Silver Linings

Chapter One

Ellie's POV:

Being a woman today isn't easy. Being a woman within the confines of set standards and expectations today isn't easy. Being a woman that just wants to play football and live her life outside of others opinions, impossible.

My family comes from a long line of kissing Royal British ass. So much ass kissing in fact, that it earned my great grandfather the title of Earl. Now that my father has the title. That makes me a Lady.

Lady Ellie Williams.

I could really care less about any of the ideals and functions of being a member of high society. Everyone's noses are so high in the air that they can't see the ground, yet seeing the ground is all I care about. Watching the football glide across the grass and into the back of the net is all I want to see. I don't care about the luncheons and holidays or for the dresses and rich upper class men. For as long as I can remember, all I have ever wanted to do was play football.

The obsession started when I was five. I found an old tattered football on my family's grounds in a shed that hadn't been looked after in years. Nanny Beth was watching at that time and told me what it was. She even played a game of pass with me teaching me the basic rules. Later in the day she showed me a football match on the telly while I kicked the ball around the lounge. From that day on me and Nanny Beth would go to the park and play football together. She even bought me a new ball for my sixth birthday. When my mother watched me open it and the excitement on my face shone through, her mouth formed into a tight lipped smile and she quickly took it from my hands. I didn't think anything of it, as I was too intrigued with all the other gifts I had received. I was also too distracted to see my mother pull the nanny to the side. After the party I never saw Nanny Beth again.

To say my mother didn't approve of me participating in sports was an understatement. She was utterly frantic when she found out I had been out in the parks playing football for almost half a year without her knowing.

That was no way for a lady to act in her eyes. Especially seeing as I am the only child of an Earl. She always made it clear that I was to be presentable and domesticated so that I may find a good man with a title. With no male heir for the title as if yet, my only purpose, in my mother's eyes, is to find a man and have a son so the title can stay within our family.

"A Lady shouldn't be out in the filth kicking some ball around."

"A Lady doesn't frolic around in the grass with common boys."

The onslaught of expectations seemed almost never ending sometimes at just the age of six.

My only saving grace was my Father. He caught me sneaking into his room to get my football back and we had a lovely chat about how much I loved the game. It was probably the longest conversation I have ever had with the man to this day. He made sure I was afforded every opportunity to do what I loved and promised to keep my mother at bay as long as I continued getting top marks with my tutor.

To my mothers dismay I started playing for a youth team. Whoever was responsible for me during the day, usually a nanny or a steward, would take me to the practices and games for a small youth league in the countryside. I would come home afterward and everyone would pretend as if I had never left.  The word 'football' seemingly all but banned within the manors walls.

Not once did a member of my family come to a match. The excuses would always be the same. Father was too busy or mother didn't want to get her hair wet or be seen in a dirty field. Eventually, I stopped trying to talk about football with them all together. Maybe my mother thought that by showing no interest in me that I would want to quit. But really it did the opposite and made me almost obsessed. From then on, it was a rare sight to see me without a ball at my feet.