Chapter 2
Hetty had never really lived a life, a woman in the Victorian era forced to marry a man so she could be treated with some respect. Those Victorian era values being drilled into her ever since she was a baby....
But she had known love once. A long time ago.
When she was a young girl she had met a librarian, an apprentice really. Young Hetty had fallen deeply in love with her, she would visit the library every day before school, parcel in hand. She would talk endlessly with her day by day, about everything from a cute dress they saw in the local shop to plants they've read about in books to men's advances at trying to court them. They would laugh at the notion of a man trying to court them like it was something impossible. Her name was clover and she was the stars in the sky to Hetty, but to the librarian "she's a rotten whore, and so's her mum" she would rant to customers while clover and Hetty ran a muck in the woods behind the library, picking wild flowers or reading Shakespeare despite the librarian forbidding them from touching the books other than to dust them in case they got new customers, which happened rarely.
One day when Hetty was visiting Clover, she had come over as a surprise, ahe had picked flowers the day before and wanted to give them to her before they wilted because clover would press them into her sketchbooks and notebooks and anywhere there was space, and they were beautiful. She would even press them onto some of her dresses and put them out in the sun, making patterns on her clothing that were amazing. Hetty tried to do that but the end result was a beating from her father for "ruining" her clothes, she went to Clover's after that.
But today, today was different. They weren't supposed to meet for another couple of days so it truly was a surprise when Hetty knocked on her apartment door, the attic above the library was a sort of hideaway for both of them, that no one but themselves knew about , hetty called it her apartment because running away to New York was like flying away to the stars, impossible yet one can dream?
The ladder cascaded downward, with a thump it hit the floor.
"Hetty!"
Clover exclaimed as she motioned hetty up the ladder. hetty looked nervously around before nodding, she handed Clover the flower basket before climbing up
"those are for you by the way " she says when she got up "I saw them on my morning walk and thought of you"
she smiles sheepishly when clover looks at her with amazment..
"thank you hetty, I actually have something for you too, since our anniversary is coming up, I decided to make you something. It's really nothing but it's over in the corner if you want to look at it early" she laughs as hetty crumbles inside, she had forgotten about their anniversary, it was a purely platonic celebration as much as hetty wanted it to be more, she knew that was wrong and that's why they were still freinds, the constant flirting was enough to kill her inside. Now it was like Clover was courting her though heaven knows her true intentions.
Hetty opened the present, trying carefully not to rip the parchment all while biting her lip in concentration. Clover was staring at her a light blush on her cheek