Any way to make dropped cap without forcing paragraph or line break?

Question

Does anyone know how to achieve this effect:

Specifically, the effect I'm after is to have the large drop caps chapter number "9" appear at the edge of the page, even though in the LaTeX code it appeared adjacent to the beginning of verse 1. In other words, in my LaTeX code, the order is this:

with the holy angels." [request drop cap "9"] 1 And he said to them, "Truly I say...

And what I want is for the drop cap to appear at the edge of the page, with all text flowing around it, even (potentially) text that appeared before it in the LaTeX code.

I've tried two things to achieve this, both without success: (1) the lettrines package, and (2) the wrapfig package.

Here's what I get with lettrines:

The lettrines package appears to insert a paragraph break even though I don't have one in my code.

Here's what I get with wrapfigure:

This is closer, because the text does flow around the dropped cap, and the dropped cap does appear to be embedded in a single large paragraph, without starting a new paragraph. However, it does force a line break, such that verse 1 of the chapter will always be typeset right up against the dropped cap chapter number.

What I'm hoping for though is to have the dropped cap always start on the line where verse 1 starts, but to not always require verse 1 to begin at the beginning of the line. That's what's shown in the first image in this post: the words "holy angels" from the previous verse flows around the dropped cap before verse 1 starts.

Is this even possible in LaTeX? I assume it is, because the first image is a screen capture from PTXprint, which claims to be using LaTeX behind the scenes.

Here's a sample of my code for the verse in question, and for the verses immediately above and below it:

\versebeg{8}{38}For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” \chapbeg{9}\versebeg{9}{1}And he said to them, “Truly I say to you that there are some among those standing here who shall certainly not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.” \par{}\versebeg{9}{2}And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves alone. And he was transfigured before them,

"chapbeg" is just a small macro that sets a counter and inserts the dropped cap:

"versebeg" is the following macro:

And "NumberDrop" is either this if I use lettrines:

\newcommand{\NumberDrop}[1]{\lettrine[lines=2,findent=0.1em,nindent=0em,loversize=0.1]{#1}{}}

Or this if I use wrapfigure:

In the above macro, "dropnum" is the enlarged font for my drop caps, declared like this:

\newfontfamily\dropnum[Scale=3]{Gentium Plus}

I did find a nearly identical question here: Mid-paragraph drop cap / float (lettrine)

The proposed solution there was very close to what I needed, except that it wasn't set up to work with my scaled font (I think it uses "Huge" to produce a number that isn't quite large enough for my purposes), and more importantly, it completely locked up the xelatex compiler if the code contains any footnotes embedded in it.

I'd be grateful for any help or advice.

UPDATE:

Here's a complete code example demonstrating the issue, using the wrapfig package:

%&program=xelatex
%&encoding=UTF-8 Unicode
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{wrapfig}
\setlength{\intextsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\columnsep}{1ex}
\usepackage[flushmargin,bottom]{footmisc}
\usepackage[ruled,perpage]{manyfoot}
\usepackage{alphalph}
\DeclareNewFootnote{A}[alph]
\usepackage{fixfoot}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\dropnum[Scale=3]{Times New Roman}
\newcommand{\NumberDrop}[1]%
{%
    \begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0pt}%
    \dropnum{#1}%
    \end{wrapfigure}%
}
\def\chapbeg#1%
{%
    \NumberDrop{#1}%
}
\def\versebeg#1#2%
{%
    \textsuperscript{\scriptsize{#2}}\nobreak%
}
\newcommand{\cnote}[2]%
{%
    \footnoteA{\textbf{#1}#2}%
}
\begin{document}
\par\versebeg{8}{34}And he called the crowd over, along with his disciples, and said to them, “\cnote{8:34 }{Whoever 95% ¦ If anyone 5% ECM* NA SBL TH}Whoever wants to \cnote{8:34 }{follow 65% ¦ come 35% SBL TR}follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 
\versebeg{8}{35}For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever \cnote{8:35 }{loses 95% ¦ shall lose 5% NA SBL TH}loses his \cnote{8:35 }{own 55% ¦ --- 45% CT TR WP}own life for my sake and for the sake of the good news shall save it. 
\versebeg{8}{36}For what \cnote{8:36 }{shall 99% ¦ does 0.5% ECM* NA SBL TH}shall it benefit a person \cnote{8:36 }{if he gains 98.5% ¦ to gain 0.5% CT}if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{37}\cnote{8:37 }{Or what shall 98.5% ¦ For what can 0.3% CT}Or what shall a person give in exchange for his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{38}For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
\chapbeg{9}\versebeg{9}{1}And he said to them, “Truly I say to you that there are some among those standing here who shall certainly not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”
\par\versebeg{9}{2}And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves alone. And he was transfigured before them, 
\versebeg{9}{3}and his garments became radiant, extremely white, \cnote{9:3 }{like snow, (73.3%) ¦ --- (1%) CT}like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
\end{document}

