***
Afterwards, we lie quietly, my arm round Eliza, as she rests with her head on my shoulder, her hair spread like a yellow scarf across my chest.
In a minute I know Eliza will stir and yawn like a cat, showing the pink inside of her mouth. She'll put on her demure dress, her white collar and cuffs and quench her hair with her cap. Then she'll go and put the kettle on. And when the others return, she'll bring the tea tray into the parlour and they won't have the least idea of what is between us.
Sometimes I can't bear it. I hate pretending all the time, when the others are around ... the way she stands there, saying, Yes, Miss, No, Miss. I want to seize her hand and tell them the truth and never mind the consequences.
But Eliza's so stubborn. She won't hear of it. She says that this is the way things are, the way they have to be. But I'm stubborn too, and I'm determined that one day we'll live together openly, as equals, in a home of our own.
In the meantime, we have this.
She opens her eyes and smiles at me and I smile back. The clouds in the window shift and a stripe of pale wintry sunshine falls across our tangled bodies, linking them with its golden band. And I rest my cheek on her head, knowing that sometimes, this is enough ... more than enough.
* * *
Born in Essex, England, Jane Eagland taught English in secondary schools for many years. After receiving her master's in creative writing, she now divides her time between writing and tutoring. Wildthorn is her first novel, inspired by true stories of women who were incarcerated in asylums in the nineteenth century. Jane lives in Lancashire, England.
Houghton Mifflin
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
www.hmhbooks.com