Two days later in Paris

"Come along, Tara," said Lucy Westenra as she and Mina Murray walked through the Paris railroad station. "We're never going to make it to the Orient Express in time if you keep dawdling the way you have been."

"I'm sorry, Miss," said Tara, "but this trunk you gave me to carry, it's so large. Couldn't we have hired some male servants to help with the luggage?"

"Sorry, Tara," said Lucy. "You know as well as I do that I don't believe in using male servants if I don't have to. Not good for my family's reputation, don't you know? Anyway, what about one of the other girls? Surely one of them must be free to help you."

"Well, April, May, and June keep ducking out on their duties and the other girls keep pretending they don't speak English whatever I ask them for help," said Tara. "Not that they're all that apt to obey me anyway. After all, I'm just a housemaid."

"Oh, you're just more than that, Tara," said Lucy. "As you've shown me time after time --especially after dark. Anyway, this situation you just mentioned will not do."

Lucy paused and turned to speak to the other maids who were walking behind Tara. "You there. Fifi and Brunhilda. Stop messing around with April, May, and June, and come over here to assist Tara with the luggage."

"Jawohl, Fraulein Westenra," said the blonde-haired woman named Brunhilde, clicking her heels.

"Oui, oui, Mademoiselle," said the raven-haired woman named Fifi, curtsying in Lucy's direction.

Lucy turned to see Mina smiling at her.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," said Lucy. "If you were in my place, you would have servant problems too."

"Oh, I'm not smiling because of that," said Mina. "I'm smiling because you keep saying you hate foreigners and yet so many of your maids are obviously foreign."

"I'm sure you're mistaken, Mina," said Lucy. "My maids are just as English as anyone. Just ask Tara."

"Aye, Miss Murray," said Tara. "My Mistress is correct. All we maids are every bit as English as any sassenach."

"Wait a minute," said Mina. "Isn't sassenach a non-English wo --"

"Oh, hush, Mina," said Lucy. "We don't have time to discuss all that right now. We have a train to catch. Now if you just follow m -- Oops! I didn't see you there."

"No problem," said the little man Lucy had just ran into. "It happens all the time. Some might say it happens so often that one would think I was invisible."

"And you are?" asked Mina.

The little English gentleman smiled and held out his hand for Mina and Lucy to shake. "The name is Griffin. John Griffin. Actually it's Professor John Griffin -- though there were some at school who called me Jack."

"Pleased to meet you, Professor Griffin," said Lucy. "Who's your friend?"

Griffin pointed to the tall, formally dressed man besides him and said, "Oh, there is my fellow colleague in the medical sciences, Dr. Henry Jekyll."

"Henry Jekyll?" asked Lucy. "That name sounds familiar. I'm quite sure I've heard it before but I'm not sure where. I did hear talk about someone with that name getting mixed up with a Mr. Edward Hyde -- but I'm quite sure that's someone else."

"Well, we don't have time to sort all that out right now," said Mina. "After all, Lucy, like you said, we do have a train to catch."

"Oh, right," said Lucy. "Well, gentlemen. Care to follow us on board? After all, we could use some male company on the long journey ahead of us."

"Er, ahem, what about your family's reputation, Lucy?" asked Mina.

"What about it?" asked Lucy.