UPDATE #2:

I'm very close using the dcpar solution from the Mid-Paragraph drop cap post. However, what I'm seeing is that (a) in order to get the correct footnote markers in both places (i.e., in the body of the text and also in the footnote apparatus) I have to store the current value of the footnote counter before a dcpar, and restore it afterwards. And (b) although the correct value of the footnote counter is stored/restored, it isn't observed inside the dcpar macro. The final result is that with each dcpar block, footnotes restart at "a" (I'm using \alph for my footnote markers).

What I expected to see in the second dcpar in this experimental code was a narrower formatting of the same content, but with footnote markers continuing where the first dcpar block left off.

Note that it gets even more interesting if I remove the "perpage" option from manyfoot. In that case, the footnote markers in the apparatus are correct, but the markers in the second dcpar are even farther off, in that they are advanced even beyond what's displayed in the apparatus.

Here's my experimental code and its output:

\documentclass[letterpaper,11pt]{book}
\usepackage[flushmargin,bottom]{footmisc}
\usepackage[ruled,perpage]{manyfoot}
\usepackage{alphalph}
\DeclareNewFootnote{A}[alph]
\renewcommand{\thefootnoteA}{\alphalph{\value{footnoteA}}}
\usepackage{fixfoot}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\dropnum[Scale=3]{Times New Roman}
\newcommand{\NumberDrop}[1]%
{%
  \begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0pt}%
  \dropnum{#1}%
  \end{wrapfigure}%
}
\def\versebeg#1#2%
{%
  \textsuperscript{\scriptsize{#2}}\nobreak%
}
\newcommand{\cnote}[2]%
{%
  \footnoteA{\textbf{#1}#2}%
}
\newcounter{fcount}
\newcounter{gcount}
\makeatletter
\def\dc#1{%
  \setbox0\hbox{\dropnum{#1}\hspace{0.1em}}%
  \leavevmode\vadjust{\vskip\wd0 \penalty123}\rlap{\smash{\copy0}}\vrule width2\wd0 height 1pt depth 0pt\relax}
\def\dcpar#1#2{{%
%\parindent\z@
\emergencystretch.2\hsize
@tempcnta\z@
\xdef@pshape{\space}%
\setbox0\vbox{{\hsize#1\relax
#2%
\endgraf
@tempdima=#1\relax
\loop
@tempdima\hsize
\dimen@\z@
\ifnum\lastnodetype=11 \unskip\fi
\ifnum\lastnodetype=13
\count@\lastpenalty\unpenalty
\ifnum\count@=123
\dimen@\lastskip
\unskip
\advance@tempdima-\dimen@
\xdef@pshape{\the\dimen@\space \the@tempdima\space\expandafter\eat@two@pshape}%
\fi
\fi
\ifnum\lastnodetype=@ne
\setbox\z@\lastbox
\advance@tempcnta@ne
\xdef@pshape{\the\dimen@\space \the@tempdima\space@pshape}%
\fi
\ifnum\lastnodetype=\m@ne
\xdef@pshape{\the@tempcnta\space@pshape}%
\else
\repeat
}}%
\parshape=@pshape
% for babrara \def\dc##1{\leavevmode\vadjust{\rlap{\smash{\raise-\baselineskip\hbox{\Huge##1}}}}}%
\def\dc##1{\leavevmode\strut\vadjust{\rlap{\smash{\raise\dimexpr\dp\strutbox-\baselineskip\relax\hbox{\dropnum{##1}}}}}}%
#2\par
}}
\def\eat@two#1 #2 {}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\setcounter{fcount}{\value{footnoteA}}
\par\dcpar{\linewidth}{\versebeg{8}{34}And he called the crowd over, along with his disciples, and said to them, “\footnotemarkA{}Whoever wants to \footnotemarkA{}follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 
\versebeg{8}{35}For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever \footnotemarkA{}loses his \footnotemarkA{}own life for my sake and for the sake of the good news shall save it. 
\versebeg{8}{36}For what \footnotemarkA{}shall it benefit a person \footnotemarkA{}if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{37}\footnotemarkA{}Or what shall a person give in exchange for his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{38}For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
