Chapter 1

The Perfect Summer

Life can be a funny thing. No matter how hard one may try, it never quite goes the way you intend it to go. For example, Elinor Davies had been born into a lower to middle class family. She had spent her youth in her hometown of Eglwys Rhos in Northern Wales. Her father and older brothers worked in one of the many quarry's in Wales, working in the slate industry. It was hard work, but her father and brother excelled at it. If they wanted for anything, Elinor's mother's family in England provided for them. Her mother had in fact come from a very well to do family and had been less than thrilled about their only daughter marrying a man from below her station. However, they were in love and Elinor's grandparents understood that and appreciated it. As for Elinor, she had been the only girl in a family of older brothers and as a result she grew up scrappy and playful like them. If the boys were getting into trouble, she was never quite far behind. Her face was usually smudged with dirt, tights torn, and shoes caked in mud. In fact, if one were to put twelve year old Elinor beside herself at twenty-seven years old, one would never be able to tell the two girls were the same-except for the small birth mark that rested just above the girl's collarbone. As for her three brothers, Dafyyd, Alun, and Colwyn loved their younger sister and always enjoyed making her part of their games. Even if those games sometimes involved the other boys from school.

"Come on Ella, bet ya can't catch me!"

Elinor ran as fast as she could to catch up with the taller boy who was running at full speed, "Oh I am going to catch you!" She declared with a roar, her Welsh accent coming out in full force. As she ran, a clip fell out of Elinor's hair, letting loose her long blonde hair. She paid it no attention as it flew behind her. She turned the corner of a building and Harry was gone. Elinor frowned took a step forward, wondering where on earth he could have gotten to. That's when arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her down the dark alley that separated the grocers and the mail building. She shrieked from the shock but a hand covered her mouth. Her eyes went wide when she realized it was Harry.

"What are you doin'?!" She yelled, "If my mother or my brothers saw ya doin' this, they'd tan yer hide!"

Harry let go of the girl completely and leaned against the brick wall, "Elinor, you're my best friend," He began, choosing to ignore what she had said about her brothers. "I mean, better than the guys because you don't tease me or harass me or anything." Harry paused and rubbed the back of his neck, "I wanted to tell you something."

Elinor frowned, "What's wrong?"

"I am not going back to school when the summer holiday is over," he told her.

Elinor's face lit up, "Ya mean, you're gon' stay here?" She considered Harry to be one of her very best friends and she had missed him terribly when he had gone away to Barmouth for school.

Harry shook his head, "I wanna go to the sea, Ella."

Her smile dropped, "But," Elinor paused, as if searching for the right words to say, "Why?"

He smiled at her, "It is all I have ever wanted."

"What about your mum and your dad?" She asked quietly.

"They'll get on fine. I am going to be fifteen in just a few months, practically a man. I need to get out into the world and do what is best for me."

She tucked some of her blonde hair behind her face and kicked a rock that was just right in front of her boot, "But—what about," she faltered.

"What about what?" Harry asked, looking at her closely.

"What about me?"

"I mean," Harry rubbed his neck again, "I'm not going anywhere until term begins. Once I go back to school I am gonna leave from there for the sea. We have the whole summer!"

Elinor crossed her arms, "Whole summer for what exactly? You're just gonna leave anyway."

He stared at the girl, who really was starting to no longer look like a girl. She was almost fourteen years old and Harry had noticed her changing as she aged. The thought had never occurred to him, that Elinor-his Ella-would miss him or be upset about his departure. Though, he did know that he was going to miss her terribly. He smiled and stepped closer to the girl. Harry put a hand under her chin and brought her face up to look at him, "Well I will write everyday and I'll be back to visit after I get myself a good paying job."

She stared up into his eyes, "You promise? You promise you won't forget about me?"

"I promise I-" he faltered, "Elinor there is something else that I have been wanting to tell you for a really long time."

She frowned again, "What is it?"

It was his turn to kick a rock, "I don't think of you as one of the guys. I mean you've always hung out with us like you're one of the guys, but...I don't see you that way, at least I don't anymore."

"Harry," her voice sounded high pitched and odd, like something was forcing its way up her throat because she could only assume the worst was coming.

Harry stared down at her and was quiet for a long time before reaching down towards her face and kissing her. Elinor's eyes went wide at the shock of the kiss, but she did not fight it. She leaned into the kiss, enjoying all of the new feelings and sensations that was coursing through her body. Is this really what kissing was like? She thought to herself. Was her body supposed to feel like it was on fire? But it was also tingling, was that normal? She felt her skin flush and get hot under his hand and Elinor honestly felt like she could stand there, transfixed in that moment for the rest of time. She never wanted it to end and at some point her eyes had fluttered shut as Harry continued to kiss her. It was awkward and weird, she thought, that two people would put their mouths together and do this, but she still enjoyed it.

"Wot are ya doing?!"

The two jumped apart and turned to see Mr. Ifans, the owner of the grocers, staring at the two, his face red with anger, "That's not proper behavior! Ya go on and get outta here and don't let me catch ya doin' it again!"

