Chapter Two
Late August 1688

Minnie tried to get sleep. She rested on the bed but found herself tossing and turning. Marrying a man she didn’t even know? What about Gilbert?

What about Gilbert?

She sat up and ran her hands through her hair. No, she could not marry this stranger. She and Gilbert were meant to be together. She got out of bed, put her outer dress on top of her sleeping slip and put a pair of shoes on. She felt practically naked!

She snuck out the house and ran as fast as she could, for what felt like an hour! Until finally she arrived. She doubled over to catch her breath before searching for some rocks. She threw them at the window, each one making a soft ping before falling back towards her. She eventually saw a lamp shimmering and the window was open.

A sleepy faced Gilbert appeared.

“Minnie?” he hissed down at her.
“Gilly we need to leave. Now! I’m… my…. Oh, Gilly I can’t,” she found herself starting to panic.
“Wait there,” he hissed again, before disappearing, the lamp also being extinguished.

Moments later he was there, wrapping her in his arms. He stroked her hair, whispered things into her ear, clung to her. “What’s the matter Minnie?”
She eventually found the breath and the words. “My parents have arranged my marriage. When I return from school next summer. I am to marry a man who is…” her lip trembled. “Who is 36!” The hot tears dripped down from the rim of her eyes. “I don’t want to marry him, Gilly, I want you.”
Gilly had lost his voice too, it seemed. He swallowed, and put an angry hand through his hair. He looked around the area. It was the very early hours of the morning, of course nobody was up yet. “Then… then we just go. We go to… to England. We start up fresh there.”
“Gilly I don’t want to go to England!”
“Then Ireland! We can go to Ireland! My father has relatives there. Perhaps they can put us up. They no nothing of you, nor of your parents.”
She found herself nodding. Of course! Ireland! It was the perfect place to go.