\dc{9}\versebeg{9}{1}And he said to them, “Truly I say to you that there are some among those standing here who shall certainly not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”}
\setcounter{footnoteA}{\value{fcount}}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:34} Whoever 95% ¦ If anyone 5% ECM* NA SBL TH}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:34} follow 65% ¦ come 35% SBL TR}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:35} loses 95% ¦ shall lose 5% NA SBL TH}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:35} own 55% ¦ --- 45% CT TR WP}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:36} shall 99% ¦ does 0.5% ECM* NA SBL TH}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:36} if he gains 98.5% ¦ to gain 0.5% CT}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:37} Or what shall 98.5% ¦ For what can 0.3% CT}
\versebeg{9}{2}And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves alone. And he was transfigured before them, 
\versebeg{9}{3}and his garments became radiant, extremely white, \cnote{9:3 }{like snow, (73.3%) ¦ --- (1%) CT}like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
\setcounter{fcount}{\value{footnoteA}}
\par\dcpar{0.75\linewidth}{\versebeg{8}{34}And he called the crowd over, along with his disciples, and said to them, “\footnotemarkA{}Whoever wants to \footnotemarkA{}follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 
\versebeg{8}{35}For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever \footnotemarkA{}loses his \footnotemarkA{}own life for my sake and for the sake of the good news shall save it. 
\versebeg{8}{36}For what \footnotemarkA{}shall it benefit a person \footnotemarkA{}if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{37}\footnotemarkA{}Or what shall a person give in exchange for his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{38}For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
\dc{9}\versebeg{9}{1}And he said to them, “Truly I say to you that there are some among those standing here who shall certainly not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”}
\setcounter{footnoteA}{\value{fcount}}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:34} Whoever 95% ¦ If anyone 5% ECM* NA SBL TH}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:34} follow 65% ¦ come 35% SBL TR}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:35} loses 95% ¦ shall lose 5% NA SBL TH}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:35} own 55% ¦ --- 45% CT TR WP}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:36} shall 99% ¦ does 0.5% ECM* NA SBL TH}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:36} if he gains 98.5% ¦ to gain 0.5% CT}
\stepcounter{footnoteA}\footnotetextA{\textbf{8:37} Or what shall 98.5% ¦ For what can 0.3% CT}
\versebeg{9}{2}And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves alone. And he was transfigured before them, 
\versebeg{9}{3}and his garments became radiant, extremely white, \cnote{9:3 }{like snow, (73.3%) ¦ --- (1%) CT}like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
\end{document}

Answer 1

I propose a two-step process to achieve your desired result:

1. Set the paragraph(s) without a "chapter" number so you can identify the respective line breaks. Specifically, find the line break just above your first verse of the new chapter.