Elinor exchanged an embarrassed look with Harry and the two walked out of the alley and up the road towards the direction of the Davies' home. Somewhere along the way, Elinor found herself holding Harry's hand and they walked in silence. When they finally reached the gated yard of Elinor's home, she turned to face Harry. "So, what now?

Harry nodded, smiling nervously. He wondered in the back of his mind if they were going to talk about what had happened between them. "What now what?" He glanced towards the house and saw Elinor's father and oldest brother Alun were home, they were standing just inside the bay window talking to Elinor's mother. He suddenly remembered the threat Elinor had given him, her mother and brothers would kill him if they knew he had kissed their sister.

"Harry, you kissed me..." she said slowly.

He nodded, "Yes...yes I did."

"I would not be opposed to you kissing me again," Elinor said slowly, "So long as my mum and dad don't know about it."

Harry laughed, "Are we courting?"

Elinor put her hands on her hips, "Yer tha one who said he didn' see me as one of the guys."

Harry laughed again, Elinor's welsh accent always became incredibly thick the angrier she got. "Then I suppose we are courting," he told her, matter of frankly.

Elinor smiled brightly at him, "Okay."

Harry leaned in quickly and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek.

"Oh that is disgusting!"

He and Elinor turned and saw Colwyn and Daffudd coming up the road. The twin boys were the middle children and only a few months older than Harry, "Wot would ya go and do a thing like kiss ma sister for?" Dafyyd asked, incredulously.

Elinor swung a kick at his shin the minute she could, "It isn't any of yer business. Now shut your mouths or I'll tell mum you were swimming naked in the pond again last night!"

Dafyyd glared at his sister, "You wouldn't!"

"Oh I would, you irchin. Now go inside and leave us be!" Elinor declared.

"Women can be so weird!" Colwyn said, shaking his head and grabbing his younger brother by the arm to lead him up the path and into the house.

Elinor and Harry watched until they were inside and then Harry looked back at Elinor, "I should probably get home. Mum will be serving supper soon."

Elinor looked at him, "See ya tomorrow after church?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah."

True to his word, Harry and Elinor saw each other the next day after church. The group still ran and played as if nothing had ever changed, except now Elinor and Harry held hands whenever they walked places together and sometimes he would steal a kiss when her older brothers weren't paying attention. The night before he left for school, Harry snuck out of his house to give Elinor one last goodbye. She did not want to break the hug, for the fear and dread that something might happen to him.

"Promise you'll write," she cried into his coat.

"Everyday," Harry assured her, brushing down her hair which was cascading down her back.

They made one last final goodbye, and Harry kissed her deeply on the lips, "I love you Elinor."

"I love you too," she responded, "Be safe my sailor boy."

"Always."

He pressed one more kiss onto her forehead and then took off back towards his home. Elinor watched him go, a feeling of overwhelming sadness filling her. She couldn't help but feel as if it would be a very long time before she would see him again. She watched until she could no longer see Harry and then she opened the wrought iron gate and crossed the path up the front walk and into the house. It would be sixteen years before their paths crossed again.

–

When Harry first ran away, there was genuine devastation from his family and many of the members of the community. His first letter home to Elinor arrived three months later. It had been his first chance to sit down and write a note. It was a long and beautiful letter however, explaining in great detail everything he had seen and done in the past few months. She immediately wrote back to him and told him everything that was happening back at home. In the meantime, she had stopped playing in the mud running wild with her brothers. In fact, she was going to live in London with her grandparents so as to attend an exclusive girls school. She told Harry how to write to her there. Then the letters slowly became shorter and vaguer—then they stopped all together. Elinor lost contact with her sailor boy within three years and at that point she had forced herself to move on. She had cried too many tears over the boy who had given her, her first kiss and it was high time that she had moved on. Elinor began pursuing more feminine crafts and at seventeen in 1900, she married the son of a wealthy London banker. On her wedding day, Elinor cried because she was marrying the man because "it was a fine match" and her heart still largely belonged to that boy she had not seen in four years. Elinor began pursuing acting, much to the dismay of her grandparents, but her husband encouraged her and paid for her classes and costumes. She was a very good actress too and began performing all over Europe, plays and one act shows. As for her marriage, she and Joseph remained relatively happy but no children came from the relationship. In 1911 Joseph contracted a bad cause of the flu and passed away. Elinor returned home to Wales for a short time to stay with her mother and father. It was good for her to be back in Wales-her home country where she honestly felt as if her strength came from. Sometimes she saw Harry's parents, but she never dared to ask them how their son was or where he was.

In February of 1912, Elinor was asked to come to America for an exclusive tour of the country's stages where she would perform some of her best renditions of Shakespeare. She agreed and booked a ticket for a trip in April on the RMS Titanic. The tour would start in May in New York City and so Elinor saw it as the perfect opportunity to enjoy the White Star Line's newest and grandest ship to date. Her brother Dafyyd was to go with her, not as a chaperone, but simply because Elinor was afraid of traveling alone. Her brother had also gone into banking, having worked with Elinor's husband in London. Very soon, her paths would cross once again with her sailor boy Harry-proving once again that life was not going to quite go how she had planned it.

Xxx

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