forcefully causing the girls attention to once more be placed on him. The girl paused for a second before whispering something under her breath but the man asked her to speak louder for he could not hear her. "Father." She stated refusing to meet the mans eyes.

"Beats you?" He asked sounding shocked and disgusted. "Most days. When I'm stoppin' 'im from beatin' Ailla." The girl answered as if it was nothing to be bothered about. Ross whipped his head around to stare at the girl now known as Ailla with a concerned frown upon his face as she hunched down in her seat and refused to look at anyone. "Family?" The man continued to ask. She nodded and replied that she had six brothers. Ross frowned at the answer. Surely the six of them could keep the pig of a man from hitting them. "Do you love your father? Uncle?" The man asked and the girls answer shocked him slightly.

"Bible says we must." She stated before wiping her nose with her hand and going back to her stew. Ailla looked at the man from under her lashes and saw that man looked as shocked, she just wished her cousin would stop talking. However she quickly turned her face back to her bowl when he turned to look at her after he realised she did not answer.

"What are your names?" The man asked as he continued to look at her even though the question was directed at both of them. "Demelza Carne" the girl across from her mumbled. "Speak up child." The man ordered as he pulled a stool from another table and sat at the side of the small table they sat at directly between them. Ailla tensed slightly as the man came rather close to her however she made herself calm down after the man continued to look at her cousin. "Demelza Carne." Demelza stated loudly causing the man to lean back slightly and Ailla to smile in amusement.

However her smile did not last long before the man turned to her and it left her lips completely. "And you, child?" The man asked. Ailla sighed as she knew she had no choice what with her cousin already given her first name. "Ailla Cordelia Potter." Ailla whispered quietly, just loud enough that the man would hear her. The man looked at her shocked for a moment before it was replaced with anger which was quickly wiped from his face when he saw the girl flinch backwards from him as if she expected him to hit her. "Ross Poldark." He introduced himself before turning to the smallest girl he now knew to be the missing young Lady Potter who had disappeared after her parents deaths when she was just an infant.

"Do you happen to be the daughter of the late James and Lily Potter, by any chance? They were great friends of my father's and lived not that far away from where I myself live." Ross asked curiously, he knew she was but he wanted to hear it from the girl's own mouth as he was concerned for what had happened to her. Instead of speaking she just nodded her head as her eyes filled with unshed tears. "She does not like talking bout her mama and father for they be murdered in front of her when she were a babe." Demelza whispered quietly so those only at their table could hear. "She may 'ave been young but Ailla remembers it all. She were sent to live with our Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon till she were nine when they died in a horse and carriage accident then she came and lived with us for my mama is the oldest sibling." Demelza spoke in between mouthfuls of food.

"Demelza please stop. I have no wish to talk about it." Ailla pleaded with her cousin. "No, it ain't right how they treated yer or how my father be treating yer. All because of your gift yer got from your parents."
"But it's not right how your father treats you Demelza. He only does it because you insist on stopping him from beating me. I'm used to it. Petunia and Vernon made me cook for them since I was four. I'm used to being treated like that. It's all I've known." Ailla said with a shrug.

"But you should not be used it neither of you should." Ross spoke up with a frown on his face. "Was there no one who could help you? I know James and Lily had a lot of friends that could have taken you in."
"They're all dead. My godfather Lord Sirius Black died when I was fifteen, he helped us run the estate, land and mine on the quiet and he made me his Heiress. My other godfather Remus Lupin was not allowed to take me because he was too ill he died last year after I turned seventeen. My aunt Melyor did stop Uncle Tom but she died when I was thirteen of lung disease." Ailla spoke softly shocking Ross into silence.

Ross sat quietly for awhile as he marvelled all that had happened to the two girls before him especially Ailla who had not been wanted by anyone bar a few people all because of a gift she had. Oh he knew of the gift that she had, the gift of magic. His father had been told by James and his father had been allowed to tell him given the fact Lily Potter used to watch over him while his father worked. He swore then he would not breathe a word and he was not about to break that promise. Just as he was about to speak he was interrupted by a voice behind them.

"Befriending the rabble, Ross?" A man said as he walked over and Ailla bent her head to ensure she was not seen but felt grateful that Ross's attention was no longer on her. She didn't know this man but she didn't want to take any chances as Sirius and Remus had always told her she looked so much like her mother but also like her father with her high cheek bones and the curly mess of hair that was down to her waist when not hidden by the cloth she had wrapped around her head.

"One would never know you were a gentleman." The man continued and Ailla bit back a growl at the words. "It takes one to know one, I believe, George." Ross answered back, not even bothering to look at the other man. Ailla and Demelza continued to eat their stew all the while sending slight amused glances at one another. The man looked at Ross for a moment before turning with drink in hand and walking to the other side of the tavern. "Come, I'm taking you both home." Ross ordered after he had left. Ailla and Demelza quickly finished swallowing the bite of food they had just placed in their mouth and hurried to catch up with man only stopping to collect Garrick from outside the Tavern.