Lost In Gaskell

Chapter Three: Trying to learn.

Chapter Three: Trying to learn.

"A mighty pain to love it is, and 'tis a pain that pain to miss; but of all the pains, the greatest pain is to love, but love in vain."

-Abraham Crowley

Lily woke up with a throbbing headache it felt like she had been out the night before. She blinked for a moment and realised where it was she was. The sun was just peaking through the curtains. She looked at the clock in her room just after dawn a peaceful time of day when the world was just waking up. She got up and got herself dressed. She needed to get some air. She placed the letter to Mr Hale on the side. Pulling her shawl around her she stepped into the streets. She had never heard Milton so quiet and if she was honest so beautiful then she did this morning.

Mr. Thornton had not slept easy the night before. He should have gone to the Mill early to get some paperwork done. He has been trying to catch up with the orders that he knew he needed to get shipped out. But he was not ready to go to work just yet. For the first time in nearly fifteen years, he fancied taking a walk in the early morning sun. He pulled his jacket and walked to the streets, he had someone he needed to talk to.

He approached the top of Milton, he looked around. From up here he could see the Mill and the rest of the town, he smiled the town was still sleeping not yet awake. He went to the place that he needed to be. He touched the Gravestone.

‘Father, Hello, I know I haven’t been here for a while, for that I apologise. I have been busy at the mill, but we are not doing well at the moment. If I am honest I am worried that I am about to lose something that I am trying to save, and have worked so hard to build up. I have not told mother yet, it would destroy her’ He said, ‘I should really get back before she sends out a search party, still as I am a grown man she worries about me’ he looked at the gravestone one last time, ‘I will try and come back soon’

He walked down the hill, it was then he spotted her, Lily. The woman who had plagued his dreams over the last week, she was so different than any other women he had ever met. She had tried to make sure that his mill was alright so that it did not burn to a crisp. She had said she was worried about him, although she had been quick to change it. He shook his head what would she see in a man like him, a manufacturer. And something in her eyes ached for him to want to kiss it away, her lips her plump red lips were always drawing his attention, oh to be able to touch them and to make them his own.

Lily spotted him as he was coming down the Hill. Should he not be at the mill at this time in the morning, then it occurred to her she did not know, that was never said in the book. She assumed that he would have done. Knowing about him she surmised him to be one of these early starters and late finishers when it came to his mill.

‘Morning Miss Spacey, you are up and about early?’ he smiled and bowed slightly.

‘I couldn’t sleep Mr. Thornton’

‘That’s funny neither could I’ he smiled warmly to her. She knew that smile it was a smile that meant a man was falling for a woman. She had spent enough time watching romantic movies not to notice that look.

‘I am not sure whether it is not the Milton air my mind just couldn’t switch off last night’

‘I am sure it is not the Milton Air, Miss Spacey’ he watched with interest as part of her hair feel into her face. She instinctively pushed it behind her ears.

‘And what would you suggest it was Mr. Thornton?’ she looked and smiled to him.

‘I don’t know might be what happened to you yesterday?’