The Astoria

Chapter 7

4 months later

The first thing I do when I wake up is retrieve the diary to read the latest entry. Starting the day as close to my Aunt as I can get.

1st June 1939

I told William I loved him for the first time. I don't really know why it took me so long. Perhaps I was afraid that once he knew I had feelings he would run. I know him well enough to know that's not the case now. 

He has been so busy with work recently, he told me he wants to save for our future and sweet though that is I don't want a future that neglects the here and now. I tried to tell him as much but he was so earnest as he promised it was all for me.

Mary-Anne asked why we have not married yet and I told her I did not want to marry before I was eighteen. She asked if that was just because he hadn't proposed to me yet and I told her to hush. I would certainly say yes if he asked me but I'm in no hurry to reach the altar. I am quite enjoying our life as it is. Me at home with Mama, Papa and Clemmie and then able to spend my time not working with him. I know he loves me and I love him. Surely that should be enough? She told me that Eliza, a girl we used to be close to, moved one town over to be with her lover and is still not married despite the fact they have a child on the way. Apparently it is quite the scandal. 

I am not oblivious to men or their urges, nor am I oblivious to my own needs. William and I have kissed, many times in fact. Perhaps this is not something I should be recording. The church would absolutely frown on it and I am sure Mama and Papa would not be pleased either. If either of you are reading this you should forget you saw this. These are my private thoughts and if I wanted to share them with you I would have. 

Anyway, back to my declaration of love. William stared at me after I said it, he was just about to say goodbye after walking me home. I smiled awkwardly and moved to leave but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind one of the large oak trees that stood, equally spaced in front of the row of houses we lived in. I asked him what he was doing and he said hiding us so he could kiss me.

We have never kissed anywhere quite so public before and my heart stuttered in my chest. He kissed me and the world stopped as he promised that he would love me every day for as long as we both lived and likely beyond that too.

I am so happy I don't even know how to put it into words. Every day we spend together is a blessing and I will be eternally grateful to Mary-Anne's love of ridiculous westerns, those who created the Jesse James film and the Astoria for bringing us together.

Until tomorrow diary. 

I sighed. Each new entry I had read over the last six months had been more loved up than the last. I didn't know when she would lose this love of her life but after reading almost six months of their time together I can already imagine how crushed she will be.

My research alongside reading the diary reminded me that something big historically was to come later in the year this was written. I couldn't imagine how it would affect them both. Though I had never known William I was learning so much about him through the eyes of my Aunt and the letters he had written to her.

His writing was appalling. A messy scrawl in comparison to my Aunt's. Barely legible at times. It was what he had written though that really counted. His words more poetic and fanciful than I had ever expected. 

It wasn't quite Shakespeare but it was heartfelt. He spoke of the day they first met and how he hid near the screen and watched her. It should have seemed creepy and perhaps it was a little but the way he compared her to an angel and told her that she lit up rooms and stole his heart before he even knew her name? That was love. True love-at-first-sight magical and powerful love. The love that only existed in story books but they had it.