2. Insert your \chapbeg{<num>} exactly at the location of the line break.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[flushmargin,bottom]{footmisc}
\usepackage[ruled,perpage]{manyfoot}
\usepackage{alphalph}
\DeclareNewFootnote{A}[alph]
\usepackage{fixfoot}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\dropnum[Scale=3]{Times New Roman}
% More condensed version of \parshape (https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/133660/5764)
\makeatletter
\def\newparshape{\parshape@npshape0{}}
\def@npshape#1#2#3{\ifx\#3\expandafter@@@npshape\else\expandafter@@npshape\fi
  {#1}{#2}{#3}}
\def@@npshape#1#2#3#4#5{%
  \ifnum#3>\z@\expandafter@firstoftwo\else\expandafter@secondoftwo\fi
  {\expandafter@@npshape\expandafter{\the\numexpr#1+1\relax}{#2 #4 #5}{\numexpr#3-1\relax}{#4}{#5}}%
  {@npshape{#1}{#2}}}
\def@@@npshape#1#2#3{#1 #2}
\makeatother
% Temporarily adjusting the text width with paragraphs that extend to the following page (https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/472150/5764)
% Use cases for breaking a paragraph that is not visible to the end user, forcing the paragraph to be set with a full-width/-length
% last line. Then one could insert a \pagebreak if needed, depending on the layout requirements
\newcommand{\parnopar}[1][]{\parfillskip=0pt\par%
  #1%
  \parskip=0pt\noindent\parfillskip=0pt plus1fil}
\newsavebox{\dropcapbox}
\newcommand{\chapbeg}[1]{%
  \parnopar
  \savebox{\dropcapbox}{\dropnum{#1}}%
  \newparshape
    {2}{\dimexpr\wd\dropcapbox+1ex}{\dimexpr\linewidth-\wd\dropcapbox-1ex}
    {1}{0pt}{\linewidth}\%
  \noindent
  \llap{\raisebox{\dimexpr-\height+.7\baselineskip}[0pt][0pt]{%
    \usebox{\dropcapbox}%
    \hspace{1ex}%
  }}%
  \ignorespaces
}
\newcommand{\versebeg}[2]{%
  \textsuperscript{\scriptsize{#2}}\nobreak%
}
\newcommand{\cnote}[2]{%
  \footnoteA{\textbf{#1}#2}%
}
\begin{document}
\noindent\versebeg{8}{34}And he called the crowd over, along with his disciples, and said to them, “\cnote{8:34 }{Whoever 95% ¦ If anyone 5% ECM* NA SBL TH}Whoever wants to \cnote{8:34 }{follow 65% ¦ come 35% SBL TR}follow after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 
\versebeg{8}{35}For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever \cnote{8:35 }{loses 95% ¦ shall lose 5% NA SBL TH}loses his \cnote{8:35 }{own 55% ¦ --- 45% CT TR WP}own life for my sake and for the sake of the good news shall save it. 
\versebeg{8}{36}For what \cnote{8:36 }{shall 99% ¦ does 0.5% ECM* NA SBL TH}shall it benefit a person \cnote{8:36 }{if he gains 98.5% ¦ to gain 0.5% CT}if he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{37}\cnote{8:37 }{Or what shall 98.5% ¦ For what can 0.3% CT}Or what shall a person give in exchange for his soul? 
\versebeg{8}{38}For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed of him when he
\chapbeg{9}comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
\versebeg{9}{1}And he said to them, “Truly I say to you that there are some among those standing here who shall certainly not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”
\par\versebeg{9}{2}And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves alone. And he was transfigured before them, 
\versebeg{9}{3}and his garments became radiant, extremely white, \cnote{9:3 }{like snow, (73.3%) ¦ --- (1%) CT}like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
\end{document}

Using the above as an example, this is the output for step 1:

I identify he as the last word on the line above the first verse of the new chapter 9. So, I insert \chapbeg{9} at that spot, and then move on to the next chapter with the same process.

The idea behind the process is to force a full-width paragraph ending (via \parnopar). The chapter number is then set inside an adjusted paragraph shape (via \newparshape) to allow for the flow around the number. The width of the paragraph indentation around the number is automatically calculated.